There’s a short Q&A up on Hugo House’s website with David Wagoner, the poet, novelist, and writer-in-residence who’s presenting new work in the next event in the Hugo Literary Series, “Love Is the Drug,” on Feb 15. (Either my browser is acting up or you actually have to scroll right and left to read the thing.) Also on the bill that night: the writers Rick Moody and Monica Drake and the Portland band Eux Autres.

The Hugo Literary Series is Hugo House’s new way of commissioning original work from writers they like. A good idea. And it sounds like a good bill.

DIGRESSION: Is there something about Hugo House’s longstanding tradition of theme-ing everything that makes you wince? Is it starting to seem a little forced? Here’s a paragraph from the website’s description of the “Love Is a Drug” theme:

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?

Maybe the problem isn’t the theme. Maybe that’s just a bad paragraph.