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!

Classes & Seminars

  1. Events
  2. Classes & Seminars

Events Search and Views Navigation

Event Views Navigation

Today

Nature Writing Now: Intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

What does it mean to write about nature now? We are living at a time of great ecological peril and promise, when some thinkers are questioning whether “nature” even exists. How to write about this complexity in authentic and evocative ways? How to convey both the beauty and the corruption of beauty? Together, we will consider some historical and contemporary nature writing in order to learn how the genre has changed over time alongside our cultural conceptions of self and nature. Contemporary nature writing often reflects complex social and political realities, while also reminding us of the abiding depth of feeling created by, for instance, placing one’s hand on a tree trunk and pausing to simply feel. In this course, your writing will be informed…

Continue readingNature Writing Now: Intensive
$485

Premise Conversation Course: How will the pandemic change us and our world? Camus’ The Plague

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

How will the pandemic change us and our world? Camus’ The Plague (Learn about what a Premise class is like here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq ) Many of us have described the past year as apocalyptic. We’ve been living through a global pandemic, a critical presidential election, destructive wildfires, and a national reckoning with our country’s legacy of racism and police violence. Literature and philosophy can help us make sense of our experiences and ask questions about our future. In this class, we’ll read works set during pandemics. We will start with Albert Camus’ existential novel The Plague and look deeply at themes of isolation, loneliness, and fate. Together, we’ll use The Plague to dig into the ways the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives and discuss relevant…

Continue readingPremise Conversation Course: How will the pandemic change us and our world? Camus’ The Plague
$35

Premise Course: How can we judge something’s value? Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

(Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) We love to make value judgments: we argue about the quality of a TV show, the morality of a politician, the appropriateness of a tweet. Rameau’s Nephew, the secret classic by encyclopedic master of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot, is an incisive and honest consideration of how we might judge something as beautiful or good in the modern world. This whirlwind of a dialogue moves from music to virtue and education, crime, money, and on and on. Diderot presents himself as a thoughtful and upright intellectual, unconvinced by religion, supporting the latest science, and open to reforming society on new principles. But the real star of the show is Rameau (nephew of the famous composer also named Rameau) whose…

Continue readingPremise Course: How can we judge something’s value? Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew
$35

Nine-Month Memoir Intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class begins in September, with the goal of finishing a complete draft of a memoir by June. Participants do not need to be published writers; however, they should have some experience with elements of memoir, including character, setting, dialogue and scene, and have a clear project in mind that they will devote nine months to. They should also be comfortable in a workshop setting, giving and receiving criticism on works in progress. Download syllabus here. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org with questions. 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…

Continue readingNine-Month Memoir Intensive
$1450

FALL :: A Generative Creative Lab :: Exhausting Metaphor

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Collaboration Leader: Domi Shoemaker, alongside weekly videos featuring Domi and Lidia Yuknavitch in conversation When: Begins September 26th Where: Videos are hosted on our site—you’ll receive a link to one each week on Sundays, and then have access to them always. Domi will host a Zoom meeting every Thursday from 5:30-7:30PM PST. September 30th, October 7th, October 14th & October 21st. Cost: $250—payment plans are available. Please contact Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com. Scholarships are also available—Apply Here. Six years ago (!!!) Corporeal Writing hosted its first ever seasonal lab—and we started with Fall. It’s an exciting time for us all as we cozy back into this beautiful season ripe with metaphors. Color. Changes in light, leaves, life. Meditation. Observation. In this generative lab we will develop…

Continue readingFALL :: A Generative Creative Lab :: Exhausting Metaphor
$250

Premise Course: What is heroism? Do we all have it within us? Sophocles’ Ajax

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

What is heroism? Do we all have it within us? Sophocles’ Ajax (Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) Sophocles’ Ajax is a tragedy that unpacks the shame and death of Ajax, a Greek warrior who had won fame for his bravery during the Trojan War. The play moves through a series of reversals: old allies become enemies, honor becomes disgrace, and divine power becomes temporal authority. Together, we will wonder about and explore the concept of heroism. Who has it? Why? Does it come from within or from our circumstances and environment? We will explore the complexities of heroism through the story of Ajax. Why does he kill himself? Is Ajax a hero or just an ordinary human with a predilection for trying to find…

Continue readingPremise Course: What is heroism? Do we all have it within us? Sophocles’ Ajax
$40

Delve Readers Seminar: Hilary Mantel: Beyond the Booker

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Hilary Mantel is best known for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, the first two volumes of which (Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies) won the Booker Prize (in 2009 and 2012). The third and final volume, The Mirror and the Light, was published to acclaim in 2020. These books are modern masterpieces, yet Mantel’s earlier novels are equally worthy of attention and admiration. Mantel’s books are so original, and so different from one another, that it’s often difficult to believe they were written by the same novelist. In this seminar, we will read two of Mantel’s novels and her memoir. Beyond Black is the tragi-comic story of Alison, a modern-day medium scraping out a living among an assortment of cranks, true believers, and charlatans. Haunted…

Continue readingDelve Readers Seminar: Hilary Mantel: Beyond the Booker
$240

Premise Course: Do we shape our world or does it shape us? Arendt’s The Human Condition

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

(Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) What is the role of technology in shaping us? What is the purpose of public life? Should we live as thinkers or doers? These are the questions that Hannah Arendt tackles in her 1958 work The Human Condition. Philosophers have long argued that the ideal state for the human condition is a life of contemplation and inward focus. Arendt questions the value of the vita contemplativa and proposes that a life of action, vita activa, is central to the human condition. Hannah Arendt is one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the twentieth century. She is typically associated with her work on totalitarianism and the philosophical roots of evil and judgment. The Human Condition offers a comprehensive…

Continue readingPremise Course: Do we shape our world or does it shape us? Arendt’s The Human Condition
$150

Writing And/As the Mother with Amanda Montei

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writers, artists, and theorists have long used the figure of The Mother to make sense of what we seek in writing, art, and politics. Today, The Mother remains a receptacle for all our cultural anxieties and longings. And yet, the work of taking care, cleaning up, and maintaining life—which someone must do to make space for creative practice— is too often rendered invisible. How have the body and labor of The Mother shaped our ideas of comfort, home, work, and novelty? How does caring for others, big and small, teach us to care on the page? Should the book be a space in which we are held, or perhaps something else entirely? In this 4-week course, we will discuss the cultural and political influences that…

Continue readingWriting And/As the Mother with Amanda Montei
$350

The Stacks Coffeehouse: October 2021 Writing Class

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Generative, Drop-in Writing Class @ The Stacks Coffeehouse $20 for 4 weeks Buy now This class will be focused exclusively on creating new work, with prompts sent out every Friday morning via email (starting October 1st) and live student readings via Zoom every Thursday at 7pm PST, where everyone will be encouraged to share their works-in-progress in answer to the prompt (The last class reading will be October 28th). All levels are welcome. Prompts are geared toward flash fiction, but we love nonfiction and poetry too. Generative: This class is generative, which means we’ll be focused on generating new work rather than polishing existing work. Prompts will be emailed on Fridays, and the class with meet live every Thursday at 7pm to share work. Unlike…

Continue readingThe Stacks Coffeehouse: October 2021 Writing Class
$20
Click a category label below to view the calendar with only events in that specific category.