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Portland Monthly

Books & Talks

Memoir

Breaking Bread and Capitalism with Lola Milholland

The Umi Organic founder’s memoir challenges the nuclear family model with food.

08/01/2024 Photography by Jason Hill By Matthew Trueherz

Book Review

You’re Safe Here, A Sci-Fi Novel Set In 2060, Reads Eerily Current

Author of the popular Substack newsletter Morning Person, Leslie Stephens takes aim at the wellness industrial complex in her debut novel.

06/27/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Drinks for Thought

Jim Meehan’s Deep Dive into the Cocktail Kitchen

The award-winning mixologist’s third book, focused on culinary ingredients, shifted his sense of self.

06/11/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Reading Ahead

3 Upcoming Books by Portland Authors

Does your nightstand need a genre-bending food memoir, a wellness-obsessed sci-fi novel, and a first-person report of an adult autism diagnosis? Of course it does.

05/22/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Bookshelf

Riot Grrrl History in Kathleen Hanna’s Rebel Girl

The Portland-born musician’s memoir details ’90s Olympia, Bikini Kill, life on tour, and some serious trauma and healing.

05/17/2024 By Margaret Seiler

Life’s Fictions

Miranda July in Conversation with Portland Novelist Chelsea Bieker

“A feeling of recklessness is what made me write it down,” July says of her latest novel, All Fours. “I’m pointing at a thing and calling it out.”

05/15/2024 By Chelsea Bieker Illustrations by Becki Gill

Interview

‘Unlikable’ Narrators and the Impossible Expectations of Motherhood

Portland author Kimberly King Parsons unpacks her hotly anticipated debut novel, We Were the Universe.

05/10/2024 By Michelle Kicherer

Down the Aisles

11 Portland Authors’ Favorite Indie Bookstores

Where do Renée Watson, Dane Liu, Erica Berry, and Jon Raymond shop for books? Hint: it’s not Amazon.

05/06/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

As Told To

In ‘skin & bones,’ Renée Watson Writes for Her Devout Readers’ Parents

"I’m always writing for that little girl who needed to see herself and her ancestors represented in stories."

05/03/2024 By Matthew Trueherz Photography by Michael Raines

First-time Caller

Alison Roman Is in Her Advice Hotline Era. We Got Her Portland Tips.

Her podcast is called Solicited Advice, and that’s exactly what we did.

05/01/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Popular Content

    The Bike Library Connecting Portland’s Housed and Unhoused Residents

    A Tiny Travel Bookstore That Takes You Places

    What We Talk About When We Talk About Hanya

    Must-Visit Portland Indie Bookstores

    Karen Russell on Her Witchy Dust Bowl Epic, The Antidote

    Book Launches and Author Events in Portland This Summer

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?

04/24/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Awards Season

Erica Berry and Patrick deWitt Are among the 2024 Oregon Book Awards Winners

Kwame Alexander presented seven Oregon authors with new badges to add to their book covers at Monday’s ceremony.

04/10/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Slow Burn

How Writing Romance Helped Alison Cochrun Embrace Her Queerness

The former high school English teacher, raised and based in Vancouver, is now a full-time author of love stories.

03/29/2024 By Rebecca Jacobson

420-Friendly

This Guidebook Tours the Country’s Coolest Cannabis Destinations

In Green Scenes, Portlander Lauren Yoshiko scopes out cat-themed dispensaries, consumption-friendly treehouses, and chic smoke shops.

03/12/2024 By Rebecca Jacobson

Book Review

A Journalist Dives Behind the Scenes of the Art World

Portland native Bianca Bosker plunges headfirst into the New York City art world, attempting to see what the fuss is about.

02/09/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Book Biz

Portland Gets Its First-Ever Romance Bookstore, Finally

Black-owned Grand Gesture Books looks to fill a hole in Portland’s bookish heart.

01/04/2024 By Matthew Trueherz

Unionized

8th Time’s the Charm: Powell’s and Employees Agree to a Contract

Following a strike and more than 10 months of bargaining, employees at Powell’s Books have voted to ratify to the eighth contract on offer.

12/20/2023 By Matthew Trueherz

Sticker Shock!

The Most Expensive Book You Can Buy in Portland

Print isn’t dead, but books are certainly worth more if the author is.

12/14/2023 By Matthew Trueherz

Book Business

Wanna Work at Powell’s Books? The Competition Is Steep.

5 booksellers who redefine “relevant prior experience.”

11/08/2023 By Matthew Trueherz Illustrations by Matty Newton

Homegrown Lit

Required Reading for the 2023 Portland Book Festival

Your syllabus includes six Portland-written books, covering fermentation to poetry, wolves to tigers, geopolitics to a shut-in retired librarian.

10/26/2023 By Matthew Trueherz

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Fall 2025

The New Willamette Valley

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