AN EVENING OF CONVERSATION WITH THREE PORTLAND WRITERS
HOST NORA ROBERTSON WITH JON RAYMOND, BEN MOORAD AND MONICA DRAKE
The New Oregon Interview Series brought three prominent Portland literary figures together for an evening of intimate conversation. Fiction and screen writer Jon Raymond, Write Around Portland co-founder Ben Moorad and novelist Monica Drake sat down to discuss their work and how our book culture is evolving on August 26th at Urban Grind East. An editor at Plazm Magazine whose writing has appeared in Artforum, Bookforum, Tin House, The Village Voice, and other publications, Raymond is the author of The Half-Life, a novel, and Livability, a collection of stories, two of which were made into the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. A recent MacDowell Colony Fellow in support of his current nonfiction project, The Envelope of Suicides, Ben Moorad is a poet, interdisciplinary artist and co-founder of the nonprofit Write Around Portland, which has helped over 3000 local youth and adults overcome barriers to build community through writing. An essayist and the author of the novel Clown Girl, Monica Drake’s work has appeared in Portland Noir and The Sun among others, and she teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Host Nora Robertson conceived the New Oregon Interview Series to find out how Portland’s blossoming creative culture has developed and where it’s headed. “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” “A lot has changed in the past decade,” Robertson says. “The best perspective comes from the artists themselves—and the designers, writers, chefs, and venues who make things happen here.” The Oregonian's Barry Johnson remarked "at this point, we don't know whether we're headed back where we left off 18 months ago or whether we're going somewhere completely new. That question is at the center of the New Oregon Interview Series."
Audiences can sit in and join the discussions at eight live events, all slated for the last Wednesday of each month at Urban Grind East, near NE 20th Ave. and Sandy Boulevard. Over forty interviews will be published in a printed anthology; some are currently available online at www.neworegon.org. The series presents its book night on Wednesday, August 26th, at Urban Grind East, 2214 NE Oregon St., from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. Beer, wine, coffee, and light snacks will be available for purchase. Admission is $5 at the door, or $30 for a season pass to eight live events). Letterpress artist and bookmaker Clare Carpenter of Tiger Food Press will also discuss her work creating a limited-edition letterpress broadside based on the interviews.
The New Oregon Interview Series is presented by New Oregon Arts and Letters, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization formerly known as 2GQ, the publishers of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly. More information can be found online at http://www.2gq.org/neworegon.html.
LISTEN FOR YOURSELF
