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, 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 @ 9am (PT)
Join us for a special event with Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, global icon and the world's most famous living naturalist, as she discusses her new book, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times (Celadon). Dr. Goodall will be joined in conversation by celebrity wildlife veterinarian, Dr. Evan Antin, author of World Wild Vet: Encounters in the Animal Kingdom. The two will discuss one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. Drawing on decades of work that has helped expand our understanding of what it means to be human and what we all need to do to help build a better world, Jane will touch on vital questions, including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? What is the relationship between hope and action?
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of The Book of Hope ($28) entitles you to attend the virtual event with Dr. Goodall and Dr. Antin on Wednesday, October 20, at 9am (PT). After you’ve purchased the book, the publisher (Celadon Books/Macmillan) will register you for the Zoom event and send you an access code on the evening of October 19. To attend the virtual event, tickets must be purchased no later than 3pm (PT) on October 19.
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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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Thursday, October 21 @ 5pm (PT)
From the author of War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning and America: The Farewell Tour comes a haunting and powerfully moving book that gives voice to the poorest among us and lays bare the cruelty of a penal system that too often defines their lives. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has taught courses in drama, literature, philosophy, and history since 2013 in the college degree program offered by Rutgers University at East Jersey State Prison and other New Jersey prisons. In his first class at East Jersey State Prison, where students read and discussed plays by Amiri Baraka and August Wilson, among others, his class set out to write a play of their own. In writing the play, Caged, which would run for a month in 2018 to sold-out audiences at The Passage Theatre in Trenton, New Jersey, and later be published, students gave words to the grief and suffering they and their families have endured, as well as to their hopes and dreams. The class’s artistic and personal discovery, as well as transformation, is chronicled in heartbreaking detail in Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison (Simon & Schuster). Hedges’s new book gives a human face and a voice to those our society too often demonizes and abandons. It exposes the terrible crucible and injustice of America’s penal system and the struggle by those trapped within its embrace to live lives of dignity, meaning, and purpose. Hedges will be joined in conversation by Boris Franklin, community organizer with The Industrial Areas Foundation and one of the principal authors of the play, Caged.
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Monday, October 25 @ 6pm (PT)
In Yours Cruelly, Elvira (Hachette), the woman behind the icon known as Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the undisputed Queen of Halloween, reveals her full story, filled with intimate bombshells, told by the bombshell herself, Cassandra Peterson. Always original and sometimes outrageous, her story is loaded with twists, travails, revelry, and downright shocking experiences. It is the candid, often funny, and sometimes heartbreaking tale of a Midwest farm girl's long strange trip to become the world's sexiest, sassiest Halloween icon. Peterson will be joined in conversation by Evan Ross Katz, writer, fashion columnist, podcast host, and author of Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts.
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Yours Cruelly, Elvira ($29) entitles you to attend the virtual event with Peterson and her special guest on Monday, October 25, at 6pm (PT). This virtual event is presented in partnership with Peterson’s publisher, Hachette Books, and will take place on Hachette’s Crowdcast account. After you’ve purchased the book, we will register you for the Zoom event and send you an access code on the afternoon of October 25. To attend the virtual event, tickets must be purchased no later than 12pm (PT) on October 25.
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Tuesday, October 26 @ 5pm (PT)
Sorry Not Sorry (Dutton) is Alyssa Milano’s sharply observed, uproarious, and deeply intimate ode to the life she has lived and the issues that matter most. In her new book, the actress and activist delivers a collection of powerful personal essays that get to the heart of her life, career, and all-out humanitarianism. Milano’s essays are unvarnished and elegant, funny and heartbreaking, and utterly real. A timely book that shows in almost real time the importance of taking care of others, it also gives a gut-punch-level wake-up call in an era where the noise is a distraction from what really needs to happen, if we want to live in a better world. These are stories of growing up in celebrity, of family and of friends, of connections and breaking apart. They have teeth on the page and come from the heart. And they are stories that offer a direct line into the thoughts and life of one of the most visible, hard-working humanitarians we have. A bestselling children’s book author, here Milano’s finally giving her fans worldwide what they really want to hear directly from her about: the life she has lived, the things she’s seen and experienced, and the way she lives in and with the world. Milano will be joined in conversation by Charlotte Clymer, writer, transgender activist, communications consultant, and military veteran.
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Sorry Not Sorry ($28) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Milano and Clymer on Tuesday, October 26, at 5pm (PT). The first 600 ticket purchases will include an autographed copy of Milano’s Sorry Not Sorry. 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.
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Wednesday, October 27 @ 5pm (PT)
Remember all those ingrained habits, cherished ideas, beloved objects, and stubborn preferences from the pre-Internet age? They’re gone. To some of those things we can say good riddance. But many we miss terribly. Whatever our emotional response to this departed realm, we are faced with the fact that nearly every aspect of modern life now takes place in filtered, isolated corners of cyberspace — a space that has slowly subsumed our physical habitats, replacing or transforming the office, our local library, a favorite bar, the movie theater, and the coffee shop where people met one another’s gaze from across the room. Even as we’ve gained the ability to gather without leaving our house, many of the fundamentally human experiences that have sustained us have disappeared. In 100 glimpses of that pre-Internet world, Pamela Paul, editor of The New York Times Book Review, presents a captivating record, enlivened with illustrations, of the world before cyberspace — from voicemails to blind dates to punctuation to civility. There are the small losses: postcards, the blessings of an adolescence largely spared of documentation, the Rolodex, and the genuine surprises at high school reunions. But there are larger repercussions, too: weaker memories, the inability to entertain oneself, and the utter demolition of privacy. 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet (Crown) is at once an evocative swan song for a disappearing era and, perhaps, a guide to reclaiming just a little bit more of the world IRL. Paul will be joined in conversation by Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, novelist, and author of Homeland Elegies. This event is presented in partnership with Third Place Books.
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Tuesday, November 2 @ 5pm (PT)
Reproductive freedom has never been in more dire straits. Roe v. Wade protected abortion rights and Planned Parenthood v. Casey unexpectedly preserved them. Yet in the following decades these rights have been gutted by restrictive state legislation, the appointment of hundreds of anti-abortion judges, and violence against abortion providers. Today, the ultra-conservative majority at the Supreme Court has activists, medical providers, and everyday Americans worry that we are about to lose our most fundamental reproductive protections. When Roe is toppled, abortion may quickly become a criminal offense in nearly one-third of the United States. At least six states have enacted bans on abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy – before many women are even aware they are pregnant. Today, 89% of U.S. counties do not have a single abortion provider, in part due to escalating violence and intimidation aimed at disrupting services. In Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom (Hachette), legal titans Kathryn Kolbert and Julie F. Kay share the story of one of the most divisive issues in American politics through behind-the-scenes personal narratives of stunning losses, hard-earned victories, and moving accounts of women and health care providers at the heart of nearly five decades of legal battles. Kolbert and Kay will be joined in conversation by Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, board-certified OB-GYN and author of Let's Talk About Down There.
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Tuesday, November 2 @ 8pm (PT)
Don't call it a comeback: bestselling author Shea Serrano’s latest book, Hip-Hop (And Other Things) (Twelve), combines the smooth hipness of A Tribe Called Quest, the hellfire of DMX, the quirky brilliance of Missy Elliot, and the sheer, unstoppable flow of Jay-Z into one enlightened compendium of hip-hop greatness. It's a smart, fun, funny, insightful book that spends the entirety of its time celebrating what has become the most dominant form of music these past two and a half decades. Some of the chapters are serious, and some of the chapters are silly, and some of the chapters are a combination of both things. All of them, though, are treated with the care and respect that they deserve.
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Hip-Hop (And Other Things) ($27) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Serrano on Tuesday, November 2, at 8pm (PT). After you’ve purchased the book, the publisher (Twelve Books) will register you for the Crowdcast event and send you an email prior to the event containing a login link and instructions on how to access the event.
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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 9 @ 7pm (PT)
In her beautifully written and propulsive new memoir, Huma Abedin — Hillary Clinton’s famously private top aide and longtime advisor — emerges from the wings of American political history to take command of her own story. The daughter of Indian and Pakistani intellectuals and advocates, Abedin grew up in the United States and Saudi Arabia and traveled widely. Her relationship with Clinton has seen both women through extraordinary personal and professional highs, as well as unimaginable lows. Here, for the first time, is a deeply personal account of Clinton as mentor, confidante, and role model. Abedin’s memoir is also the candid and heartbreaking chronicle of her marriage to Anthony Weiner, what drew her to him, how much she wanted to believe in him, the devastation wrought by his betrayals — and their shared love for their son. Abedin’s journey through the opportunities and obstacles, the trials and triumphs, of a full and complex life is a testament to her profound belief that in an increasingly either/or world, she can be both/and. Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds (Scribner) grapples with family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, motherhood — and work — with wisdom, sophistication, and clarity. Abedin will be joined in conversation by Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things.
Please note: This is a ticketed event. Purchasing a copy of Both/And ($30) entitles you to attend our virtual event with Abedin and Strayed on Tuesday, November 9, at 7pm (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.
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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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Thursday, November 18 @ 5pm (PT)
Named for the anarchist utopia in Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction classic, The Dispossessed, Dispatches From Anarres (Forest Avenue Press) embodies the anarchic spirit of Le Guin’s hometown of Portland, Oregon, while paying tribute to her enduring vision. In stories that range from fantasy to sci-fi to realism, some of Portland's most vital voices have come together to celebrate Le Guin’s lasting legacy and influence on that most subversive of human faculties: the imagination. Editor Susan DeFreitas (Hot Season) will be joined by contributors Lidia Yuknavitch (Verge), Michelle Ruiz Keil (Summer in the City of Roses), David D. Levine (Arabella of Mars trilogy), Leni Zumas (Red Clocks), and Curtis C. Chen (the Kangaroo series).
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Monday, November 22 @ 5pm (PT)
For years, one country has acted as the greatest offshore haven in the world, attracting hundreds of billions of dollars in illicit finance tied directly to corrupt regimes, extremist networks, and the worst the world has to offer. But it hasn’t been the sand-splattered Caribbean islands, or even traditional financial secrecy havens like Switzerland or Panama, that have come to dominate the offshoring world. Instead, the country profiting the most also happens to be the one that still claims to be the moral leader of the free world, and the one that claims to be leading the fight against the crooked and the corrupt: the USA. Casey Michel’s American Kleptocracy (St. Martin’s) examines just how the United States’ implosion into a center of global offshoring took place: how states like Delaware and Nevada perfected the art of the anonymous shell company, and how the Obama administration gutted international efforts to fight massive money-laundering; how post-9/11 reforms brought a flood of illicit finance directly into the U.S., and how Nazi-era lobbyists birthed an entire industry of spin-men whitewashing transnational crooks and despots; how territories like Guam and Puerto Rico opened up their islands to as much offshore money as they could hold, and how everyone from Michael Jackson to The Fugees to The Wolf of Wall Street ended up involved. It also looks at how Trump’s presidency has accelerated all of the trends. Michel will be joined in conversation by Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman (U.S. Army, ret.), author of Here, Right Matters: An American Story.
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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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Thursday, December 2 @ 5pm (PT)
In Fonda Lee’s Jade Legacy (Orbit), the page-turning conclusion to the Green Bone Saga, the Kaul siblings battle rival clans for honor and control over an East Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis. Jade, the mysterious and magical substance once exclusive to the Green Bone warriors of Kekon, is now coveted throughout the world. Everyone wants access to the supernatural abilities it provides, from traditional forces such as governments, mercenaries, and criminal kingpins, to modern players, including doctors, athletes, and movie studios. As the struggle over the control of jade grows ever larger and more deadly, the Kaul family, and the ancient ways of the Kekonese Green Bones, will never be the same. Battered by war and tragedy, the Kauls are plagued by resentments and old wounds as their adversaries are on the ascent and their country is riven by dangerous factions and foreign interference. The clan must discern allies from enemies, set aside bloody rivalries, and make terrible sacrifices… but even the unbreakable bonds of blood and loyalty may not be enough to ensure the survival of the Green Bone clans and the nation they are sworn to protect. Lee will be joined in conversation by Sarah Gailey, Hugo Award-winning author of Magic for Liars and The Echo Wife.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How do I attend a Powell’s virtual event?
You’ll be able to access our virtual event programming via your home computer, laptop, tablet, mobile phone, or other Internet-ready device. If you’re new to Zoom, please visit their Getting Started guide.
Are Powell’s virtual events free to attend?
As with our prior in-store programming, nearly all of our events are free to attend. On occasion, we will host a special event for which tickets or a book purchase are required for virtual admission — but details will be shared for those specific events separately.
How do I buy an event author’s new book?
Each event listing will include a link to purchase a copy of an author’s new book. A purchase link will be shared by us during the event itself, as well. Purchasing a copy of an author’s new book helps support both the author and Powell’s event programming.
Will I be able to get my book signed?
Unfortunately, we’re not able to offer signed editions or personalizations at this time. In some cases, signed bookplates will be available on a limited first come, first served basis.
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