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The Birth of Death (A Brief History of Dead Star)
Twenty years ago, on Halloween night in Los Angeles, the charismatic young film star River Phoenix died on a sidewalk outside of The Viper Room. It was a strange and shocking drug-fueled ending to an amazing young man’s life. I was about the same age as River and I had sincerely loved a couple of…
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LitCrawling in Seattle
I’ve been so busy lately that I can only pay attention to what’s coming up in the next 48 hours. But I am giving my calendar a look-over and I see that I should tell you about my upcoming trip to Seattle to do a LitCrawl reading. This next Thursday night, the 24th. After running…
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Best American LitHop Sink
The past week has been a little ramped up with action for me. Last Wednesday night, I ran around SE Hawthorne Boulevard running things around for the six-ring circus that was LitHop PDX. This is a crazy bar-hop reading that I’ll be co-producing at least once a year with Portland poets Jeff Alessandrelli and Bryan…
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David Lynch’s Hair (and new anthology!)
I think I saw Blue Velvet when I was about twenty. There was something about the quaint small town detective story mixed with the brutality that happens behind closed doors and the surreal ambiance of the cinematography that totally sucked me in. It was (and probably still is) unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Years later,…
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What the Heck Am I Doing?
Well, I was planning on laying low this summer, but after updating my Events page, I realize I am actually pretty dang busy. Go check it out. I’m also hosting an event with my fellow Future Tenser Bryan Coffelt on August 3rd at Colonel Summers Park. Outdoors! In the shade of trees! BYOB! The readers…
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Class of 2013
This weekend, B Frayn and I will be driving my son to Idaho for his summer job for Youthcorps. He recently graduated high school and will start going to community college in the fall. I can sense the father-son minutes ticking away. I recently wrote about this particular feeling for the Rumpus. Check it out…
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In the Shiny Red Chair
Wordstock, Portland’s huge yearly literary festival, recently announced that I’m their guest curator for this year’s festival (October 3rd-6th). I’ve always been a fan of the festival, so I’m excited to be a part of the planning process this time around. I’m working closely with an awesome duo there–Sara Guest and Jeff Alessandrelli–and we’ve already made…
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The Sweltry Recap of NY/BEA
I’m back from hot and sweaty New York! This past weekend I was there to attend Book Expo of America and to meet various booksellers and talk up my upcoming novel, This Is Between Us. I had a great time. Here are some pics… I saw a lot of friends at BEA. One of the…
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Horizontal News
Some sweet action coming up on the horizon… I’ll be going to New York at the end of the month to attend Book Expo of America, which is the big convention the publishing industry has every year. I’ve gone a few times before in the past, mostly as part of my Powell’s job as an…
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Kevin Sampsell 