LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

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Jeff VanderMeer in Conversation With Karen Russell

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Software manager Jane Smith receives an envelope containing a list of animals along with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and salamander. The list is signed “Love, Silvina.” Jane does not know a Silvina, and she wants nothing to do with the taxidermied animals. The hummingbird and the salamander are, it turns out, two of the most endangered species in the world. Silvina Vilcapampa, the woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of a recently deceased Argentine industrialist. By removing the hummingbird and the salamander from the storage unit, Jane has set in motion a series of events over which she has no control. Instantly, Jane and her family are in danger, and she finds…

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Free

Books Around the Corner: Fantasy Book Club (Remote)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When a banished witch falls in love with the legendary trickster Loki, she risks the wrath of the gods in this moving, subversive debut novel that reimagines Norse mythology. Angrboda's story begins where most witches' tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to provide him with knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into the farthest reaches of a remote forest. There she is found by a man who reveals himself to be Loki, and her initial distrust of him transforms into a deep and abiding love. Their union produces three unusual children, each with a secret destiny, who Angrboda is keen to raise at the edge of the world, safely hidden from Odin's…

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$26

Submission Deadline: Portland Review: TRANSIT / TRANSITION / TRANSLATION

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Themed submissions will open for 24 hours on April 14. Languages and change, buses and trains, the tracks of planets—for our series on transit, transition, and translation, we’re looking for stories, poems, and nonfiction that deal with change and movement in under 1000 words. We can't wait to read your work! Submissions will open at 12 a.m. PDT on April 14 and close at 11:59 p.m. ABOUT US: For over sixty years, Portland Review has published the works of emerging writers and artists alongside the works of well-established authors. We warmly encourage previously unpublished writers and artists to submit, and we aim to support work by those often marginalized in the artistic conversation, including (though certainly not limited to) people of color, women, disabled people,…

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Free

Attic Institute: SPRING Online: Prompts with Whitney Workshop w Whitney Otto

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Eight weeks of writing and reading. Try your hand at characterization, dialogue, plot, finding the telling detail, playing with points of view. Develop a “writing practice” while generating ideas for short stories, memoirs, even novels. Register for this workshop NOTE: To protect everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic, we're offering our workshops via Zoom. All students must first sign up for a free Zoom account. Setting it up is easy. And we can help you with questions, if needed. For each class, you'll receive a Zoom "invitation," from the instructor. Click the link...follow the simple directions about the settings for your microphone and in-computer video, and you're immediately in the "room" for the workshop. For critique workshops, instructors will communicate with students about the process of sharing work. For more generative workshops, students…

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$344 – $367

Attic Institute: SPRING Online: The Future: a Generative Fiction Workshop with Elinam Agbo

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In the Netflix anthology series Love, Death, and Robots, the future takes many forms. Cats survive the apocalypse while humans are extinct. Farmers fight an endless battle. Sentient yogurt takes over the world. Many of these episodes are adapted from short stories, writers envisioning a range of possibilities, given what they know of the past and the present. So, how do we imagine the future when the present feels like dystopia? What remains the same in a world of endless innovation? What has the potential to change? In this generative workshop, we will explore the future through weekly writing exercises. And through the work of writers like Rivers Solomon, George Saunders, NK Jemisin, John Scalzi, and Octavia Butler, we will examine the many paths humanity can…

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$215 – $242

PNCA MFA Reading: Ocean Vuong in conversation with Dao Strom

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Mark your calendars!!! On Thursday, April 15th at 6:30 p.m., poet and novelist Ocean Vuong will read from his recent creative works. Following the reading, Vuong will be joined by faculty mentor and interdisciplinary artist Dao Strom for a conversation. This event will be co-hosted by PNCA’s MFA Low-Residency Creative Writing and MA Critical Studies programs and has been made possible by a generous grant from the Collins Foundation. Ocean Vuong is the author of The New York Times bestselling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, from Penguin Press (2019) and forthcoming in 30 languages. A recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, Vuong is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10…

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Free

Oregon Book Award Fiction Finalists at Springfield Public Library

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join the five 2021 Oregon Book Award finalists for the Ken Kesey Award for a reading as part of Springfield Celebrates Authors. Chelsea Bieker is from California’s Central Valley. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Foundation Award and her fiction and essays have been published in Granta, McSweeney’s, Catapult magazine, Electric Literature, and Joyland, among others. She has been awarded a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and holds an MFA in creative writing from Portland State University. Godshot is her first novel. Purchase Godshot from Broadway Books, one of our Portland-based, independent bookstore partners HERE. Originally from Alabama, Genevieve Hudson earned an MFA from Portland State University and has received Fulbright, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center fellowships. She is the author of Pretend We Live Here: Stories, and lives in Portland,…

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Free

PSG !Extra! THE DEVIL WITH THE THREE GOLDEN HAIRS with Norm Brecke

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Norm Brecke will tell this classic Grimm tale in two parts. You’ll also hear about Norm’s Uncle who influenced his sense of humor and theatrical side. In a way, his Uncle gets to play the Devil in the story, a part he would have relished. Get ready for a night of adventure, humor, music, and a good deal of luck! Join Portland Storytellers' Guild as we welcome Norm Brecke to the stage for a tour de force one-person evening of stories and songs. The virtual event can be enjoyed right in the comfort of your home. The Portland Storytellers' Guild continues its "virtual" season on Saturday, April 17 at 4pm AK / 5pm Pacific / 6pm MST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST via Zoom.…

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$10

The Writers’ Gymnasium: The Writing Workout

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

How can we build a better writing practice? This prompt-driven generative workshop will give writers an opportunity to flex their literary muscles. Classes will provide an intimate, structured, and supportive time to broaden basic and complex writing skills. Through a series of experimental and innovative exercises we will explore the concepts of character, setting, plot and scene, as well as voice, form, and technique. Close attention will be paid to literary and poetic devices as we take a deep dive into the craft of prose writing. Supportive in-workshop sharing and feedback will be an integral part of the process. All genres welcome. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure…

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$285

April BIPOC writer workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

For BIPOC writers Searching for a space to create new work with fellow BIPOC writers? This two-hour workshop meets on Zoom. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and sharing new work in an informal setting. Open to BIPOC writers at all levels writing in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Scholarships are available. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org for more information. Jacqueline Fitzgerald is an educator, coach, and writer who strives to lead through a love ethic and believes in the power of stories to change hearts and minds. Her writing has been published in the Oregonian, The Learning Network of the New York Times, and Beacon Magazine. Currently, she is working on a speculative future novel exploring intergenerational experiences of survival…

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$15
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