Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, April 6-12

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Monday, April 06, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

It’s the second week of April, which means the Oregon Book Awards are just around the corner! On Monday April 13, the winners of 28th Annual Oregon Book Awards, a statewide award and fellowship series run by Literary Arts, will be announced at the Gerding Theater at the Armory. Mitchell St. Jackson, author of The Residue Years, which was the Multnomah County Library’s selection for the Everybody Reads 2015 reading project, will be hosting the event. You can check out the entire list of this year’s finalists here and purchase tickets here.

And now for the rest of the week’s events to tide you over until the awards ceremony.

On Monday at Powell's City of Books, Blain Harden will be at reading from his new book titled The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot. Harden uses a combination of U.S., Chinese, and Russian intelligence documents to piece together a narrative following Kim Il-Sung’s rise to power in North Korea and the youngest fighter pilot in Kim Il-Sung’s air force who played a dangerous game of deception against him. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Also on Monday, M. Allen Cunningham will be at Powell’s on Hawthorne discussing his editing on the mysterious book Partisans, a lost work written by the mysterious author G.P. Leed. The book is published by the local independent press Atelier26. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

First up on Tuesday, Another Read Through’s Lesbian Book Group will be reading and discussing YA novel Forgive Me If I’ve Told You This Before by local author Karelia Stetz-Waters about a teenage girl coming of age and exploring her sexuality in Eastern Oregon in the early nineties against the backdrop of the Proposition Nine campaigns. The novel is published by local independent and student-run Ooligan Press. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8:30pm, FREE

Next on Tuesday, Oregon Book Award-winning author, playwright, and poet Sandra Stone will be reading from her new book A Sum of Whirlygigs at Broadway Books. 1714 NE Broadway Ave. 7-8pm, FREE

Also Tuesday at Powell’s City of Books, Lily Brooks-Dalton will be reading from her memoir titled Motorcycles I’ve Loved. Following a return to the United States after travelling the world for 3 years, Brooks-Dalton takes up motorcycling as what starts out as a hobby and turns into her life’s passion. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Wednesday, John Ronson will be at Powell’s City of Books discussing modern-day public shaming, how we perpetrate it, and what it can do to its targets, all of which he explores in his new book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

First on Thursday, local George Byron Wright will be at Another Read Through discussing his novel In the Wake of Our Misdeed.

Also on Thursday, Broadway Books is hosting two authors: 2015 Oregon Book Award-finalist Lisa Ohlen Harris, author of the memoir The Fifth Season about the years she spent as a caregiver to her ailing mother-in-law, and Jared John Smith, author of the mind-bending, kaleidoscopic novel Rabbit: (a novel?). 1714 NE Broadway Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Next on Thursday at Powell’s City of Books, Matthew B. Crawford, best-selling author of Shop Class as Soulcraft, presents his newest book The World Beyond Your Head, an exploration of how to master one’s mind and develop the ability to focus and pay attention.  1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

Lastly on Thursday, Leigh Ann Henion will be at Powell’s on Hawthorne reading from her memoir Phenomenal, in which Henion documents her travels around the globe following the birth of her son and her search to regain a sense of wonder for the world. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

On Friday at Powell’s at Cedar Hills, local author Fonda Lee will be presenting her debut novel titled Zeroboxer, a sci-fi YA novel about a teenage boy who’s one of the top athletes in the new weightless combat sport called zeroboxing whose celebrity status causes him to walk a fine line as a celebrity in the outer space colonies and a revolutionary hero on long-forgotten Earth. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Also on Friday, Anthony Alvarado will be at Powell's City of Books sharing “mind hacks,” or mental tricks for accessing deeper levels of creative thought and untapped wells of inspiration, all of which can be found in his book DIY Magic. Alvarado will be joined in discussion by three local artists: Eric Mast (E*Rock), Farel Dalrymple, and Jennifer Parks.1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Saturday, Another Read Through is hosting a local author fiction panel featuring Jo Barney, author of books featuring elderly protagonists, paranormal author Auburn Seal, crime novelist John Prindle, and lesbian romance novelist Penelope Grey. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 1:30-3pm, FREE

Also on Saturday, Reading Frenzy is celebrating the release of Ethan Rafal’s 12-year endeavor titled Shock and Awe, an autobiography surrounding his travels travelling through and photographing the American landscape in the aftermath of 9/11. Check out Reading Frenzy’s website for a more in-depth description of Rafal’s project. 3628 N Mississippi Ave., 7pm, FREE

For the week’s final events on Sunday, the IPRC is hosting three Canadian award-winning queer writers of novels and poetry: Amber Dawn, who will be reading from her first poetry collection Where the Words End and My Body Begins, Vivek Shraya, author of the Lambda-nominated illustrated novel She of the Mountains, and Leah Horlick, author of the poetry collection For Your Own Good. Also reading will be local readers Ngia Nguyen, Galadriel Mozee, and Ebin Lee. 1001 SE Division St., 7pm, FREE

Also on Sunday at Powell's City of Books, Gene Baur, cofounder and president of the country’s leading farm and animal protection organization called Farm Sanctuary, will be presenting a vegan and animals-friendly eating and lifestyle guide rooted in the organization's principles titled Living the Farm Sanctuary Life, which Baur co-wrote with best-selling author Gene Stone. This event is sponsored by Edible Portland. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

At Reading Frenzy on Sunday, Kate Schatz and Miriam Klein Stahl will be reading from their new picture book Rad American Woman A-Z, Trailblazers and Visionaries who Shaped Our History…and Our Future, which features a myriad of women of diverse backgrounds, races, sexualities, and stories. This event is sponsored by Bitch Media. 3628 N Mississippi Ave., 3pm, FREE

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• Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, March 30-April 5
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• Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, March 16-22

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