The Portland Book Festival, formerly known as Wordstock, returns Nov. 10 to Portland Art Museum and surrounding venues with 157 authors and presenters appearing on nine stages, plus writing workshops,…
Independent Bookstore Day
Independent Bookstore Day is an annual bookish holiday similar to the music lovers’ Record Store Day. Unlike the music industry, where you can socialize at concerts while doing something you…
No, not that BBW—it’s Banned Book Week
The American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week runs Sept. 24–30. Established in 1982, the week aims to raise awareness of book censorship and gain public support. BBW this year…
Summertime reading catch-up: Becky Chambers’ ‘A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’
Imagine Firefly. Imagine Firefly but written by a woman. Imagine Firefly but written by a woman with staunch feminist views. Imagine Firefly but written by a woman with staunch feminist…
Summertime reading catch-up: Vivian Shaw’s ‘Strange Practice’
Strange Practice is Vivian Shaw’s debut novel. I was excited about the concept of the novel from the beginning, and then I found out she has an undergrad degree in…
Summertime reading catch-up: Sabaa Tahir’s ‘A Torch Against the Night’
Lately I’ve been finding more and more fantasy literature, usually in the Young Adult genre, that isn’t set in some cultural conglomerate understanding of Medieval Western Europe. Contrary to popular…
Mapping our perspectives: geographic representation in PDX
Portland State geography professors David Banis and Hunter Shobe presented their new book, Portlandness: A Cultural Atlas, as part of the annual 10-day Portland State of Mind celebration of knowledge…
Victorian travelogue is weird, liquid history
It’s the end of the 19th century, that stereotypically prudish era marked by Queen Victoria’s reign. The sun hasn’t yet set on the empire, but social discontent bubbles, about to…