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!

ORCA Bookgroup

Ledding Library of Milwaukie 10660 SE 21st Avenue, Milwaukie, OR, United States

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 Room Location: Conference Room

Free

In-Store Reading: Steven Mayfield: Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes back Portland author Steven Mayfield for the in-store launch of his new novel, Delphic Oracle, U.S.A. Masks are required for this event. We keep a supply of masks near our front door for anyone who needs one. Signed and personalized copies are available for pre-order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About Delphic Oracle, U.S.A.: It is 1925 when a love affair between enchantress Maggie Westinghouse and con man July Pennybaker upends the small town of Miagrammesto Station, tumbles it about, and sets it back down as Delphic Oracle, Nebraska. Will their love fulfill its destiny? The narrator of this wry, entertaining…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: Siri Hustvedt: A Woman’s View

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Winner of the 2019 Princesa de Asturias Award for Literature, Siri Hustvedt has an especially acute way of looking at the world around her. A feminist and an activist for democracy, Hustvedt has a visual and profound way of seeing the world around her, which is reflected in her writing’s subjectivity. This attentive observation allows her to develop complex characters and relations, with a close intimacy between them and with the reader. In this six-week seminar, we will read two of Husvedt novels—one early in her career and another closer to our time: The Blindfold and Memories of the Future. We may also add one or two of her essays to connect her theoretical ideas with her fictional work. As stated by the jury in…

$245

Stranged Writing Release Reading

The Stacks Coffeehouse 1831 N. Killingsworth St, Portland, OR, United States

The Gravity of the Thing celebrates the release of its first anthology, Stranged Writing: A Literary Taxonomy (bit.ly/3d6z94O) on October 13th. Join us at The Stacks Coffeehouse in Portland, Oregon to hear contributors Joshua James Amberson, Alex Behr, Lucie Bonvalet, Benjamin Kessler, Matt Rebholz, and Eli Ronick read their experimental prose, poetry, and cross-genre works. The event is free to attend, and food, drinks, and Stranged Writing will be available for purchase. About the collection: Stranged Writing is an anthology of defamiliarized creative writing curated according to biological taxonomy (species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, and domain) using word count. Each hardcover edition includes a screen-printed dust jacket that transforms into unique literary organisms or book sculptures, the goal being a dimensional and tactile…

Free

The Ghost Show: A Telltale Production

Alberta Abbey 126 NE Alberta Street #205, Portland, OR, United States

It’s been another strange year. Let’s make it even stranger with Telltale’s first special production, The Ghost Show, a night of celebration, mourning, community building, and creepiness. For us, ghosts can represent all the grief and loss of these bizarre and heavy years, the way the things and people we love are never really gone, and a way to get your heart racing in the middle of the night. Ghosts help us tell important stories and hold onto things we can’t let go of yet. Telltale promises to bring you a makers market selling odd things, an opportunity to make your own ghost, live music, storytelling, opportunities to participate in the show if you like, ghost shaped snacks, and perhaps a few ghosts in attendance…

$18

Visiting Writers Series: Lesley Nneka Arimah

Reed College - Eliot Hall Chapel 3203 SE Woodstock, Portland, OR, United States

Lesley Nneka Arimah was born in the UK and grew up in Nigeria and wherever else her father was stationed for work. Her stories have been honored with a National Magazine Award, an O. Henry Award and the Caine Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, GRANTA and has received support from MacDowell and the United States Artists Fellowship. She was selected for the National Book Foundation’s 5 Under 35 and her debut collection WHAT IT MEANS WHEN A MAN FALLS FROM THE SKY won the 2017 Kirkus Prize, the 2017 New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and was selected for the New York Times/PBS book club among other honors. Arimah lives in Minneapolis and is working on a…

Free

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

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 the instructor and from the other participants.…

$80 – $200

BIPOC Writing Workshop: October

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

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. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves 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 writing class and Delve tuitions 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…

$20

Form As Listening: On the Spiritual & Ecological in the Sentence & Story — with Janice Lee October 15th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Form As Listening: On the Spiritual & Ecological in the Sentence & Story Saturday October 15th, 2022 1PM—3:30PM Pacific over Zoom (A recording will be made available to all registrants for a limited period afterwards.) “Form is about listening.” – Teresa Carmody “The ear is the first organ to develop in the fetus and the last one to stop functioning during the process of death. This prominence at the beginning and end of our life cycle indicates that the ear may hold valuable keys to the mysteries of life… While our eyes help light our path through this world, we also know that we came from darkness and will return to darkness… Where we cannot see, sound can guide us.” – Russill Paul, The Yoga…

$50 – $250

Reading: Chris Grant

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR, United States

Waiting 'Round To Die is a coming-of-middle-age tale. A story of a man who flees his suburban life looking for meaning on the open road. Author Chris Grant lives in Austin but grew up in Roseburg. Praise for Waiting 'Round To Die "The characters are lively and well-drawn, the ironic life inspections are intriguing, and the on-the-road adventures a draw for readers who would walk out of their own lives for a period of time." --Midwest Book Review

Free