TICKETS $25

Doors 6:30 p.m.; Event 7 p.m.
Select Showtime to Purchase Tickets

Click here to learn more about accessibility at the Tomorrow Theater. 

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THE EXPERIENCE

Join acclaimed Portland author and screenwriter Jon Raymond, poet and essayist Lisa Wells, and author and creative writing professor Leni Zumas for a evening of readings from their acclaimed published works including Raymond’s new book God and Sex—a candid, deeply considered exploration of desire, morality, and the human search for meaning, Wells’s new book The Fire Passage—a lyric descent in the epic tradition, traveling unto realms unmoored by extreme weather and mysterious illness, and Zumas’s Wolf Bells—a biting, lyrical novel about an intergenerational group home run by an ex-musician. 

Following the discussion, we’ll screen the 2025 Belinale Golden Bear Award winning film Dreams (Sex Love), a poignant and sharply observed drama from Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud. In the film, Johanne, a teenager experiencing her first love—with her teacher—pours her feelings into writing. When her mother and grandmother stumble upon her intimate reflections, their shock soon turns into intrigue about the work’s literary merit. As the three women navigate love, sexuality, and self-discovery across generations, the story unfolds with humor, compassion, and complexity.

Bookstore Selected Stories will be on hand with books by each other for purchase prior to the event.

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ON SCREEN: Dreams (Sex Love)

2024. Directed by Dag Johan Haugerud. Runtime: 110 minutes. Language: Norwegian

Johanne falls in love for the first time, with her teacher. To preserve her feelings, she documents her emotions and experiences in writing. When her mother and grandmother read what she has written, the are initially shocked by its intimate content but soon see that it has literary potential. As they debate whether to publish it, Johanne navigates the gap between her romantic fantasy and reality, and all three women confront their differing views on love, sexuality, and self-discovery.

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ON STAGE: Jon Raymond & Lisa Wells

 

Jon Raymond

Jon Raymond is the author of the books The Half-Life, Livability, Rain Dragon, Freebird, Denial, and God and Sex. He also published a collection of art writing called The Community: Writings About Art In and Around Portland, 1997 – 2016. His screenwriting credits include Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek’s Cutoff, Night Moves, First Cow, and Showing Up, as well as the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce. He lives a few blocks from the Tomorrow Theater with his partner, the writer Emily Chenoweth, and their kids, Eliza and Josephine.

 

 

Lisa Wells

Lisa Wells is the author, most recently, of The Fire Passage (2025), winner of the Levis Poetry Prize; and Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World (2021) a finalist for the PEN E.O.  Award. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, Granta, The Believer, Harper’s,  and collected in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Food and Travel Writing. She lives in Portland.

 

Leni Zumas

Leni Zumas is the author of four books of fiction, most recently the novel Wolf Bells. She’s a professor of creative writing at Portland State University.