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!

2021 Oregon Book Awards finalists announced

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Oregon Book Awards honors the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. Finalists will be announced on our web site on March 29, 2021, and winners will be announced May 2, 2021, on a special episode of the Archive project.

Free

Brian David Johnson in Conversation With Cory Doctorow

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

If you’re like most people, thinking about tomorrow makes you anxious. You may have dreams of what you want to do or where you want to be in the next few months, years, or decade, but you’re fearful because you don’t know what may await. Unfortunately, this apprehension affects how you make decisions today — the kind of decisions that will impact your life tomorrow. Acclaimed futurist Brian David Johnson has spent a quarter century helping governments, Fortune 500 corporations, and other organizations chart successful paths forward by showing them what the world will soon look like. Now, he uses his prognosticator’s skill to help you be your best self — to help you see the future, and your place in it, in a new…

Free

Confronting Conspiracy Theories in the Classroom

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Due to limited space, we must give priority to current K – 12 educators. If you are not a current teacher, but are interested in attending, please email education@ojmche.org and if space becomes available we will email you with the link to attend. The program will also be recorded and uploaded to our youtube page for anyone to watch. With the flood of misinformation and disinformation appearing on our social media feeds, conspiracy theories like QAnon and Holocaust Denial have emerged into the public dialogue at a disturbing pace. In this session, educators will learn how and why people begin to engage with conspiracy theories and extremist movements, explore the relationship/spectrum between truth/evidence, opinions/beliefs, and conspiracy theories, and acquire tools and strategies for addressing comments…

Free

Jonathan Meiburg in Conversation With Michael Azerrad

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were “tame and inquisitive… quarrelsome and passionate,” and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it. Almost 200 years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they’re very rare. He reveals the…

Free

A Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, hosted by University of Portland

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Come hear Dr. Kendi as he engages the community in a dynamic conversation. ReadUP 2021 will conclude with the Schoenfeldt Distinguished Visiting Writers Series hosting Dr. Kendi as he engages the community in a dynamic conversation that addresses questions submitted by UP community members in advance of the event and, if time allows, from event attendees. Questions for Dr. Kendi? Book discussion groups across campus will harvest questions, and for those reading on their own, UP community members can supply questions on this simple form; sign in with your UP credentials. Questions submitted by 5pm on Monday, March 29 will be generously curated by staff in the Office of International Education, Diversity and Inclusion, with the goal of hearing from as many people as possible.…

Free

Capturing History – Students Write About COVID

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Beaverton City Library is assisting a student with her Girl Scout Gold Award project by helping to collect writings from students in grades 6-12 about their experiences during the pandemic. We are hoping to add teenage voices to the conversation surrounding the pandemic and its effects on people. Selected writings will be assembled into a booklet and added to the Beaverton City Library’s local history collection, and some entries will also be sent to the Oregon Historical Society and/or published elsewhere. Writing can be in the form of an essay, poem, or any other creative style. Submissions can be kept anonymous if the author chooses. This writing project is open to Oregon students living in Washington and Multnomah counties. There is an informational webpage…

Free

Write Around Portland: Bi-Weekly Online Writing Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writing is often thought of as something done in isolation; we know there is immense power when writing is done in community. Join us for 90 minutes of creativity and community-building, with generative writing exercises, sharing and strengths-based feedback. Our workshop model, refined over 22 years, is proven for people of all writing levels: from the budding writer to the published author. Workshops are held via Zoom. Weekly registration opens 5 days before each session and closes one hour before the workshop. Click here for more info. Mondays from 3 to 4:30 pm (Pacific Time) Sliding Scale Registration $5-$30. Register here. $0 registration available for past Write Around Portland participants at a social service agency and people experiencing financial hardship. Register here. Thursdays from 11 am to…

$5 – $30

Live Online Lecture and Q & A with Saeed Jones

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Saeed Jones is an essential author as well as a powerful voice in the world of literary activism, and his writing often takes on questions of identity. Formerly a major contributor at Buzzfeed, he shaped his platform into a tool for social awareness with his no-holds-barred personality. In 2019, Saeed released his highly anticipated memoir, How We Fight for Our Lives. In this memoir, Saeed has developed a one-of-a-kind style that is as beautiful as it is powerful, and he has cemented himself as an essential writer of our time. This event will be free and open to the public. For the link and password to the event, write to anelson@clark.edu. *Because this lecture falls during Clark College's spring break, a recording will be made available to…

Free

Vanessa O’Brien in Conversation With Phil Powers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Long before she became the first American woman to summit K2 and the first British woman to return from its summit alive, Vanessa O’Brien was a feisty suburban Detroit teenager forced to reinvent her world in the wake of a devastating loss that destroyed her family. Making her own way in the world, O’Brien strove to reach her lofty ambitions. Soon, armed with an MBA and a wry sense of humor, she climbed the corporate ladder to great success, but after the 2009 economic meltdown, her career went into a tailspin. She searched for a new purpose and settled on an unlikely goal: climbing Mount Everest. When her first attempt ended in disaster, she trudged home, humbled but wiser. Two years later, she made it…

Free

Coffee Talk #21

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Please join us for an hour on zoom. We'll have five phenomenal writer/readers sharing their grief stories on a variety of topics. It's a heart balm. Love to see you there! Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83022570139?pwd=UXR0bjhXWnRIZEtlelByVWRLSkcvZz09 Meeting ID: 830 2257 0139 Passcode: 455941

Free