A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
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!
Brandon Taylor, author of Booker Prize finalist Real Life and senior editor of Recommended Reading, talks to Ross Feeler about “Parisian Honeymoon,” a story about a man who discovers that his new wife is a bigot. They will discuss their editing process, and how to write anti-racist stories with racist characters without being morally didactic. Q&A to follow.
In an unforgettable novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Unnamed Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back. When Maria is abandoned…
Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon author Scott Nadelson for a livestream reading from his new story collection, One of Us. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqcOGvqTIvEtWX4PuIh8_hMFqcDFZ5rNeP Signed copies will be available! The stories in Scott Nadelson's One Of Us explore the tension between groups and individuals, the allure of tribalism, the claustrophobia of belonging, and the alienation that comes with separation. They range from autobiographical to historical and roam temporally and geographically, chronicling, among others, an encounter between the sculptor Louise Nevelson and the anti-Semitic French writer Louis-Ferdinand C line; a synagogue congregation facing ongoing public scandal; a comedy improv troupe trying to cross the threshold from amateur to professional; and a young man navigating the competing pulls of adventure and domestic bliss at the cusp of the new…
John Darnielle (Wolf in White Van, Universal Harvester, the Mountain Goats), Leah Johnson (You Should See Me in a Crown), Daniel Lavery (Something That May Shock and Discredit You, The Merry Spinster, Slate’s Dear Prudence, The Toast), Amber Sparks (And I Do Not Forgive You, The Unfinished World), and R. Eric Thomas (Here for It, Elle magazine) join Dungeon Master Matt Lubchansky to play a classic tabletop role-playing game with a literary twist. If you’ve never played D&D before, don’t worry—most of our players haven’t either.
The Books Around the Corner Horror Book Club is led by the owner/librarian, Stephanie Rose, and meets monthly on the fourth Thursday of every month at 6PM. We would like to extend an invitation to all of our horror 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. Our October pick is Kill Creek by Scott Thomas and we will meet on October 22nd. About the book: At the end of a dark prairie road, nearly forgotten in the Kansas countryside, is the Finch House. For…
Born in Atlanta, poet, novelist, and publisher Renee Gladman composes prose and poetry that tests the potential of the sentence with mapmaking precision and curiosity. Author of the poetry collection A Picture-Feeling (2005), Gladman has also published several works of prose, including Event Factory (2010),The Activist (2003), Juice (2000), and Arlem (1994), and a monograph of drawings, Prose Architectures (2017). Her latest novel, Morelia, came out in 2019. Gladman has edited Leon Works, an experimental prose chapbook series, as well as the Leroy chapbook series. She lives in Massachusetts and teaches at Brown University. **Register here for the Renee Gladman reading. A link will be emailed shortly before the event.**
Electric Literature executive director Halimah Marcus talks to Marie-Helene Bertino (Parakeet, 2 a.m. at the Cat’s Pajamas, Safe as Houses) and Elissa Washuta (White Magic, My Body Is a Book of Rules, Shapes of Native Nonfiction) about coping with trauma and subverting expectations at the intersection of magic and reality. They will discuss how magic works in practice and as a rhetorical device in fiction. Q&A to follow.
In The Sacrifice of Darkness (Archaia), Roxane Gay, Tracy Lynne Oliver, and Rebecca Kirby adapt Gay’s New York Times bestselling short story, “We Are the Sacrifice of Darkness,” as a full-length graphic novel, expanding and further developing the unforgettable world where the sun no longer shines. “When I was a young girl, my husband’s father flew an air machine into the sun. Since then, the days have been dark, the nights bright.” Follow one woman’s powerful journey through this new landscape as she discovers love, family, and the true light in a world seemingly robbed of any. As she challenges notions of identity, guilt, and survival, she’ll find that no matter the darkness, there remains sources of hope that can pierce the veil. Please note:…
Join us on October 27th at 6pm for our next Young Adult Book Club. We will discuss Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis. About the Book: A can't-put-down, creepy thriller about the daughter of a horror film director who's not afraid of anything--until she gets to Harrow Lake. Things I know about Harrow Lake: 1.It's where my father shot his most disturbing slasher film. 2.There's something not right about this town. Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker--she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot. The…
For October, we will be reading 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton To order: https://www.tworiversbooks.com/book/9781492670124?fbclid=IwAR1mHmnMNUY28szjPc-FTjEQYFTziCCtBb2CTUK9AGcCw6QNU8ubNCbAPsM Description: "Aiden Bishop knows the rules. Evelyn Hardcastle will die every day until he can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest at Blackheath Manor. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others. With a locked room mystery that Agatha Christie would envy, Stuart Turton unfurls a breakneck novel of intrigue and suspense. For fans of Claire North, and Kate Atkinson, The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a breathlessly addictive mystery that follows one man's race against time to find a killer, with an astonishing time-turning twist…