Remembering August Wilson
Misha Berson
September 19, 2023
As a new biography hits the book stands, Seattle theater critic Misha Berson recalls her own interactions with the late, great American playwright.
As a new biography hits the book stands, Seattle theater critic Misha Berson recalls her own interactions with the late, great American playwright.
The erstwhile Portland author’s new book shows how today’s professional basketball stars influence fashion, style and more.
The Nov. 4 festival, presented by Literary Arts, is slated to feature events with more than 100 Oregon and national authors.
Authors appearing around the state include Ann Patchett, Chuck Palahniuk, Casey Parks, Paulann Petersen, and others with names not beginning with P.
The poet, painter, and writer, whose novel “Mala Noche” was turned into a film by Gus Van Sant, was a fixture of Portland’s poetry-reciting club scene in the 1970s and ’80s.
Amid the move to a new headquarters and other staff changes, the nonprofit – home of the Portland Book Festival and Oregon Book Awards – will be led by an interim director this fall.
The Tualatin resident will be joined next month by 12-year-old poet Thomas Fitzgerald in a reading benefiting HORSES on the Ranch in Prineville.
Book review: K.B. Dixon on the celebrity portraits by a “poor working-class clod from nowhere (who) grows up to be a famous London photographer hobnobbing with cinematic royalty.”
New novels by Jan Baross and Keith Scales dive deeply into the comic spirit and its nervous underpinnings in a world where things go wrong.
A memoir by Richard Etulain, Oregon historian of the West, spins a yarn about growing up on a Basque sheep ranch in eastern Washington.
Readings in August include the authors of books about a 2,500-mile bike ride, Portland’s Forest Park, and comedian Ernie Kovacs.
Everlasting summer brings readings by surfing legend Gerry Lopez and the authors of a new book celebrating Steely Dan.
The grant from The Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg is believed to be the largest single private foundation award in city history.
Other readings this month feature Portland poet Carlos Reyes, Ken Jennings of “Jeopardy!” fame, and photographer Jamie Beck’s exploration of Provence.
Peniel Joseph tells an Oregon Historical Society audience about the nation’s three phases of Reconstruction and the continuing quest for racial equity.
Newport’s Pacific Maritime Heritage Center hosts the traveling exhibition “The Curious World of Seaweed,” which explores the importance of seaweed and kelp to ocean health.
Tom Hanks comes to Portland to talk about his first novel, poet Jessica Mehta heads to Cannon Beach, and Oregon Book Award recipients go on tour.
Check the shelves: It’s Independent Bookstore Day. Also: Indigenous arts fellowships, take the arts survey, “The Judy” opens its doors.
A new book by the late, great New Yorker writer arrives as a series of collaged short essays. K.B. Dixon reviews it in the same spirit.
The noted historian traces the “great environmental awakening” of the mid-20th century for a Hatfield Lecture Series audience.
After a 3-year pandemic hiatus, the event for writers of all levels returns April 29. Festival participants Emily Grosvenor and Lisa Weidman talk about what to expect.
Dawn Babb Prochovnic receives the Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award, and Gary Miranda the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award, during the Literary Arts event.
It’s poetry month. It’s Oregon Book Awards month. Authors talk about how to foster community and to preserve Black culture through a feminist lens. And Chewy the Beaver makes a special appearance in Bend.
In an Oregon Historical Society lecture, author and historian Mai Ngai traces the legacy of racially motivated mistreatment of Chinese workers in the U.S. and British colonies.
After losing her home in the Beachie Creek Fire, the Willamette Valley poet says she “felt compelled both to articulate it and to make something of value from it.”
In a new anthology from Portland’s MediaRites, young authors come to grips with living in a challenging and rapidly changing world.
Spider-Man, Black Panther, X-Men, The Hulk, Eternity, The Thing and friends are hanging at Portland’s science museum through April 9. Bobby Bermea has a thing or two to say about that.
March brings ambitious projects: Writers imagining themselves in Ernest Hemingway’s shoes, a modern riff on “Finnegans Wake,” and a browse of the typical Soviet Jewish bookshelf.
Barbara Sellers-Young’s book “Artists Activating Sustainability: The Oregon Story” tells a tale of the state’s artists as leaders in environmental awareness.
NPR’s Nina Totenberg tells an Oregon Historical Society audience about her book “Dinner with Ruth” and her long friendship with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Portland poet and psychotherapist will discuss her latest collection Monday evening at Broadway Books.
Love is in the literary air at several readings this month, and Literary Arts looks toward spring with its announcement of 2023 Oregon Book Award finalists.
In the Portland writer’s new novel “Painting Through the Dark,” a young Irish artist fights for liberation in California.
David McCarthy’s book of photographs portrays a city gritting it out through tough times. Plus, a new book celebrating Portland photographers.
“Read a book!” isn’t an insult. It’s a surprise, a pleasure, a punch in the gut, an eye-opening education, and a blessing.
2023 begins with readings by authors including Erika Bolstad, Nathan Slinker, Leanne Grabel, Bill Siverly, Curtis White, Dianne Stepp, and Josephine Woolington.
Amy Leona Havin looks back at a year of book releases, events, interviews, and inspirations from Oregon’s literary bounty.
Suggestions to delight book lovers include works by Charlie Mackesy, Madeline Miller, George Saunders, and Richard Powers.
The Portland-area visual artist and children’s book author talks about her journey into the world of mouse-making and the importance of nature in her work.
Photographer K.B. Dixon considers the art of portraiture in photographer Wilson’s bold new book of images of famous writers.
This month features author readings, book release parties, a festive holiday storytime, the return of The Moth Mainstage, and Patti Smith at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation’s new anthology of work by 13 prominent Native writers is a celebration and a provocation – and it’s free.
Judge Henry Hughes calls the work in the 29th collection of poetry and prose “exceptionally high quality,” despite a pandemic hit to the budget and fewer contributions from adults.
More than 5,000 people attended Portland’s celebration of all things literary. Here’s what a handful of them were reading.
An afternoon in the Winningstad Theatre yields an armload of recommended reading.
More than 70 authors attended the in-person event, which drew book-loving crowds to downtown Portland on Saturday.
Aaron Durán, Gale Galligan, Kat Fajardo, and Christina Diaz Gonzalez talk about what drew them to create graphic novels, and who should read them (hint: not just kids).
Through the story of Roy Hudgins, a woman who lived as a man in rural Louisiana, the Portland writer explores issues of identity, family, and life in the South.
Literary Arts’ celebration of authors, writing, and books returns to downtown Portland in full force, with headliners Selma Blair and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Eli Dapolonia says his mother was a perfectionist who cared about the musicality of language and was reduced to tears by the novel’s early rejection.
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