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Attic Institute: FALL Online Campus: Writing the Autobiographical Novel Workshop w Karen Karbo

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Nothing is more intriguing than the idea of telling your true-life story – until the moment you realize you have a terrible memory, there are some pesky facts that are both inconvenient and unavoidable, and your spouse (who has a terrific memory) promised to kill you in your sleep if you ever wrote about them. Enter the autobiographical novel, a timeless genre that is based on the truth but not bound by it. The AN can be a faithful recounting of an event in your life, or a loosely related tossed salad of facts seasoned with fantasy. There’s a reason why everyone from Charles Dickens to Maya Angelou has written one. Through in-class prompts and take-home assignments, this 8-week course will help students conceive, structure and begin an autobiographical novel. Participants…

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$344 – $370

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: Storytelling 101

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A virtual workshop on Zoom For aspiring, beginning and intermediate tellers Hone your craft! Shape and practice your story! Are you working on a short story to share with family, to tell at the Moth or a story swap, or to another audience? Would you like to polish a story to submit to the Guild Selection Committee in hopes of appearing in the Guild Storython, where many tellers share 5 minute stories? (The Storython is a prerequisite for new tellers to be considered for a PSG main stage show.) Join us in the workshop with a 5-6 minute story that you wish to prepare for presentation. Please check the story timing before the workshop. Aim for 5 minutes. Stories should be spoken rather than read.…

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$25

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Seeding a Speculative World, with Dominica Phetteplace

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class will explore the joys of creating a world that departs from our agreed-upon reality in significant ways. Science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism and other genres have exciting storytelling potential arising from the way characters interact with their surroundings. This class will focus on character and world building exercises that set up narratives with depth and momentum. Tin House is proud to announce our latest virtual Craft Intensives Series. A series of 3-hour-long masterclasses lead by  Tin House Residents and Tin House Books Authors, these Intensives combine close reading, discussion, and in-class writing to offer a potent dose of inspiration and explore what makes writing work when it works. Join us! Applying Admissions are rolling—first come, first served—and will fill fast! You do not…

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$75

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Character in Scene, with Kim Fu

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

*Saturday is sold out, join waitlist by emailing workshop@gmail.com or purchase Sunday below* The best fictional characters, like real people, can seldom be boiled down to a simple list of traits and adjectives. They exist in communities and relationships, are borne from and generate conflict, and are inseparable from the story being told. They might draw from the writer’s personal knowledge and experiences, while blossoming into someone wholly different and new. Who they are dictates what they do, but what they do also tells us who they are. In this class, we will practice building story and character in tandem, and writing key scenes that reveal a character to the reader—and to the writer. Participants will leave with new writing: new ways to understand and…

Continue reading2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Character in Scene, with Kim Fu
$75

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: Guild EXTRA Show

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Long time Guild member Ken Iverson shares many of his favorite Halloween stories. The program will include original stories as well as ones he's collected over 40 years of story telling. "Make some popcorn, get a favorite drink, turn the lights down and settle in. We'll have fun! These stories will help you laugh your way through the darkness." Ken Iverson has brought stories to life for audiences for over 35 years. He loves how a story can bring people together. He tells original stories and traditional and contemporary folktales and myths from around the world for all ages. Ken believes that the old adage “laughter is the best medicine is close to true. “It's not the only medicine,” he says, “but it is certainly…

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$10

Submission Deadline: Tin House 2022 Winter Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Applications Open: October 4th With ongoing concerns about the increase in Covid numbers and our ability to safely gather indoors, we have decided to hold our 2022 Winter Workshop online again. 2021 Winter Scholars: A. Meinen, Angelique Stevens, Christopher James Llego, Jeanetta Craigwell-Graham, Kimberly Reyes, Krys Malcolm Belc, Luke Dani Blue, Lydia Abedeen, Marissa Davis, Marlanda Dekine-Sapient Soul, Michaeljulius Y. Idani, Naphisa Senanarong, Reena Shah, Sabrina Imbler, Tatiana Johnson-Boria, Vincent Chavez

$600

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Character in Scene, with Kim Fu

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

*Saturday is sold out, join waitlist by emailing workshop@gmail.com or purchase Sunday below* The best fictional characters, like real people, can seldom be boiled down to a simple list of traits and adjectives. They exist in communities and relationships, are borne from and generate conflict, and are inseparable from the story being told. They might draw from the writer’s personal knowledge and experiences, while blossoming into someone wholly different and new. Who they are dictates what they do, but what they do also tells us who they are. In this class, we will practice building story and character in tandem, and writing key scenes that reveal a character to the reader—and to the writer. Participants will leave with new writing: new ways to understand and…

Continue reading2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Character in Scene, with Kim Fu
$75

Delve Readers Seminar: Herman Melville: Great Shorter Works

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Although Herman Melville is best known for Moby-Dick, he also demonstrated mastery of the novella, and this Delve will explore Melville’s best-known shorter works: Bartleby the Scrivener, famous for the Wall Street denizen who “would prefer not to,” no matter what his employer might want; Benito Cereno, where a captain answering a ship’s call of distress ends up in a situation far more perplexing—and dangerous—than what he had bargained for; and the posthumously-published masterpiece, Billy Budd, a story of the “handsome sailor” whose beauty and simplicity result in tragedy and a crisis of conscience for his captain. In each of the three weeks of this Delve, we will examine one of these shorter works and discuss their position in Melville’s unusual literary career and the…

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$110

Foul Play Nordic Style: Scandinavian Crime Fiction

Nordic Northwest 8800 SW Oleson Rd, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for an eight-week workshop focusing on Nordic crime films and novels. Tom Birnie, instructor in Scandinavian Studies at Portland State University, is back to lead this one-of-a-kind course, in which we will learn about, discuss and savor several films and books from the northernmost reaches of Europe. Nordic crime novels and films have attained an extraordinary international presence over the past three decades. Frequently addressing social issues, these allied genres investigate the troubling shadows lurking in what may at first glance be a perfect set of Scandinavian welfare states, where nothing can go wrong. Through examinations of corruption, exploitation, inequity and crooked politics, the reader/viewer is treated to superb studies of human character. About the Instructor: Thomas Birnie holds a Ph.D. in German…

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$100 – $150

Oregon Jewish Voices 2021

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Started in 1999, and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2021 program, who span a range of genres including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays, will share selections from their work in a virtual reading on Zoom.  Register here Donate Today We are grateful for your participation and encourage you to consider supporting our virtual programs. Speakers for 2021 Poet Joan Dobbie was born in Trogen, Switzerland of refugee parents, and grew up in a small town in Northern New York. She teaches Hatha Yoga at University of Oregon, from which she holds an MFA in Creative Writing. Despite her many small press publications, several chapbooks, and two full length poetry…

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Free
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