UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Readings and Lectures Series

The English Department Reading & Lecture Series Welcomes UP Alumnus Mark Pomeroy (Oct. 30)

The English Department Reading & Lecture Series will be hosting UP alumnus Mark Pomeroy for a reading from his second novel, The Tigers of Lents. The event will take place on Wednesday Oct. 30, 5-6 p.m. in Brian Doyle Auditorium. The Tigers of Lents takes place in Southeast Portland and on The Bluff, as it details a family of sisters moving beyond their poverty-strained years of high school. 

Mark Pomeroy has led creative writing workshops in Portland schools for 28 years. His previous novel is The Brightwood Stillness from 2014. 

This event is free and open to the public.

For details contact larson@up.edu.

Fall Readings & Lectures Begin September 13

UP’s fall 2022 Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series speaker will be Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, who joins our campus Tuesday, September 13. A self-described “wandering poet,” she’s lived and worked in San Antonio, TX, while spending the past 40 years traveling the country and world to lead writing workshops and inspire people of all ages with her poetry. Across over 30 volumes, her poetry explores the Middle East, gratitude and hope, mindfulness, immigration, what we consume, and what we throw away. Nye is a creative writing professor at Texas State University, and is dedicated to having people see poetry everywhere. Other writers who will give evening readings during the fall term include trans memoirist Cooper Lee Bombardier (Pass with Care, date tba), biographer Hilary Holladay (The Power of Adrienne Rich, Oct. 26), and Fr. Pat Hannon (Such Dizzy Natural Happiness: A Long, Loving Look at the Our Father, Nov. 15).

For details contact English chair Lars Erik Larson larson@up.edu.

Poet and Musician Trevino Brings Plenty, Oct. 29

Join Lakota poet and musician Trevino L. Brings Plenty for a reading at the UP Bookstore on Tuesday Oct. 29 at 7:30pm.  A longtime resident of the Portland area, he has two poetry collections Wakpá Wanáǧi, Ghost River (2015) and Real Indian Junk Jewelry (2005), and was featured in the recent anthology New Poets of Native Nations (2018).  A handout of five of his poems can be found under his listing here under “Works by Trevino Brings Plenty.”  The event is free and open to the public.  For details and questions contact English Chair Lars Erik Larson larson@up.edu.

Reading by Author, Oregon Book Award Winner Tracy Daugherty, Oct. 2

The English department will present its next Reading and Lectures Series writer, Tracy Daugherty, on Wednesday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m., in the UP Bookstore. His reading is free and open to all.

Daugherty is the author of four novels, six short story collections, a book of personal essays, and biographies of Donald Barthelme, Joseph Heller, Joan Didion, and others. He cofounded the masters of fine arts program in creative writing at Oregon State University, and has won the Oregon Book Award five times.

For more information and ADA accommodations, contact the English department at 7228 or english@up.edu.

Poetry Reading: Laura Read, March 26

Poet Laura Read will present her work in a reading on Tuesday, March 26, at 7:30 p.m., in the Pilot House bookstore. The reading is free and open to all.

Laura Read’s chapbook The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You won the Floating Bridge Chapbook Award in 2010, and her first full-length collection, Instructions for My Mother’s Funeral, was chosen as the winner of the AWP/Donald Hall Prize for Poetry by Dorianne Laux in 2011 and published in 2012 by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her second collection, Dresses from the Old Country, will be published by BOA in October of 2018. Her individual poems have received awards from The Florida Review, Dogwood, and Crab Creek Review and have been published in many different journals, including most recently, Radar, Beloit Poetry Journal, Blood Orange Review, and The New York Times Magazine. She teaches English composition, literature, and creative writing at Spokane Falls Community College and helps advise SFCC’s creative arts magazine The Wire Harp. 

For more information contact the English department at english@up.edu.

Elena Passarello Reading, Jan. 30

Actor and essayist Elena Passarello will read from her work on Wednesday, January 30, at 7:30 p.m., in the Pilot House bookstore. She will also appear at an informal question and answer social that afternoon from 4 to 5 p.m., in the Bauccio Commons Teske Room. All are welcome and refreshments will be served.

Passarello is the recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Paris Review, and The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2018. She is the author of the essay collections Let Me Clear My Throat and Animals Strike Curious Poses, the latter of which won the 2018 Oregon Book Award in Creative Nonfiction and made the Best Books of 2017 lists in The New York Times, Guardian, and Publisher’s Weekly. Passarello teaches at Oregon State University. Her talk is sponsored by the English department’s Readings and Lectures Series.

For more information go to this link.

Poetry Reading with Matthew Minicucci, Nov. 14

A free poetry reading by Matthew Minicucci will take place on Wednesday, November 14, 2018, at 7:30 p.m., in the UP Bookstore. Minicucci is the author of two collections of poetry: Small Gods, a finalist for the 2016 Green Rose Prize from New Issues Press, and Translation (Kent State University Press, 2015), chosen by Jane Hirshfield for the 2014 Wick Poetry Prize. His poetry and essays have appeared in numerous journals including the Alaska Quarterly Review, The Believer, Gettysburg Review, Oregon Humanities, The Southern Review, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His awards include the 2018 C. Hamilton Bailey Oregon Literary Fellowship and the Stanley P. Young Fellowship in Poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Last summer, he served as Artist-in-Residence at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The reading is part of the English department’s Reading and Lecture Series. To learn more, visit Minicucci’s website at matthewminicucci.com.

Reading and Lecture Series: Paul Collins, Oct. 8

The English department’s Reading and Lecture Series will present English professor Paul Collins of Portland State University on Monday, October 8, at 7:30 p.m., in the Pilot House bookstore. Collins will be reading from his most recent work, Blood and Ivy: the 1849 Murder that Scandalized Harvard (Norton, 2018). He is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Nonfiction and founding editor of the Collins Library imprint of McSweeney’s Books.

For more information contact the English department at x7228 or english@up.edu.

Reading with Megan Kruse, Feb. 15

Fiction author Megan Kruse will read from her work as part of the English department’s Readings & Lectures Series on Wednesday, February 15, at 7:30 p.m., in the Pilot House bookstore. The reading is free and open to all.

Megan Kruse grew up in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Olympia, Wash. She studied creative writing at Oberlin College and earned her MFA at the University of Montana. Her work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, and her debut novel, Call Me Home, was released from Hawthorne Books in March 2015, with an introduction by Elizabeth Gilbert. She teaches fiction at Eastern Oregon University’s Low-Residency MFA program, Hugo House, and Gotham Writers Workshop. She was the recipient of a 2016 PNBA Award, and one of the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 for 2015.

For more information contact the English department at x7228 or english@up.edu.

Author, Musician Willy Vlautin, Nov. 28

willy-vlautin-copyOregon novelist and musician Willy Vlautin joins our campus on Monday, November 28, at 7:30 p.m., at the Pilot House bookstore.  Born and raised in Reno, Nev., Vlautin has published four novels of dark literary realism: The Motel Life, Northline, Lean on Pete, and The Free. His bands include Richmond Fontaine and the Delines. Vlautin’s storytelling in both prose and song explores economic vulnerability, addiction, and relationships in the overlooked spaces of contemporary America.  A short interview on the English Department Blog can be found here. A recent short story of his, “The Kill Switch,” is available here. For details contact Lars Erik Larson, English, at larson@up.edu or x7267.