Poets Michael Ryan and Doreen Gildroy to read at PSU Thursday evening

Poets Michael Ryan and Doreen Gildroy (right) will read at PSU Thursday evening at 7 p.m. in Smith Hall, room 333.

Ryan’s books include four volumes of poetry, a memoir, a book of essays, and the autobiography Secret Life, which was a New York Times Notable Book. His awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. He is professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of California-Irvine.

Doreen Gildroy's first book, The Little Field of Self (Chicago, 2002), won the John C. Zacharis First Book Award from Ploughshares. Her second book, Human Love, was published by the University of Chicago Press in October 2005. Of her first book, the Boston Review wrote, “Gildroy's style is classicism made light as a feather, true as a plumb line.”

For those of you interested in nuts and bolts, Ryan will also host a craft talk entitled "Grammar for Poets" on Thursday at 1 p.m. in Neuberger Hall 407.

Sponsored by the Literary Arts Council of PSU, both events are free and open to the public.

Wordstock announces a double-blind (or kind of not?) contest

A (somewhat curious) contest notice from Wordstock:

Wordstock is happy to announce a call for entries for the 2nd Wordstock Short Fiction Competition. The winner will be announced at this year's festival, November 8-9 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

This national contest is a "double blind" competition, where neither the writers nor judges know the identity of other. The judges, a collection of writers, academics, publishers, bookstore owners, and literary critics, will choose 10 finalists. All 10 finalists' stories will be published in The Wordstock Ten, an anthology available for purchase at the festival, Portland-area bookstores, and online at wordstockfestival.com. All entrants will receive a complimentary copy.

The winner of the competition will receive $1,000 and publication in the December 2008 issue of Portland Monthly magazine. The final judge for this year's competition will be Portland novelist Ursula K. Le Guin.

During last year's competition, we received submissions from over 20 states as well as Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Australia. Joshua Michael Riedel of San Francisco won the 2007 competition for his story, "The Creek."

Entries must be between 1,500 and 4,000 words, and will be accepted by mail at 8536 SW St Helens Dr., Suite D, Wilsonville, OR 97070. Entries must be postmarked by August 1, 2008. The entrance fee is $25 per submission.

This blog has read the second and third paragraphs of that contest description three times now. Does the second paragraph not explain in detail (though with one word missing) that the judges will be unknown to the writers? And does the third paragraph not then, in a complete about-face, name with great specificity the final judge? We are confused by this.

We think that maybe it means: a secret group of ten people will choose ten stories. Then, from those ten, the non-secret judge (psst! It's Ursula Le Guin!) will choose one. We're kind of guessing there, though. But that's the only way it makes sense, right?

More trivia before bedtime

"The whole experience of being hit by a bullet is very interesting and I think it is worth describing in detail."
-George Orwell, "Wounded by a Fascist Sniper"

On this day in 1937, George Orwell received a gunshot wound to the neck while fighting for the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War.

On the same day in the same year, W.H. Auden's poem Spain was published, the proceeds of which went to the anti-Franco Medical Aid Committee.

Coincidence?

Birthday apples make the scene

Good morning, readers. Welcome to Tuesday. Welcome to life. Welcome to today is the birthday of the free-wheelin' playboy and international badass, literature's own Honoré de Balzac (pictured left in high-definition daguerreotype). Blam! How do you like them apples?

Which apples?

Genius apples. Sexy mustache apples. Feistier than a punch-drunk lobster apples. So racy and irreverent that copies of his works have been known to cause spontaneous pregnancy in men, women and hermaphroditic lab mice apples.

But enough of apples.



Today we have some fresh new apples making the Portland literary scene. Tonight from 6-7:30pm you can cogitate your inner hipster at the Multnomah County Central Library's Zine Social. From the copy: "Come on down to Central Library for the zine event of 2008! We'll all be hanging out in the Periodicals room on the second floor, rubbing elbows with fellow zinesters and partaking in light refreshments. You can pick up a copy of the latest edition of PDX Zines, and peruse the new and exciting titles recently added to the library's ever-expanding zine collection (which is now available in three more neighborhood libraries). Be there!"

Also tonight, Broadway Books ( 1714 NE Broadway, 503-284-1726) will host a reading by Robert Freeman from his autobiographic novel, Fancypants, at 7:00pm.

Astrologically, today is a good day for over-caffeinated monkeys. Become one, whatever your star sign, and fill your brain with good books (not literally, of course. We've been told we can't afford any more lawsuits this week).

Powell's helps you self-improve tonight

Are you looking to improve your "self"? If you said yes, get ready to turn your money over to someone ready to profit from your condition. Or, we meant: tonight's Powell's readings are for you.

At Powell's Burnside at 7:30 tonight, Jen Lancaster reads from Such a Pretty Fat. (Or Suck a Prelly Tal, right.) According to the Powell's site:

"From the bestselling author of Bright Lights, Big Ass and Bitter Is the New Black comes Jen Lancaster's latest hilarious memoir, Such a Pretty Fat. Lancaster offers a laugh-out-loud, self-deprecating look at the real struggles and temptations a person faces while trying to lose weight and keep it off."

Not to be outdone, Powell's Hawthorne presents Shaila Catherine reading from Focused and Fearless at 7:30. The site says:

"Jhana is a powerful meditative technique that opens the way to unfettered joy, radiant calm, and abiding happiness. An engaging mix of--"

Oh, jeez, we must have stepped on a wire or something. That transmission just got cut off. But you get the idea.

Buyer beware, caveat emptor, e pluribus unum, all that...

LeLo in NoPo: Fancy free blog talk this weekend

The lady pictured at left, LeAnn Locher, is a totally fancypants designer, storyteller, and activist, sure. We do not care. What we care about is her blog. We will, therefore, visit the Hollywood Library on Sunday May 18 from 2-3:30pm, and listen to her talk about her blog, Lelo in NoPo.

Because the verdant grounds of the PDX Writer Daily acreage have been suffering from weeds that vex even our fervent and sincere gardening crew, we might also ask her a couple of questions relating to her gig as Just Out Magazine's Sassy Gardener. To be quite honest, the more we discover about Lelo, the more taken with her we are, and the more taken by her we would like to be.

Unfortunately, PDX Writer Daily is not very comfortable around humans, being as it is an ineffable, irrefrangible, moderately combustible melange of mechanical carbon wizardry lacking two of the five humors. But it still has dreams, and dreams, and dreams.

Happy birthday, Rulfo

Good morning, Friday readers. Today in 1917 the Mexican novelist Juan Rulfo was born. Though the two books he published in his lifetime add up to fewer than 300 pages (and no blog!), he is one of Mexico's most celebrated writers. He is often cited alongside Gabriel Garcia Marquez (Love in the Time of Cholera, One Hundred Years of this Book Looks Impressive on My Bookshelf).

He might have turned 91 today if he hadn't been such a heavy smoker. He died of lung cancer in 1986, which some blogs (though not this one, of course) have connected to smoke (lung cancer, not 1986).

May 1917, on the other hand, has been connected to many important things. How many can you name in doggerel?

Local reporter moonlights in demimonde

Who doesn't love the newspaper? And among people who don't not love the newspaper, who doesn't love reading the crime section? We know, right? Tell us about it. But here's something PDX Writer Daily knows that perhaps not everyone else knew. Or knows. But is about to:

Oregonian reporter Ashbel S. Green is actually the leader of the Tony Green Orchestra, in which the daily travails of Oregonians just like us, except with more convictions (both kinds), are told through the magic of song. The TGO performs tonight at Voleur from 9pm-midnight.

Marisa Silver reads from The God of War at Powell's Hawthorne, 7:30 tonight

Marisa Silver (right) will read from her new novel, The God of War, at Powell's Hawthorne tonight at 7:30. The Copywriter says:

"From the author of No Direction Home comes The God of War (Simon & Schuster), Marisa Silver's indelible novel of the end of childhood set in the California desert. 'A stunning second novel,' raves Kirkus Reviews. '[A] powerful, often tragic tale.'"

"Silver's inedible novel"? What novels are edible? Are people eating novels?! Are publishers publishing novels that people can eat?!! What the hell?!!!

Huh? What's that? Oh. Indelible. Right. Well...what does delible mean?

[Ed. note:
delible
adjective
capable of being deleted]

So we can't...delete Silver's new novel. Because it's a...[furrowed brow]...book. And you can only...[struggling]...delete...[eyes up and to the right]...a computer thing. [Momentary happiness.] So they're saying this book is not a computer! Or a computer thing!

[Ed. note:
indelible
adjective
that which cannot be eliminated, forgotten, changed, or the like]

Oh.
Wait!
Oh, no, never mind.
Wait! So you're saying...that they're saying...that people cannot...[furrowed brow]...eliminate...this novel.

The book is edible or it is not edible? Just please clear that up.

[Ed. note: Not.]

Well then we just don't understand. There's a reading of something--we can't even remember what anymore. The reading could be normal, it could be...indebilible. Whatever. This is a dumb job! We don't want to do this job anymore! All these people just keep writing books full of words! This is stupid!

Huh? The mike is still on? Who is Mike? Did he write the bedebilible book? What? Put this down? The microphone? On the floor? Like thi

Poetry tonight: click on poster for the info

Tonight, 6:00, PSU: Whitney Otto, Chelsea Cain, and Joy Harris on publishing and agents

At PSU tonight at 6:00 (in Smith Hall, room 238), Portland writers Whitney Otto (right) and Chelsea Cain will be joined by literary agent Joy Harris to discuss "The Ins and Outs of Publishing."

Harris is a New York-based literary agent who has worked twenty-six years in the publishing industry. Cain is the author of six books, including New York Times Bestseller Heartsick. She also writes a weekly column for the Oregonian and reviews books regularly for the New York Times Book Review. Otto is the author of four novels, including the NY Times Bestseller How to Make an American Quilt, which was made into a movie starring that woman we had a crush on for so, so many years: Winona Ryder! Winona, we still love you. We always will.

This event, which does not feature Winona Ryder, is free.

Word.

Oh man, there's a lot of words out there. Sometimes, we don't even know where to begin.

How do I describe that whirring sound in my ears?

What is up with her?

Seriously, where do I go to find a nice pair of beaded shoes. For real.


Well, words can tell you!

That whirring sound:

susurrous - adj. full of whispering sounds


Her:

attitudinize - v. to assume an affected mental attitude: pose


Where to find beaded shoes:

kiosk - n. 2 : a small structure with one or more open sides that is used to vend merchandise (as newspapers) or services (as film developing)


Now, what's really cool, is that now we have an adjective, a verb, and a noun. Ohmigod --- let's make a sentence:


After spending some time at the kiosk, looking for beaded shoes, I became so angry my head was filled with susurrous rage over the merchants inability to attitudinize beyond "simply rude".


Yeah, so; take that.

Birthday boy is a SubGenii

Good morning, PDXWDers. Today, May 14, is the 56th birthday of David Bryne. The author of The New Sins and Arboretum, Byrne also plays music. He was in a band for a while, at least. The name of the band escapes us. (Our editor says it was this one. He is very confident about it.)

Byrne is also a SubGenii.

Happy birthday to Mr. Byrne. More posts later.

Oh, fine. Okay. Here:

Kroger Reading

John Kroger, one of the current candidates for the position of Oregon State Attorney General, will read tonight from his new (nonfiction) courtroom thriller, Convictions: A Prosecutor's Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves. The reading will be held at Powell's on Burnside at 7:30pm.

John Kroger's book is 9.00" tall, 6.30" wide and 1.53" deep. It weighs 2.23 pounds. Signed copies (available at tonight's reading) may or may not weigh an additional 15 pounds.

Oregon Humanities requests submissions on theme of "Civility"

From our friends at Oregon Humanities:

Oregon Humanities invites submissions for its Fall/Winter 2008 issue on the theme of "Civility."

Rules of conduct, etiquette, and civility--whether codified or implicitly understood--are the social contracts that frame human interactions. In the midst of a dramatic election year, these interaction--between colleagues
with political differences or candidates who duke it out in public debate--raise questions about how Americans engage with one another in discussing difficult issues. Can politeness, in an attempt to avoid heated conflict, keep us from having productive, meaningful conversations? Or are
public discussions best regulated as inclusive, polite, consensus-building affairs?

For the Fall 2008 issue of Oregon Humanities, which falls under the Oregon Council for the Humanities' current programmatic focus, "Borders and Boundaries," we are looking for essays and articles that explore the theme of civility. Writers may wish to explore civility in literature, history,
arts, and popular culture; the role of civility and propriety, or conversely discourtesy and impropriety, in public discourse; the changing rules of civility in a newly global, multicultural, and highly technological world; the pros and cons of regulating civility, decency, and propriety; the role of civility in the conduct of war; arguments for or against civility in environmental movements; or the notion of propriety in a variety of public spheres, such as courtrooms, talk radio shows, and Internet blogs.

We welcome all forms of nonfiction writing, including scholarly essays, journalistic articles, and personal essays. We accept proposals and drafts of scholarly and journalistic features, which range between 2,500 and 4,000 words in length. We accept drafts only of personal essays, which should consider larger thematic questions and run no longer than 1,500 words. All contributors receive an honorarium. Currently the magazine is distributed to 12,000 readers. Essays from Oregon Humanities have been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize anthology and the Utne Reader.

If you are interested in contributing to this discussion, please submit a proposal or draft by June 16, 2008, to Kathleen Holt, Editor, Oregon Humanities magazine, Oregon Council for the Humanities, 812 SW Washington Street, Suite 225, Portland, Oregon, 97205, or kholt@oregonhum.org

Jim Krusoe reads from Girl Factory at Mississippi Pizza tonight

From 6:00-8:00 tonight at Mississippi Pizza Pub, Tin House Books will hold a book-launch event for Jim Krusoe and his new novel, Girl Factory.

Great Copywriter In The Sky says of the new novel: "A yogurt parlor in a corner mall somewhere in the city of St. Nils contains a dark secret in its basement, and Jonathan, the mostly clueless clerk who works there, just wants to fix things once and for all. But, beginning with an early encounter in an animal shelter that leaves three dead, things don’t always work out the way they ought to. Or do they? Filled with memorable characters, including two dogs (one too smart for his own good) and a retired sea captain, this unsettling darkly comic novel is an exploration of memory, desire, and the nature of storytelling."

If you're intrigued, the Tin House Books site has an excerpt from the novel, and a Q & A with Krusoe.

PSU poets read Thursday (click image for info)

Slate runs slideshow on technology and picture books

Those of you who are parents or fans of picture books (the mitochondrians-working-together who make up PDX Writer Daily include people in both camps), Slate has posted an interesting slideshow on technology and picture books--interesting because it tips we parents off to some possible new purchases at the bookstore, and also because it raises a question that transcends the genre of children's books: How much and what kind of technology can be in a narrative intended to have some kind of enduring relevance in space and time?

The solutions posed by various children's authors were particularly interesting to this blog because: Children's books have pictures! But we were also troubled, because nowhere in the slideshow did we find the ultimate technology, that which the Cat in the Hat Comes Back with, that which cleans up snow: VOOM!

Portland Spaces' "Bright Lights" Discussion Series tonight, 5:30, Jimmy Mak's

From our friends at Portland Spaces:

Since completing the instantly celebrated headquarters of Wieden + Kennedy, architect Brad Cloepfil and his firm Allied Works have enjoyed a stream of commissions most architects only dream of—from a museum on one of New York City’s most prominent sites to homes for some of the country’s leading art collectors. For the May 12 installment of the Bright Lights discussion series sponsored by City Club and Portland Spaces, Cloepfil will talk about his most recent work, his ideas about architecture and urban design, and his thoughts about Portland architecture, past and future.

It’s an auspicious moment for Cloepfil and Allied Works. After a period of quiet while designing several high-profile projects, they will unveil a series of completed buildings in the coming months: the Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, which shares a neighborhood with new buildings by Sir Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas; the University of Michigan Museum of Art; and the Museum of Arts and Design, a radical and controversial remodel of 2 Columbus Circle on the corner of Central Park in Manhattan. Cloepfil also has recently secured his first major Portland commission since the Wieden + Kennedy building: the historic renovation of the 511 Building, which will house the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

For Bright Lights, Cloepfil will present a sampling of recent work. But in a discussion with Portland Spaces editor Randy Gragg and the audience, the evening will broaden into conversation of ideas about architecture, urbanism, landscape, and historic preservation.

Jim Krusoe reads at PCC Southeast tonight, at Mississippi Pizza Pub tomorrow

Portland's own Tin House Books has let us know that Los Angeles author Jim Krusoe will read from his second novel, Girl Factory, at two upcoming Portland events.

Tonight (Monday) at 7:00, he will read at the PCC Southeast Center as a part of the 2008 ArtBeat Week. PCC Southeast is at 2305 SE 82nd Ave. and Division St., and the reading is in Mt. Tabor Hall, Room 143/144.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) night at 6:00, Krusoe will officially launch Girl Factory with a reading at the Mississippi Pizza Pub, 3552 North Mississippi Ave.

Krusoe has written a book of stories, Blood Lake, and a novel, Iceland, which was selected by the Los Angeles Times and the Austin Chronicle as one of the ten best fiction books of 2002, and was on the Washington Post list of notable fiction for the same year. Krusoe also founded the Santa Monica Review, in 1988.

Never grow up, Writer readers. Never grow up.

Good morning. May 9 is the date on which J.M. Barrie was born, in 1860. Though Barrie was a successful writer of plays and fiction most of his adult life, he is of course remembered mostly for the character Peter Pan. And if you're noodling about on a play you think might make good fiction, or if one of your secondary characters feels interesting enough to you that said character might deserve his/her own story, Barrie is your man. From the Wikipedia entry:

The first appearance of Peter Pan came in The Little White Bird, which was serialized in the United States, then published in a single volume in the UK in 1901. Barrie's most famous and enduring work, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, had its first stage performance on 27 December 1904. It has been performed innumerable times since then, was developed by Barrie into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, and has been adapted by others into feature films, musicals, and more...In 1929 Barrie specified that the copyright of the Peter Pan works should go to the nation's leading children's hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The current status of the copyright is somewhat complex.

So here is your new strategy, story writers: put your best character in at least three different works, spread them out over time, perform them in various ways, obfuscate the financial side of it, and then exit, stage left. Oh, right: and never grow up.

Now get to work.

Aleksandar Hemon reads from The Lazarus Project at Powell's Burnside tonight

Aleksandar Hemon (right), one of our favorite writers, reads from his new novel The Lazarus Project, tonight at 7:30 at Powell's Burnside.

The Great Copywriter In The Sky says, "The Lazarus Project, the anticipated new novel from MacArthur Award-winning writer Aleksandar Hemon, is a story of historical sweep and contemporary insight crafted in a dazzlingly original style."

That doesn't mean anything in particular, but hey, that's how Great Copywriter speaks: in riddles. But we can tell you that The Question of Bruno, Hemon's collection of stories, is one of our favorite books. Certain pages made us laugh; others made us shiver with dread. That really cool kind of literary dread, where it's sad and spooky but also invigorating, and when you're done you want to tell people about it? Yeah, that kind. He's written some things that do that.

Attention Nonfiction Fans! Sandy Tolan Speaks Tonight at PSU

If you love nonfiction, which we think you may, are a member of the public (we're pretty sure you are), and dig on FREE events--which we know you do--get yer craft-curious butt down to hear Sandy Tolan, award winning journalist, producer of numerous NPR and other public radio programs, and author of a jewel of a nonfiction novel, The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East.

Tolan will read from the book, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist that explores, with fascinating and vivid point-of-view shifts, the relationship between an Arab man and a Jewish woman whose families lived together before and after the foundation of Israel.

The event takes place tonight, Thursday May 8, at 7:00 pm, in Portland State's Smith Hall (1825 SW Broadway in downtown P-town) room 238.

Happy birthday, Gary Snyder and Thomas Pynchon

Writer readers, today is the birthday of both Gary Snyder (left, in conversation with Thomas Pynchon) and Thomas Pynchon (just out of frame at left.)

More posts later.

Out-of-print book tips: authors tell us which titles they'd like to order

An article in The Guardian Friday noted that publisher Faber and Faber will start a print-on-demand imprint June 2, which will allow them "to make available a large number of titles which until now have been out of print." The article includes an interesting discussion of the ways in which mainstream publishing has attempted to incorporate (or not incorporate) print-on-demand technology into the bookselling world. (There's even a few interesting paragraphs in which people accuse Amazon of foul play. Shocked. We were just shocked.)

So then Saturday, in The Guardian Review, authors Julian Barnes, AS Byatt, and many others discussed which out-of-print titles they'd most like to see back in print.

Advance reading notice: PSU poets to read Thursday, May 15

We're giving you some advance notice on this reading, mostly because we're in love with this image designed by Regina Godfrey, and want to post it.

PSU's grad poets will read their work next Thursday, May 15, at Blackfish Gallery. The event starts at 7:00, and is free. Click on the poster at right for more information.

Jobs reminder: Applications for positions at Literary Arts due today

Here's a re-run of a post from a couple weeks ago--because today is the deadline for applications:

Literary Arts has two open positions, folks. The announcement they've sent out reads:

Employment opportunities at Literary Arts
Do you know someone who would be a great addition to the programs you care about at Literary Arts?

Two of our staff members are moving on this summer - Annie Robb to attend nursing school, John Morrison to devote more time to writing and teaching - and we're seeking a new Administrative Assistant and Writers in the Schools Program Director.

Visit our website to learn about the responsibilities and qualifications for each position. Applications are due by May 7, 2008. No phone calls or e-mails, please.

Readings: Diana Abu-Jaber at Powell's Cedar Hills, Siri Hustvedt at Powell's Burnside

Writer readers, today, May 7, is the date upon which Angela Carter (right) was born in 1940.

Portland writer (and PSU prof) Diana Abu-Jaber reads from her new novel, Origin, at Powell's Cedar Hills tonight at 7:00.

Siri Hustvedt reads from her new novel, The Sorrows of an American, at 7:30 at Powell's Burnside. Mary Rechner, Portland writer and PSU prof, reviewed the novel recently.

Vanity Fair looks in on James Frey

There's a pretty interesting profile of James Frey in Vanity Fair--interesting, maybe, because it's largely a profile of the bookselling business.

And speaking of the bookselling business, remember "Book Sense," the organization/program of independent booksellers? According to an article in Publishers Weekly, "identity consultants" have been called in, and the organization will no longer be using the term "Book Sense." What is the new name? Um...they don't have one yet.

We think it should just be an unpronounceable organization that means "love."

Nonsense = Literature

Good morning, Writer readers. Today is Tuesday, May 6, and on this day many people were born, some of whom later became literate, and still fewer of whom proceeded to launch successful careers as novelists, poets, publishing tycoons and celebrated editors of toaster-oven repair manuals. One of these was the handsome young devil you see to the left, Christian Morgenstern, a German author and poet from Munich (the city's most famous soup? Leberknödel, of course: a bread dumpling stew seasoned with liver and onion). You might wonder what inspired this dashing young poet to climb over the backs of other famous May 6ers and into the highly discriminating scope of our over-caffeinated attentions. The answer, according to Wikipedia, our friend, therapist, and sometimes our only window to the outside world, is this: "Morgenstern's poetry, much of which was inspired by English literary nonsense, is immensely popular, even though he enjoyed very little success during his lifetime."

What is literary nonsense, we wondered, and how could we have been writing it our entire lives without knowing what it was? If it made Morgenstern famous, maybe our time has come to find a publisher for our childhood journals and ride the whirlwind of fortune. Then we read this: "Pure gibberish, such as 'Sluggahbooh chinftifg gahgahgah axxyt ipipi' may qualify as nonsense in the dictionary definition, but in terms of nonsense art, it is low on the scale. This is so mainly because such a statement does not exhibit the kind of balance needed to make good nonsense that challenges us to play with meanings." Oh. Apparently, in order to cash in on literary nonsense, you have to have a pointy beard, a bold forehead and an intuitive ability to "play with conventions of language and logic through a careful balance of sense and non-sense elements."

Well, readers, mockagloblog happy yoozaroo Morgenstern. Keep playing with conventions, balancing the sense and non-sense elements of your life, and, if you have time, excavate the strata of your soul today. More posts to follow.

Cristina Garcia reading tonight at Powell's

Cristina Garcia, the Cuban-born American writer and author of Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, and Monkey Hunting, will read tonight at 7:30pm at Powell's Books on Burnside from her new novel, A Handbook to Luck. The book features daring immigrations, gambling, flamboyant stage-magicians, abusive step-fathers and married women flirting shamelessly with horticulturists in Tehran. In other words, it sounds like a good one.

Live, tonight, The Maiden: 1000 Words Reading Series

Tonight at 7:00 at The Maiden (639 SE Morrison), don't miss the fourth installment of the 1,000 Words Reading Series. This installment's theme: "Work."

Readers at the event will include Mathew Hein, Kate Kallal, Erin Ergenbright, Lucie Bonvalet, Travis Brown, and Mel Favara. Warning: One of those readers is a contributor to PDX Writer Daily. But which one? We dare not say.

Admission is free, and the system is this: all five participants each present 1,000 words written for the occasion. Writers agree to produce 250 words per week for four weeks leading up to the reading; they are given a theme at the beginning (WORK, this time), and must include certain phrases and words in each weekly effort as capriciously assigned by the host.

Intermission music courtesy of We Play Quiet: two teenagers named Reid Trevarthen and Ethan Camp, from Vancouver, WA.

In the Times, Dmitri Nabokov discusses Dad's last index cards

For any of you following the saga surrounding the index cards that contained material for a novel Nabokov was working on at the time of his death, the Times ran a Q and A with the holder of the cards (Nabokov's son Dmitri) yesterday.