Hawthorne Books

I love graphic novels. I remember my first: Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel—who knew picture books could be so profound? In her lush illustrated memoir, Bechdel tells the story of her relationship with her father, the mystery surrounding his death, and a saga of her growing pains. Never before in my life had I seen anything so wonderful; it was a memoir, but it was more than that. I understood Bechdel’s context because she was showing me exactly what I needed to see. It made me wish that they...Forward

As a follow-up to last week’s post on Annie Bloom’s Books in Multnomah Village, Hawthorne Intern Naomi Sweo interviews the store’s events coordinator, publicist, and CD buyer, Michael Keefe. Tangent to his thirteen years as a bookseller, Keefe is also a former music journalist, current fiction writer, and lifelong book enthusiast. They talk cats, literary events, and the slow demise of the big-chain book selling industry.

Naomi SweoWhat is the cat’s name? (Obviously the most important...Forward

Poe Ballantine’s memoir Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere will be on shelves September 1, 2013, and a documentary with the same title directed by Dave Janetta will be released soon after. Below Poe describes his experience being both the author of Love & Terror as well as the subject of this film.

I was working on a novel about a Lakota Indian boy who accidentally kills his stepfather, flees the reservation, and becomes a standup comedian in Las Vegas, when my neighbor, Steven...Forward

Nestled between bewitching storefronts such as a bead shop with a cutesy name, an old-fashioned candy store, and an alliterative toy store sits Annie Bloom’s Books. This Multnomah Village staple has been around since 1978, which explains its cozy, store-next-door ambiance. The green glow of hanging banker’s lamps in the front window illuminates a charming selection of fiction, and beyond one might catch a glimpse of the helpful worker bees stocking the ceiling-high bookshelves.

The real...Forward

As March comes to a close and the cold rain of winter turns into the slight drizzle of spring here in Portland, the city’s vibrant literature scene comes to life with a series of events. From spoken word evenings at Disjecta to new and already established writers showing and discussing their work, this will be an exciting spring for the Portland literary community.

T.S. Eliot begins his poem “The Waste Land” stating “April is the cruelest month” and though the rainy weather is far from...Forward