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!

Author Reading and Conversation with Jessamyn Stanley

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Multnomah County Library’s Black Cultural Library Advocates are thrilled to host internationally acclaimed yoga instructor and author Jessamyn Stanley. Join us for a reading and discussion about her new book, Yoke, My Yoga of Self-Acceptance. Attendees will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Yoke, My Yoga of Self-Acceptance signed by Jessamyn. Can’t make the event or want to buy the book yourself? You can purchase a copy of the book from Powell’s here: http://bit.ly/mclyoke About the Author: JESSAMYN STANLEY is an internationally acclaimed voice in wellness, highly sought after for her insights on 21st-century yoga and intersectional identity. She is the founder of The Underbelly, a streaming wellness app and community, cohost of the podcast Dear Jessamyn, and co-founder of We…

Free

Attic Institute: SUMMER Online: So You Wanna Be a Writer Workshop w Wayne Gregory | Aug 18 – Sep 15 SPOTS OPEN FOR NEW WRITERS

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

“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. …

$215 – $242

Rafia Zakaria in Conversation With Jean Guerrero

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Rafia Zakaria’s Against White Feminism (W. W. Norton) is a radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women’s rights. Elite white women have branded feminism, promising an apolitical individual empowerment along with sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity. As Zakaria expertly argues, those promises have been proven empty and white feminists have leant on their racial privilege and sense of cultural superiority. Drawing on her own experiences as an American Muslim woman, as well as an attorney working on behalf of immigrant women, Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism that forges true solidarity by bringing Black and brown voices and goals to the fore. Ranging from the savior complex of British feminist imperialists to the condescension of the white…

Free

Unrepeatable Peattie/Abel Yard Sale!

1005 SE 36th Avenue 1005 SE 36th Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

Extraordinary . . . Eclectic . . . Esoteric . . . International . . . Exquisite . . . Artistic Don't miss this unforgettable extravaganza!    & please tell your friends! Saturday, August 21 11:00 am – 5:00 pm (or so) Sunday, August 22 (BARGAIN DAY) 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm 1005 SE 36th Avenue (at Yamhill) No early birds and sorry, no pre-sales Cash, cards, and payment apps accepted Screaming deals! Vintage! Mod! Strange and Marvelous! Weird and wonderful home decor Select photos can be seen on the Facebook event page Tchotchkes & bibelots Adult trapeze with ropes 1920s Conn alto saxophone Chinese & Turkish ceramics Three Islamic-style side tables Large collection of mid-century lucite paperweights & objects Floor and table lamps Decorative…

Free

Revivify: Breathing Life into Dead Matter with Lidia Yuknavitch

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

WHAT: A three-hour online webgasm with a 15-minute intermission WITH: Lidia Yuknavitch and at least one special guest. WHEN: Saturday, August 21st 1PM-4PM Pacific (4PM-7PM Eastern) WHERE: ZOOM! (But of course.) Meeting ID will be provided ahead of time. (Interested in this event but unable to join it live? All registered attendees will receive a link to a recording of it that will be viewable for one week afterwards.) HOW MUCH: $150. Payment plans are available, contact Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com SCHOLARSHIPS: Scholarships are always available. Click here to apply. "No one is better at revealing how the stories we carry in our bodies need to find form and expression, before they eat us alive." —The New Yorker Revivify: Breathing Life into Dead Matter Do…

$150

Exploring Our Inner Monsters

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Exploring Our Inner Monsters: So many times we talk about our interests and desires, but what if we took the time to discover our inner monsters? What does that monster eat and thrive off? Ever wonder if someone else shares the same monster? Through guided writing prompts and dialogue, we will attempt to normalize our monsters and create from the exploration. Each participant will make a mini zine by the end of the workshop. *FREE* Register here Materials needed: Yourself, a pen or pencil, some paper, collaging material (an old magazine or two), scissors, glue stick or tape Age Range: All ages, but please have an adult with those who are 6 years and younger Artist Bio: A’misa Chiu (she/they) is a zinester, librarian and…

Free

Nick Flynn in Conversation With Melissa Febos

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When Nick Flynn was seven years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it’s only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann. With the spare lyricism and dark irony of his classic, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, Flynn excavates the terrain of his traumatic upbringing and his mother’s suicide. His searing new memoir, This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire (W. W. Norton), unravels the story…

Free

Jaime Lowe in Conversation With Jeff Sharlet

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

California’s fire season gets hotter, longer, and more extreme every year — fire season is now year-round. Of the thousands of firefighters who battle California’s blazes every year, roughly 30 percent of the on-the-ground wildland crews are inmates earning a dollar an hour. Approximately 200 of those firefighters are women serving on all-female crews. In Breathing Fire (MCD), Jaime Lowe expands on her revelatory work for The New York Times Magazine. She has spent years getting to know dozens of women who have participated in the fire camp program and spoken to captains, family and friends, correctional officers, and camp commanders. The result is a rare, illuminating look at how the fire camps actually operate — a story that encompasses California’s underlying catastrophes of climate…

Free

Writing the Non-Fiction Book Proposal

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writing a book proposal is the best first step to writing a nonfiction book for both adults and young readers. An excellent proposal helps you organize your ideas, understand the competition, and can help you land a publishing contract even before you write the book. This six-week class will take you step-by-step through the major parts of the nonfiction book proposal: the query letter, overview, competitive analysis, marketing and promotion, author background, outline and sample chapter. Bring an idea, and be ready to write. The class includes extensive handouts and questionnaires to guide your work. Class outcomes: By the end of this six week workshop, students will leave with a rough draft of a nonfiction book proposal. More information: Download 10 Reasons to Write a…

$285

On The Metaphysics of Deep Gossip: Bagley Wright Lecture Series

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this memoir and craft talk, Lisa Jarnot reflects on her entanglement in the New York poetry scene over twenty-five years. Beginning with the proposition that deep gossip and urban mindfulness are sacred practices, she explores the places where the New York School’s feminine, marvelous, and tough irreverence opens into a deeper mystery that is passed down as a liturgy of ecstatic connectedness. The Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry supports contemporary poets as they explore in-depth their own thinking on poetry and poetics, and give a series of lectures resulting from these investigations. Lectures are delivered publicly in partnership with institutions and organizations nationwide. Find out more about past, present, and future lecturers, and explore the archive at www.bagleywrightlectures.org. Charlie Wright, Publisher of Wave…

Free