- Literary Arts
You probably didn’t want to spend this weekend trapped inside a sad, poorly lit convention center just because you couldn’t miss this year’s book-worshipping Wordstock festival, and Wordstock didn’t want that for you either. Now helmed by NYC transplant Amanda Bullock, this year’s fest boasts a markedly better venue (the Portland Art Museum), a packed day of author appearances (everyone from genre shape-shifter Maggie Nelson to, seriously, Wendell Pierce from The Wire), an eminently reasonable ticket price ($15, which includes a $5 book voucher), and a boozy, offsite literary bar crawl in Southeast to cap it all off. You can see a whole slew of previews of author events in this week’s Mercury, but we couldn’t include nearly every recommendation. This is by no means an exhaustive list either, but it’s a solid itinerary for all your bookish needs:
John Irving: Yeah, yeah, he’s the old-guard author of classics like The Cider House Rules, but according to Ned Lannamann’s review, Irving’s gone eccentric in his old age. “Avenue of Mysteries may be Irving’s strangest, most elusive work yet,” writes Ned of Irving’s latest. “Unlike the precise, world-bound realism that characterizes most of the 73-year-old’s lengthy novels, this new one deals with ghosts, memories, and miracles.” OPB’s Think Out Loud, Cole Haan Stage at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1126 SW Park, Sat Nov 7, 5 pm
Maggie Nelson, Elisa Albert, and Heidi Julavits: I am obsessed with the genre-defying, laser-precise prose of Maggie Nelson, especially her latest, The Argonauts, which is about being happily married, basically, but also queer identity and queer prose and becoming “an old mom” and a whole lot of theory, but not in a snobby way. Shelby King, on the other hand, was not impressed by Heidi Julavits’ latest, The Folded Clock: A Diary. On the other other hand, Elisa Albert’s cranky depiction of early motherhood in After Birth was one of the best books I read this year, featuring the greatest antiheroine. All three share the stage at Wordstock. I’ve seen both Nelson and Albert speak before audiences before, and it’s off-the-cuff brilliant every time. Do not fuck this up. Cole Haan Stage at First Congregational United Church of Christ, 1126 SW Park, Sat Nov 7, 12 pm
Sara Jaffe and Valeria Luiselli: Sara Jaffe’s Dryland is an understated novel set in Portland that’s at once about a teenager on the verge of coming out and also not really about that at all. Valeria Luiselli’s The Story of My Teeth is a Mexico City-set caper that seems to be about teeth but is really about much more. We reviewed both earlier this fall. At Wordstock, Jaffe and Luiselli will be joined by Garth Risk Hallberg for a discussion of place in fiction. Former IPRC Director, author of The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, and all-around great literary citizen Justin Hocking will moderate. McMenamins Stage at the Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, Sat Nov 7, 5 pm
Claire Vaye Watkins: In a crowded field of post-apocalyptic novels, Watkins’ Gold Fame Citrus “envisions a world that is the hellish consequence of our current excess and faults,” writes Katie Pelletier in her review. “The novel delivers incisive social commentary, and at its best does so while avoiding the overly familiar discourse of eco-disaster narratives.” Watkins will be joined by Kathleen Alcott, Mary Gaitskill (!), and Allison Frost. McMenamins Stage at the Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, Sat Nov 7, 2 pm
Adrian Tomine: “If there was ever any question, his newest book Killing and Dying cements Tomine’s place not only as an artist, but also as an author,” writes Suzette Smith in her review of the cartoonist’s new collection. “It’s another big jump forward, part response to those old works, and part new attempt at unpacking his storytelling further and breathing life more fully into two-dimensional faces on the page.” Bonus! He’s appearing at Wordstock with delightful local writer Arthur Bradford. McMenamins Stage at the Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, Sat Nov 7, 11 am
At the end of the day, Lit Crawl invades Southeast for a boozy jaunt between readings at local bars. I’ll be at Party Damage Records/Perfect Day Publishing‘s multimedia show at Michelle’s Piano Company and Dig a Pony’s breakup reading. Everything else is TBD. See you there!