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!

Steel Yourself Before You Reveal Yourself

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A good journalist reports the story, but never becomes the story. But as essayists and non-fiction writers, we're not journalists. Sometimes our lives are, in fact, the story. What does it mean to write about ourselves and our lives, and then, to publish that writing? What does it mean when people read that writing, and discuss it—and us—publicly, as well as privately? Alexander Chee (How To Write an Autobiographical Novel), Morgan Jerkins (This May Be My Undoing), and Joseph Osmundson (Virology, forthcoming 2022) will discuss the choice to write about ourselves and dive into the public discourse as both writer and subject, and how to prepare for the unique scrutiny that comes with essay, memoir, and autobiographical writing. They will also offer tools to help…

$10

Inquiry as Narrative w/ Lilly Dancyger

The Corporeal Writing Center 510 SW 3rd Ave #101, Portland, OR, United States

Tuesday, October 12th, 5-8pm Pacific Cost: $150 payment plans available, email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com Where: Corporeal Center, 510 SW 3rd Avenue, suite 101, Portland, Or. 97204 Description: There's often so much emphasis on plot and narrative, but there are other ways to move a story forward. Sometimes the most interesting thing isn't what happened, and then what happened next, and then what happened next—but what we have to say about what happened, and how our perspective on a single event can shift and change over time. How the very process of writing about an experience—and the research and inquiry that goes into writing about our own lives—can change our relationship to the thing we're writing about. In this session, we'll talk about how to shape…

$150

Archiving Ancestors, Collective Grief, and the Illusion of Time

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The quiet and stillness of quarantine transported many of us beyond the bounds of time and space. Through our unexpected journeys, we may have traced new threads from ancestral roots to our present moments and felt them stretch towards an unknown somewhere on a vast continuum of time. Loss of place, people, and ways of being from the past, present, and anticipatory future left grief to linger and blur the edges of things. This generative writing series will invite us to craft multi-genre pieces that archive the transcendent, dizzying, perplexing, and new. We will honor our ancestors, known, unknown, and chosen. We will write from the dark blue of sorrow to expand our capacity for joy. We will dissolve the illusion of time to embody…

$145

Article Club (online)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A virtual program to discuss interesting articles from national publications Using Zoom, we will connect and share our thoughts about articles from national publications. Our virtual meeting will last about 30 minutes, and feature discussions on the chosen article. Participants should be ages 18+ and interested in sharing. There is space for up to 10 members, so sign up to receive the Zoom access code for the meeting. For more information, and to sign up, visit the Article Club page. "The Ambush That Changed History" by Fergus M. Bordewich Smithsonian Magazine, September 2006 An amateur archaeologist discovers the field where wily Germanic warriors halted the spread of the Roman Empire. It was a defeat so catastrophic that it threatened the survival of Rome itself and halted the empire’s conquest of Germany. “This…

Free

Pitch Roulette

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

What goes through an editor’s mind when they read a pitch? What turns them off, and what grabs their interest? One of our most popular salons is back with a twist: Editor-in-Chief Denne Michele Norris and Executive Director Halimah Marcus will review your anonymous pitches, submitted just for this event. They will read each pitch for the first time live on screen, sharing their immediate reactions as they go. Your pitch may even be commissioned for Electric Lit! Submission instructions: You can find the link to submit in the chat, on the right hand side of the event page. (Please note, you will only see the chat if you are registered for the event.) If you are unable to find the submission portal or have questions…

$10

Band of Submitting Writers & Artists

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Band of Submitting Writers & Artists with Katie Collins Guinn WHAT: A two week online creative lab on sending work to literary publications WHEN: Wednesdays, October 13th, & October 20th @4:30-6:30pm PT ACCESS: $100 :: Payment plans always available—contact Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com Where: The Corporeal Writing Zoom Room :: A Zoom link will be provided. SCHOLARSHIPS: Scholarships are available please click here to apply. So, you’ve written something and/or created some visual art and want to get it out into the world of literary publications, now what? The process of sending out work can be overwhelming, whether you’re just beginning to think about it, or returning to the process, and doing it alone can seem even more daunting. Where do we begin? Who do we…

$100

Consider This with Mitchell S. Jackson

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Our 2021–22 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, kicks off October 13 with a conversation with writer Mitchell S. Jackson, author of Survival Math and The Residue Years. Join us for a live virtual conversation on self-determination, family, and redemption with Jackson and Adam Davis, executive director of Oregon Humanities. The program will begin at 5:00 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, October 13, and will be streamed live on YouTube and on page. Following the panel's discussion, at 6:00 p.m., viewers may join other participants in facilitated conversations on Zoom. To participate in the second part of the program, please RSVP here. Mitchell S. Jackson was born and raised Portland, Oregon. His work explores his hometown, including the systemic forces that shaped his community, his family, and his early…

Free

Cecily Wong in Conversation With Liz Crain

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Wonder is around every corner, and on every plate. The curious minds behind Atlas Obscura now turn to the hidden curiosities of food, which becomes a gateway to fascinating stories about human history, science, art, and tradition — like the first book, all organized by country, lavishly illustrated, and full of surprises. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura (Workman) by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens? But far more than a menu of delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on history (trace…

Free

Livestream Event: Belonging – Middle Grade Author Panel

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join Annie Bloom's Books for a livestream event with middle grade authors Waka Brown (While I was Away), Kathleen Lane (Pity Party), Susan Hill Long (The Care and Keeping of Freddy), Rosanne Parry (A Whale of the Wild) and Kate Ristau (Clockbreakers series). The authors will discuss the theme of belonging: how kids search for and maintain connections, and how the books they read explore and support those connections too. This event is free and open to all ages. Please register in advance for this Zoom event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIud-CqqzgpG9UUTbHOhaYNOUq-9c1Smc0q If you would like signed or personalized copies of the authors' books, please leave a note in the comments section of your order! Waka T. Brown's While I Was Away is an empowering middle grade memoir from debut author…

Free

WRITING & THE BODY w/ Lidia Yuknavitch and Jen Pastiloff

The Corporeal Writing Center 510 SW 3rd Ave #101, Portland, OR, United States

Jennifer Pastiloff and Lidia Yuknavitch were running their infamous workshop four times a year before the pandemic hit. Covid-19 led to the cancellation of three of these in 2021…Lucky for us, we’re back! Jen & Lidia are both renowned in their fields in their own right, and both of them are known for their inventive, non-traditional methods. Together they lead you to your most creative place by tapping into your body first, and then picking up the pen. But don't worry! You do not have to be a published or experienced writer or yogi- we are looking for people who have heart. You have a desire to write? You have a body? Then this weekend is for you. IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to continued concerns about the spread…

$995