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!

Matthew Clark Davison in Conversation With T Kira Mahealani Madden

Online N/A, Portland

Matthew Clark Davison’s Doubting Thomas (Amble Press) chronicles a challenging and disruptive year in the life of a young, gay teacher in the waning years of Obama’s America. Thomas McGurrin is a fourth-grade teacher and openly gay man at a private primary school serving Portland, Oregon's wealthy progressive elite when he is falsely accused of inappropriately touching a male student. The accusation comes just as Thomas is thrust back into the center of his unusual family by his younger brother's battle with cancer. Although cleared of the accusation, Thomas is forced to resign from a job he loves during a potentially life-changing family drama. Davison's novel explores the discrepancy between the progressive ideals and persistent negative stereotypes among the privileged regarding social status, race, and…

Free

This Is Not for You: An Activist’s Journey of Resistance and Resiliance, by Richard Brown, with Brian Benson

Online N/A, Portland

This Is Not For You, published by Oregon State University Press, tells the story of activist and photographer Richard Brown, a Black Portlander who has spent decades working to bridge the divide between police and the Black community. We are excited to welcome Richard Brown to our virtual stage on Wednesday, June 16th, at 6 pm, to discuss his book, which he wrote with Portland author Brian Benson. The two authors will be in conversation with our very own Eloise Doubleday. As Mr. Brown approaches his eightieth birthday, he recalls his childhood in 1940s Harlem, his radicalization in the newly desegregated Air Force, and his decades of activism in one of America's whitest cities. He questions how much longer he'll do this work, and he…

Free