Philip Pullman’s publishing a new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, this May. In the tradition of authors such as Jose Saramago, Nikos Kasanzakis, Thomas Jefferson, Ralph Nader, Christopher Moore, and countless others, Pullman is retelling the Jesus story, this time as a psychological drama pitting warring sides of Jesus’ personality against […]
Jacob Schraer
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Reading Tonight!
You like poetry right? And public literary gatherings and readings? And beer? Yes of course you do. That’s why you want to go to Ampersand tonight at 7:30 to help Zachary Schomberg and Emily Kendal Frey celebrate the release of their chapbook, OK, Goodnight, just out from Future Tense. If you’re too lazy to click […]
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Crisis Averted?
Everyone’s talking about health care lately, but I’m guessing soon enough the news will be back to the financial crisis, the great existential crisis of the generation. And while we all live with the effects every day, the roots of it are still murky and complicated. We all know the basic details, a deregulated finance […]
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Calling All Nerds! New Science Fiction and Fantasy.
Lots of new Science Fiction/Fantasy books out recently. Direct your attention to: Gene Wolfe: Aging fantasy legend, author of The Book of the New Sun series, known for his inventive fantasy and deft, evocative prose. His new book is unfortunately called The Sorcerer’s House. It sounds rad. Charles Stross: Finishes off his six book Merchant […]
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Haiti Benefit Tonight at The Writer’s Dojo!
Tonight Reading Local presents a benefit reading to help rebuild Haiti, hosted at The Writer’s Dojo. Readers include Tom Spanbauer, Ariel Gore, Kevin Sampsell, and other Portland writers. A $10 suggested donation buys you a raffle ticket, some free local wine, and a performance from Sweeter than Thou. The Writer’s Dojo is located at 7518 […]
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Read the Book!
Green Zone is out this week, an Iraq war action-thriller starring Matt Damon, directed by Paul Greengrass, and carrying the curious credit of being based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City by Rajiv Chandrasekaran. Chandrasekaran is a journalist and editor at The Washington Post. His book is a lacerating report from inside […]
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The Triple
Last night The Press Club hosted a group reading organized by three of Portland’s literary magazines, Pathos, Poor Claudia, and the Portland Review, showcasing a diverse group of local poets. A large, responsive crowd enjoyed breeds of poets from the shy student to the lascivious man poet to the avant garde ranter. Each of the […]
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Monster Bash
Monster Lit! Bookslut has an insightful and thorough critique of the burgeoning trend of adapting classic novels into monster stories. Jane Austen is the popular target, but the sub-genre is casting a wider and wider net, eviscerating such classics as The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol to include scenes of violence and horror. […]
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Weekend Reading
•Just a few weeks after I first heard his work, author Barry Hannah passes away. And now it seems that local bookstores are extremely low on stock. The short story read at the Literary Mix Tape event was hilarious, with a strong sense of voice, insightful descriptions, manic energy, and palpable sadness. So go buy […]
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Once Again, I’ve Been Had
In what’s becoming an annual literary tradition, a new memoir has been canceled due to blatant lying. The Last Train From Hiroshima, by Charles Pellegrino, an account of the mission to deliver the atomic bomb and the destruction it wrought, seems to have a discredited source, a shady author, and more exciting and egregious problems, […]
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Portland’s Own
•If you missed Think Out Loud yesterday you missed blogger and Portland Mortified reader Sarah Hoopes and Kevin Sampsell, author of the new memoir A Common Pornography, sharing their thoughts on exposure in our modern age. Exposure, that is, of the type of horrifying personal secrets that families used to spend generations covering up and […]
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Benefit tonight for Bradley Rosen!
The Dangerous Writing workshop has organized a benefit reading/concert for one of their members, Bradley Rosen, at The Blue Monk (3341 SE Belmont) tonight, featuring some of Portland’s most esteemed local writers. Rosen was felled by a virulent staph infection earlier this year and is facing months of recovery with no income. A brief summary […]