Books & Talks

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

Bookshelf

Karen Russell on Her Witchy Dust Bowl Epic, The Antidote

The Portland author and Pulitzer finalist follows Swamplandia! with a magical realist test of wills.

03/11/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Book Review

Omar El Akkad Returns to Nonfiction to Undress American Mythology

Spurred by the war in Gaza, the celebrated American War novelist tests propaganda against the sanctity of human life.

02/19/2025 By Diana Abu-Jaber

Long Story Short

Lidia Yuknavitch, Kristen Stewart, and an Ocean Outside of Time

As The Chronology of Water becomes a movie, its author revisits her past in a new memoir, Reading the Waves.

02/04/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

reading ahead

The Most Anticipated Book Events in Portland This Winter

The season promises new books from local stars Karen Russell and Lidia Yuknavitch and visits from Masha Gessen and Neko Case, among many others.

01/06/2025 By Matthew Trueherz

Books

A Guide to Loving Trash

A new memoir collects trash—as a class, artistic medium, and societal nuisance—into a manual for empathy.

11/08/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Reading Ahead

The Most Anticipated Book Events in Portland Fall 2024

Ta-Nehisi Coates is coming, the Portland Book Festival is almost here, and the city’s small presses are printing the next generation’s debuts.

10/15/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Photobook

Protest City Photographer Rian Dundon’s Next Project Is a Quieter Ride

Post-divorce and post-COVID, the intimate photos in Dundon’s Passenger distill Portland’s normalized strife.

09/25/2024 By Matthew Trueherz Photography by Rian Dundon

Booktopia

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

Literary Arts’ expansive Southeast building will house a bookstore, café and bar, and all-ages community resources.

09/18/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Q&A

Mostly True Stories: Chelsea Bieker on Her Novel ‘Madwoman’

“I wanted to write this zany book about motherhood and wellness powders,” she says. “And then it turned into this much deeper thing.”

09/17/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Author Events

Portland Book Festival Announces 2024 Lineup

Richard Powers, Renée Watson, Ani DiFranco, and Danez Smith are among this year’s 80+ authors.

09/12/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Picture Book

Carson Ellis Finds Her Past in an Old Portland Warehouse

New paintings illustrate a 20-year-old diary in the artist’s latest book, recounting her first week in town, falling in love, and reading Dylan Thomas aloud.

09/10/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Portland Monthly

Books & Talks

A Tiny Travel Bookstore That Takes You Places

The Bike Library Connecting Portland’s Housed and Unhoused Residents

Sex, Books, and New Age Spiritualism

Book Launches and Author Events in Portland This Summer

Melissa Febos on Her Year Without Sex

A Heady Ode to Freewheeling Hippie Food Fit for 2025

5 Standouts from the TEDxPortland 2025 Lineup

Nostrana Chef Cathy Whims (Finally) Has a Cookbook

Portland’s Spring Book Calendar Is Wonderfully Overbooked

Karen Russell on Her Witchy Dust Bowl Epic, The Antidote

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The Most Anticipated Book Events in Portland This Winter

A Guide to Loving Trash

The Most Anticipated Book Events in Portland Fall 2024

Protest City Photographer Rian Dundon’s Next Project Is a Quieter Ride

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The New Willamette Valley