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!

Tiffany Midge in Conversation With Jacqueline Keeler

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

Why is there no Native woman David Sedaris? Or Native Anne Lamott? Humor categories in publishing are packed with books by funny women and humorous sociocultural-political commentary – but no Native women. There are presumably more important concerns in Indian Country. More important than humor? Among the Diné/Navajo, a ceremony is held in honor of a baby’s first laugh. While the context is different, it nonetheless reminds us that laughter is precious, even sacred. Bury My Heart at Chuck E. Cheese’s (Bison) is a powerful and compelling collection of Tiffany Midge’s musings on life, politics, and identity as a Native woman in America. Artfully blending sly humor, social commentary, and meditations on love and loss, Midge weaves short, standalone musings into a memoir that stares…

Free

7DS: Pants On Fire!

White Eagle 836 N Russell St, Portland, OR, United States

Pants On Fire! features seven storytellers telling the most insane, outrageous, hard-to-believe stories from their own lives. The catch? One of those seven will actually be telling a bald-faced lie -- a whopper that never actually happened. Think you can spot which of our seven storytellers is the liar? If you can, you might win a stay at McMenamin's Edgefield Hotel on us. Not sure you can which is guess the liar? No worries! There will be other ways to win valuable prizes throughout the evening, including a chance to take on one of your fellow audience members in our Two Truths & A Lie Mano-y-Mano Cage Match. Even if you don't win, you'll walk away having heard seven of the most wild, outrageous, hard-to-believe…

$10

Grief Rites Readers Series ~ December 2

American Legion Post 134 2104 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, United States

A monthly storytelling showcase about grief, loss and love. Gather in community with others who share grief in all forms and manifestations. Come ready to cry, laugh, listen and hold space for yourself and others. *Trigger warning, because Grief. Content not edited for language or topic. Mature audience. *Venue is accessible; gender-neutral restrooms on premises Readings begin promptly at 7pm. Come early, grab a drink (full bar) and find your seat. Please consider bringing canned goods or cold weather clothing/blankets to donate to the Post 134 food & clothing pantry, which serves local veterans, houseless and anyone in need. ***This month's event will include an open mic, in addition to our curated readers. If you have words to share about your grief, we welcome you.***…

Free

Ramesh Srinivasan

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

In his new book, Beyond the Valley: How Innovators Around the World Are Overcoming Inequality and Creating the Technologies of Tomorrow (MIT), Ramesh Srinivasan describes the Internet as both an enabler of frictionless efficiency and a dirty tangle of politics, economics, and other inefficient, inharmonious human activities. To make a better Internet, Srinivasan says, we need a new ethic of diversity, openness, and inclusivity, empowering those now excluded from decisions about how technologies are designed, who profits from them, and who are surveilled and exploited by them.

Free

The Moth: StorySLAM: Family

The Old Church Concert Hall 1422 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

FAMILY: Prepare a five-minute story about your kin, your clan, the people that made you. Awkward Thanksgiving dinners back home and last minute Friendsgivings in your cramped apartment. A chip off the old block or your neighbor down the block. Whether chosen or by blood, the folks that make you slam doors, pull your hair out, and feel like you belong. This venue is 21+. *Tickets for this event are available one week before the show, at 12pm PT / 3pm ET. *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

$15

Wit’s End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It

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

In Wit's End: What Wit Is, How It Works, and Why We Need It (W. W. Norton), James Geary explores every facet of wittiness, from its role in innovation to why puns are the highest form of wit. Adopting a different style for each chapter – from dramatic dialogue to sermon, heroic couplets to a barroom monologue – Geary embodies wit in all its forms. Wit’s End agilely balances psychology, folktale, visual art, and literary history with lighthearted humor and acute insight, demonstrating that wit and wisdom are really the same thing.

Free

Reading: Christine Light

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR, United States

Christine will read from her book Crisis of Character: Finding Our Moral Compass in a Trumped Up World.

Free

The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook

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

For thousands of years, the abundance of fish and shellfish in the Pacific Northwest created a seafood paradise for the Indigenous peoples hunting and gathering along the region’s pristine waterways, and, later, for the Chinese, Scandinavian, Filipino, and Japanese immigrants (along with many others) who have made this region home. Drawing on these diverse influences, the region fostered a cuisine that is as varied as its people, yet which remains specifically Northwestern. In The Pacific Northwest Seafood Cookbook (Countryman), food writer Naomi Tomky leads readers through an exploration of this cuisine.

Free

Westside Writing Group

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

A group for anyone writing nonfiction or memoir who would like company, support, and, most of all, accountability. Whether you’ve never written a word or you’re a published author, join us!

Free

Marc Bloom

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

Marc Bloom’s Amazing Racers: The Story of America's Greatest Running Team and Its Revolutionary Coach (Pegasus) is the inspiring, untold story about a group of remarkable athletes and their groundbreaking coach who live and train in startling ways – and are redefining running excellence in the United States. Everything Coach Bill Aris does with his runners – male and female alike – is new and extraordinary, and he has created a new American running dynasty. From adopting long-forgotten “Stotan” creeds – combining the rigors of a Spartan and stoic lifestyle – to delving into teenage developmental psychology and gender-blindness in training, Amazing Racers is a must-read for millions of runners and the millions more who strive for better performance.

Free