Literopolis: A Weekly Look at Portland Literary Events, Feb. 16-22

Monday, February 16, 2015

Emily Goldman, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Another week, another list of Portland’s weekly literary events that’s as long as my arm.

Starting off the week on Monday at the Glyph Café and Art Space are readings by two powerful writers: poet and journalist Heather Bourbeau, author of the poetry collection Daily Palm Castings about those working in overlooked professions and local poet Willa Schneberg, multiple Oregon Book Award and Literary Arts Fellowship winner and author of the collection Rending the Garment encompassing narrative of three generations of one Jewish family. 804 NW Couch St., 5:30-6:30pm, FREE

Also on Monday at Powell's Books on Hawthorne, Sarah Gerard will be reading from her highly praised 2015 debut novel Binary Star about an anorexic young woman searching for a life direction alongside her alcoholic boyfriend through the pages of a veganarchism book while on a road trip across the United States. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

Finally on Monday, Mexican poet, novelist, and playwright Carmen Boullosa will be at Powell’s City of Books to discuss her latest novel Texas: The Great Theft, a fictional retelling of Mexico’s invasion of the United States in 1859. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Tuesday, Kyle Boelte will be at Powell's City of Books presenting The Beautiful Unseen a debut that is part memoir, part social and environmental history, a reflection upon the suicide of Kyle’s brother Kris and his subsequent search to understand his death while simultaneously researching the whys and hows of San Franciso’s fog. Kyle will be joined in conversation by Justin Hocking, auhor of the memoir The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld and former Executive Director of the Independent Publishing Resource Center. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Wednesday, In Other Words’ Feminist/Queer Science Fiction/Fantasy Reading Group will be tackling Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, the first novel to win the trifecta of major SFF awards – Hugo, Nebula, and Arthur C. Clarke award for Best Novel. 14 NE Killingsworth St., 6:30-8:30pm, FREE

Also on Wednesday, the esteemed fantastical short story writer Kelly Link will be at Powell’s City of Books reading from her latest short story collection for adults Get in Trouble. 1005 W Burnside St., 7:30pm, FREE

On Thursday, The Adult Young Adult Book Club at In Other Words will be discussing Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira about a teenage girl who, in what started out as a high school English assignment, starts writing letters to dead celebrities to navigate through the troubles in her life.14 NE Killingsworth St., 6:30-8:30pm, FREE

Also on Thursday, Another Read Through will be celebrating the book launch of local author Kate Ayer’s first entry in an new mystery series titled Eyes & Ears featuring a detective pair of which one half is blind and the other is deaf. 3932 N Mississippi Ave., 7-8pm, FREE

Next on Thursday at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills, Randy Henderson will be reading from his debut novel Finn Fancy Necromancy, an urban fantasy novel about the necromantic feuds and politics hidden in the midst of Port Townsend, Washington and one man’s attempt to find those responsible for framing him for a necromantic crime he did not commit. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Thursday’s big event is the arrival of Ruth Ozeki, novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest. Her 2013 novel A Tale for the Time of Being, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the National Critics Book Award, alternates between the stories of a 16-year-old girl living in Tokyo as she keeps a diary and a Canadian writer who finds the very same diary washed ashore after the 2011 tsunami. This event is being held as part of Literary Arts’ 2014/2015 Arts & Lectures series. General admission tickets are still available. Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway Ave., 7:30pm, $29

Finally on Thursday, Mark Doten will be presenting his debut novel The Infernal at Powell’s Books on Hawthorne, a gruesome story about the Iraq War and the War on Terror exploring the roles of those whose voices all have different stories to tell that are shouting to be heard. 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 7:30pm, FREE

On Friday at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills, former LA Lakers player and NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar will be presenting Stealing the Game, the second book in his Streetball Crew series for middle grade readers of stories centered around a group of kids’ love of basketball, written by Abdul-Jabbar and collaborator Raymond Obstfeld. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 7pm, FREE

Also on Friday, Portland State University presents readings by three MFA professors: Emily Kendal Frey, author of the poetry collections The Grief Performance and Sorrow Arrow; Leni Zumas, whose debut novel The Listeners, published by local publisher Tin House, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award; and Michele Glazer, author of three poetry collections and winner of numerous fellowships and awards. Smith Memorial Union 333, 1825 SW Broadway Ave., 6:30pm, FREE

Lastly on Friday, Mother Foucault’s Bookshop is hosting a poetry reading featuring Jessica Johnson, author of In Absolutes We Seek Each Other, and Elyse Fenton, author of Clamor. 523 SE Morrison St., 7pm, FREE

On Saturday, the IPRC is holding for the third year in a row its popular event Raiders of the Lost Archive event in which participants will work in teams to catalogue the center’s over 20,000 uncatalogued zines. You can either help out for a few hours or be hardcore and read for 24 hours straight. 1001 SE Division St., 10am-10am, FREE

On Sunday at Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills, Neal Shusterman and Eric Elfman will be presenting the second book in their Accelerati Trilogy titled Edison’s Alley about a group of kids charged with looking after Nikola Tesla’s last inventions and proecting them from a secret society of physicists, the Accelerati. 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., 2pm, FREE

Closing up the week on Sunday, MFA students from Portland State University will holding their monthly reading from their works-in-progress spanning fiction, nonfiction, and poetry at the Bare Bones Café. 2908 SE Belmont St., 5pm, FREE