Join Oregon Humanities for Books! Books! Books! at Turn! Turn! Turn! 

We're celebrating the lead-up to Portland Book Festival with an early evening reading featuring authors and Oregon Humanities contributors Paul Susi, Lola Milholland, and Jessica E. Johnson, all of whom are publishing nonfiction books this year. Plus, we're throwing in a round of literary trivia with some special prizes up for grabs!

This is a free event. No RSVP or registration required. This event is organized in partnership with Literary Arts' Cover to Cover series. 

Paul Susi is a writer, a theater artist, an educator, a social services professional, and a community activist, born and raised in Portland, Oregon. The son of Filipino immigrants, Paul's writing has appeared in the Oregon Humanities Magazine, the Oregon Humanities Beyond the Margins series, the Sunny Pages, and the Regional Arts and Culture Council's Arts Notes, as well as other sites and publications. As an actor, he has appeared onstage with Salt and Sage Productions, NW Classical Theatre Collaborative, Anon it Moves / String House Productions, Portland Actors Ensemble / Shakespeare in the Parks, Profile Theater, Shaking the Tree Studios, NW Children's Theatre, Vermont Stage Company, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Island Stage Left, Boom Arts / Teatro Solo, and The Fig Tree Committee, with whom he is currently touring an adaptation of the Iliad to prisons in Oregon, Wisconsin, Vermont and Maine. A former homeless shelter manager, he currently works as a Peer Resource Navigator and a Community Health Educator for Portland Street Medicine. Chee Gong's Ghost Light is his first book, forthcoming from Perfect Day Publishing. 

Lola Milholland is a food-business owner and writer whose work has appeared in The Guardian, Time, Oprah Daily, and elsewhere. A former editor for Edible Portland magazine, she currently lives in Portland, Oregon, and runs Umi Organic, a noodle company with a commitment to providing nutritious public school lunch. Her debut book, Group Living and Other Recipes, was released in 2024 by Spiegel & Grau. 

Jessica E. Johnson is the author of the book-length poem Metabolics, the memoir Mettlework, and the chapbook In Absolutes We Seek Each Other. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Paris Review, Tin House, The New Republic, Poetry Northwest, River Teeth, DIAGRAM, The Southeast Review, and The Common, among others. She lives in Portland, Oregon and co-hosts the Constellation Reading Series.