Category: Readings & Lectures

Q&A with Jerry Harp

Mary Szybist and Jerry Harp are a married couple, and are professors at Lewis and Clark College. Additionally, they are award winning poets, with backgrounds in theology and literature. Their poetry explores the catholic iconography and tradition in inventive and subversive ways, and their unique voices tell stories and discuss faith—with talk of doubt, love,…

A Digital Discussion: Cancel Culture

This digital discussion on cancel culture occurred Friday, September 10th, and is the first in a series of Zoom-powered lectures that will be held this semester. What follows is a thoughtful write-up of the event by contributor Lucy Mackintosh. Cancel culture is something that pervades the modern psyche; as readers, we have a hard time…

Q&A with G. C. Waldrep

G. C. Waldrep is a poet and historian. He currently teaches at Bucknell University and serves as the editor for Bucknell’s literary magazine West Branch. Waldrep’s most recent poetry collection is Feast Gently. Waldrep was scheduled to be visiting UP tonight in the Brian Doyle Auditorium; however, due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 virus, the…

Q&A with Tracy Daugherty

The new school year is well underway, and it’s almost time for another visiting author for our Readings and Lectures Series! On October 2, author and biographer Tracy Daugherty will speak in the bookstore at 7:30 pm. Daugherty’s most recent work is The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion, published in 2015. This…

Q&A with Laura Read

I don’t know about you, but after a spectacular string of sunny days, it’s hard readjusting to the norm of Portland’s rainy drizzle. While we all wait with crossed fingers in anticipation of summer, make sure you don’t miss your next opportunity to hear from talented writer and poet, Laura Read, who’s coming to campus…

Q&A with ReadUP 2019 Author Colum McCann

It’s not every day that you get a chance to hear a National Book Award-winning author who’s from Ireland speak here on campus. But next week, you’ll get precisely that opportunity as author Colum McCann joins us here on The Bluff at 7 pm, Wednesday, February 20th, in Buckley Center Auditorium for a public lecture…

Q&A with Resident Poet Matthew Minicucci

Mark your calendars: this Wednesday evening, November 14th, at 7:30 pm in the UP bookstore, Portland poet and Adjunct Instructor Matthew Minicucci will treat us to a selection of his prize-winning poetry. Minicucci is the third and final visiting author of our Fall Reading and Lecture series here on the Bluff, and you won’t want…

An Interview with Paul Collins

By Wes Cruse In preparation for his upcoming visit to campus, I sat down with author and PSU English Department Chair Paul Collins to discuss his newest book and his thoughts about writing. Collins’ work has been published in The New Yorker, Slate, and The New York Times, and his books that have been translated…

A Night of Poetry with Joseph Ross

By Laura Misch  faceless and colorless, just like America   is not. —Joseph Ross, “In the Courtroom” (Part of the “Trayvon Martin: Requiem”) On Tuesday, April 17th, the University of Portland had the pleasure of hosting poet Joseph Ross, who read from his newest poetry collection—Ache (2017). The collection focuses on the subject of race…