Love is the Drug

"Love is the Drug"

According to the Bible, "love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things."

According to Lynda Barry, "love is an exploding cigar we willingly smoke."

Whatever it is, love is certainly something we spend a good part of our lives trying to get. But why? Do we have a chemical dependence on love? Is it good for us, like vitamin C, or is it more like a cigar smoker's nicotine habit that needs a periodic fix? Is love a cure, or does it require one?

Friday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m.
3 Brand New Works on our theme from

David Wagoner is the author of 10 novels, including "The Escape Artist" (1965), which was adapted into a movie by Francis Ford Coppola. Wagoner is also the author of numerous poetry collections. His "Collected Poems, 1956-1976" was nominated for the National Book Award in 1977.
Read our interview with David Wagoner here.

Rick Moody's first novel, "Garden State," was the winner of the 1991 Editor's Choice Award from the Pushcart Press and was published in 1992. "The Ice Storm" was published in May 1994 by Little, Brown & Co. Foreign editions have been published in 20 countries, and a film version, directed by Ang Lee, was released by Fox Searchlight in 1997. His newest book is "Right Livelihoods."
Read our interview with Rick Moody here.

Monica Drake's debut novel, "Clown Girl," was published by Hawthorne Books. She is a contributor of reviews and articles to The Oregonian, The Stranger and the Portland Mercury; her fiction has appeared in the Beloit Fiction Review, Threepenny Review, The Insomniac Reader and others. She teaches at the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Read our interview with Monica Drake here.

Music by Eux Autres, the Omaha-born, Portland-based duo, channels '60s French pop and gives it a unique sensibility. The brother/sister duo, Heather and Nicholas Larimer, share lead vocals, with Heather on drums and Nicholas on guitar. The Larimers' music favors melody, with compelling vocals in call and response. These vocal textures are underscored by lyrics that manage to be clever without being precious, treating subjects that range from Spanish imperialism to romantic angst, French politics to soccer.

Saturday, Feb. 16

10:30 a.m. "What Is This Thing?"
A Conversation between Lyall Bush and David Wagoner
Is it about philtres ("Tristan and Isolde"), the pleasure of webs ("Astrophel and Stella"), a hunk of something (Elvis), a star to every wand'ring bark (Shakespeare), vomiting in the flowers (Bukowski), the invisible worm (Blake), something about Lucy (Desi's, Wordsworth's), something about Mary, something about Caddie, Anna, Mrs. Bovary? What is it? Lyall Bush asks the great poet about this thing called love.

1-4 p.m. The Craft of Revision
A Hugo Writing Class with Rick Moody
We will look at our work and contemplate ways to strengthen and improve at the level of the sentence and the paragraph, or, for poets, the level of the line and the stanza.

1-4 p.m. Finding the "Lie That Tells the Truth Truer"
A Hugo Writing Class with Monica Drake
We'll identify key moments of personal experience and mine the intersection of facts and fiction. We may find ourselves in surprisingly new, yet emotionally deeply familiar, personal terrain.

October 12-13, 2007 "Lost in Translation"

November 16-17, 2007 "We Could Be Heroes"