Writers from "The Attic"
David Biespiel, Merridawn Duckler, Tricia Snell. Alysia Duckler Gallery, 1236 NW Hoyt St, 223-7595, 7 pm Diane Breher Inner Gardening: soul as sacred gardening, writing as over-extended metaphor. From the author of Tao of Inner Peace and other Tao of books. Barnes & Noble Northeast (Lloyd Center), 1231 NE Broadway, 335-0201, 7 pm
* David Sedaris
Me Talk Pretty One Day Everybody's favorite comic essayist! Life is a sad mess of humiliating failures and great hopes, small plans, and struggle. You're not alone in your pain, and Sedaris is here to show you he shares it--he's just funnier than the rest of us. Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-6203, 7:30 pm
Alice Cotton
When Buildings Speak. Book signing, slide show, and a chance to ask questions. An interesting book by a local author with an interest in Portland's architecture. Barnes & Noble Northeast (Lloyd Center), 1231 NE Broadway, 335-0201, 6 m
Karen Karbo and Win McCormack
Always funny, always a great performer/reader, Karbo will read from her latest, Generation Ex: Tales from the Second Wives Club. Win McCormack is local and New York-based publisher of Tin House magazine. McCormack has been in the magazine business since the '60s, when he helped launch Mother Jones. Nye Beach Writers' Series, Studio Theatre Performing Arts Center, 777 West Olive, (541) 574-7708, 7 pm
* Ana Mendendez
In Cuba I Was A German Shepherd. Written by the daughter of Cuban exiles, a former journalist for the Miami Herald covering Miami's Little Havana, and now a Pushcart Prize winner. Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-6203, 7:30 pm
Sunday Book Group
Discuss fiction and nonfiction from an African American perspective. This month, the focus is on It's a Thin Line, by Kimberla Lawson Roby. Barnes & Noble NE, 1231 NE Broadway, 335-0201, 7 pm, Free
Writing Around Portland (aka WRAP)
Members of WRAP read. WRAP is a group dedicating to giving the underserved a voice and bringing writing to marginalized communities. Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726, 7 pm
* Steve Earle
The narrative of lyrics transformed into the narrative of fiction, still addressing the issues close to Earle's heart: drugs, prisons, the death penalty, and Texas. First-come seating. Sponsored by Powell's. First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave, 228-4651, 7:30 pm, Free
Elizabeth Berg
The high school student returns to his hometown with a brain tumor, and his hospice nurse is no other than the shy girl with an age-old crush on said patient. Never Change. Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 238-1668, 7:30 pm
Peter Nichols
A Voyage for Madmen. Sailors drive by dream, demons, and vanity. Powell's Travel Store, 701 SW 6th Ave, 228-1108, 7 pm
Ted Conover
NEWJACK: Guarding Sing Sing. Conover works as a "participatory journalist." This means he went undercover as a security guard for a year to see how the prison system works. Better a guard than an inmate, that's the theory. This book documents the results, studying our ever flourishing penal system. Twenty-Third Avenue Books, 1015 NW 23rd Ave, 224-6203, 7:30 pm
Writers from "The Attic"
Ellen Goldgerg, Jane Knechtel, Rebecca Koffman, and David Biespiel. Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave, 248-5234, 7 pm
Steven Johnson Leyba
Signing books and offering a "legendary ritualistic bleeding." What more could an audience want? Leyba is a Native American artist who works with blood, semen, and yes, a little paint too. His performance art uses his own body as a palate, a place to carve inverted pentagrams and other intentionally provocative symbols, hoping to stir up the devil himself. CounterMedia, 927 SW Oak St, 226-8141, 6-8 pm
* Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin
Signing copies of the book Star Trek: The Next Generation 'Section 31: Rogue'. The first book in the Star Trek franchise to feature an openly gay lead character! See page 9 for more information. Gai-Pied Books, 2544 NE Broadway, 6:30 pm
Thisbe Nissen
Out of the Girls Room and Into the Night is a fine collection of swift stories, mostly looking at early 20-year-olds seeking love. Nissen's next book, The Good People of New York, continues forward in a similar mode. Sweet, conversational, human. Powell's Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 238-1668, 7:30 pm
Alistair MacLeod
No Great Mischief. Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St, 228-4651, 7:30 pm
