Detour Film Series : "I Walked With A Zombie"
Detour Film Series presents a screening of Jacques Tourneur’s
I Walked with a Zombie (1943), with pre-show readings of Chris Fujiwara & Sylvie Pierre and a special recorded introduction from “Jacques Tourneur: Cinema of a Nightfall” author Chris Fujiwara.
Seating is limited to 28 spots. Early arrival is encouraged.
Spare Room Presents: Miranda Mellis, Sara Jaffe, Janice Lee
Spare Room presents a night a readings with Miranda Mellis, Sara Jaffe, and Janice Lee.
EXCINEMA F F
Screening of “The Flower Thief” (Ron Rice, 1960, featuring Taylor Mead and Bob Kaufman)
Nadia's Proust Reading Group
A year long exploration of In Search of Lost Time. At meeting #2, we will discuss parts II & III of Swann’s Way
Literary Shitterary
An evening of short films and writings, revolving around the printed word, by Rankin Renwick
Rankin Renwick's art making life is highly influenced by the printed word. After reading In The Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Mathieson, they took off hitchhiking to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to see what it was about with their own eyes. And, having read The Beats since 15 years old, they took off on another hitchhiking trip to San Francisco to check out what that was all about. Both of these trips originated in Chicago and were accompanied by their wolf dog, their friend’s Super 8 camera, and their journals, which later informed the voiceover of the completed films years later. They were a bookseller for ten years at various shops around the USA, their last bookseller stint being at Powell's, where they started the Small Press and Journals Section and had a small press reading series called The dew.claw. While working there, they were befriended by William Tanner Vollmann. Through a roundabout way, they ended up shooting footage of him in The Tenderloin, resulting in The Ugly Movie, a film that is mostly retired, it is so unbearably ugly. But Rankin will screen it tonight.
And read some poems and essays of their own scribbling.
Nadia's Proust Reading Group
The first of 12 monthly meetings in a year-long reading of Proust's In Search of Lost Time. We will discuss through the “Combray” section of Swann’s Way.
Jacques Kine-Club
Portland filmmaker and writer Jacquesrates curates a monthly trip into underground media
Toussaint St. Negritude
Author and winner of the 2025 Firebird Award for the collection of poems Mountain Spells [Rootstock Publishing 2024], former Poet Laureate of Belfast, Maine, and 2024 Nominee for Poet Laureate of Vermont, poet, bass clarinetist, and composer Toussaint St. Negritude conjures whole liberations in full tempo. US Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks described his work as "full of sweet sounds and surprises." Writer Xenia Turner, of Burlington's 7 Days weekly, declares him as "A Preacher of Jazz Influenced Gospel." Originally from San Francisco, Toussaint has lived and broadly thrived across the African Diaspora, from the sacred mountains of Haiti to the Coltrane District of North Philadelphia. He, along with bassist Gahlord Dewald, is the leader of the band Jaguar Stereo!, a free-form ensemble of his own poetry and improvisational jazz, and his works have been widely published and recorded for over 40 years. He is also an avid educator, annually teaching poetry for the Governor's Institute of the Arts, among other institutions. On an alpine sanctuary facing east, Toussaint St. Negritude continues to thrive in the farthest elevations of Vermont's Northeast Kingdom.
Janice Lee, John Beer, & Jake Levine
Portland-based poets and PSU faculty Janice Lee and John Beer join Jake Levine, poet and translator visiting from Korea
Tom's book club
Join us in a discussion of Linnea Axelsson’s novel “Aednan” on Monday, January 12
Heiken Gallery: Benjamin Terrell Art Opening
The Heiken Gallery is a bi-monthly exhibition of visual art curated by artist Benjamin Heiken.
Please join us for the opening of January/February’s show by Benjamin Terrell.
Detour Film Series: "The Long Day Closes"
The first screening in a monthly film series that will include pre-show readings from criticism, theory, and other texts related to the film. A free zine of the readings will be provided.
“The Long Day Closes is the most gloriously cinematic expression of the unique sensibility of Terence Davies, widely celebrated as Britain’s greatest living filmmaker. Suffused with both enchantment and melancholy, this autobiographical film takes on the perspective of a quiet, lonely boy growing up in Liverpool in the 1950s. But rather than employ a straightforward narrative, Davies jumps in and out of time, swoops into fantasies and fears, summons memories and dreams. A singular filmic tapestry, The Long Day Closes is an evocative, movie- and music-besotted portrait of the artist as a young man.” (Criterion)
PNCA Winter Residency Reading
Night two at Word Virus of PNCA’s Writers Residency featuring Sara Jaffe, Lara Mimosa Montes, Dao Strom
PNCA Winter Residency Reading
Night one of two at Word Virus with Stephanie Adams-Santos, Jess Arndt, Emilly Prado
Fonograf Editions & Street Books Fundraiser
Join us for a night of readings in support of Street Books & Fonograf Editions’ GiveGuide campaigns. Featuring readings from Dao Strom, Stephanie Adams-Santos, Lauren Fulton, Harper Quinn, Joshua Pollock, and Joseph Byrd. $5-$20 suggested donation at the door, with no one turned away for lack of funds.
Tom's Book Club
This month we read Cristina Rivera Garza’s “Death Takes Me.” Join us on Monday, December 8th at 7:00
Book Release Party for Riley Parker's "23 Unread Novels"
BOOK RELEASE READING / PARTY (FREE!)
23 Unread Novels by Riley Michael Parker
Featuring readings from Riley Michael Parker, poet Lisa Ciccarello, and poet / musician Colin Keating. Free snacks and beverages, plus music, fun people, and a nice open space. Doors at 6:30, party / reading at 7pm, hang til whenever.
23 UNREAD NOVELS by Riley Michael Parker
Written in direct response to The Abortion by Richard Brautigan, 23 Unread Novels is a collection of twenty-three short & shorter stories about 3-legged cats, past lives, uncultured waitresses, Viet Nam, and three women named Sam.
Riley Michael Parker is a 40-something writer and comic artist living in Portland Oregon. He has a wife, two step-cats, and one dead parent. He is the author of POEM DOG (poems and comics), Summertime Blues (erotic "fiction"), and Three Halloweens Ago (a crime / romance novella). He currently has 3 pieces in the Northwest Museum of Comic Arts (Downtown Portland), and countless more that all known museums refuse to display (Southeast Portland). He is kind of fat, kind of ugly, and has a mustache.
@rileymichaelparker on instagram
Lisa Ciccarello is a poet and creative guide based in Portland. Her work covers a wide range of topics—everything from the splendor of nature to survival horror video games, from cheesy movies to 18th century prison reports, and maybe six or seven other things. Her specialty is finding the intersection between playfulness and personal attachment, and exploring the boundaries of self-reflection.
https://lisaciccarello.com/
Colin Keating is a poet, musician, and collage artist in the Pacific Northwest. He makes earnest, sometimes funny, and occasionally cynical (in a hopeful way) music, poems, and visual art. He is taller than many poets you may be familiar with, and needs glasses to see properly. His birthday is December 4th, and he's stoked to be spending that evening sharing his work with friends and strangers.
@francisbaconbits on instagram
Tom's Book Club August
Join us in a discussion of Robert Gluck’s 1994 novel, “Margery Kempe.”
Deborah Woodward & Jeff Diteman
Join us for a reading with translators Deborah Woodward & Jeff Diteman, won’t you?
CE Putnam & Andy Criest
C.E Putnam has lived in four world capitals: London, Singapore, Bangkok, and Washington DC but now operates the Putnam Institute for Space Opera Research (P.I.S.O.R.) from Portland, Oregon. Inside his seventh book, The Bird May Be Dead But It Is Your Bird (P.I.S.O.R. Publications 2024), you might find: an amazing bowl of noodles, a shortwave radio, starfish, eight kinds of rain, semi house trained beavers, a frequently tardy blacksmith, so much moss, penguin priests, and many more creatures living, dying, and dead!
His sound works include P.I.S.O.R. SCARES, a series of mind-melting Halloween themed sound collages and an ambient-drone work, “Music for Plants and Other Living Things.”
Andy Criest is a Portland Musician
Maryrose Larkin & James Yeary
Join us in a reading by Spare Room Reading Series founders Maryrose Larkin & James Yeary
Tom's book club
Join us for Tom’s book club.
July’s selection is Teju Cole’s Black Paper: Writing in a Dark Time.
James Maynard
Following in James Joyce's tradition of releasing books on his birthday, poet James Maynard will be celebrating his birthday with the release of a new chapbook, The Fourteen Thieves & Body Cams (Monday Editions, 2025)
Bloomsday
Celebrate Bloomsday 2025 by reading any passage of the book at any time of the day. We’ll have a copy set up in the shop, or bring your own.
Joshua Pollock & Sam Lohmann
Joshua Pollack’s latest book Narcan Incantations is out now on Garganta Press. He is a poet and translator, among other things. His work can be found in magazines including Chicago Review, jubilat, Vestiges, and Diagram. His translation of Jose Vicente Anaya’s Hikuri (Peyote) was published in 2020 by The Operating System, and his translation of Salvador Elizondo’s The Secret Crypt was published in 2022 by Daley Archive Press. He lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works as operations coordinator for Street Books, a mobile Library and harm reduction outreach project serving people who live outside and at the margins.
Sam Lohmann is a poet and librarian and parent living in Vancouver, Washington. He is the author of various books and pamphlets, most recently a long birthday poem called Liniment (self-published 2024). Recent work can be read online in the journals Hot Pink and La Mosca. Sam co-edits Airfoil Chapbooks with David Abel (returning after a long hiatus) and is a co-organizer of Portland's long-running Spare Room reading series.
Tom's Book Club -May. WG Sebald's "The Rings of Saturn"
Join us for a discussion of W.G. Sebald’s “The Rings of Saturn”
Jason Morris, Ryan Newton, & Jackie Motzer
Please join us in welcoming San Francisco poet Jason Morris together with Portland’s own Ryan Newton & Jackie Motzer.
Jason Morris was born and raised in Vermont. He is the author of eleven books and chapbooks, including Attending Void (forthcoming from Lithic Books, 2025), Hologram (forthcoming from Two Way Mirror, 2025); Low Life (Bird & Beckett Books, 2021); and Levon Helm (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2018). In addition to poetry, he has written essays on Clark Coolidge's Crystal Text and Bernadette Mayer's interest in Nathaniel Hawthorne. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and their child.
Jackie Motzer grew up in Ohio and moved to San Francisco to attend the New College of California’s Poetics program where she edited the independent imprint The Body Elevator Press. Her chapbook The Nymph Poem was published by Snag Press and her work was featured in Ellipsis Magazine. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.
Ryan Newton is a Poet who lives and works in Portland Oregon. He attended the New College of California Poetics program in San Francisco, and grew up in the Bay Area. His latest chap books of Poetry are Spirit Elevator, Mountain Waves & Lipstick Pickups. He is working on a book length collection of Poems called NIGHT WINDOW.
TimeSpace.Productions author reading
TimeSpace.Publishing Celebrates the 20th Anniversary of Two of its Books, Stories &
Scenes by Jean Nicholas, and Conversation of a Madman by Vorveit Iconoclast. TimeSpace.Productions will be hosting an author reading at Word Virus Books (6518 SE
Foster, Portland Oregon, 97206) on Sunday March 30th between the hours of 6-8pm.
Jacquesrates. Beatnik Verse
Welcome Jacquesrates to the shop for our first reading/performance.