2GQ ~ 2 Gyrlz Quarterly ~ Portland, Oregon arts, literature, & madness

PERFORMANCE WORKS NW & 2GQ PRESENT "HOUSE BOUND"

A kinesthetic salon of performance, installation, food, and drink by the artists of Works Corps. Tickets cost $5 less if purchased in advance from Brown Paper Tickets online; price includes tea, snacks, and beverages for grownups.

13 April 2008, Sunday
Showtimes 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:00, 3:30, and 5:00. Advance reservations recommended.
Tickets: $10-20, advance at  Brown Paper Tickets.

At Performance Works NW
4625 SE 67th Ave, Portland
(half-block north of SE Foster Road).
Reservations & Info: 503 475 2306, housebound@2GQ.org, www.2GQ.org

The artists of Works Corps are (l. to r.): Nora Robertson, Clare Carpenter, Lilian Gael, and Emily Stone; front: Tiffany Lee Brown. Photo by Steve Fritz.

Co-presented by 2GQ and Performance Works NW's Alembic series. 

KRISTY ATHENS: Reading in Portland + Original Fiction on 2GQ

Coming up this week, 2GQ’s series “Domestic Terror” showcases short fiction by Kristy Athens. Not to be missed!

She will read in Portland with Shanna Germain and Lara Tribak at a Barnes & Noble reading hosted by Sage Cohen on February 20. Keep reading for details.

FOR THE LOVE OF NYE BEACH...

The literary, littoral, and alimentary delights of Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon, make it a necessary coastal stop for writers and fans thereof. From the author-themed rooms of the Sylvia Beach Hotel to the Nye Beach Writers' Series of readings and events, this calm little tourist hamlet has it going on. And oh, the food!

Keep reading for the upcoming schedule for Writers on the Edge. --Tiffany Lee Brown

GOTHIC BEAUTY: IRRITATE THE DOUBTERS

reviewed by Johan

Gothic culture tirelessly marches on towards greater popularity despite being virtually a religious subculture subject to persecution in America. But when any great designer needs an edge, it's often the first place they will reach for ideas. And Gothic culture now has gone global, with huge followings in Japan, Europe, Mexico and central and south America, each region contributing equally fantastic twists, and with a dedicated network of supporters penetrating every country on Earth.

Enter Gothic Beauty magazine.Daring to define the enigmatic Gothic culture for nearly a decade. Unafraid to embrace the controversial, but always finding a route to the fantastic, seductive and beautiful in a way which turns the cynical American status quo on its head to create a darkly beautiful sensibility, offering alternatives spanning the range of our own culture like a parallel universe made up of darker dreams with better endings.

Gothic Beauty, at once loved by people on the Gothic fringes and neglected by counterculture snobs, will be the first established example anyone will go looking for to defend Gothic culture from silly misinterpretations. (Continued...)

THE WIFE, THE MISTRESS, & THE PROSTITUTE: PLAZM AT THE BACK ROOM

Come along, creative whores! Eat food, hang out, and dive into a conversation about "The Wife, the Mistress, and the Prosititute" as essential metaphors for life as artists, writers, and as creative professionals. Discuss design, language, survival, protest and collaboration!

Join 2GQ editrix Tiffany Lee Brown (who moonlights as a Plazm editor) with the Plazm crüe, editor Jon Raymond and art director Josh Berger.The evening is hosted and curated by Stephanie Snyder of the back room and the Cooley Gallery at Reed College.

Music by Tara Jane O'Neil. Food by catering & farmers market favourites Tastebud Farm, who will soon open their new dining room in Southeast Portland.

January 11, 2008, 6:30 pm, Podkrepa Hall, 2116 North Killingsworth Street. $45 per person includes a delectable feast, wine, and a copy of a book written & pressed especially for this occasion. Reservations are highly recommended; these events usually sell out. Email thebackroompdx@gmail.com or buy tickets via THE BACK ROOM online. Keep reading for details...

THE GYRLZ ARE BACK! Programming for 2008 + Holiday Gifts of Luv

HELLO, GYRLZ: Most of you know by now that 2 Gyrlz founder/directors Lisa Newman and Llewyn Maire have returned from their year-plus of performing and living in Europe. Portland is ready for a new round of innovative performance programming from our favourite gyrlz. The new season promises to bring some excellent international artists to town; we will soon update this site and 2gyrlz.org with confirmed shows.

COMPENDIUM BOOKS AVAILABLE
We also have signed, numbered, limited edition books on sale; click "Compendium" on the Plazm Books site.

DOMESTIC TERROR: Freezone at 2GQ

We live in our bodies. We live in our little lives. We live in our homes.

Sometimes these realities are not reflected in the creative literature associated with taking risks, presenting challenges, engendering innovative fiction, and going out on the occasional experimental limb. Sometimes, we want our "edge" to be so "edgy" that it falls completely away from how we live. Sometimes we invest more inventiveness in form and style than we do in the emotional honesty of a work. As for subject matter: sometimes we're afraid to engage with the mundane truths of home and domesticity, fearing that our work will turn out like all those hyper-workshopped hausfrau short stories set in Connecticut, the ones you see all the time in New York magazines and Midwestern literary journals.

OK, there's definitely something to fear in that. But there's much to celebrate and explore, as well. Family and home are not the opposite of things fascinating, dark, gripping, hilarious, or glamourous. Hell, no. Family and home are the very source of the best neuroses, the kind that turn people into writers...

Welcome DOMESTIC TERROR. This series of short literature & other fun stuff will be published on the 2GQ.org Freezone throughout 2008. On deck we have Kristy Athens, John Barrios, Nora Robertson, and hey, I'll probably make an appearance myself. If you would like to submit material, which can include memoir, poetry, fiction, hypertext, visual works, comics, multimedia presentation, and documentation of performance/visual works, please READ THIS FIRST (www.2GQ.org/DT-submit.html). Thanks. --Tiffany Lee Brown

SEX SCENES & A REFRESHINGLY COUNTER-HEMINGWAY SPIN ON ADVERBS: TIN HOUSE NOTEBOOK 2007

NOTE: As Nora reminisces about writing workshops last summer, the Wordstock Festival offers tons this weekend -- including a reading and a workshop by Steve Almond. 2GQ writer/editor/bookmakers Nora, Tif, and Clare will be at the PLAZM booth at the festival, booth #1130, Sat & Sun (PLAZM distributes 2GQ and our new book, A Compendium of Miniatures -- signed copies will be available). Also check out Tif, Jon Raymond, & Lidia Yuknavitch reading at 5 pm Sunday at the McMenamins Stage.

Ah, the halcyon days of summer when you can enjoy riding your bike with your face into the wind, two consecutive hours without rain and the Tin House lecture series, which never fails to amaze me with its stellar lineup despite the fact that it only costs fifteen bucks each.  What some of these folks would cost to see at the Schnitz I don’t like to think about.  I believe Steve Almond was in the fifty-dollar range last time he read there.  And there I was, front and center in the Reed College amphitheatre, listening to him crack wise about writing sex scenes. ... (Keep reading for Nora's report on the series.)

PLAZM at WORDSTOCK

Jonathan Raymond, Tiffany Lee Brown, and Lidia Yuknavitch appear at Portland's festival of books on November 11th in PLAZM reading.

PLAZM magazine has brought words to the page with a bold, unusual vision since 1991. From artist/writer collaborations to revolutionary experiments in typography and design, PLAZM provides a platform for local and international art, design, and culture, along with nonfiction, creative, and critical writing. PLAZM presents a reading, video, and slides at the Wordstock Festival to coincide with the release of its 29th issue...

COME VISIT at WORDSTOCK

Together with Jonathan Raymond and Lidia Yuknavitch, 2GQ editroid Tiffany Lee Brown will be reading from Plazm magazine at the Wordstock Festival in Portland on Sunday, November 11, at 5 pm. 2GQ collab's Tif, Clare Carpenter, and Nora Robertson will also be on-hand throughout the weekend at Plazm's booth, #1030. Signed, numbered copies of Clare & Tif's A Compendium of Miniatures will be available for sale, along with other goodies from Plazm Books.

WORDIGO!

WORDIGO 2, Write Around Portland's annual benefit, is a celebration of writing like no other. This year's event features word games, collaborative novellas, and readings by Monica Drake (_Clown Girl_) and Tom Spanbauer (_Now Is the Hour_). All this verbosity is for the best possible cause -- bringing the transformative power of writing to those in Portland with the least access to opportunities to gather and write. Coming up Novermber 3rd...

NOW IS THE TIME TO BECOME ALARMED.

Review by the inimitable Pecos B. Jett

Alarm
By Mike Daily
(Stovepiper Books Media)

In Mike Daily’s new novel Alarm we travel along with his fictional otherself Mick O’Grady and the voice in both of their heads known as the Alter-Narrator, as they traverse the landscape of their early thirties, deteriorating relationships, fledgling sobriety, financial insecurity, and the omnipresent signage we’re presented with every day. If that soul-stew wasn’t already hearty enough, our protagonist faces these circumstances in Los Angeles, of all places, just weeks after the events of 9/11, of all times.

Construct/Re-Construct Opening Sept. 29

Construct/Re-Construct
curated by Rhoda London

A group show of work by Portland artists expressing the building blocks that bring an idea to fruition and showing the artists in dialogue with their materials. 2GQ editor Tiffany Lee Brown and book artist Clare Carpenter present an installation documenting the collaborative process behind their new project, A Compendium of Miniatures.

September 29-October 27, 2007
Cathedral Park Place
6635 N. Baltimore Ave, Portland, OR
(the former Columbia Sportswear/Modern Zoo building)

Opening Reception Saturday, September 29, 5-8 PM
Gallery hours Friday and Saturday only 12-5 PM

Artists: Josh Arseneau, Francesca Berrini, John Brodie, Tiffany Lee Brown, Clare Carpenter, Cathy Cleaver, Nancy Cushwa, Kristina DiTullo, Tore Djupedal, David Hacker, Helen Heibert, Harrison Higgs, Scott Wayne Indiana,James Jack, Horatio Law, Todd Leninger, Seth Nehil,Liz Obert, Kelly Rauer, Anya Shapiro, Benjamin Stagl,Andy Stout, Robert Wilhelm, Karen Willey, Linda Wysong.

PLAZM #29: NEW MAGAZINE + RELEASE PARTY SEPT. 26

When not doing 2GQ, my secret alter-identity is now a co-editor at Plazm magazine, a veritable institution of Portland art, culture, and design since 1991. Our new issue features Yoko Ono, Todd Haynes, JD Samson (Le Tigre), Storm Tharp, Domenick Ammirati, Lidia Yuknavitch, Marvin Bell, and a pull-out poster of Portland music from The Wipers to Nequaquam Vacuum.

Oh, and The End of War. And Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis, and Bill Walton, and psychedelic posters, and all kinds of stuff. Keep reading for the press release.

PARTY: Sept 26, Ace Hotel on SW Stark & 10th in downtown Portland, bands and DJ's (Glass Candy, Hooliganship, Evolutionary Jass Band, more), cheap, all ages, plus art benefiting Veterans for Peace. Please do come.

Falling from the Sky at the Aalto

Scott Wayne Indiana, Carlton Mellick Jr., Paul Ash, and more read from the new anthology this Thursday at the Aalto. Read on for deets.

THIS WEEKEND: WRITER'S EDGE, SORIAH, WATER IN THE DESERT

Line up an amazing weekend in Portland July 27, 28, and 29. Friday: Writer's Edge workshop readings featuring Lidia Yuknavitch, Brian Evanson, Lucy Corin, and Lance Olsen. Saturday: Soriah's CD release party and performance. Sunday: Water in the Desert Festival and ritual in North Portland.

COMPENDIUM OF MINIATURES: PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE

A Compendium of Miniatures
by Tiffany Lee Brown
(Tiger Food Press * 2GQ Press)

Miniature narratives and rhythmic metaphors redefine the words that tell life's big stories. Limited edition of 50 signed, numbered books hand-bound in silk; case-bound. Hand-set in Deepdene and letterpress printed in two colors on 100% post-consumer recyled paper using soy-based inks by Clare Carpenter.

Books begin shipping September 23, 2007. Pre-orders accepted; reserve a copy today via:

Purchase online with credit card at plazm.com ($55 plus shipping & handling). US, Canada, international.

Purchase via mail order: $58 includes shipping & handling. Make checks out to "2GQ" and send to PO Box 2863, Portland OR 97208. Includes a splendid mailing box you will want to crawl inside. Price includes all applicable taxes, shipping, etc. USA and Canada only.

Email the authors at 2007@2GQ.org with inquiries or to be notified about our September installation and performance at Cathedral Park Place in Portland.

COMPENDIUM OF MINIATURES AT PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

Yr everlovin' editrix Tiffany Lee Brown and 2GQ book artist Clare Carpenter of Tiger Food Press have been working hard on "A Compendium of Miniatures" for nearly two years. Friday June 29, they bring a performance-based literary reading of the work, along with a participatory installation, to Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing program. Clare will also give a presentation about book arts, and the two will lead a discussion about how collaboration and multidisciplinary exploration can lead to an expansive writing practice. 1:00 pm at Pacific; open to the public.

The book of the Compendium will be available this fall. In September, a new installation of the Compendium will be unveiled at Cathedral Park Place (the St. Johns building where Modern Zoo happened). We'll also bring it to PNCA. See ya then!

Mike Daily Takes City by Storm

There's no way you don't have time to catch a launch for Mike Daily's latest novel, Alarm, since there's four of them, the next one being tomorrow at Powell's, 7:30.  Reading from an experimental melange of narrative, found objects, an alter-narrator and audio beats (see inclosed CDs of live and studio performances), Daily tells us an account of a couple slowly splitting apart amid post-911 anthrax scares, semi-employment and the detritus of the San Fernando Valley.  Appearing with band---and moi as quest artist---at last week's Phase One: Words + Music, you can catch the full meal deal at the Ash St. Saloon on July 25th and at the Someday Lounge for the FC2 Writer's Edge conference on July 26th, or a pared down version at Aftermath for First Thursday on July 5th.  Beat happening.

---Nora Robertson

EXQUISITE LANGUAGE FOR SALE...

Musicians from bands like Low and the Decemberists joined in with writers from Elissa Schappell to Lance Olsen in 2GQ's "Exquisite Language" project.  Seventy contributors from around the world co-constructed a series of exquisite corpse stories and songs; the results were published in our special Exquisite Language issue of 2GQ and also interpreted as performance and song at an EL-fest event at the Heathman Hotel.

Fun times! Anyway, we still have a few copies of Exquisite Language. To get one of your very own, please  send a check for $13 made out to "2GQ" to: Tiffany Lee Brown, 2GQ Editor,  PO Box 2863, Portland OR 97208. Includes a splendid letterpressed mailing box you will want to crawl inside. Price includes all applicable taxes, shipping, etc. USA and Canada only. Keep reading for details about contributors and other items in the issue.

Haiku Inferno. A new book. Crêpes. Your job: watch, listen, eat, and report back.

Haiku! Crêpes! What are you waiting for? Read on.

DEVO, MONGOLOID, & RE/SEARCH...

Even when I am drowning in newsletters, PR, blog posts, and infojunk... even when I want to throw it all away and never email with anyone, ever, again...when I think I've wasted the entirety of my adult life (plus some of my youth and childhood) obsessing over small press and underground publication... even then, I read the RE/Search newsletter. I am reminded again why any of this matters to me. I am inspired by what people have done, are still doing, will do, in the realms of culture and media.

FC2's RONALD SUKENICK/AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW INNOVATIVE FICTION PRIZE

We're not normally in the business of passing along info about literary contests that require reading fees (although reading all your submissions? we understand just how time-consuming it is). But hey. FC2 is pretty darned cool. You'd be very lucky indeed to be published alongside Lance Olsen, Criz Mazza, Linda Schor, and Lidia Yuknavitch. Step on up for the Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Prize sponsored by Fiction Collective Two (FC2) and watch your $25 entry fee turn into $1000 plus publication! Lance's letter about the contest follows.

ARTIST BIOS: PUBLIC WORKS

Find out more about the Public Works Corps: Tiffany Lee Brown, Clare Carpenter, Lilian Gael, Nora Robertson, and Emily Stone...

...and about this week's guest artists, Sarah Dougher and Josh Berger.

PUBLIC WORKS: THE SPRING FINALE

PUBLIC WORKS reveals works-in-progress by local musicians, artists,
and writers.

With good food & delicious cocktails, in one of Portland's most
beautiful, intimate venues.

Join us this Wednesday, May 9 for the final evening of this Public
Works series. Guest artists SARAH DOUGHER (music) and JOSHUA BERGER
(visual art) will join our regular writers, performers, and
interdisciplinary artists: TIFFANY LEE BROWN, LILIAN GAEL, NORA
ROBERTSON, and EMILY STONE.

2GQ presents Public Works
Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9
5:30-7:00 pm
Free, at Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave between Couch and Davis

PUBLIC WORKS CALENDAR

===  2GQ presents  ===

    PUBLIC WORKS

Six weeks of live, raw works-in-progress, rough cuts, & experiments
being of a literary, performative, musical, & artistic nature

Click "continue" below to see the whole calendar & meet the artists...

Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9
5:30-7:00 pm
Free, at Someday Lounge
125 NW 5th Ave

JONATHAN LETHEM & the GOAT MAN

Nora Robertson brings back a report of his Portland appearance.

Last Thursday, the Portland Arts & Lectures series brought Jonathan Lethem to Portland. Onstage at the Schnitz, about a third of the way in, Lethem told a dirty joke. I wanted to see his face, but we were up in the nosebleeds, Tiffany muttering something about her great-great-aunt’s opera glasses sadly left behind at home. It wasn’t a really dirty joke, just naughty, told oddly in almost the same rhythm my New York Jewish grandma uses to tell naughty jokes.

R.I.Y. + Poetry Month at MultCo Library

RIY: read it yourself. Bring a bit of poetry April 21, and check out the other events hosted free by your very own Multnomah County library system.

JONATHAN LETHEM COMES TO PDX

Literary Arts brings Jonathan Lethem to Portland Arts & Lectures this Thursday, April 12th, 7:30, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Here's what Nora Robertson thinks about this opportunity to see the man himself:

The first book I ever read by Jonathan Lethem was Motherless Brooklyn, and I was charmed. The Chandleresque protagonist, hamstringed by Tourette’s and growing up orphaned, parses a surreal intrigue involving cryogenic chambers, talking kangaroos and, of course, a dame who both seduces him and hangs him out to dry. Years later, I would be similarly thunderstruck by fellow Brooklynite Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy’s appropriation of hardboiled detective tropes to investigate rather more existential mysteries. Very Sartre, Camus, Godard.

WEEK 1 OF PUBLIC WORKS, and here comes Week 2.

The first week of Public Works was delightful. (It will happen every Wednesday through May 9.) Pecos B. brought words that rollicked and rocked, all of us Corps members did word + movement improvisation, I unveiled the world premiere of video "Log Baby," Nora Robertson read luscious poetry in progress, and Lily Gael topped the evening with a serious shot of energy in the form of a short dance piece.

And then there was Emily Stone (pictured left). She presented a deeply moving interdisciplinary piece involving the themes of growth and home, alternating reading with movements performed in front of projected photographs, her pregnant belly distending into the screen. Meanwhile, the rest of us attended to a series of instructions she'd given us: cleansing, writing on eggshells, planting seeds. Beautiful stuff!

Next week -- Wednesday, April 11 -- Leanne Grabel will be our featured poet, belly dancer Grace Constantine will be our guest artist, and I'll show a brand new experimental reading + video piece. Expect more explorations from the Public Works Corps as well. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave, 5:30-7 pm, free. More details about the series is in the next post, below. --Tiffany Lee Brown

PUBLIC WORKS: coming up

2GQ presents PUBLIC WORKS

Six weeks of live, raw works-in-progress, rough cuts, & experiments
being of a literary, performative, musical, & artistic nature

Wednesdays, April 4 through May 9 ... 5:30-7:00 pm ... FREE .....
Someday Lounge ... 125 NW 5th Avenue ... in Portland's Old Town ... phone 503 248 1030

Works Corps:
TIFFANY LEE BROWN ..... CLARE CARPENTER ..... LILY GAEL ..... LEANNE GRABEL ..... NORA ROBERTSON ..... EMILY STONE

Guest Artists:
PECOS B. (April 4)  ..... GRACE CONSTANTINE (April 11) .... ERIC HAUSMANN (April 18) ..... JEMIAH JEFFERSON (April 25) ..... JULIAN TULIP  (May 2) ..... SARAH DOUGHER (May 9) ..... JOSHUA BERGER (May 9)

RELIGION & POLITICS: Dangerous as ever

Authors and Dangerous Writers workshop leaders Stevan Allred and Joanna Rose "read fiction about the two things you're not supposed to discuss around your relatives" this Tuesday, March 20. Rose reads from her novel in progress, Ruby's Roadhouse, and Allred reads new work appearing soon in Rosebud.

McMenamin's Kennedy School - 5735  NE 33rd (between Killingsworth & Lombard). Readings start at 7; the readers invite you to join them for drinks afterward. A benefit for Community of Writers

SHUT UP & READ

Take a few minutes out of your busy month to appreciate independent media in print. As much as we Portland peeps dig our Powell's and our InterWebs, we owe a lot to the independent media revolution. And hey, kids, it started in print, not online.

Nice thing about print? To go buy it, you have to go to interesting spaces and browse around with lovely people. Absolutely no better place to do it than Reading Frenzy, which Chloe Eudaly started as a tiny portion of a tiny spot on SE 37th off of Hawthorne back in the mid 1990s. I was a big fan. And for a while, Toney Bento was in the same space, wafting chicken smells all over the books. (The space is now Buffalo Exchange and the little charity shop next door.)

When Reading Frenzy moved downtown, they activated the triangle block on Oak, across Burnside from Powell's. You know the block: Thai food, Rocco's Pizza, mini-bike sculpture-pile, IPRC (Independent Publishing Resource Center), CounterMedia for vintage naughtiness, and the favourite deviled egg dealer in Bumptown, Crowsenberg's Half and Half. And RF are having some trouble financially.

So get on out there and support! Go to the shop even only to get one of those awesome "SHUT UP AND READ" buttons. A letter from Chloe follows. And doesn't 2GQ book artist/production manager Clare Carpenter look fabulous in this photo, browsing at Reading Frenzy? --Tiffany

BURNING WORD FEST 2007

I love ferries, the anticipation of what's lying on the other side of the glimmering slate-green water, and this time it's something really good---Naomi Shihab Nye and the Canadian poet laureate George Bowering appearing on the Paul Gillie stage at the WPA's Burning Word Festival along with the Jack Straw Writers, Los Nortenos and too many others to mention.  Also check out the open-mics on the more intimate Cascade stage (look for 2GQ friends 'n' family including poet Howard Robertson), the writing workshop tent, and the small press fair.  With past performers including Tess Gallagher and Ilya Kaminsky, it'll be interesting to see what this year's boatload of talent turns up with. --Nora

Greenback Farm
April 28th, 7 am - 9 pm

THE WRITER's EDGE: Deadline coming up

Fiction Collective 2 and Portland State University team up to offer the second annual Writer's Edge: Innovative Writing Conference this July, including workshops by yr fav'rite gyrlish contributors Lance Olsen and Lidia Yuknavitch.

PUBLIC WORKS: Announcing the Participants

2GQ will present the Public Works series in April and May. We are superthrilled to announce the workshop participants/works-in-progress performers, writers, and artists:

Leanne Grabel            Nora Robertson (McCrea)      Sarah Dougher
Julian Tulip            Lily Gael            Emily Stone             Clare Carpenter
Joshua Berger            Jemiah Jefferson        Tiffany Lee Brown

PUSHCART POSSIBLE FOR PORTLAND POET

Word on the cold, rainy Portland street is that 2GQ's own Nora Robertson (formerly Nora McCrea) has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, the small press equivalent of an Oscar—or, better yet, a Palme d'Or. The perfectly delicious poem responsible, "How to Boil an Egg," appeared this year in Redactions. If you've been paying attention over the last few years, now you can say you knew her when. Warm, wet, sloppy congrats to Nora!

Left: Nora performs in the 2GQ event "Exquisite Language" at the Heathman Hotel during the 2004 Enteractive Language Festival. Photo by Steve Fritz.

Announcing: Public Works

2GQ presents for your consideration -- in conjunction with the esteemed Noah Mickens and his fantabulous Someday Lounge in Old Town Portland -- PUBLIC WORKS. This six-week workshop series of live literary and performance works-in-progress is curated by 2GQ's humble editrix, Miss Tiffany Lee Brown, and will occur every Wednesday night from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. from April 4 to May 9, 2007.

What has it to do with YOU?

Voyeur, drinker, arts maven or literary gadabout that you undoubtedly are, YOU get to watch the fabled artistic process unfold. You get to watch. Our workshop members will present new sketches, participate in experiments, and show works in progress, interspersed liberally with beer breaks. You get to watch the new sparks fly. You get to see all the edges, rough and unseemly.

So pencil it in. We'll see you in a few months.

Trevor Dodge: New Book + Reading

Come hear 2GQ contributor Trevor Dodge read from his newest book, Everyone I Know Lives on Roads, 7 pm on Thursday Dec 14 at Reading Frenzy. Keep reading for deets.

FO A RM Festival November 18

FO A RM Magazine of Arts and Research presents THE FO A RM FESTIVAL OF SOUND & VIDEO is coming up November 18 at Portland Art Center to celebrate the release of their new magazine. Check it out!

BRIEFS: Reviews Galore, archived.

BRIEFS: REVIEWS & MINI-REVIEWS

Barry Lopez, the Brothers Grimm, Einsturzende Neubauten, Gobshite Quarterly, Strategy, Eye-Rhyme, Black Dice, Muslimgauze, Kat Terran, and many more.

Originally published in 2GQ's first print journal, "The Issue of Summer Finery & Weak Tea," May 2004. About five copies are still available. Order here.

Reviewed by Tiffany Lee Brown, Valerie Cashman, and T.J. Norris

If you wish to quote from reviews, please credit the individual author of the review, in addition to crediting 2GQ/2 Gyrlz Quarterly. And we always appreciate a link to our site.

Stuck in Salem? Shoot the Buffalo!

If you happen to be anywhere near Salem, Oregon, on October 26, go out of your way to get to Jacksons Books. Matt Briggs, author of Shoot the Buffalo (one of my Top 5 Reads of last year) will be be there in the flesh. --TLB

Details follow.

Dress in Text for the IPRC Ball

Wear your words! IPRC, the Independent Publishing Resource Center, offers workshops, a library, letterpress, and computers to zinesters, self-publishers, book artists and others. Good stuff. Support them Saturday, October 14th, 2006: IPRC Benefit at the Portland Art Center. The evening will feature a parade of costumes made up of words, and attendees are encouraged to "come dressed to be read!" There will be prizes for best costume, and Trashcan Joe will provide the music. Tickets are $15 in advance from Reading Frenzy.

Lit Arts Brings on the Double Bill

Literary Arts will present a double bill in Spring of 2007 featuring Mary Gaitskill and George Saunders. Gaitskill wields words like a surgeon wields a scalpel-- a horribly clichéd simile, true, but imagine that the surgeon is separating conjoined twins without the aid of anasthesia. Imagine that you, the reader, are one (or both) of the twins.

You may know Gaitskill from Bad Behavior; Two Girls, Fat and Thin; and last year's National Book Award finalist, Veronica, from which it is luminous and frightening to hear her read. Saunders is, bluntly put, a genius of satire, social commentary, general hilarity, and that slippery form, the short story. Head straight for Pastoralia immediately, if you haven't already treated yourself to that amazing collection.

PENCIL FIGHT!

Pencil Fight #3 (comix, art, weirdness, amazement) is ready to roll, with contributors from Carson Ellis to Mike Brophy. Fancy! Grass Hut hosts the launch party this Friday, September 29, at 811 East Burnside. The theme is "When Plants Attack." Yay! Click below for artist list, etc. --tif

Kazoo to You: Bush Rage

Sharon E. Streeter, author and publisher of the Bush Rage series, uses poetry, voice, ukulele, and even kazoo to get her point across. She says, "This is an event to signal the final days to register to vote and an opportunity see how words can be put to work for our beliefs. Free and open to the public."

Bush Rage, October 5, 7:30 p.m. St Johns Booksellers, 8622 N. Lombard Street. More about the project (including books and CDs) is at www.bushrageAllowed.com.

Portland Loves Women Who Bitch

Event review by Nora Robertson

Folks of all stripes jammed their chairs together like they were packed in a 747 to hear the ladies of Bitch magazine launch BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006). It was standing room only at Reading Frenzy on September 6th to hear founders Lisa Jervis and Andi Zeisler skewer the tension between boys and girls in pop culture, spotlighting the centrality of gender in our understanding of the world.

NW Edge III Party Tonight

The third Northwest Edge anthology, comprised of a book and DVD, is launching TONIGHT in Portland. Thurs july 20 at Disjecta, 230 E. Burnside, 8 pm - 1 am. Lisa Newman of 2 Gyrlz; Tiffany Lee Brown, editor of 2GQ; and 2GQ contributors including Lance Olsen and Kevin Sampsell will perform or read their work, along with the many fabulous folks listed below, and there will be a big ol' party.

The Landscape of Possibility: An Interview with Lance Olsen

Trevor Dodge interviews Lance Olsen, award-winning author and former Writer in Residence for the state of Idaho. Olsen--who says he is "drawn to strange and surprising work that can take lots of different forms, but that in some way always resists the blandness of the literary mainstream"--has appeared in the Enteractive Language Festival (pictured left) and wrote about Northwest small publishing for 2GQ (soon to appear on this site).

Lance Olsen was born in 1956 amid the proliferation of shopping malls in northern New Jersey, but spent his first years growing up in a jungle compound in Venezuela, where his father helped set up oil refineries for Exxon. Olsen's earliest memories include the sound of hundreds of crab shells crunching beneath the tires as his family inched along the dirt roads in their Land Rover; the pale mustard stain on his bedsheets from the venom of a bullmaster snake that had taken up residence in the washing machine; and how a thirty-foot python once attacked his father's Volkswagen Beetle.

NEW BOOK, BACK ISSUES OF 2GQ JOURNAL

Our latest publication, the book arts and lyric stories of Clare Carpenter and Tiffany Lee Brown, is available on the Etsy.com shop Seedcake. Look for "A Compendium of Miniatures."

The 2GQ literary/arts journal features original fiction, poetry, non-fiction, interviews, and language experiments. Limited edition, hand-bound and silkscreened/letterpressed covers. Delivered in a gorgeous, long-format box letterpressed by Tiger Food Press, as available. Keep reading for details.

Phase One: Words + Music for March

For a cabaret buffet of performance, check out 2GQ’s Nora McCrea, performing sauce-stained recipe-poems from Body Project: A Cookbook, along with writer Salina Nunez and punk-folk band Modernstate, among others. Towne Lounge, 714 SW 20th Place, 503-241-8696, doors open at 9:00. Free of charge. Wednesday, March 22.

Writers' Resource Fair

The Multnomah County Library hosts the Writers' Resource Fair, with a book sale, rare book tours, and info from organizations including IPRC, Alder Press, Katsura Press, NW Independent Scholars, Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission, Willamette Writers, and others. Dig it Sunday, March 12, noon to 4 p.m. at Central Library, 801 SW 10th Ave. Admission is free. Call 503 988 5473 for more info.

The Bog by Jonathan Raymond

The Bog
Fiction by Jonathan Raymond
Originally appeared in issue #1 of 2 Gyrlz Quarterly

    Adam is the sexy one, who's driving, and Eric, the smart one, is in the back seat. It's his mom's house we're going to, out on the Olympic peninsula. Brad is the funny one, who comes up with most of our names for things, and finds most all of the music.

I'm not anything, really.

Mos Freak: Chiasmus Press Launch

For whip-smart prose headlining various characters’ realities as they progress towards an apocalyptic implosion on a quintessential day in the Mall of the Americas, don’t miss Lance Olsen’s reading launching his latest book, 10:01, from Chiasmus Press. For more freak, also hear Jeanne Heuving’s prose-poetry hybrid streaming in Incapacity, Doug Nufer’s corporate biography On the Roast, and R.M. Berry’s take on Shelly’s Frankenstein. February 17, Powell’s Burnside, 7:30 p.m.

Tiffany Lee Brown at Clackamas College

Come see yr friendly local 2GQ editrix! Writer, performer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist Tiffany Lee Brown will read Tuesday, February 21 at 7:30 pm in the Winklesky Literary Arts Center at Clackamas Community College. She will read from two new works-in-progress and from her ongoing interdisciplinary project about bipolar disorder, CANDY BLUE.

Brown is currently the editor of 2GQ and, in collaboration with Jon Raymond, is editing the spring 2006 issue of Plazm magazine. Details & directions follow...

Psychedelic Logging + Love at the Launch Pad

Check out both events Saturday, February 11th. The Psychedelic Logging Show at Reed College starts early, and we're not sure, but we'd guess that the LOVE group show/'zine party runs late. We'll be trying to hit 'em both. See you there.