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Portland Monthly

Books & Talks

Words with Friends

The Open Mic That Counts Amateurs and Award-Winning Authors as Regulars

One-Page Wednesdays, hosted by Portland novelist Emme Lund, feels like a public writers’ group.

01/22/2026 By Matthew Trueherz Illustrations by Stephan Dybus

Required Reading

Must-Visit Portland Indie Bookstores

Our list of more than 20 shops spotlighting the African diaspora and children’s books, sci-fi and fantasy, artist monographs, comics, and…yarn?

12/22/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Movies

Kristen Stewart’s Chronology of Water Captures the Book’s Emotional Force

The Twilight star’s directorial debut stays true to Oregon author Lidia Yuknavitch’s intimate portrait of reclaimed agency.

12/15/2025 By Chase Hutchinson

Bookshelf

Portland Monthly’s Best Books of 2025

Our favorite fiction and nonfiction, children’s books, cartoons, and comics of the year by Oregon authors.

12/08/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Arts and Letters

Mother Foucault’s, the Lifeblood of Portland Literary Bohemia

“Hey, this is a real way to live,” says owner Craig Florence, who’s formalizing the community around his bookshop as a nonprofit.

10/29/2025 By Jaydra Johnson Photography by Michael Novak

Bookshelf

Local Authors on the 2025 Portland Book Festival Lineup

Jonathan Hill, Emma Pattee, Leah Sottile, and Leni Zumas share who they’re looking forward to seeing at this year’s fest.

10/27/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Book Review

Romance on the Basketball Court in Play You for It

The debut novel from sports journalist turned romance author Samantha Saldivar hops between Portland and Eugene.

10/22/2025 By Margaret Seiler

Gimme Five

The 5 Ursula K. Le Guin Books You Need to Read, According to Her Son

While curating an exhibition of her life and work, Theo Downes-Le Guin shares his favorite books by Portland’s greatest author, a.k.a. his mom.

10/14/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Interview

Portland’s New Yorker Cartoonist on the Important Kind of Jokes

In a new book, Tom Toro collects 15 years of work for the magazine. Here, he talks about the role of cartoons in the present.

10/08/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

bookshelf

The Ursula K. Le Guin Cat Book You’ve Been Waiting For

A new collection gathers the late author’s poetry, sketches, and correspondence about her beloved feline companions.

10/08/2025 By Alex Frane

Popular Content

    The Open Mic That Counts Amateurs and Award-Winning Authors as Regulars

    Must-Visit Portland Indie Bookstores

    Karen Russell on Her Witchy Dust Bowl Epic, The Antidote

    With New HQ, the City’s Literary Heart (Finally) Finds a Permanent Physical Form

    Kristen Stewart’s Chronology of Water Captures the Book’s Emotional Force

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Hanya

Bookshelf

A Novel of an Anarchist Nursing Home Run by 1970s Punks

Leni Zumas’s Wolf Bells is a spirited, hilarious, and tender study of intergenerational living.

09/15/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Long Story Short

A Tiny Travel Bookstore That Takes You Places

Tucked inside Cargo, Patrick Leonard’s Postcard Bookshop is an argument for armchair travel.

08/20/2025 By Rebecca Jacobson

Book Club

The Bike Library Connecting Portland’s Housed and Unhoused Residents

Street Books has made a lot of friends in its 15 years—and divined a uniquely effective form of mutual aid.

08/12/2025 By Jaydra Johnson Photography by Michael Novak

Bookshelf

Sex, Books, and New Age Spiritualism

Portland novelist and screenwriter Jon Raymond’s funky Ashland twist on a classic, God and Sex, pushes faith and reality to climax.

07/21/2025 By Matthew Trueherz Illustrations by Derek Abella

reading ahead

Book Launches and Author Events in Portland This Summer

A fresh crop of summer reads from Portlanders Jon Raymond, Leni Zumas, and more.

07/17/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Interview

Melissa Febos on Her Year Without Sex

‘How do you forge and define a healthy, conscious relationship to something in a society that has a sick relationship to it?’

06/03/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Bookshelf

A Heady Ode to Freewheeling Hippie Food Fit for 2025

Portlander Andrew Barton’s memoir-slash-cookbook, Free Food, revisits the Back to the Land ethos.

05/07/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

onstage

5 Standouts from the TEDxPortland 2025 Lineup

Soccer star Christine Sinclair, a psychedelic psychotherapist, and a Laika animator are billed for the local TED offshoot.

04/21/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Q&A

Nostrana Chef Cathy Whims (Finally) Has a Cookbook

The Italian Summer Kitchen is the throwback, illustrated cookbook of simple recipes she never wrote.

04/10/2025 By Alex Frane

reading ahead

Portland’s Spring Book Calendar Is Wonderfully Overbooked

With readings from Maggie Nelson and Viet Thanh Nguyen, and local authors Jonathan Hill, Ling Ling Huang, and Cathy Whims.

04/03/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

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