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!

First Thursday: A Map Will Get You Only So Far

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

A Map Will Get You Only So Far features mixed media works by Portland, Oregon artist Cristina Aine Berretta. Everyone found their own ways through the strange landscape of the past few years, and Cristina’s latest show documents the path she took and where she found inspiration and solace along the way. Drawn from long walks in the wilderness and long afternoons in the backyard, imagined islands and ghostly trees are joined by haloed birds and evocative landscapes.

Free

Cultivating a Sustainable Writing Practice

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Cultivating a Sustainable Writing Practice Instructor: Alissa Hattman This workshop is offered via Zoom PST Register here Class Meetings: 1 Saturday, Jan. 7th; 1-4pm $15 – $75 sliding scale *6 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized Our practice—how we labor as writers—is highly personal. When we create a writing habit, it helps to consider our individual creative processes, life priorities, writing goals, and all the ways that we get in the way of our own writing. How we labor is also bound up in cultural notions of productivity and success that can often kill the creative drive. It can be hard to consistently carve out time in order to cultivate the type of patient, inner stillness required to write, but it is possible. Necessary,…

$15 – $75

Aubrey Gordon in Conversation With Sarah Marshall

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

In her new book, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” (Beacon Press), Aubrey Gordon, co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend, equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice. The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy — calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive. In “You Just Need to Lose Weight," Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness…

Free

Benson High School WITS

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

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…

$80 – $200

Caverly Morgan

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

When Caverly Morgan reentered the world after a period of eight solitary years as a practicing Zen monk, she was confronted with a question so many of us find ourselves asking these days: when faced with the enormity of the collective problems before us, how can an individual mindfulness and meditation practice actually make a difference in our world? In The Heart of Who We Are (Sounds True), Morgan explores how contemplative technologies designed for the pursuit of personal freedom can be — and must be — applied collectively. Filled with wisdom rooted in presence and the truth of our oneness, Morgan’s timely guide invites us to connect with the core of who we are and then use that understanding to transform our own lives…

Free

Ruby McConnell and Char Miller

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for an evening with Ruby McConnell and Char Miller discussing their latest books, Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of Life and Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril. Ruby McConnell is a registered geologist and outdoor adventurer. She is a recipient of numerous honors, including the Literary Arts Oregon Literary Fellowship, and she was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. Ground Truth is an extended eulogy to a rapidly changing land, population and society awakening to the realities of logging, climate change, land-use and pollution. The book illuminates the central role of landscapes in our ideas of home and self despite the growing disconnect between modern lifestyle and the environment. Char Miller is the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental…

Free

Lauren Fleshman in Conversation With Robin Romm

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

Lauren Fleshman has grown up in the world of running. One of the most decorated collegiate athletes of all time and a national champion as a pro, she was a major face of women’s running for Nike before leaving to shake up the industry with feminist running brand, Oiselle, and now coaches elite young female runners. Every step of the way, she has seen the way that our sports systems — originally designed by men, for men and boys — fail young women and girls as much as empower them. Girls drop out of sports at alarming rates once they hit puberty, and female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, eating disorders, or mental health struggles as they try to force their way past…

Free

Kids’ Storytime with Christine Babinec

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

It’s never too early to teach children about the necessity of boundaries and the power of consent. Developed by therapist Christine Babinec after years of working with survivors of abuse, Want a Hug?: Consent and Boundaries for Kids (Familius) is a book about communication, understanding, mutuality, listening, and love. Far from a didactic lecture, this joyful picture book affirms that developing consent skills is a natural, positive, fun, and affirming experience. With colorful, inviting illustrations, children will learn that it’s okay to say no and, perhaps more importantly, it’s okay to say yes. The power is in the choice. Preorder a Signed Edition

Free

In-Store Reading: Gregg Coodley: Patients in Peril

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes back local author Gregg Coodley for an in-store reading from his new book, Patients in Peril: The Demise of Primary Care in America. Signed and personalized copies are available for order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; or indicate "signed only." About Patients in Peril: Once, Americans could count on having a personal or primary care physician who would see patients for new or chronic problems, whether in the office or the hospital. The appeal of such a system is more than psychological, for both primary care and continuity of care with a physician over time are associated with improved patient care, greater patient satisfaction, and lower overall costs. These days are ending as primary care…

Free