Literopolis: A Weekly Round-up Of Portland Literary Events

Monday, September 01, 2014

By Deborah Reeves, GoLocalPDX Contributor

Photo credit: Abhi Sharma on Flickr (Image cropped)

Fall is just around the corner, Portland. School is starting and a new season of crops is coming to our gardens and our restaurants. It’s time to breeze through the last pages of your beach books and gather those poems and stories that will get you through the dwindling days of summer. There’s still plenty happening in and around the city, so enjoy the stretch in the evenings and all things literary in the first week of September.

Monday: Hawthorne Books celebrates the launch of the 2nd edition of Liz Crain’s Food Lover’s Guide to Portland with an evening of music, food, and adult apple drinks at Reverend Nat’s Cidery & Tap Room. Tasty treats will be provided by many of the businesses that appear in the book, including Boke Bowl, Toro Bravo, and Ruby Jewel—not to mention a specially commissioned cake by Helen Bernhard Bakery, designed to look like the book. 1813 NE 2nd Ave. , 6-10pm, FREE, with No-Host Bar.

Tuesday: Jane Kirkpatrick reads from A Light In the Wilderness, the story of three women in 1840s Oregon Territory. Letitia is a freed slave whose dangerous journey converges with the lives of a settled white woman and a Kalapuya Indian in the Willamette Valley. Powell’s at CedarHills Crossing, 7pm. FREE.

Wednesday: Poetry reading featuring Carolyn Brigit Flynn (Communion) and Leah Stenson (Reverberations From Fukushima). Annie Bloom's Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, 7pm, FREE.

Thursday: If you're downtown for First Thursday, make sure to check out Emily Myers' artwork in the Pearl Room at Powell's. Myers is a whimsical but thoughtful artist who weaves her stories through a bricolage of illustration and the written word. 6.30pm, Powell's City of Books, FREE.

Also on Thursday, Glyph Café & Arts Space is hosting a First Thursday reception with their September featured artist, Allan Peterson. Peterson is an acclaimed poet as well as a visual artist. A recipient of numerous literary prizes, his poetry collection Fragile Acts (McSweeneys Poetry Series) was a finalist for both the 2013 National Book Critics Circle and the Oregon Book Award. Peterson’s visual art can be seen at Glyph through September 27th. First Thursday Reception: 5-9pm, 804 NW Couch St., FREE.

Friday: The Attic Institute calls 'Fridays on the Boulevard ' " The one open mic in Portland that will change the way you write." BYOG (Bring Your Own Genre). First Fridays of the month, 4232 SE Hawthorne, 7-9pm, FREE.

Also on Friday is a reading by Kate Gray. An Oregon Book Award finalist for her poetry, Gray’s lyrical voice resonates in Carry The Sky, her debut novel exploring grief and bullying in a private boarding school. Powell’s City of Books, 7:30pm, FREE.

Sunday: Reading Frenzy's 'Verse Union' poetry club gathers every 1st Sunday to read and discuss the work of a living poet. A 5pm discussion of the previous month's book is followed by a 6pm reading by the author of the current book. Under discussion on the 7th is Sorrow Arrow (Octopus Books, 2014) by Emily Kendal Frey, followed by a reading from Zachary Schomburg's The Book of Joshua (Black Ocean, 2014). Visitors are welcome to attend all or part of the evening. 3628 N Mississippi Ave. , 5pm/6pm , FREE.

And another Sunday at Glyph means another Portland Poetry Slam. Check out their Facebook page for details.7-10pm, 804 NW Couch St., suggested donation $5.

Photo credit: Ian Reeves

Deborah Reeves is an Irish writer, happy to call Portland home after many years of traveling. An avid reader, she blogs about books and writing at deborahrosereeves.com. You can reach her @debrosereeves on the Twitter.

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