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!

Attic Institute: APPS DUE: May 16: Atheneum Master Writing Program for 2021-2022

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

An annual certificate program, the Attic Atheneum melds independent study under close faculty supervision, student receptions, public readings, and other special Atheneum events created around good food and great conversation, dialogue, and literary community. Running for just under a year, the Atheneum is designed to advance your writing and seed literary life in the city. Atheneum Fellows form a unique community of literary artists and citizens. (** Please note: if you are having trouble getting your app to us in time, need support or extra time with your letter of recommendation, please email us. We know this is a difficult time to be applying for something in the fall, and we want to make it work for you.) Learn more and apply

Free

Grant Submission Deadline: Make | Learn | Build – Round Two

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We are pivoting our grantmaking, offering more flexible awards with the goal of supporting a greater number of artists and arts-based businesses during a time of rapid change and creative innovation. Changes to our grantmaking align with our value of equity and commitment to racial justice and representation in our services and investments. These changes also reflect the feedback we received this summer and fall from an on-line survey and series of focus groups with Black artists, Indigenous artists, and other artists of color. Thank you to all who took the time to talk with us and shared your insights and perspectives. This grant offers funding for artists and arts-based business/organizations in three categories: MAKE: the creation of work in any artistic discipline LEARN: artistic…

Free

Application Deadline: Tin House Fall Residency: YA

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Now accepting applications for our YA Residency. This two-week program runs from Sept 3rd-19th & comes with a $600 stipend & studio apt in PDX. Application fee waivers are available. The deadline to apply is 5/23.

Free

HOCUS: Submissions Open!

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

HOCUS is now accepting submissions of prose and poetry of up to 2000 words for our next (hopefully) live event at the Rose City Book Pub in NE Portland. This event will take place on Tuesday, August 3rd from approximately 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. The theme is Talismans. Send us your poems, fiction, and creative nonfiction which deals either directly or obliquely with this theme. HOCUS is looking for work in the literary genre. If your work flirts with other genres like sci-fi or fantasy, it may be in our wheelhouse, but the term "literary" should come first. No hard sci-fi or sword-and-sandals gladiators or the like, please. To submit, go to our website and click on the Submit tab. Submissions close July 11th.

Free

HOCUS: Submissions Deadline

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

HOCUS is now accepting submissions of prose and poetry of up to 2000 words for our next (hopefully) live event at the Rose City Book Pub in NE Portland. This event will take place on Tuesday, August 3rd from approximately 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. The theme is Talismans. Send us your poems, fiction, and creative nonfiction which deals either directly or obliquely with this theme. HOCUS is looking for work in the literary genre. If your work flirts with other genres like sci-fi or fantasy, it may be in our wheelhouse, but the term "literary" should come first. No hard sci-fi or sword-and-sandals gladiators or the like, please. To submit, go to our website and click on the Submit tab. Submissions close July 11th.

Free

Submission Deadline: Airlie Press Summer Reading Period

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Airlie Press is a nonprofit poetry collective based in and around Portland, Oregon. We seek manuscripts from Pacific Northwest poets who are willing and able to commit to a three-year term of doing the shared work of running a collective press. As a press, we commit to participate in the ongoing conversation and practice regarding inclusion and equity. To this end, we encourage submissions from underrepresented voices and poets from marginalized communities. Most important editorial decisions are made by consensus. Airlie Press now accepts submissions from poets previously published by Airlie. In 2021, poets published before 2018 are encouraged to submit a manuscript during our summer submission period. All submissions will be judged alongside those from new poets. Returning poets must commit to a standard…

Free

Submission Deadline: The Gravity of the Thing: Summer 2021

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Our Summer 2021 reading period is open until July 31st. We accept defamiliarized works in the following general categories: Short: tell us a story in 3,000 words or less; we are interested in fiction, creative nonfiction, self-contained excerpts, and genre-bending forms. Flash: a fiction, creative nonfiction, or genre-bending story under 500 words. Poetry: share one or more poems, prose poems, or multimedia works for a combined count of 500 words or less. Six Words: a story in six words; you may share up to five stories per submission, but only one will be chosen. Baring the Device: essays about defamiliarization—or defamiliarized essays about storytelling, literary craft, or publishing—for our Baring the Device column and resources; click here to learn more. The Gravity of the Thing publishes work on a rolling basis throughout its quarterly reading periods. A majority of submissions…

Free

Telling the Story of Portland – Mayor’s Office Native Art Project

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Portland Mayor’s office, working in partnership with the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, is looking to showcase the work of 3-4 Native artists. The theme is to tell a story of the Indigenous Peoples in the Portland Metropolitan area, past, present, and future. Selected artwork will be purchased for the City of Portland’s art collection and will be installed in the lobby of the Mayor’s office. INTENTION: In an effort to increase Native American visibility and convey a more equitable perspective of Portland’s history, artwork created by Native artists will replace portraits of previous mayors that are currently displayed in the entrance to the Mayor’s office. These works will tell the stories of the past, present and future of the city as expressed through…

Free

Submission Deadline: Attic Institute: Poets Studio 2021-2022

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Poets Studio is based on the idea that focusing on goals is the key to lasting growth as a poet. Poets Studio is a weekly workshop that will run from Sep - Mar for 24 weeks. It is designed to give form and focus to your poetry writing. The Poets Studio is open to applications from all poets. Poets join the Poets Studio as members and attend for the entire session. This creates the Poets Studio's special experience: a steady, supportive, and comprehensive study of your poetry among other poets. Read more about the Poets Studio. Deadline to apply is Sep 1 To Apply: Please send ten (10) pages of poems and a 250 words "Statement of Goals" to the Attic Institute. APPLY NOW NOTE: To protect everyone during the…

$1380

Submission Deadline: Tin House: Nonfiction (including Memoirs and Graphic nonfiction)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Three times per year, Tin House offers a two-day submission period for writers to submit their work. Eligible writers must not currently have an agent, and must not have previously published a book (chapbooks okay). Per our schedule below, we accept works of fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry, both originally in English and in translation (please only submit translation projects which the translator has already been granted formal permission to translate), and ask that you do not send us a project unless you have a completed draft. In particular, we are looking to engage with work by writers from historically underrepresented communities, including—but not limited to—those who are Black, Indigenous, POC, disabled, neurodivergent, trans and LGBTQIA+, debuting after 40, and without an MFA. SUBMIT: From…

Free