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Posted inBooks

Introducing King of the Honky-Tonks Gary Stewart

Portland author Jimmy McDonough has written a 544-page biography on the country singer who moved him the most.
Avatar photo by Melissa Locker

Jimmy McDonough was living in Hoboken, New Jersey, when he was first introduced to the King of the Honky-Tonks. A friend put on a record and McDonough was hooked. “There are times when somebody shows you art or plays you music,” McDonough tells the Mercury, “and even though you don’t quite get it, there’s something […]

Posted inBooks

Keep Your Frenemy’s Brain Closer

In Ling Ling Huang’s Immaculate Conception, a new technology brings darker meaning to competition.
Avatar photo by Lindsay Costello

“For me… the main thing is just how deep a love can be, and how much everything else can complicate it,” explained violinist and author Ling Ling Huang. She was excavating the layered themes in her novel Immaculate Conception, a nominee for the 2026 Oregon Book Award’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. The book circles […]

Posted inCulture

Portland’s First-Ever Azn Zine Fest Is Coming to Fubonn This Weekend

Over 100 zinesters will flood the halls of the shopping center on Saturday.
Avatar photo Katherine Chew Hamilton

On Saturday, February 28, Fubonn Shopping Center on Southeast 82nd Avenue will be more than a place to stock up on Asian groceries, get fitted out in an ao dai, and grab Filipino-inflected breakfast at Balong (what more could you want?). In true Portland DIY community spirit, it’ll also be home to Portland’s first Azn […]

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Literary Arts Announces 2026 Oregon Book Award Finalists

It’s no surpise to see Lidia Yuknavitch, Leah Sottile, Breena Bard, and David F. Walker among the nominees.
Avatar photo Suzette Smith

Literary Arts announced the finalists for its coveted 2026 Oregon Book Awards this morning, selecting via juries of out-of-state judges just 35 works from 200 submissions. This list always largely dictates our spring reading plans, as we fill in what we may have missed before the ceremony night on Monday, April 20. This is a […]

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Hurricane Envy Has Something to Do with You

Sara Jaffe’s short story collection digs deep into queer parenting, the rise of the music algorithm, and the many shapes of adulthood.
Avatar photo Lindsay Costello

In Sara Jaffe’s short story “Today’s Problems,” the narrator keeps a living document of national and international headlines—police violence, Israel’s potential annexation of Jerusalem—alongside intimate anxieties, like their own kid’s possible ringworm. The combined list functions as a reminder that “today’s problems” aren’t abstract forces. They express themselves in the strange frictions of everyday life. […]

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What Do You Do When You’re Lonesome Documents Justin Townes Earle’s Time in Portland

Music journalist Jonathan Bernstein first knew the singer-songwriter as a fan.
Avatar photo Melissa Locker

When Justin Townes Earle rolled into Portland in 2016, he had already lived a long life for a 34-year-old. Born in Nashville, Earle had been making music since he was a kid and earning plenty of comparisons to his father, country rabble-rouser Steve Earle, along the way. Determined to bust out of his father’s shadow, […]

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Terry Dactyl Traces Queer Survival From the AIDS Crisis to 2020 Seattle

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s signature style rolls and whirls with long sentences—descriptions as artfully enduring as her characters.
Avatar photo Katie Lee Ellison

[This profile originally appeared in our sister pub The Stranger. -eds] Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore takes long and meandering walks through Capitol Hill most days. From the height of summer to the depths of winter, if the sun is out, she’s soaking in it. On these walks during the pandemic lockdown, Terry Dactyl came to her. She […]

Posted inCulture

Literary Portland for Palestine Plans Readings, Still Asks Literary Arts To Divest

A call for Portland Book Festival to reject corporate bank funding coalesced into a collective that seeks to raise awareness with the written word.
Avatar photo Suzette Smith

At Portland Book Festival, in November, you may have noticed an icon on t-shirts, posters, and social media of Literary Arts’ red umbrella dropping bombs. The graphic read “Drop Wells Fargo” and “Literary Portland for Palestine.” The shirts were a next step in a call to action, which grew loud in late summer and shows […]

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