Powell’s is excited to offer virtual events featuring authors from around the world. We’re using Zoom Webinar as our virtual event platform (as it comes with enhanced security features).
Missed an event? Watch past virtual events on our YouTube channel.
Questions about how to attend our virtual events? Click here for our FAQ.
Monday, September 27 @ 5pm (PT)
For the past four years, Margaret Renkl’s columns have offered readers of The New York Times a weekly dose of natural beauty, human decency, and persistent hope from her home in Nashville. Now more than 60 of those pieces have been brought together in a sparkling new collection from the author of Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss. “People have often asked me how it feels to be the ‘voice of the South,’” writes Renkl in her introduction. “But I’m not the voice of the South, and no one else is, either.” There are many Souths — red and blue, rural and urban, mountain and coast, Black and white and brown — and no one writer could possibly represent all of them. In Graceland, At Last (Milkweed), Renkl writes instead from her own experience about the complexities of her homeland, demonstrating along the way how much more there is to this tangled region than many people understand. In a patchwork quilt of personal and reported essays, Renkl also highlights some other voices of the South, people who are fighting for a better future for the region. A group of teenagers who organized a youth march for Black Lives Matter. An urban shepherd whose sheep remove invasive vegetation. Church parishioners sheltering the homeless. Throughout, readers will find the generosity of spirit and deep attention to the world, human and nonhuman, that keep readers returning to Renkl’s columns each Monday morning. Renkl will be joined in conversation by Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink.
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Tuesday, September 28 @ 6pm (PT)
Pastor John Mark Comer, the bestselling author of The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, wants you to know that whether you want to be or not, you are at war. Not with foreign assailants or domestic terrorists. No, this is the sort of war you experience deep in your mind and body. It’s a war with the forces that seek to wreak havoc in your hearts and homes through subtle deceptions. For two millennia, apprentices of Jesus have been at war with three fierce and consistent adversaries of the soul: the world, the flesh, and the devil. To this day, they feed us deceptive ideas that appeal to disordered desires that harm our spiritual and relational well-being. In his new book, Live No Lies (WaterBrook), Comer parses out the tactics, strengths, and weaknesses of these enemies, giving you a clear battle plan and spiritual practices to outwit and overcome these seemingly ancient, yet very-much-alive adversaries. That tug-of-war in your chest for wholeness? Those lies that sabotage your peace? It’s time to identify them, and defeat them. Comer equips readers to recognize the lies and resist the forces that seek to steal their happiness, wholeness, and holiness. Comer will be joined in conversation by Tyler Staton, Lead Pastor of Bridgetown Church.
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Wednesday, September 29 @ 5pm (PT)
An intimate story of brotherhood, love, sacrifice, and betrayal set against the panoramic backdrop of an early 20th-century America that eerily echoes our own time, Jess Walter’s The Cold Millions (Harper Perennial) offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, between harsh realities and simple dreams. The Dolans live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While 16-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. Enter Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar and introduces the brothers to a far more dangerous creature: a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula. Dubious of Gig's idealism, Rye finds himself drawn to a fearless 19-year-old activist and feminist named Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all, and Rye will be forced to decide where he stands. Is it enough to win the occasional battle, even if you cannot win the war? Featuring an unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers, The Cold Millions is a tour de force from a "writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors" (Boston Globe). Walter will be joined in conversation by Amor Towles, author of Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow.
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Thursday, September 30 @ 5pm (PT)
From Hunter Shobe and David Banis, the team that brought you Portlandness, comes Upper Left Cities (Sasquatch), a new book which compares and contrasts San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle through 150 innovative infographic maps that blend traditional cartography with modern graphic design. Upper Left Cities goes into uncharted territory to create a narrative about three great cities through informative and detailed infographic maps, exploring and comparing wildlife and city trails, voting records, commutes, marathon routes, food and drink patterns, and more. The result is a perfect blend of form and function, with each map meticulously and ingeniously designed.
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Friday, October 1 @ 5pm (PT)
In Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid (Basic), beloved natural historian and biologist Thor Hanson — author of Buzz, The Triumph of Seeds, and Feathers — tells the remarkable story of how plants and animals are responding to climate change: adjusting, evolving, and sometimes dying out. Anole lizards have grown larger toe pads, to grip more tightly in frequent hurricanes. Warm waters have caused the development of Humboldt squid to alter so dramatically that fishermen mistake them for different species. Brown pelicans move north, and long-spined sea urchins south, to find cooler homes. And when coral reefs sicken, they leave no territory worth fighting for, so aggressive butterfly fish transform instantly into pacifists. A story of hope, resilience, and risk, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid is natural history for readers of Bernd Heinrich, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and David George Haskell. It is also a reminder of how unpredictable climate change is as it interacts with the messy lattice of life.
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Monday, October 4 @ 5pm (PT)
From Miriam Toews, bestselling author of Women Talking and All My Puny Sorrows, comes a compassionate, darkly humorous, and deeply human new novel about three generations of women. When Swiv is temporarily kicked out of school, her grandma gives her an assignment to write a letter to her absent father. Swiv’s assignment to Grandma is to write a letter to Gord, her unborn grandchild and Swiv’s brother or sister. “You are a small thing,” Grandma writes to Gord, “but you must learn to fight.” Grandma has been fighting all her life: from her upbringing in a strictly religious community, ruled over by the odious Will Braun, she has fought the people who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit; she has fought to protect her family, and she has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. Swiv’s mother, too, is fighting “on every front,” as Grandma puts it, “Internally. Externally.” Fight Night (Bloomsbury) is a love letter to the mothers and grandmothers who have raised us, and to all the women who know what it costs to live in this world, but who are still finding a way — painfully, ferociously — to live on their own terms. Toews will be joined in conversation by Laura van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel and I Hold a Wolf by the Ears.
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Tuesday, October 5 @ 5pm (PT)
In 2011, Laura Moulton founded Street Books, a mobile library serving people living outside in Portland, Oregon. That summer, Ben Hodgson became one of her most dedicated regulars, setting the still-unbroken single season record for borrowing. Then Ben's routines changed, and he didn’t cross paths again with Laura for almost two years. Loaners: The Making of a Street Library (Perfect Day) is the story they began to tell when they reconnected, offering a street-level perspective of a community whose stories are seldom told, alternating between their two unforgettable points of view in this addictively readable, occasionally sublime memoir. Hodgson and Moulton will be joined in conversation by Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise and American War.
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Wednesday, October 6 @ 5pm (PT)
From Bram Stoker-nominated Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous Dead, comes The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s), a new gothic fantasy horror novel. Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man — one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to. Set in a dark-mirror version of post-war England, Starling crafts a new kind of gothic horror from the bones of the beloved canon. This Crimson Peak-inspired story assembles, then upends, every expectation set in place by Shirley Jackson and Rebecca, and will leave readers shaken, desperate to begin again as soon as they are finished. Starling will be joined in conversation by Wendy N. Wagner, editor of Nightmare magazine and author of An Oath of Dogs.
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Monday, October 11 @ 5pm (PT)
Susan Orlean — the beloved New Yorker staff writer hailed as “a national treasure” by The Washington Post and author of The Library Book and The Orchid Thief — gathers a lifetime of musings, meditations, and in-depth profiles about animals. “How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,” writes Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she’s been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster), she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career. These stories consider a range of creatures — the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean’s stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence. Orlean will be joined in conversation by Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion.
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Tuesday, October 12 @ 6pm (PT)
Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), the first novel in his new magnum opus trilogy, A Key to All Mythologies. It’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless — unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. With characteristic humor and complexity, and with even greater warmth, Franzen conjures a world that resonates powerfully with our own. A tour de force of interwoven perspectives and sustained suspense, its action largely unfolding on a single winter day, Crossroads is the story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis. Franzen will be joined in conversation by Maria Semple, author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette.
This event is presented in partnership with Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane), The Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle), Roundabout Books (Bend), Third Place Books (Seattle), and Village Books (Bellingham).
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Crossroads ($30) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Franzen and Semple on Tuesday, October 12, at 6pm (PT). After you’ve purchased the book, we will automatically register you for the Zoom event — and will send you a confirmation email two days prior to the event containing a Zoom link to the event and instructions on how to access it.
Buy the Book-Inclusive Event Ticket
Wednesday, October 13 @ 5pm (PT)
Child of Light (Del Rey) is the electrifying first novel of an all-new fantasy series from the legendary author behind the Shannara saga, about a human girl struggling to find her place in a magical world she’s never known. At 19, Auris Afton Grieg has led an… unusual life. Since the age of 15, she has been trapped in a sinister prison. Why? She does not know. She has no memories of her past beyond the vaguest of impressions. All she knows is that she is about to age out of the children’s prison, and rumors say that the adult version is far, far worse. So she and some friends stage a desperate escape into the surrounding wastelands. And it is there that Auris’s journey of discovery begins, for she is rescued by an unusual stranger who claims to be Fae — a member of a magical race that Auris had thought to be no more than legend. Odder still, he seems to think that she is Fae as well, although the two look nothing alike. But strangest of all, when he brings her to his wondrous homeland, she begins to suspect that he is right. Yet how could a woman who looks entirely human be a magical being herself? Told with a fresh, energetic voice, this fantasy puzzle box is perfect for longtime fans of Terry Brooks and new readers alike, as one young woman slowly unlocks truths about herself and her world — and, in doing so, begins to heal both. Brooks will be joined in conversation by Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Queens of Renthia series.
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Thursday, October 14 @ 6pm (PT)
Wonder is around every corner, and on every plate. The curious minds behind Atlas Obscura now turn to the hidden curiosities of food, which becomes a gateway to fascinating stories about human history, science, art, and tradition — like the first book, all organized by country, lavishly illustrated, and full of surprises. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura (Workman) by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history (trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories), culture (picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding), travel (scale China’s sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house), festivals (feed wild macaques at Thailand’s Monkey Buffet Festival), and hidden gems that might be right around the corner (like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full-sized pecan pies). Gastro Obscura coauthor Cecily Wong joins us to help you dig in and feed your sense of wonder! Wong will be joined in conversation by Liz Crain, author of Food Lover's Guide to Portland and Dumplings Equal Love.
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Monday, October 18 @ 6pm (PT)
The door to magic is closed, but it’s not locked. And now Joshua Jay, one of the world’s most accomplished magicians, not only opens that door but brings us inside to reveal the artistry and obsessiveness, esoteric history, and long-whispered-about traditions of a subject shrouded in mystery. And he goes one step further: Jay brings us right into the mind of a magician — how they develop their otherworldly skills, conjure up illusions, and leave the rest of us slack-jawed with delight time after time. Along the way, Jay reveals another kind of secret, one all readers will find meaningful even if they never aspire to perform sleight of hand: What does it take to follow your heart and achieve excellence? In 52 short, compulsively readable essays, Jay’s How Magicians Think: Misdirection, Deception, and Why Magic Matters (Workman) describes how he does it, whether it’s through the making of illusions, the psychology behind them, or the way technology influences the world of magic. He considers the aesthetics of performance, discusses contemporary masters, including David Copperfield, Penn & Teller, and David Blaine, and details how magicians hone their craft. And answers questions like: Can a magic trick be too good? How do you saw a person in half? Is there real magic in the universe? The answers, like so much in magic and life, depend on you. Jay will be joined in conversation by Joe Posnanski, author of The Baseball 100.
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Tuesday, October 19 @ 6pm (PT)
Sallie Tisdale, author of the acclaimed Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them) brings “her singular sensibility, her genius for language, her love of our deeply imperfect world” (Karen Karbo) to The Lie About the Truck: Survivor, Reality TV, and the Endless Gaze (Gallery), an insightful exploration of reality TV and the shifting definitions of truth in America. What is the truth? In a world of fake news and rampant conspiracy theories, the nature of truth has increasingly blurry borders. In her clever and timely cultural commentary, Tisdale tackles this issue by framing it in a familiar way — reality TV, particularly the long-running CBS show Survivor. With humor and in-depth superfan analysis, Tisdale explores the distinction between suspended disbelief and true authenticity, both in how we watch shows like Survivor and in how we perceive the world around us. With her “bold and wise, galvanizing and grounding” (Chloe Caldwell) writing, Tisdale has created an unputdownable, thoroughly entertaining, and groundbreaking book that we will be talking about for years to come. Tisdale will be joined in conversation by Bernard Cooper, author of My Avant-Garde Education.
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Wednesday, October 20 @ 5pm (PT)
An exploration of NYC and America in the burgeoning moments before the start of the Civil War through the eyes of a young, biracial girl, Moon and the Mars (Seven Stories) is the highly anticipated new novel from Kia Corthron, winner of the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize. Set in the impoverished Five Points district of New York City in the years 1857-1863, we experience neighborhood life through the eyes of Theo from childhood to adolescence, an orphan living between the homes of her Black and Irish grandmothers. Throughout her formative years, Theo witnesses everything from the creation of tap dance to P. T. Barnum’s sensationalist museum to the draft riots that tear NYC asunder, amidst the daily maelstrom of Five Points work, hardship, and camaraderie. Meanwhile, white America’s attitudes towards people of color and slavery are shifting — painfully, transformationally — as the nation divides and marches to war. As with her first novel, The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter, Corthron’s use of dialogue brings her characters to life in a way that only an award-winning playwright and scriptwriter can do. As Theo grows and attends school, her language and grammar change, as does her own vocabulary when she’s with her Black or Irish families. It’s an extraordinary feat and a revelation for the reader. Corthron will be joined in conversation by Robin D. G. Kelley, Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in American History at UCLA, and author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original and Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination.
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Wednesday, November 3 @ 5pm (PT)
Whether in political debates or discussions about immigration around the kitchen table, many Americans, regardless of party affiliation, will say proudly that we are a nation of immigrants. In her bold new book, Not "A Nation of Immigrants" (Beacon), historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz asserts this ideology is harmful and dishonest because it serves to mask and diminish the U.S.’s history of settler colonialism, genocide, white supremacy, slavery, and structural inequality, all of which we still grapple with today. She explains that the idea that we are living in a land of opportunity — founded and built by immigrants — was a convenient response by the ruling class and its brain trust to the 1960s demands for decolonialization, justice, reparations, and social equality. Moreover, Dunbar-Ortiz charges that this feel good — but inaccurate — story promotes a benign narrative of progress, obscuring that the country was founded in violence as a settler state, and imperialist since its inception. This paradigm shifting new book from the acclaimed author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States charges that we need to stop believing and perpetuating this simplistic and ahistorical idea and embrace the real (and often horrific) history of the United States. Dunbar-Ortiz will be joined in conversation by Reece Jones, author of White Borders: The History of Race and Immigration in the United States From Chinese Exclusion to the Border Wall.
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Tuesday, November 16 @ 5pm (PT)
Madam (Doubleday) — the new book from Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America — is the compulsively readable and sometimes jaw-dropping story of the life of a notorious madam who played hostess to every gangster, politician, writer, sports star, and Cafe Society swell worth knowing, and who as much as any single figure helped make the twenties roar. Simply put: Everybody came to Polly’s. Pearl “Polly” Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld — and had a good time doing it. As a Jewish immigrant from eastern Europe, Polly Adler’s life is a classic American story of success and assimilation that starts like a novel by Henry Roth and then turns into a glittering real-life tale straight out of F. Scott Fitzgerald. She declared her ambition to be “the best goddam madam in all America” and succeeded wildly. Applegate uses Polly’s story as the key to unpacking just what made the 1920s the appallingly corrupt yet glamorous and transformational era that it was and how the collision between high and low is the unique ingredient that fuels American culture. Applegate will be joined in conversation by Abbott Kahler, author (as Karen Abbott) of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy and The Ghosts of Eden Park.
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Tuesday, November 30 @ 5pm (PT)
For the past two decades, James Beard Award winner, fermentation expert, and bestselling author Sandor Ellix Katz has traveled the world, both teaching and learning about the many fascinating and delicious techniques for fermenting foods. Wherever he's gone, he has gleaned valuable insights into the cultures and traditions of local and Indigenous peoples, whether they make familiar ferments like sauerkraut or less common preparations like natto and koji. In his latest book, Sandor Katz's Fermentation Journeys (Chelsea Green), Katz takes readers along with him to revisit these special places, people, and foods. Katz’s new cookbook reminds us that the magical power of fermentation belongs to everyone, everywhere. Perfect for adventurous foodies, armchair travelers, and fermentation fanatics who have followed Katz's work through the years — from Wild Fermentation to The Art of Fermentation to Fermentation as Metaphor — this book reflects the enduring passion and accumulated wisdom of this unique man, who is arguably the world's most experienced and respected advocate of all things fermented. Katz will be joined in conversation by Liz Crain, author of Dumplings Equal Love and Food Lover's Guide to Portland.
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