And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.

— Raymond Carver, “Late Fragment”

Clatskanie celebrates one of its favorite sons May 3 with the Raymond Carver Writing Festival. Carver, short story writer and poet, was born in the logging town along the Columbia River in 1938 and grew up in Yakima. His story collections include Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (1976) and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (1981). His stories, largely set in the Pacific Northwest, feature working class folks trying to get by. His 1988 story collection, Where I’m Calling From, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Critics Circle Award. Carver died in 1988 in Port Angeles, Wash.

The festival in his name runs from 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Clatskanie Cultural Center and other locations. Most events are free of charge. Presented by Clatskanie Arts Commission, the day begins with an opening reception in the Clatskanie Cultural Center Ballroom featuring Laura Moulton,  founder and director of Street Books, and Martha Gies, author of the memoir Broken Open. The reception will be followed by a Publishers & Writers Fair presented by Astoria’s Writer’s Guild, with tables by local authors, regional writing organizations, and presenters including C.C. Stern Type Foundry, Write Around Portland, Rain Magazine, and others.

During a 12:30 p.m. poetry and prose reading at Fultano’s Pizza, Northwest authors Allen Braden, Dayle Olson, and Mandy Ellen will read their work. Winners of the poetry contest, in youth and adult categories, will be honored during a 5:30 p.m. award ceremony in the Birkenfeld Theater. Award presenters include Estella Hamilton and  Mayor Robert “Bob” Brajcich.

The festival’s finale is a dinner at the Clatskanie Food Hub. Advance reservations, $20 per person, are required for the seasonal farm-to-table feast, featuring desserts by Bluebell Bakeshop and non-alcoholic beverages provided by The Wild Locals. Beer and wine will be available for purchase. After dinner, enjoy a free open-mic poetry jam where festival participants can sign up to share their work.

The next week in Portland, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer, will read from his new work at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, at Powell’s City of Books. To Save and to Destroy: Writing as an Other is a collection of essays on literary forms, exploring the idea of being an outsider through literary, historical, political, and familial lenses. Nguyen considers the novels and nonfiction of Herman Melville, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Ellison, William Carlos Williams, and Maxine Hong Kingston, and asks what the writer’s responsibility is in a time of violence. He will be joined in conversation by Lois Leveen, author of Juliet’s Nurse. Admission to the event is free.

WEEK 1: MAY 1-7

Amanda Knox in Conversation With Chuck Palahniuk
Presented by Powell’s Books
7 p.m. Friday, May 2
Powell’s Books at Cedar Hills Crossing
3415 S.W. Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton
Free

Amanda Knox, the American who spent time in prison for a highly publicized overseas murder she didn’t commit, will read from her first book, Free: My Search for Meaning. The harrowing and sometimes comedic telling discusses her personal growth, her time in prison, her time in the public eye, and how she persevered through her darkest days. Knox will be joined by Chuck Palahniuk, author of novels including Fight Club and, most recently, Shock Induction.

WEEK 2: MAY 8-14

Author Reading: Jennifer Perrine, David Seung, and Rivka Clifton
Presented by Up Up Books
3 p.m. Saturday, May 10
Up Up Books
1211 S.E. Stark St., Portland
Free

Jennifer Perrine, co-host of the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, two-time winner of Arts and Culture Diversity and Inclusion Awards from the Asian American Journalists Association, and author of five books of poetry, will read from their newest works at Up Up Books. Perrine will be joined by David Seung, Korean-American standup comedian and writer, and Rivka Clifton, author of Muzzle, MOT, and Agape.

Book Launch: Intersections: A Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America 
Presented by Portland State University and AAJA-Portland
6 p.m. Wednesday, May 14
Toulan Library, Portland State University Urban Center
506 S.W. Mill St., Portland
Free, pre-registration requested

The Portland chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association presents its 40th anniversary book project, Intersections: A Journalistic History of Asian Pacific America, published in partnership with UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. The anthology features 16 profiles, including work by Catalina Camia, Jeanie Y. Chang, David Nakamura, Amy Wang (an Oregon ArtsWatch contributor), and Lori Matsukawa, television news journalist.

Trans Nature Writing Extravaganza
Presented by Literary Arts
7 p.m. Wednesday, May 14
Literary Arts Bookstore
716 S.E. Grand Ave., Portland
Free

Literary Arts celebrates trans nature writing with three Portland-area writers: Charlie Stephens, an Oregon Book Awards finalist in fiction for A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest; [sarah] Cavar, author of Failure to Comply; and Callum Angus, publisher of the literary journal smoke and mold.

WEEK 3: MAY 15-21

Author Reading: Christopher Van Tilburg, Crisis on Mount Hood
Presented by Roundabout Books
6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15
Roundabout Books & Cafe
900 N.W. Mt. Washington Drive, Suite 110, Bend
$5 or free with book purchase

Christopher Van Tilburg, author and emergency room doctor, will read from his new nonfiction release, Crisis on Mount Hood: Stories from a Hundred Years of Mountain Rescue. He examines the history of America’s oldest all-volunteer mountain rescue team, the Hood River Crag Rats, and reflects on his own three-decade commitment to search and rescue. Van Tilburg will be joined by Glenn Voelz, author, Mount Bachelor Nordic Center ski patroller, and volunteer with Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue.

Poetry Reading: Linda Knowlton Appel and Peg Edera
Presented by Annie Bloom’s Books
7 p.m. Monday, May 19
Annie Bloom’s Books
7834 S.W. Capitol Hwy., Portland
Free

Linda Knowlton Appel, poet and “adopted Oregonian,” will be joined by her cousin, Peg Edera, Portland-based author of the poetry book Love is Deeper Than Distance, for a reading from their new collaborative collection, Moon-Marked. The book incorporates themes of family, nature, art, spirituality, and cross-generational connection. The pair say of the work: “Separated by 14 years of age and now in our waning, we find how woven our lives are; how family echoes between us; how the act of putting pen to paper and inviting in the words connects us.”

Caro De Robertis in Conversation With Vanessa Micale
Presented by Powell’s Books
7 p.m. Tuesday, May 20
Powell’s City of Books
1005 W. Burnside St., Portland
Free

Novelist Caro De Robertis will read from So Many Stars, a new work that knits together 20 voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit elders of color through personal and intimate accounts of their experiences creating space for themselves and their communities. The work also acts as a collective coming-of-age story based on hundreds of hours of interviews, offering rare snapshots of ordinary life through the decades of a changing American cultural landscape. De Robertis will be joined in conversation by multidisciplinary artist Vanessa Micale.

Rachelle Bergstein: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us 
Presented by Jackson County Library Services
11 a.m. Wednesday, May 21
Online, 18 years and older
Free

Join Rachelle Bergstein, New York-based author of The Genius of Judy, during an online event via Zoom through Jackson County Library Services. Bergstein will discuss her new book, which explores the cultural impact of Judy Blume’s work. She will consider why fans of all ages are drawn to Blume’s writings and chronicle Blume’s life story. Registration for the event is free, and attendance is limited to participants 18 years and older.

Garrett Felber in Conversation With Dean Spade
Presented by Powell’s Books
7 p.m. Wednesday, May 21
Powell’s City of Books
1005 W. Burnside St., Portland
Free

Garrett Felber, author of A Continuous Struggle, will read from his new political biography about Martin Sostre, “one of the most important — if since forgotten — revolutionary figures of the 20th century in the United States.” Sostre was a Black Puerto Rican from East Harlem who became a politicized prisoner and jailhouse lawyer, winning cases in the early 1960s that helped secure the constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals. Scapegoated and framed by police and the FBI following the Buffalo rebellion of 1967, he was sentenced by an all-white jury to prison. Felber tells Sostre’s story and the continuous struggle against oppression. Felber will be joined in conversation by Dean Spade, author of Love in a F*cked-Up World.

Author Reading: Amy Baskin, Brittney Corrigan, and Consuelo Wise
Presented by Broadway Books
6 p.m. Thursday, May 22
Broadway Books
1714 N.E. Broadway St., Portland
Free

Amy Baskin, Pushcart Prize nominee and Literary Arts Fellow, will read from her newest poetry collection, Skull, which explores themes of harm, trauma, pain, illness, and healing from brain injury. Baskin will be joined by Brittney Corrigan, poet and author of Solastalgia, and Consuelo Wise, author of the 2024 hybrid book-length poem/essay, Boy, a personal work that “peels back layers of mourning.”

WEEK 4: MAY 22-31

Oregon Book Award Author Tour: Jaclyn Moyer
Presented by Literary Arts
11 a.m. Wednesday, May 28
Monmouth Public Library
168 Ecols St. S., Monmouth
Free

Join Jaclyn Moyer, 2025 Oregon Book Award winner for creative nonfiction for her book Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California, at the Monmouth library. The book braids memoir with historical inquiry, weaving themes of the immigrant experience, colonialism, capitalism, and agriculture to create a personal story.

Linda Ziedrich in Conversation With Samantha Swindler
Presented by Broadway Books
6 p.m. Wednesday, May 28
Broadway Books
1714 N.E. Broadway St., Portland
Free

Linda Ziedrich, Oregon food writer and author of The Curious Kitchen Gardener: Uncommon Plants and How to Eat Them and The Joy of Pickling, will read from her new book, First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the Pacific Coast Fruit Industry. Ziedrich offers a look at the lives of horticulturists Henderson, Jonathan, and Seth Lewelling, who brought wagon loads of fruit trees across the Overland Trail to Oregon and California in the mid-1800s to become pioneers of the West’s fruit industry. Ziedrich tells the story of the brothers’ journey and their contributions to the modern fruit industry. She is joined by Samantha Swindler, reporter for The Oregonian/Oregonlive.