Summer is coming, and if you have kids, that means summer break is coming… What to do, besides sign up for every summer reading program you can find and stock up on books from your local independent bookstore? If you’re in the Portland area, children’s bookstore Green Bean Books is offering two half-day camps. …
Poetry in Motion, the poems on buses and bus stops, is returning to Portland–and Portlanders get to choose which poems! This year, in partnership with TriMet and the Poetry Society of America, Literary Arts will be placing poetry on bus stop benches and transit shelters–where the poems will be seen not only by TriMet users, …
“The Animal Book: A Visual Encyclopedia of Life on Earth by the Smithsonian Institute is a beautifully and generously photographed encyclopedia of life on earth—the other planets will have to wait a while. It’s an easy book to get lost in, and a wonderful value. This is a gift that will last—the first grader who …
The Nightcapper event at Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association’s fall tradeshow in Portland in October hosted a variety of exciting new authors. There I bumped into Chris and Kyle Bolton, the sibling team behind Smash: Trial by Fire, the first book in the superhero graphic novel series for young readers, aged 7 to 12. The book …
“Have you seen Shake by Portland photographer Carli Davidson? It’s an inspired collection of portraits of dogs in mid-shake. This common doggie gesture, the shake, is familiar to us all but has never been explored in such stop-motion detail as in this delightful book. The flying drool! The flappy mouths! The goofy eyes! The wayward tongues! Everything …
“David Rakoff, a gay, Jewish, Canadian-American actor and essayist who was a regular contributor to Public Radio’s This American Life, wrote humorous pieces that garnered him much acclaim and many awards. Many of his essays were autobiographical, and most of them were so funny they left the reader gasping for air. Before he succumbed in …
I often think about the similarities between an independent bookstore and a good neighborhood restaurant. Hunger can be physical or intellectual. Sometimes a customer strides in with a specific request. The book title, author, and other information is written down and the transaction is quickly completed. It’s like sitting at a table and ordering without …
We’re delighted that Red Tricycle Portland highlighted six Portland-area bookstores for their kid-friendliness in a recent post, “6 Great Bookstores for Pint Sized Bookworms”. Red Tricycle, which has city-specific sites for nine cities (including Seattle) as well as a national focus site, declares that its mission is “to help parents have more fun with their kids.” …
“I’m really, really not just picking this because I have an essay in the collection. Really. This sweet, little book is wonderfully indie and stuffed full of Oregon authors. A collection of essays and interviews with such local lit figures as Scott Sparling, Lauren Kessler, and Yuvi Zalkow, Brave on the Page is not only about craft …
Have you heard of the Sledgehammer 36-Hour Writing Contest? This year, 39 stories were submitted based on the writing prompts and scavenger hunt organized to “support writing as a team activity, foster love for the beautiful city of Portland and its small businesses as well as larger-scale writing communities, and thrive through cooperative creativity among …
