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!

Maaza Mengiste in Conversation With Hannah Giorgis

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Set during Mussolini’s 1935 invasion of Ethiopia, Maaza Mengiste’s The Shadow King (W. W. Norton), shortlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, takes us back to the first real conflict of World War II, casting light on the women soldiers who were left out of the historical record. At its heart is orphaned maid Hirut, who finds herself tumbling into a new world of thefts and violations, of betrayals and overwhelming rage. In incandescent, lyrical prose, Mengiste breathes life into complicated characters on both sides of the battle line, shaping a heartrending, indelible exploration of what it means to be a woman at war. Mengiste will be joined in conversation by Hannah Giorgis, culture writer at The Atlantic. Register for the Zoom event  /  Buy the Book

Free

Write A Book: Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Write A Book: Fiction & Creative Nonfiction IPRC Creative Workshops for Fall 2020 will be held online via zoom, PST. Instructor: Michael Heald Wednesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 Nine students maximum (ages 18+) Class meetings: 24 (8 per term) Cost: $825 *2 spots available at sliding scale, BIPOC prioritized; email hquinn@iprc.org *2 spots available at no cost, BIPOC prioritized; email hquinn@iprc.org October 7, 2020 – June 9, 2021 This workshop will consist of three eight-week terms. Writers currently working on memoirs, essay collections, novellas, novels, short story llections, oral histories, and long-form journalism are all strongly encouraged to apply. Hybrid forms welcome. Over the course of 24 sessions, writers will work towards a draft of a manuscript in a supportive workshop environment. We’ll explore non-linear solutions…

$825

Livestream Reading: Joanna Rose with Stevan Allred

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland author Joanna Rose for a livestream reading from her new novel, A Small Crowd of Strangers, from Southwest Portland publisher Forest Avenue Press. She will be joined in conversation by fellow local author Stevan Allred. Thursday, October 8, 7pm Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEqf-Csrz0sGd2GhOiYz3EhHzd_eLcF47wM Signed copies available soon! About the book: How does a librarian from New Jersey end up in a convenience store on Vancouver Island in the middle of the night, playing Bible Scrabble with a Korean physicist and a drunk priest? She gets married to the wrong man for starters--she didn't know he was 'that kind of Catholic'--and ends up in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She gets a job in a New Age bookstore, wanders toward Buddhism without realizing it, and…

Free

Kids’ Storytime With Jory John & Liz Climo

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Author Jory John and illustrator Liz Climo join us for kids’ storytime to read from their new picture book, First Day Critter Jitters (Dial Books). It’s almost the first day of school, and the animals are nervous. Sloth worries about getting there on time, snake can’t seem to get his backpack fastened onto his body, and bunny is afraid she’ll want to hop around instead of sitting still. When they all arrive at their classroom, though, they’re in for a surprise: Somebody else is nervous too. It’s their teacher, the armadillo! He has rolled in as a ball, and it takes him a while to relax and unfurl. But by the next day, the animals have all figured out how to help one another through…

Free

Sci-Fi Book Club (Remote)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Books Around the Corner Science Fiction/Fantasy Book Club meets monthly on the second Tuesday of every month at 6PM. We would like to extend an invitation to all of our science fiction and fantasy loving customers (RSVP is not required). It will alternate monthly between Science Fiction and Fantasy. Our book discussions aim to bring people together to talk about books in a safe and inviting atmosphere. Our meetings are lovely and inclusive; we invite you to attend. Come and enjoy a lively discussion about the chosen book with other readers. Join us Tuesday October 13th for our Books Around the Corner Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club. October will be a Sci-Fi Pick. We will discuss Goldilocks by Laura Lam. About the Book: A gripping science…

Free

Rebecca Roanhorse in Conversation With Tochi Onyebuchi

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

From Rebecca Roanhorse, the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus Award-winning author of Trail of Lightning, comes Black Sun (Gallery/Saga), the first book in the Between Earth and Sky trilogy, inspired by the civilizations of the Pre-Columbian Americas and woven into a tale of celestial prophecies, political intrigue, and forbidden magic. In the holy city of Tova, the winter solstice is usually a time for celebration and renewal, but this year it coincides with a solar eclipse, a rare celestial event proscribed by the Sun Priest as an unbalancing of the world. Meanwhile, a ship launches from a distant city bound for Tova and set to arrive on the solstice. The captain of the ship, Xiala, is a disgraced Teek whose song can calm the waters around…

Free

Carter Sickels and Megan Kruse: The Prettiest Star

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Carter Sickels in conversation with Megan Kruse, discussing Carter Sickels’ new novel, The Prettiest Star. Set in 1986, a year after Rock Hudson’s death brought the news of AIDS into living rooms and kitchens across America, Carter’s second novel shines light on an overlooked part of the epidemic, those men who returned to the rural communities and families who’d rejected them. The Prettiest Star was included in O Magazine’s list of “31 LGBTQ Books That’ll Change the Literary Landscape in 2020”, BookRiot’s “Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of 2020”, Lambda Literary’s “Most Anticipated LGBTQ Books of May 2020” and Salon’s “Best and boldest new must-read books for May” Register in advance for this webinar: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_wiQ_yrprSuqxxanQ-7xjEQ Carter Sickels is the author of The Pretties Star. He was…

Free

FALL Online: Doors to Elsewhere: Escape in Fiction with Elinam Agbo

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Perhaps yours was a childhood of portals. Perhaps the doors to Elsewhere closed early. Either way, portals are not simple tools. Literary escape is layered with the realities of privilege, accessibility, and colonialism. Escape can be solace and also its opposite. One character discovers a road out of a dark world, only to run into a dragon. Another finds that there is no portal out of reality and must create their own interior door. In this class, students will begin writing escapes through weekly generative prompts. They will read short fiction from writers like Ursula LeGuin, Kelly Link, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Charles Yu, and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Then they will develop and workshop one short story of their own. NOTE: To protect everyone during the COVID-19…

$215 – $242

Page Turner Book Club (Remote)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Books Around the Corner Page Turner Book Club is led by the owner/librarian, Stephanie Rose, and meets monthly on the third Thursday of every month at 6PM. We would like to extend an invitation to all of our mystery and thriller loving customers (RSVP is not required). Our book discussions aim to bring people together to talk about books in a safe and inviting atmosphere. Our meetings are lovely and inclusive; we invite you to attend. Come and enjoy a lively discussion about the chosen book with other readers. Join us on October 15th for Page Turner Book Club. We will discuss When I Was You by Amber Garza. You meets Fatal Attraction in this up-all-night story of suspicion, obsession and motherhood. It all…

Free

Delve Readers Seminars Online Fall 2020: Lost Children Archive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

“We walked out onto Broadway, into the late morning, and the city was buzzing, the buildings high and solid, the sky pristine blue, the sun bright—as if nothing catastrophic were happening.” Valeria Luiselli’s newest novel ​Lost Children Archive ​contrasts a privileged existence in a time laden with myriad state-funded horrors. It begins with a woman in New York who records soundscapes for NYU, translating for a mother from Tlaxiaco whose two children are held in a Texas detention facility. As the unnamed narrator learns more about the hundreds of detention facilities imprisoning migrant youth, she is compelled to leave New York with her family to drive to Arizona. Her plan is to interview these detained children, uplift their stories, and provide a perspective on the…

$150