LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

For details regarding specific events please contact the organizers or venues. If you are an organizer or venue and would like to reach out to us please feel free to contact us or submit an event using our submission form. We’d love to hear from you!

A Poetry Reading by Fady Joudah

Lewis & Clark - Frank Manor House 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland

Fady Joudah has published four collections of poems, The Earth in the Attic, Alight, a book-long sequence of short poems composed on a cell phone, Textu, whose meter is cellphone character count; and, most recently, Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance. He has translated several collections of poetry from the Arabic. He was a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 2007 and has received a PEN Translation Award, a Banipal/Times Literary Supplement Prize from the UK, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Houston, with his wife and kids, where he practices internal medicine.

Free

Marc Janssen, Carolyn Martin, James Merrill

Multnomah County Library 2300 NW Thurman Street, Portland

Free Range Poetry presents Marc Janssen, Carolyn Martin, James Merrill Monday, April 1, 2019 Northwest Library 2300 NW Thurman Street Portland An open mic will precede featured poets. Open mic readers limited to two pages of material. Sign up for open mic at 5:45 pm. Reading 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm. Marc Janssen Marc Janssen is an internationally published poet and poetic activist. His work has appeared haphazardly in printed journals and anthologies such as Off the Coast, Cirque Journal, Penumbra, The Ottawa Arts Review and Manifest West. He also coordinates poetry events in the Willamette Valley of Oregon including the Salem Poetry Project, a weekly reading, and Salem Poetry Festival. Carolyn Martin From Assistant Professor of English to management trainer to retiree, Carolyn Martin…

Free

Dana Haynes

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton

Michael Patrick Finnigan is a New York cop and a US Marshal who figured out that following the rules doesn't always get the job done. Katalin Fiero Dahar is a soldier, spy, and assassin, who figured out that breaking the rules doesn't always get the job done. Together, they created St. Nicholas Salvage & Wrecking, a largely illegal bounty hunting operation working throughout Europe. Operating under the radar for the presiding judge of the International Criminal Court, they track down the worst of the world's worst. St. Nicholas Salvage and Wrecking (Blackstone) is the new thriller from Dana Haynes.

Free

Grief Rites Readers Series ~ April 1

American Legion Post 134 2104 NE Alberta St, Portland

A monthly storytelling showcase about grief, loss and love. Gather in community with others who share grief in all forms and manifestations. Come ready to cry, laugh, listen and hold space for yourself and others. *Trigger warning, because Grief. Content not edited for language or topic. Mature audience. *Venue is accessible; gender-neutral restrooms on premises Readings begin promptly at 7pm. Come early, grab a drink (full bar) and find your seat. Please consider bringing canned goods or cold weather clothing/blankets to donate to the Post 134 food & clothing pantry, which serves local veterans, houseless and anyone in need. ***This month's event will include an open mic, in addition to our curated readers. If you have words to share about your grief, we welcome you.***…

Free

That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland

Sunita Puri knew from a young age that the gulf between her parents’ experiences and her own was impossible to bridge, save for two elements: medicine and spirituality. Between days spent waiting for her mother, an anesthesiologist, to exit the OR, and evenings spent in conversation with her parents about their faith, Puri witnessed the tension between medicine’s impulse to preserve life at all costs and a spiritual embrace of life’s temporality. It was that tension that eventually drew Puri to palliative medicine. Interweaving stories of Puri’s family and the patients she cares for, That Good Night (Viking) is a meditation on impermanence and the role of medicine in helping us to live and die well.

Free

Marty McConnell w/Beth Marquez and Jenna Marie Fletcher

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland

Marty McConnell reads from her latest poetry collection, "when they say you can't go home again, what they mean is you were never there," joined by special guests Beth Marquez and Jenna Marie Fletcher! Praise for the book: If future generations want to know what it meant to live in the belly of the beast at this moment in history, they would do well to read the poems of Marty McConnell. These are poems that bear witness and much more: they explore a remarkable range of human experiences and emotional registers. There is fiery condemnation of injustice and jubilant praise of everyday pleasures; there are voices from the margins and voices of privilege that burn with searing honesty; there is fragmented language that mirrors the…

Free