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!

Who Are You Becoming? A reading about grief over time

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

When we lose someone we cannot live without, our lives become split into two time frames: Before and After. The After is the rest of our lives, often decades. Join us as we hear stories from people who are 6 months to 40 years our from their losses. Come hear how each story is unique and how each has so much overlap and commonality. Come hear how our grief changes over time and how it stays the same. Come hear how love, the true origin of our grief, absolutely never ends or changes. Featuring: DeAnn Welker Monica Welty Sue Moshofsky Karin Stanley Anne Gudger Jewelie Randall Mary Mandeville This event is free! Libations available for purchase at this important literary hub of our community! If…

Free

Longreads Club: I’m Writing You From Tehran

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

A French-Iranian journalist writes a letter to her grandfather about the ten years she spent in Iran, trying to make sense of her identity and a country living very different public and private lives. READ THE ARTICLE: https://longreads.com/2019/04/01/im-writing-you-from-tehran/ Join the Longreads Club where we discuss a long-form article focused on global topics. No membership or registration required. Just read the article, show up, and join the discussion!

Free

Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Schlitzie the Pinhead

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

From Bill Griffith, creator of Zippy the Pinhead, comes the first-ever biography of Schlitzie, a major sideshow attraction from the early 1920s to the late 1960s. Nobody’s Fool (Abrams ComicArts) follows the story of Schlitzie’s long career, from Coney Island and the Ringling Bros. Circus to small-town carnivals and big-city sideshows. Today, Schlitzie is most well-known for his appearance in the cult classic Freaks. Griffith’s graphic novel biography offers a unique look into Schlitzie’s world and restores dignity to his life by recognizing his contributions to popular culture.

Free

Broke Millennial Takes on Investing

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Millennials want to learn how to start investing. The problem is that most have no idea where to begin. In the second book in the Broke Millennial series, Broke Millennial Takes on Investing (TarcherPerigee), Erin Lowry delivers all of the investment basics in one easy-to-digest package. Tackling topics ranging from common terminology to retirement savings and even how to actually buy a stock, this hands-on guide will help any newbie become a confident player in the market.

Free

Garden+ Lecture Series: Christian Tagsold

Portland Japanese Garden 611 SW Kingston Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West The German author of Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West discusses his provocative and groundbreaking theories that the idea of the Japanese garden has less to do with Japan’s history and traditions than with the country’s interactions with the West. Tagsold, who has researched over eighty Japanese gardens in ten countries, explores their history, popularity, and shifting aesthetic, as well as that most elusive concept — authenticity. Limited copies of Christian Tagsold’s book Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Location: Yanai Classroom About the speaker Christian Tagsold is Associate Professor at the Institute for Modern Japanese Studies, University of Düsseldorf. He writes on Japanese…

$15 – $20

Liz Scott in conversation with Rene Denfeld

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

We are thrilled to welcome Liz Scott and Rene Denefeld to the store at 7 pm on Monday, April 29th. In her memoir This Never Happened, Liz Scott goes in search of the answers to the mysteries of her family. She mines photographs and letters, leaving no one, including herself, unexamined.“This is where I live -- somewhere smack between pity and rage, between empathy and indictment. And as hard as I look, I still can’t find a place between mercy and pain.” Scott has creatively assembled the text, including bulleted and numbered lists, correspondence, and photographs, which together tell Scott’s family history from as many angles as possible. In the end, the book is about the struggle to clear away pain to make room for…

Free

Graham Hancock

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

Was an advanced civilization lost to history in the global cataclysm that ended the last Ice Age? Graham Hancock, author of Fingerprints of the Gods, has made it his life's work to find out. In America Before (St. Martin’s), he draws on the latest archaeological and DNA evidence to bring his quest to a stunning conclusion. America Before is a culmination of everything that millions of readers have loved in Hancock’s body of work, namely an exploration of the mystery of ancient civilizations, amazing discoveries, and profound implications for how we lead our lives today.

Free

Mo Welch in Conversation With Stacey Hallal

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Stand-up comedian Mo Welch’s How to Die Alone (Workman) is a self-help guide for NOT helping yourself, packed with irreverent humor and terrible life advice for modern adults. Welch's comics illustrate and celebrate our common afflictions – social anxiety, terrible dates, too few friends (who aren't cats), too many cookies, too much wine, and an allergy to exercise and day jobs – with totally relatable, slightly dark, and genuinely funny humor. Welch will be joined in conversation by comedian Stacey Hallal, founder of Portland’s Curious Comedy Theater.

Free

Carolyn Burke

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Carolyn Burke’s Foursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O’Keefe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury (Knopf) is a captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of 20th-century art.

Free

Michele Filgate With Lidia Yuknavitch, Nayomi Munaweera & Rene Denfeld

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize what she was actually trying to write: how this affected her relationship with her mother. In What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About (Simon & Schuster), 15 writers explore what we don’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse. Filgate will be joined in conversation at the event by Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Book of Joan, Nayomi Munaweera, author of What Lies Between Us, and Rene Denfeld, author of The Child Finder.

Free