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!
Friday, September 9, is the deadline for submission to the 2023 Oregon Book Awards and Special Awards. Books published between September 1, 2021 and August 31, 2022 are eligible. Complete Oregon Book Awards guidelines are here, and guidelines for the Special Awards are here.
Each year, Attic Institute founder David Biespiel accepts 2-4 writers into Highgate, a private, one-on-one workshop for writers interested close, in-depth feedback. Highgate consists of guidance, instruction, and mentoring based on the idea that accountability, ambition, and tailored goals lead to acheivement, growth and joy as a writer. Learn more Teacher: David BiespielTime: Scheduled each month.Location: In-person or Zoom
I love being witnessed, and I absolutely love witnessing the words of everyone else in the group. It’s our own kind of magic.” —BIPOC Online Workshop Participant For people who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC). 2nd & 4th Friday of every month from 4 to 5:30 pm (Pacific Time), Free. Workshops are held via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. Registration opens the 1st of the month every month and closes when filled or at 12noon the day before the workshop. Pre-register for our 2nd Friday workshop here. Pre-register for our 4th Friday workshop here. Click here for more workshop details.
All day we’ll be down at Kindred Homestead Supply (606 Main St in Downtown Vancouver, WA) peddling our wares and having a wondrous time! We’ll be bringing a bunch of modern and vintage books from our backstock to the market so come snag some great finds before they make their way to the shelves. For more information, head to kindredhomesteadsupply.com.
In this four-week generative class, we’ll visit one of the basic elements of storytelling – setting –and immerse ourselves in how we craft these spaces. How do we choose which details to include? What can we borrow from cinematographers? From composers? From artists? How do we choreograph complicated scenes? What can we leave out and what can we heighten? What about a character’s interior setting? What can we learn from science writers? Journalists? The classes will involve visualizations, writing inside and outside of our meetings, sharing our work in an exploratory way, movement, and discussion of setting, voice, and tone in works by Tommy Orange, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Barry Lopez, Hanif Abdurraqib, Louise Erdrich, and others. We’ll also look at crowd scenes and landscape…
In June, IPRC member Rimona Eskayo published their first book, I’m Having Top Surgery: An Illustrated Guide For You And Me. ⭐️ Part-essay, part-handbook, and full-on love poem to my community, this 96-page risographed book draws upon my experiences of top surgery alongside the knowledge of trans scholars, healthcare experts, and friends. A special thanks to Regional Arts & Culture Counsel for their funding and belief in this project. Come by the IPRC on Saturday, September 10th for an outdoor sidewalk sale (where our garage door is on Main St.) between 2 and 5 pm. Book pre-oders can be placed through Rimona’s online shop HERE.
Delegation (Aperture) is the first comprehensive monograph by Apsáalooke/Crow artist Wendy Red Star, whose photography recasts historical narratives with wit, candor, and a feminist, Indigenous perspective. Red Star centers Native American life and material culture through imaginative self-portraiture, vivid collages, archival interventions, and site-specific installations. Whether referencing 19th-century Crow leaders or 1980s pulp fiction, museum collections or family pictures, she constantly questions the role of the photographer in shaping Indigenous representation. Including a dynamic array of Red Star’s lens-based works from 2006 to the present, and a range of essays, stories, and poems, Delegation is a spirited testament to an influential artist’s singular vision. Red Star will be joined in conversation by writer and photographer Will Matsuda. Preorder a Signed Edition
CROSSROADS: Prepare a five-minute story about a turning point in your life. Do or die, now or never. Saying or doing something you can never take back. Turning down the job, saying yes to the tattoo, breaking up with not-the-one. Opportunities, decisions or indecision. Am I this stray dog's forever home? Taking the high road or the low road. Right, left or full steam ahead... COVID Requirements: See The Old Church's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 16+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts
In his new book, The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness (Berrett-Koehler), progressive radio host Thom Hartmann reveals how and why neoliberalism became so prevalent in the United States and why it's time for us to turn our backs to it. While America is at a crossroads regarding its economic future, many of us don't fully understand how we got here. In his powerful and accessible new book, Hartmann demystifies neoliberalism and explains how we can use this pivotal point in time to create a more positive future. The Hidden History of Neoliberalism traces the history of neoliberalism — which applies to a set of capitalistic philosophies favoring free trade, financial austerity, and deregulation — up to…
“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ~ E. L. Doctorow You have a thousand stories inside your head. You dabble on the page but rarely if ever finish anything, much less share with others. “Is my work good enough?” you wonder. “Do I have something original and interesting to say? What makes me think I can be a writer?” The biggest obstacle for emerging writers is not lack of time nor lack of skill nor lack of things to write about. It’s a lack of self-confidence. This workshop is designed for those who want to be writers, but are not sure they can be. It…