Weekend Readings

Attractive run of readings in Portland this weekend, Thursday through Sunday, to round out an exceptionally active August. I’ll be at three of the four, but haven’t yet figured out the fourth. People keep mentioning how much poetry activity has picked up here over the last few years. It’d be interesting to put together a list of the poets who’ve moved or returned here, new series launched, and the increase in writers passing through town to read since, say, 2003 or ‘04. Of course other poets moved away in that time, and not all series stick around for long; sometimes what looks like growth is just churn. Still, consensus seems to be that things are waxing. The crowd that turned out to see Norma Cole read with Lindsay Hill at Spare Room on Thursday is about as good a non-university audience as you’ll get outside of New York or San Francisco (and even there you have off nights). I wonder if the audiences this weekend will be the same core spreading itself across readings, or a new swatch of the recently arrived. On the menu:

Thursday, August 13 JARED STANLEY & LAUREN LEVIN 6 PM, Valentine’s, 232 SW Ankeny

Friday, August 14 SCOTT INGUITO & JARED STANLEY 6 PM, Pushdot Studio, 1021 SE Caruthers

Saturday, August 15 CRAG HILL & DOUGLAS ROTHSCHILD 3 PM, 213 SE 26th Ave., Spare Room

Sunday, August 16 ERIC BAUS & GRAHAM FOUST 7:30 PM, Concordia Coffee House, 2909 NE Alberta, Spare Room

Then on Thursday:

Thursday, August 20 EILEEN MYLES 7:30 PM, Powell’s on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd.