A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
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!
We are thrilled to be hosting Emme Lund for the launch of the paperback edition of her novel The Boy with a Bird in His Chest. Emme will be in conversation with Stacy Brewster, who is the author of the story collection What We Pick Up.
Vanity Fair (“A Novel without a Hero”), by William Makepeace Thackeray (1848), belongs on the same shelf with other towering novels of the Victorian age: Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, and The Way We Live Now. Its protagonist, Becky Sharp, is one of the most tantalizing, bewitching, infuriating, charming, scheming, and amoral characters in all of literature, and as we watch Becky negotiate poverty, war, marriage, and scandal, the reader constantly wonders: do I like her? Should I like her? Is she evil, or just practical? And what won’t she do to survive? In this five-week Delve, we will explore Thackeray’s brittle, cynical, and witty masterpiece of social manners, and see how the pressures of class, money, and Empire shape the lives of ordinary people…
We'll read books nominated for the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award. Join us the 1st Thursday of the month, 4-4:45pm, October-April, in the Community Room. October 6, 2022 Welcome to Book Buddies! Meet your Book Buddies, make a craft and share your favorite book titles. November 3, 2022 The Powwow Dog by Joseph Bruchac December 1, 2022 Our Friend Hedgehog: the Story of Us by Lauren Castillo January 5, 2023 Mindy Kim and the Yummy Seaweed Business by Lyla Lee February 2, 2023 Here Comes Lolo by Niki Daly March 2, 2023 Puppy Problems by Paige Braddock April 6, 2023 VOTING PARTY! Vote for your favorite book from this list and help choose the winner of the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award! To learn more about the Beverly Cleary Children's Choice Award, visit https://ola.memberclicks.net/bccca-home (link is external)
Join us every Saturday for kids’ storytime. Today we’re reading I Don’t Care by Julie Fogliano. Buy the Book
Cultivating a Sustainable Writing Practice Instructor: Alissa Hattman This workshop is offered via Zoom PST Register here Class Meetings: 1 Saturday, Jan. 7th; 1-4pm $15 – $75 sliding scale *6 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized Our practice—how we labor as writers—is highly personal. When we create a writing habit, it helps to consider our individual creative processes, life priorities, writing goals, and all the ways that we get in the way of our own writing. How we labor is also bound up in cultural notions of productivity and success that can often kill the creative drive. It can be hard to consistently carve out time in order to cultivate the type of patient, inner stillness required to write, but it is possible. Necessary,…
We'll read books nominated for the Oregon Readers’ Choice Award, Upper Elementary Division. Join us the 2nd Tuesday of the month in the Library's Conference Room. Ages 9-12. October 11, 2022 Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter November 8, 2022 The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas December 13, 2022 Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte January 10, 2023 Wondrous Rex by Patricia MacLachlan February 14, 2023 Thirteens by Kate Alice Marshall AND The Next President by Kate Messner March 14, 2023 A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat April 11, 2023 Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson AND VOTING! Vote for your favorite book from this list to help choose the 2023 ORCA winner! To learn more about the Oregon Reader's Choice Award, visit oregonreaderschoiceaward.wordpress.com
This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of six months. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place, and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book. Access Program We want our 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 class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at…
Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…
A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in Lost in the Moment and Found (Tordotcom), a new standalone tale in Seanan McGuire’s Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Wayward Children series. Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go. If you ever lost a sock, you'll find it here. If you ever wondered about your favorite toy from childhood... it's probably sitting on a shelf in the back. And the headphones that you swore this time you'd keep safe? You guessed it… Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He's not in the shop, and she'll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she discovers that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not…
Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in City of Nightmares (Clarion), Rebecca Schaeffer’s thrilling young adult fantasy that is "so much fun and readers will stay up all night to finish it" (Kirkus, starred review). Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, 19-year-old Ness has been terrified — terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear. Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that’s monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying…
In this intensive workshop, students will write and revise their short stories focusing on craft elements such as characters, voice, subtext, and story structure. At the end of the six weeks, students will have created a dossier of up to 20 pages of new work and received detailed feedback from the instructor. Access Program We want our 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 class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if…
Novels of ghosts and haunted landscapes can open the door to discussions of sociology and repression, trauma, and the cathartic function of horror. In this seminar, we will examine themes of possession, repression, haunting, and the mad woman in the attic in four Victorian and American horror novels from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel. In-Person Seminar Note: This seminar meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington.Please see our complete Covid-19 policy here. Access Program We want our 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…
Emme Lund’s The Boy with a Bird in His Chest (Atria) is a “poignantly rendered and illuminating” (The Washington Post) coming-of-age story about “the ways in which family, grief, love, queerness, and vulnerability all intersect” (Kristen Arnett). Though Owen Tanner has never met anyone else who has a chatty bird in their chest, medical forums would call him a Terror. From the moment Gail emerged between Owen’s ribs, his mother knew that she had to hide him away from the world. After a decade spent in isolation, Owen takes a brazen trip outdoors and his life is upended forever. Suddenly, he is forced to flee the home that had once felt so confining and hide in plain sight with his uncle and cousin in Washington.…
VICES: Prepare a five-minute story about a wicked habit, a mild failing or a defect in your otherwise perfect self. Tell us what acts as kryptonite on your character! The ball and chain of developed habits and poisonous predilections. Give a special shout out to the backfiring virtues...when being too good is actually bad. COVID Requirements: See The Old Church's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 16+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ~ E. L. Doctorow You have a thousand stories inside your head. You dabble on the page but rarely if ever finish anything, much less share with others. “Is my work good enough?” you wonder. “Do I have something original and interesting to say? What makes me think I can be a writer?” The biggest obstacle for emerging writers is not lack of time nor lack of skill nor lack of things to write about. It’s a lack of self-confidence. This workshop is designed for those who want to be writers but are not sure they can be. …
This event is part of our 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures. Subscriptions for the five-part lecture series are on sale now. All lectures will be held in person at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland, OR. For more information on the season, please see our FAQs or reach out to us at la@literary-arts.org. Lauren Groff Lauren Groff is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels and two short story collections. Her 2021 novel Matrix, which Esquire described as “Incandescent… a radiant work of imagination and accomplishment,” was a National Book Award finalist and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year. Her works have won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice…
It has to come to life! Bit by bit, putting it together Piece by piece, only way to make a work of art --- Stephen Sondheim This class is about helping the emerging writer take her pile of random chapters, character sketches, fragments, scenes, ramblings, and moments of literary brilliance, into something of a coherent and emotionally resonant story. During this class we will explore how a writer can look within their narrative to identify the key scenes, to understand the most critical trajectory for the character(s) from beginning to end, and to build the necessary narrative to connect those key scenes and move the journey of the characters forward. Finally, each student will develop their own revision practice and understand better what their story…
Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…
Please join us for Constellation #1, a free community reading at Tin House Books, featuring poet Armin Tolentino, novelist Juhea Kim, and writer/artist Annika Hansteen-Izora. Location: Tin House Books, 2617 NW Thurman St, Portland, OR 97210 (Enter through the double doors on 26th) Armin Tolentino (he/him) earned his MFA at Rutgers University in Newark and is the author of WE MEANT TO BRING IT HOME ALIVE (Alternating Current Press, 2019). His poetry has appeared in Hyphen Magazine, Arsenic Lobster, The Raven Chronicles, and elsewhere. Originally from Lincoln Park, New Jersey, he now lives in Vancouver, Washington. He's an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship recipient, Clark County's Poet Laureate, and an avid (albeit usually unsuccessful) fisherman. He hopes one day to earn a Guiness Record for World's Loudest Clap.…
Join us every Saturday for kids’ storytime. Today we’re reading My Parents Won’t Stop Talking! by Emma Hunsinger and Tillie Walden. Buy the Book
The Symposium by Plato asks: what is love? It is the story of a banquet in classical Athens, attended by Socrates and his friends, at which each person tells a story about the origin of Love. These stories are full of deep psychological insight, powerful mythic imagination, and profound philosophical reflection that have made The Symposium one of the masterpieces of world literature and a crowning work of philosophy. Bawdy and sentimental, drunk and wise by turns, with a surprising turn of events near the end, each story illuminates a striking part of the human condition. The event is crowned by Socrates’ own story, telling us the origin of his gift and portraying the nature of the world in terms of Love. Throughout the night,…
“Screenplays…are primarily a narrative blueprint for cinematic interpretation. They require certain beats, certain layouts, and certain terminology to communicate the visual and audio needs of an eventual production — a production that hundreds of professionals will collaborate on.” – Ken Miyamoto, Screencraft “The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take half of that little out and still preserve an effect of leisure and natural movement.” – Raymond Chandler The art and craft of writing for the screen is a skill that all authors would do well to have in their creative arsenals. On one level, prose fiction, memoir, non-fiction, all these forms have been, and will continue to be, sought out by the film industry as foundations for works in…
The American novelist Walker Percy described The Brothers Karamazov as “maybe the greatest novel of all time . . . . almost prophesies and prefigures everything—all the bloody mess and the issues of the 20th century.” It’s fair to extend Percy’s observation to include the mess of the present century as well. The Brothers K is Dostoevsky’s masterpiece: a gripping tale of murder and family conflict that explores profound questions of faith, doubt, free will, morality, and the existence of God. The novel’s structure is equally complex, featuring multiple narrators and shifting points of view, and a wide cast of characters and voices. Dostoevsky considered the book a complete expression of his thinking about the human condition. This Delve will offer participants the opportunity to…
Join us for a conversation with Joy Castro, author of One Brilliant Flame, and S. Tremaine Nelson of the Northwest Review. This is a virtual event. Click here to register in advance. If you have any questions, reach out to Jessica Meza-Torres at jessica@literary-arts.org. Joy Castro Joy Castro is the award-winning author of Flight Risk, a finalist for a 2022 International Thriller Award; the post-Katrina New Orleans literary thrillers Hell or High Water, which received the Nebraska Book Award, and Nearer Home, which have been published in France by Gallimard’s historic Série Noire; the story collection How Winter Began; the memoir The Truth Book; and the essay collection Island of Bones, which received the International Latino Book Award. She is also editor of the craft…
We are excited to host Gemma Whelan for the launch of her second novel, Painting Through the Dark. Gemma will be in conversation with Portland author Rene Denfeld, the author of several books, including The Enchanted, The Child Finder, The Butterfly Girl, and the forthcoming (May 2023) Fire and Water. Gemma's new novel tells the story of feisty 21-year-old Ashling O'Leary, who flees the emotional shackles of her family in Ireland and the convent where she was training to be a nun. She arrives in San Francisco in 1982 with a backpack, a judo outfit, her artist's portfolio, a three-month visa, and a determination to find a way to speak up about the abuse of girls and women in Catholic Ireland. As she becomes embroiled…
Genre-defying writers Carmen Maria Machado, Sayaka Murata and Bora Chung incorporate elements from fairy tales, horror and science fiction to give us lopsided but chillingly familiar scenes from our society. Whether in Machado’s rewriting of folklore in “The Husband Stitch”, Murata’s imaginings of a world where we eat dead people in “Life Ceremony”, or Chung’s nightmarish rendering of a body made of a woman’s excrement in “The Head”, these stories don’t shy away from body horror, rather choosing to dive right into the messy as well as the sometimes disgusting realities of being a human, and woman, in our world. Texts (selected stories) Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung Access Program We…
If you allow them to, ideas for art and writing can come from absolutely anywhere. This creative generation class will put that theory to the test, through a series of experiments in creative problem-solving, spontaneous and chance-based play, and other exploratory prompts that challenge you to work outside your normal modes and investigate how the creative brain works. Prior to the start of this series of classes, each participant will receive a unique packet of random materials in the mail. In-class exercises and weekly assignments will ask you to work with these materials in various ways, including an opportunity to create collaboratively at a distance. You’ll also keep a weekly journal detailing your personal process and ideas about creativity. As support for this process, we…
Provocative, poignant, and resoundingly hilarious, Kevin Maloney’s The Red-Headed Pilgrim (Two Dollar Radio) is the tragicomic tale of an anxious red-head and his sordid pursuit of enlightenment and pleasure (not necessarily in that order). On a sunny day in a business park near Portland, Oregon, 42-year-old web developer Kevin Maloney is in the throes of an existential crisis that finds him shoeless in a field of Queen Anne’s lace, reflecting on the tumultuous events that brought him to this moment. Growing up in the suburbs, young Kevin suffered “a psychological break that ripped me from my humdrum existence” mainlining high fructose corn syrup and episodes of The Golden Girls. Thus begins a journey of hard-earned insights and sexual awakening that takes Kevin from angst-ridden Beaverton…
Autofiction is a unique genre (or non-genre) that combines the autobiographical with the fictional. In this course, we will take a close look at the craft of autofiction. We will read novel excerpts, short stories and novellas. We will also look at craft essays on the form. The goal over the twelve weeks is to work on a draft of a novella (if not a full draft, then you will get a solid head start), which can be anywhere from 20K-40K words. This course will be generative. You will be expected to write and submit a substantial amount of prose per week (1500-2500 words). We will read about 25 pages of excerpts and craft essays each week and discuss them as a group. And there…
Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…
Writers often use musical 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. Participants 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. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible…
Learn to critique your own work and the work of others in non-judgmental, informative terms. Each week participants will share and discuss their stories, novels, or scenes. Together we’ll look at the many ways story happens on the page. We’ll identify how the various tools of showing and telling are being used, and to what effect. And we’ll learn to be there for each other. Maximum: 10 writers Register for this workshop Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Joanna RoseTime: Saturdays, Jan 28 - Apr 1, 9:30am - 12:30pm Pacific Time, 10 weeksLocation: Online via ZoomTotal Fee: Discounted Early Registration is due seven (7) days prior to the start of the workshop. | Discounted Early Registration: $657 (cash/check); $680 (Paypal). | Tuition Registration: $672 (cash/check); 695…
Join us every Saturday for kids’ storytime. Today we’re reading Telling Stories Wrong by Gianni Rodari. Buy the Book
In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, “The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though many of the activities and discussions orbit or are inflected by recovery themes (Akbar has been in active recovery for eight years), participants are not required to self-identify as being in recovery to participate.” Register at: https://www.portlandalano.org/the-break Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar is an Iranian-American poet and scholar, and the author of Pilgrim Bell, published by Graywolf Press; Calling a Wolf a Wolf, published by Alice James Books in the US and Penguin Books in the UK; and the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic, published by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2014, he founded the poetry interview…
From Stephen Markley, author of Ohio, comes a masterful American epic charting a near future approaching collapse and a nascent but strengthening solidarity. In the first decades of the 21st century, the world is convulsing, its governments mired in gridlock while a patient but unrelenting ecological crisis looms. America is in upheaval, battered by violent weather and extreme politics. In California in 2013, Tony Pietrus, a scientist studying deposits of undersea methane, receives a death threat. His fate will become bound to a stunning cast of characters — a broken drug addict, a star advertising strategist, a neurodivergent mathematician, a cunning eco-terrorist, an actor turned religious zealot, and a brazen young activist named Kate Morris, who, in the mountains of Wyoming, begins a project that…
The nine stories in Morgan Thomas’s shimmering debut collection witness Southern queer and genderqueer characters determined to find themselves reflected in the annals of history, whatever the cost. As Thomas’s subjects trace deceit and violence through Southern tall tales and their own pasts, their journeys reveal the porous boundaries of body, land, and history, and the sometimes ruthless awakenings of self-discovery. A trans woman finds her independence with the purchase of a pregnancy bump; a young Virginian flees their relationship, choosing instead to immerse themself in the life of an intersex person from Colonial-era Jamestown. A writer tries to evade the murky and violent legacy of an ancestor who supposedly disappeared into a midwifery bag, and in the uncanny title story, a young trans person…