A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
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!
The Portland Zine Symposium is happening this year as a hybrid event on Sept 17 & 18! The IPRC will be tabling in person both days at the Smith Ballroom at Portland State University. Remote programming will be taking place the same weekend. Visit https://www.instagram.com/pdx_zines/ for more info!
The Alano Club of Portland’s Artists in Recovery series and Literary Arts are thrilled to welcome Hanif Abdurraqib, Kaveh Akbar, and Leslie Jamison to Portland for a reading and conversation about the intersections of mental health and substance use recovery, creativity, and building community. The discussion will be moderated by Kasey Anderson. This event is free and open to the public but space is limited so reserving a ticket on Eventbrite is recommended. This event is sponsored by Third Eye Books, Tin House, and the Willamette University/PNCA Low Residency Creative Writing MFA Program. In-Person Event Note: This event meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington. Literary Arts will require proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, or a negative test result (within 72 hours) from a…
A new season is upon us! We open for submissions on September 18th. For over sixty years, Portland Review has published the works of emerging writers and artists alongside the works of well-established authors. We warmly encourage previously unpublished writers and artists to submit, and we aim to support work by those often marginalized in the artistic conversation, including (though certainly not limited to) people of color, women, disabled people, LGBTQIA people, and people with intersectional identities. Please note Portland Review does not accept previously published material. Portland Review accepts simultaneous submissions, but please immediately withdraw your work via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere. If one work out of a collection of poems or images needs to be withdrawn but the other works in the collection are still available, message us via…
A reading with Hanif Abdurraqib, poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is the author of the poetry The Crown Ain’t Worth Much and the essay collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. This is an in-person event. Please review our Covid-19 guidelines. Be prepared to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR Test at the door. Masks are not required but encouraged. If you have any questions, contact Jessica at jessica@literary-arts.org. Hanif Abdurraqib Hanif Abdurraqib is an American poet, essayist, and cultural critic. He is the author of 2016 poetry collection The Crown Ain't Worth Much, published by Button Poetry; the 2017 essay collection They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, published by Two Dollar Radio; the 2019 non-fiction book, Go…
Fall :: A Generative Creative Lab :: Exhausting Metaphor Collaboration Leader: Domi Shoemaker, alongside weekly videos featuring Domi and Lidia Yuknavitch in conversation When: Begins September 18th Where: Videos are hosted on our site—you’ll receive a link to one each week on Sundays, and then have access to them always. Domi will host a Zoom meeting every Monday from 5:30-7:30PM PST. Meeting dates: September 19th, September 26th, October 3rd & October 10th Cost: $250—payment plans are available. Please contact Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com. Scholarships are also available—Apply Here. Seven years ago (!!!) Corporeal Writing hosted its first ever seasonal lab—and we started with Fall. It’s an exciting time for us all as we cozy back into this beautiful season ripe with metaphors. Color. Changes in light,…
OUTLAWS: Gangsters to double parkers, prepare a five-minute story about a lawless moment from your life. Rebels with a cause, readers of banned books, questioners of authority. Entering The Restricted Section or The Forbidden Forest. Trespassers welcome! COVID Requirements: See Holocene's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 21+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts
Frank Conroy, the longtime director of the Iowa Writers Workshop, once said that in good writing, you can feel a soul pressing up against the narrative. The question is how do writers access the “soul” that translates into good storytelling? We’ll first focus on finding the soul that’s pushing you to write by offering a true laboratory, a safe place to inspire and experiment with new ideas generated by in-class prompts and exercises. We will talk about the craft of narrative, as well. Students will be required to read assigned essays and memoir excerpts outside of class to get a sense of the forms and techniques of narrative. The hope is students will be well on their way with a map for a new project by…
Flash nonfiction, simply put, is true-to-life writing defined by extreme compression: it's saying what you've got to say using as few words, and as much beauty, as possible. An endlessly accessible, playful, potent form, flash nonfiction is evermore popular; from Brevity to 100 Word Story, The Forge to The Sun, legions of journals are eager to publish great flash. In this prompt-driven workshop, we'll read short nonfiction by masters of the form; we'll talk about what stories are suited for flash, how to tell them well, and where to publish them; and most of all, we'll write and write and write, via in-class exercises and take-home prompts. Students will leave the class with reams of new writing and ideas for where to publish. Maximum | 16 students. Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Brian BensonWorkshop Day: TuesdayTime: Tuesdays,…
“When I sit down and start writing, I feel the given world recede, and I can just play.” —Sam Lipsyte Remember when you were a little kid, playing on the floor for hours and hours? Our best writing days are often imbued with that same sense of timelessness, freedom, wonder, and escape—in other words, our work often works best when it feels like play. In this generative writing course, we will tap into a playful mindset—by using silly rules, obstructions, oblique strategies, games, dreams, ephemera, constraints, and more—to unlock problematic works and/or generate new material. You will leave this class with more than a dozen techniques for starting a new project, breaking a block, or working through something sticky in a piece of writing. This…
In late 1940s America, few writers commanded attention like Bernard DeVoto. Alongside his brilliant wife and editor, Avis, DeVoto was a firebrand of American liberty, free speech, and perhaps our greatest national treasure: public lands. In This America of Ours, award-winning journalist Nate Schweber uncovers the forgotten story of a progressive alliance that altered the course of twentieth-century history and saved American wilderness—and our country’s most fundamental ideals—from ruin. Caroline Fraser, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, has this to say about the book: "Charming and absorbing, This America of Ours is the biography of a marriage between two lavishly talented characters, the witty and profane Avis DeVoto, who would become Julia Child's best friend and editor, and western…