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!

Premise Course: Why do we resist the commonness of humanity? Morrison’s Beloved and Bluest Eye

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Why do we resist the commonness of humanity? Morrison's Beloved and Bluest Eye (Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) In The Origin of Others, Toni Morrison wrote, “For the stranger is not foreign, she is random; not alien but remembered; and it is the randomness of the encounter with our already known—although unacknowledged—selves that summons a ripple of alarm. That makes us reject the figure…makes us want to own, govern, and administrate the Other. We deny her personhood.” Within Morrison’s novels, audiences are given front row seats to the exploration of a phenomenon she believed needed examined via language, images, and experiences. In this course, we will read and discuss “othering” as presented in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved. Is “othering” as inherent a…

$150

Writing with our Ancestors, with Chelsea Hicks

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

WHAT: A four-week generative online writing lab. WHEN: Begins Friday, September 10th, 2021. This class is hosted on our rich interactive online platform, WetInk. The class is broken into four weeks, and within those weeks you go at your own pace. In addition, Chelsea will host five weekly Zoom session on Fridays from 4-5pm PST. The final Zoom session will be a group reading/celebration. (Zoom dates: 9/10, 9/17, 9/24, 10/1, 10/8) ACCESS: While able to be purchased directly from this site at our standard rate of $350, this offering is available at a sliding scale rate to anyone who inquires. Please reach out to Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com. Payment plans are also available. In Chiapas and Oaxaca, writers center Indigenous literature with translation across languages,…

$350

Writing the Intersection of Our Identities: Tuesday nights

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Through autobiographical writing about our identities—including race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and class—we’ll explore where we hold power and privilege and where we have experienced marginalization and oppression. In addition to experimenting with craft techniques such as audience, point of view, research, dialogue, and figurative language, we’ll also discuss how to use our writing in service of reflection, healing, truth-telling, and culture change. By the end of the course, I hope you’ll emerge with several drafts, and that we’ll each emerge with a deeper understanding of what it means to have lived in our individual bodies. Access Program We want our Delves and writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some…

$240

Premise Course: How do we carry borders with us even as we cross them? Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera, Luiselli’s Tell Me How it Ends, Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Beautiful question: How do we carry borders with us even as we cross them? (Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) Texts: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera; Ana Castillo’s The Mixquiahuala Letters, and Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How it Ends Since its conception in 1848, the US-Mexico border has been a site of conflict, contradiction, and beauty. Although the border continues to feature heavily in our news and politics, it is often described through narratives of violence, national security, and human rights abuses.  In this course, we will delve into works that complicate these narratives by embracing the beauty and possibility of the borderlands. We will begin with Gloria Anzaldúa’s landmark work Borderlands/La Frontera, in which she describes the border as “una herida abierta,” an open wound,…

$200

Writing the Intersections of Our Identities: For BIPOC writers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Through autobiographical writing about our identities—including race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and class—we’ll explore where we hold power and privilege and where we have experienced marginalization and oppression. In addition to experimenting with craft techniques such as audience, point of view, research, dialogue, and figurative language, we’ll also discuss how to use our writing in service of reflection, healing, truth-telling, and culture change. By the end of the course, I hope you’ll emerge with several drafts, and that we’ll each emerge with a deeper understanding of what it means to have lived in our individual bodies. Please note there is also a section of this class that is open to all. This section is for BIPOC participants only. Access Program We want our Delves and writing…

$240

Build Your Own Publicity Plan

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Many authors shy away from self-promotion, but a strong public persona and publicity plan is one of the best investments you can make in your forthcoming book. This class takes the guesswork out of promotion and guides you to develop a sustainable plan, wherever you are in the publication process. We’ll cover timelines, target markets, tools, and industry expectations, as well as how to collaborate with your press, and when (or whether) to hire an outside publicist. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60%…

$195

Nine-Month Novel Intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels by authors including Han Kang, Tommy Orange, Lina Meruane, Mitchell S. Jackson, Deborah Levy, and Susan Steinberg, as well as craft essays by authors including Dorothy Allison, Jane Alison, and Alexander Chee. Some weeks you’ll have craft assignments to complete outside of class, and other weeks we’ll do in-class exercises together. After the first month of meetings, two students will workshop each week. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop five times, turning in up to 25 double-spaced pages per submission. Students should be prepared to read and comment on up to 50 pages…

$1450

Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Thursday

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels by authors including Han Kang, Tommy Orange, Lina Meruane, Mitchell S. Jackson, Deborah Levy, and Susan Steinberg, as well as craft essays by authors including Dorothy Allison, Jane Alison, and Alexander Chee. Some weeks you’ll have craft assignments to complete outside of class, and other weeks we’ll do in-class exercises together. After the first month of meetings, two students will workshop each week. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop five times, turning in up to 25 double-spaced pages per submission. Students should be prepared to read and comment on up to 50 pages…

$1450

Grief and the Lyric Essay

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Throughout history, writers have used lyrical techniques to access states of consciousness we associate with grief. Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. The goal of this course is to find entry into writing through reading, conversation,and various prompts and exercises to catalyze memory and thinking. We will consider how writers crafting stories and poetry about grief use lyricism, discursiveness, fragmentation, and silence to embody writing content through form. Participant should be prepared to write a lot! Prompts and exercises will allow students to access various parts of memory. In a short period of time, we will get to know one another and provide a sounding board for our stories in a safe space. We will also look at excerpts from…

$145

Writing with Herbs w/ Amanda Andrei

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

WHAT: A four-week generative online collaboration WHEN: Begins Saturday, September 18th, 2021—just in time for the autumnal equinox. This class is hosted on our rich interactive online platform, WetInk. The class is broken into four weeks, and within those weeks you go at your own pace. In addition, there will be two zoom meetings—one at the start of class on 9/18 and one at the close of class on 10/15. These meetings will occur from 12-130pm Pacific. ACCESS: You can buy a seat in this workshop at our standard rate of $350, but this offering is also available at a sliding scale to anyone who inquires. Please reach out to Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com. Payment plans are also available. Writing With Herbs Leaves, flowers, buds,…

$350