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!

Compose Creative Writing Conference

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Explore the practices and professions of creative writing and publishing at Clackamas Community College’s annual Compose Creative Writing Conference, hosted by CCC's English Department. Compose 2020 — online and FREE this year "See what can be found for remedy and comfort by writing stories down" - Kim Stafford, Compose 2020 keynote speaker Saturday, May 16, 10 a.m. Cost: Free! Location: Online. Details on accessing the conference via Zoom will be provided to registered attendees. This event has reached capacity and registration is now closed. Calling all writers and lovers of the written word. The annual Compose Creative Writing Conference is going online! The May 16 conference is offered for free and entirely online this year. Join Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford as he delivers his keynote address, "Who…

Free

(Play)Writing During the Quarantine

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

One of the most beautiful aspects of playwriting is that it is an invitation for others to collaborate, from the actors, directors, designers, stage managers and finally the audience. Playwriting is community-making.  And that is something we surely and sorely need through such isolating times. And so, we welcome all to take part in a Remote Playwriting Class, taught by award-winning playwright and screenwriter Dan Kitrosser. Each session will be divided into two parts: Part One Lectursize! 1 hour Part Lecture / Part Discussion / Part Exercise. Each week we’ll cover one element of playwriting, we’ll read a play, discuss the element of playwriting through that play, take part in playwriting exercises, commune & laugh. Part Two Workshop Time Up to 2 hours After the…

$150

Creating a Movie in Your Reader’s Mind- C. Lill Ahrens

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

MAY 25 - Join Lill via Zoom for her info-packed presentation about the what-why-when-where of Emotional Truth (ET). While actors convey ET through body language and line delivery, writers convey ET by describing those things and employing ET tools such as metaphor and inner monologue. Everything in a written story can have ET -- Every person, place, thing, animal, vegetable, mineral, and weather phenomenon. Successful stories are infused with ET. The effect hooks readers on page one and keeps them under a spell, happily unaware of how the magic is made. Aspiring writers can also be unaware of it, so they might omit ET in their own work, unwittingly sapping tension, losing readers, or even pushing them away. In this fun presentation, Lill shows how…

Free

Salman Rushdie: Quichotte

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Presented by the Wisconsin Book Festival in partnership with The Believer Festival, Literary Arts, and The Loft’s Wordplay, Salman Rushdie will appear live on Crowdcast. Join us at: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/quichotte Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichotte sets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand, gallantly braving the tragicomic perils of an age where “Anything-Can-Happen.” Meanwhile, his creator, in a midlife crisis, has equally urgent challenges of his own. Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote to satirize the culture of his time, Rushdie takes the reader on a wild ride through a…

Free

Literary Arts presents the 2020 Oregon Book Awards

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Due to the ongoing public health crisis, we will not be hosting our 33rd Annual Oregon Book Awards Ceremony at Portland Center Stage at The Armory on June 22. However, we are excited to announce that the Oregon Book Awards Ceremony will take place in a different format. “The 2020 Oregon Book Awards” a special from Literary Arts: The Archive Project Monday, June 22, 2020 7:00 to 7:30 p.m. OPB Radio (where to listen) This year’s finalists are listed here.  This special, statewide broadcast will celebrate the finalists and announce the winners of the 2020 Oregon Book Awards. It will be hosted, as originally planned, by writers Omar El Akkad and Elena Passarello. We are thrilled to be able to celebrate these awards in a way…

Free

Portland Zine Symposium: #virtualpzs

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Time isn’t real, the year 2020 is an exhausting tornado, and on July 11th and 12th, #virtualpzs will be happening on the internet. We are currently in planning stages, but below is a list of some of our programming. We have not yet set a schedule, but all programming will take place between 11am-6pm on July 11th and 12th. Radical Animal-Style Singalong Kids of all ages and kids at hearts are invited to join Sine in the animal kingdom for a radical singalong to lift our spirits, soothe our hearts, and share some laughter and fun! Come with your best animal costume, noises, snacks, and dance moves and get ready to roar! Interactive Story Time (Children ages 2-5 and their families) Join the Portland Childcare…

Free

Willamette Writers Online Conference

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pitch agents. Sit down with producers. Sharpen your manuscript with industry pros. You can do all this from the comfort of your own home, July 30 – August 2, 2020! Featuring keynote speakers Cheryl Strayed, Pete Souza, Mitchell S. Jackson, Zoraida Córdova, Rosanne Parry, and more! With over 80 virtual workshops, as well as night events, critiques, and gatherings, you're sure to find your community, develop your craft, and expand your career this year. Whether you're a poet, a screenwriter, a novelist, or a techie, you'll find your home at our annual conference. What's that? You're a memoirist? You're going to love our classes on voice and style, taught by New York Times Bestselling Authors. Newbie? Great! Come learn with us! Published 80 books? We're…

$249 – $349

Annie Bloom’s Books: Independent Bookstore Day 2020

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Independent Bookstore Day is going online for 2020. Check out this amazing schedule of livestream events! GOLDFISH GHOST drawing class with LISA BROWN Join us for a fun and interactive drawing demonstration with illustrator and author Lisa Brown. Her books include GOLDFISH GHOST, THE AIRPORT BOOK, THE PHANTOM TWIN, MUMMY CAT, LONG STORY SHORT and others. Join here at 10am on 8/29: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83926414626?pwd=UjFrenFzREVRS0ZlOVZMcURMald0Zz09 Middle Grade Fun with RENEE WATSON and illustrator NINA MATA with moderator ISAAC FITZGERALD Join RENEE WATSON (WAYS TO MAKE SUNSHINE), illustrator NINA MATA (I PROMISE), and moderator ISAAC FITZGERALD (HOW TO BE A PIRATE). Join here at 11am on 8/29: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88670459576?pwd=R1A5cEQwZU81UUNGMndQNXBLWCtKdz09 World-Building in YA Feminist Fantasy Fiction Join bestselling YA fantasy authors KAT CHO (WICKED FOX and VICIOUS SPIRITS), RENA BARRON…

Free

2019/2020 Portland Arts & Lectures: Colson Whitehead (virtual event)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Colson whitehead will be joined POST-LECTURE In conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson. This event is underwritten by The Eberwein Family NOTE: Colson Whitehead will not be traveling in person to Portland this season. Rather than wait until 2022 for an in-person event, we have decided to make this event virtual and will take place on Thursday, September 24, 2020. What you need to know: High Quality: This event will have a high production value, and will deliver a unique evening with one of our greatest writers at work today.  This event will only be available to subscribers to the 2019-20 season, which is sold out, via a private channel online. More Communication Coming: We will be sending you more emailed information on how you can access the event online. We appreciate…

Free

Allie Brosh Ticketed Event

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

For the first time in seven years, Allie Brosh — beloved author and artist of the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestseller Hyperbole and a Half — returns with a new collection of comedic, autobiographical, and illustrated essays. Solutions and Other Problems (Gallery Books) includes humorous stories from Brosh’s childhood; the adventures of her very bad animals; merciless dissection of her own character flaws; incisive essays on grief, loneliness, and powerlessness; as well as reflections on the absurdity of modern life. Solutions and Other Problems, featuring all-new material, marks the return of a beloved American humorist who has “the observational skills of a scientist, the creativity of an artist, and the wit of a comedian” (Bill Gates). Brosh will be joined in conversation by a…

$30