Vancouver

Join the Columbia Writers Series for a reading and conversation with the novelist, journalist, and editor Ed Park. Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams and Personal Days, and the short story collection An Oral History of Atlantis (2025). He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Hemingway Award, and other honors, and has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Asian Pacific American Award for Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, and many other places. He is a founding editor of The Believer and was executive editor at Penguin Press. He teaches creative writing at Princeton.

A concise program of staged readings explores what it means to be lost. The lineup includes Words, Words, Words, which turns the classic idea of monkeys at typewriters into a lively exchange among the primates themselves. Sure Thing follows two people in a café as an offstage bell resets their missteps, clearing the path toward a genuine connection. The Items Forgotten centers on spouses Kira and Travis, locked out yet again on a freezing night, whose search for a spare key prompts doubts about memory and marriage. Alfred and Lily and Their Marvelous Tank in the Forest follows two pond dwellers moved to a strange tank by unseen caretakers. Lily embraces the change, while Alfred notices the water receding and neighbors vanishing, raising unsettling questions. Written by David Ives and Tara Meddaugh and directed by Dylan Sladky, this PG-13 program runs about 30 minutes. The venue is open to the public, and donations are welcome but optional. Presented as part of a First Friday performance series.

Welcome to Metropolitan Performing Arts, Southwest Washington’s home for theatre education and community theatre. We offer expert training for kids, teens, and adults in acting, dancing, music, and theatre tech. Our professional theatre productions feature top talent from the Vancouver-Portland metro area. Join us for a class, audition for a show, or come experience the thrill of live theatre!

Staged readings from:

Words Words Words

Sure Thing

The Items Forgotten

Alfred & Lily and Their Marvelous Tank in the Forest

The next Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic features Raúl Sánchez, 7 p.m. Nov. 12 at Art at the Cave. Admission is a suggested donation of $5, but no one will be turned away. Sánchez, Redmond’s poet laureate from 2019-2021, is the author of three poetry collections, including “When We Were Water.” Guests are also invited to read their own original poetry. Learn more at printedmattervancouver.com.

Join us for a Poetry Open Mic! Read original work, share your favorite poem, or sit back and enjoy a night of poetry.

Readers must be 13 or older, but all ages are welcome to listen. Content must be suitable for families (i.e. no profanity, sexual content, etc.).

Sign-up starts 30 minutes before the event outside the Columbia Room. Each reader will have a 5-minute time slot, and are welcome to read multiple poems as long as they fit into the time limit.