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Let’s Get It On The Page: Writing Sex Scenes to Excite and Entice Your Readers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Perhaps you snuck a peek at your grandma’s romance novels and giggled at the over-the-top metaphors. Maybe your writing group said you could use a sex scene but you’re mortified by putting it on the page. Maybe you write erotica and want to polish your craft. Sex can be one of the most exciting and emotionally resonant moments in a novel. It can also be cringe-worthy and awkward. Join author and sex-positivity advocate, Karelia Stetz-Waters, for a talk on writing fabulous sex scenes. This fun, unembarrassed look at sex scenes will cover plot and character elements as well as the physicality of sex on the page, Karelia will practical tips and tricks that any writer can use. All heat levels, sexual orientations, and gender identities…

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Free

Antoine Wilson in Conversation With Yiyun Li

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In a first-class lounge at JFK airport, our narrator listens as Jeff Cook, a former classmate he only vaguely remembers, shares the uncanny story of his adult life — a life that changed course years before, the moment he resuscitated a drowning man. Jeff reveals that after that traumatic, galvanizing morning on the beach, he was compelled to learn more about the man whose life he had saved, convinced that their fates were now entwined. But are we agents of our fate — or are we its pawns? Upon discovering that the man is renowned art dealer Francis Arsenault, Jeff begins to surreptitiously visit his Beverly Hills gallery. Although Francis does not seem to recognize him as the man who saved his life, he nevertheless…

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Free

Submissions Open!

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

neverland (ne-vər-land): 1.) an unreal, imaginary, or ideal state, condition, place 2.) any remote, isolated, barren, or sparsely settled region Send us your stories and poems of pipe dreams, utopias, and Shangri-Las! HOCUS accepts prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction of up to 2,000 words. We welcome literary fiction and poetry submissions from everyone regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, geography, religious or cultural background. Our programming is in English. We especially invite Black, Indigenous, and other people of color to take part. We recognize all genders. The reading will be on Friday, March 11th from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. at the Rose City Book Pub in NE Portland. Please be aware that the Book Pub is currently requiring proof of vaccination. We are keeping in…

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Free

PSU Creative Writing Alumni Reading: Thea Prieto, LaVonne Griffin-Valade, and Joshua James Amberson

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Register here for the Creative Writing Alumni Reading. You will receive a Zoom link upon registration. Thea Prieto is the author of From the Caves (Red Hen Press, 2021), which won the Red Hen Novella Award and was a finalist in American Book Fest's Best Book Awards. Her work has also appeared in The Kenyon Review, Longreads, and New Orleans Review, among other journals, and she writes and edits for Poets & Writers and The Gravity of the Thing. She graduated from Portland State University's MFA program in 2016. LaVonne Griffin-Valade is the author of two novels, Dead Point and Murderers Creek (Severn River Publishing). Her work has also appeared in Oregon Humanities Magazine and Clackamas Literary Review. She was a finalist for the 2018 Fellowship for Emerging Writers at Fishtrap’s Writing and the West. Her third novel, Desolation Ridge, will be published in…

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Free

BOOKLOVER’S BURLESQUE: Cozy Classics

Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, United States

“We would be together and have our books, and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright.” -Ernest Hemingway It’s time to get warm and cozy with us as Lacy Productions and The Alberta Rose Theatre present BOOKLOVER’S BURLESQUE: Cozy Classics Booklover’s Burlesque is the world’s sexiest literary salon which matches titillating, inspiring, and empowering book readings with burlesque, boylesque, and draglesque performances all in one show! Professional readers, actors, and/or local authors & writers read aloud a piece of poetry, fiction (from any genre), memoir, non-fiction, etc, which is then followed by a burlesque performance inspired by the piece. Join us as we bring the sensual heat of words and wantonness rivaling the warmth of a fireplace…

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$20 – $30

Morgan Thomas in Conversation With Kristen Arnett

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The nine stories in Morgan Thomas’s shimmering debut collection, Manywhere (MCD), witness Southern queer and genderqueer characters determined to find themselves reflected in the annals of history, at whatever cost. As each character traces 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 through the purchase of a pregnancy bump. A young Virginian flees their relationship, choosing instead to immerse themselves in the life of an intersex person from Colonial-era Jamestown. A young 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…

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Free

HOCUS: Submissions Open!

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

neverland (ne-vər-land): 1.) an unreal, imaginary, or ideal state, condition, place 2.) any remote, isolated, barren, or sparsely settled region Send us your stories and poems of pipe dreams, utopias, and Shangri-Las! HOCUS accepts prose, poetry, and creative nonfiction of up to 2,000 words. We welcome literary fiction and poetry submissions from everyone regardless of race, class, gender, sexuality, geography, religious or cultural background. Our programming is in English. We especially invite Black, Indigenous, and other people of color to take part. We recognize all genders. The reading will be on Friday, March 11th from 7:30 - 9:00 p.m. at the Rose City Book Pub in NE Portland. Please be aware that the Book Pub is currently requiring proof of vaccination. We are keeping in…

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Free

Write Now Online: The Narrative Triptych w/ videos by Lidia Yuknavitch (Introvert VersionOngoing)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Write Now: The Narrative Triptych—a 4-week creative incubator Extrovert Version Begins March 13th! A painted or carved triptych typically has three hinged panels, and the two outer panels can be folded in towards the central one. A literary or musical triptych generally consists of three closely related or contrasting themes or parts. Triptych derives from the Greek triptychos ("having three folds"), formed by combining tri- ("three") and ptychē ("fold" or "layer"). Although triptych originally described a specific type of Roman writing tablet that had three hinged sections, it is not surprising that the idea was generalized first to a type of painting, and then to anything composed of three parts. The triptychs most etched on Lidia’s brain are Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, Ruben's Elevation of the Cross, and Bacon's Three Studies for…

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$99

Book Talk: Fencing With the King | Diana Abu Jaber & Omar El Akkad

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Please join the Middle East Studies Center for our next installment of the Scholarly Lecture Series. Author and Portland State University English Faculty Diana Abu Jaber will be discussing her new novel Fencing With the King with award-winning author Omar El Akkad. Zoom Registration About the Book A mesmerizing breakthrough novel of family myths and inheritances by the award-winning author of Crescent. Amani is hooked on a mystery—a poem on airmail paper that slips out of one of her father’s books. It seems to have been written by her grandmother, a refugee who arrived in Jordan during the First World War. Soon the perfect occasion to investigate arises: her Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King of Jordan, invites her father to celebrate the king’s sixtieth birthday—and to fence…

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Free

Overcoming Rejection for Writers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

FEATURING: Jami Attenberg Deesha Philyaw Tommy Pico Moderated by Denne Michele Norris Sponsored by GrubStreet's Muse & the Marketplace conference Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned pro, all writers face rejection—but how we cope with that rejection plays a huge role in shaping our literary future. Rebounding can be tough, but rather than allowing rejection to stop us in our tracks, we can reframe it into a motivational and instructional tool. Some rejections actually make us stronger—as writers, editors, applicants, and people—while others just need to be ignored. Poet and TV writer Tommy Pico (JUNK, Reservation Dogs), memoirist Jami Attenberg (I Came All This Way to Meet You), and award-winning short story writer Deesha Philyaw (The Secret Lives of Church Ladies) will share…

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$10
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