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 Moth: StorySLAM: Stakes

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

STAKES: Prepare a five-minute story about when it was make-or-break, all-or-nothing. When you dug in your heels or rose to the occasion. Packed it up, moved on, or made your claim. Proceed at your own risk... COVID Requirements: See The Old Church's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 16+ *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

Constellation #3: Correa, Smith, Keil

Tin House 2617 NW Thurman Street, Portland, OR, United States

After a memorable gathering last month, we invite you to join us at a new Constellation. In March we're hosting local writer Michelle Ruiz Keil and two writers from the Carolyn Moore Writers House residency: Cristina Correa and Kira Brooke Smith. Doors open at 6:45 and the reading starts around 7:15. Cristina Correa (she/her) is from Chicago and is the recipient of awards from CantoMundo, VONA/Voices, Hedgebrook Foundation, and more. Her writing has been featured in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, Missouri Review, Obsidian, NPR’s Latino USA, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Her poem “Reflection from a Bridge” was selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith in the Best New Poets series. Kira Brooke Smith (she/her) is a nonfiction…

Free

Application Deadline: Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The forests of the Oregon Coast Range are part of a vast ecosystem spanning from Northern California to the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The Pacific temperate rainforest is, acre for acre, better than the Amazon Rainforest at absorbing and storing carbon. If left to grow, the majestic cedars, spruces, hemlocks, and firs can hold carbon for an astonishing 800 years or more. These forests are climate forests. As we work toward stabilizing the climate, there is no technology that can sequester carbon at the scale of maturing and ancient forests. Yet less than 10% of Oregon’s old-growth forest remains. Throughout the Oregon Coast Range, the patchwork scars of ongoing industrial clearcuts and wide-scale liquidation of ancient forests are visible reminders of our limited imaginations…

Free

Ari Shapiro in Conversation With Thomas Lauderdale / TICKETED EVENT

Revolution Hall 1300 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, United States

In his first book, broadcaster Ari Shapiro — the beloved host of NPR's All Things Considered — takes us around the globe to reveal the stories behind narratives that are sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking, but always poignant. He details his time traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, or following the path of Syrian refugees fleeing war, or learning from those fighting for social justice both at home and abroad. As the self-reinforcing bubbles we live in become more impenetrable, Shapiro keeps seeking ways to help people listen to one another; to find connection and commonality with those who may seem different; to remind us that, before religion, or nationality, or politics, we are all human. Shapiro's stirring memoir-in-essays, The Best Strangers in the…

$38.99

Brian Lowery in Conversation With Darrell Wade

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

There's nothing we spend more time with, but understand less, than ourselves. You've been with yourself every waking moment of your life. But who — or, rather, what — are you? In Selfless (Harper), social psychologist and Stanford professor Brian Lowery argues for the radical idea that the "self" as we know it — that "voice in your head" — is a social construct, created in our relationships and social interactions. We are unique because our individual pattern of relationships is unique. We change because our relationships change. Your self isn't just you, it's all around you. Lowery uses this research-driven perspective of selfhood to explore questions of inequity, race, gender, politics, and power structures, transforming our perceptions of how the world is and how…

Free

2023 Oregon Book Awards

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for an evening honoring our state’s most accomplished writers in the categories of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers, and drama. Finalists in all categories will be announced in January, 2023.  Luke Burbank Luke Burbank is the host of Live Wire, a public radio variety show taped monthly in front of a live audience in Portland. He grew up as one of seven kids, learning early on how to vie for attention. Those profound childhood issues have propelled him to various media projects including “This American Life,” “Wait Wait Don't Tell Me,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” and the daily podcast “Too Beautiful To Live.” Luke’s uniquely charming, quick-witted, and refreshingly vulnerable interview style is a winner with Live Wire guests and listeners alike.

$65

Storytime Reading: Bugs!

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

Annie Bloom's Books presents a storytime reading featuring books about bugs! Lindsey, a Speech and Language Pathologist at Parkwood Clinic, will be leading the event, which will include activities and songs.  

Free

Alison Roman in Conversation With Nicole Rucker

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

Casual, effortless, chic: these are not words you'd use to describe most desserts. But before Alison Roman made recipes so perfect that they go by one name — The Cookie, The Pasta, The Lemon Cake — she was a restaurant pastry chef who spent most of her time learning to make things the hard way. She studied flavor, technique, and precision, then distilled her knowledge to pare it all down to create dessert recipes that feel special and approachable, impressive and doable. In Sweet Enough (Clarkson Potter), Roman — author of Dining In and Nothing Fancy — has written the book for people who think they don't have the time or skill to pull off dessert. Here, the desserts you want to make right away,…

Free

Reading: Lisa Kentgen: The Practice of Belonging

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes local author Lisa Kentgen for the in-store launch of her new book, The Practice of Belonging: Six Lessons from Vibrant Communities to Combat Loneliness, Foster Diversity, and Cultivate Caring Relationships. Signed and personalized copies are available for order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About The Practice of Belonging: An inspirational guide to the 6 core qualities of healthy communities, for anyone looking to build community as a source of connection and a vehicle for social change. After two years meeting with different communities in the US, psychologist Lisa Kentgen identified 6 key traits of vibrant, healthy communities that we can all…

Free

Writing the Weird and Wonderful

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The world is a weird place, and we’re just here to document it. This course is for the scribes, the armchair historians, the miners of weird information — all of you aspiring nonfiction writers who aren’t sure what to do with your ideas, or budding freelance journalists looking to turn your ideas into sellable stories. In this workshop, students will take their bits of brilliance and turn them into finely-honed pieces of nonfiction. We’ll take an idea from start to finish: generating story ideas, discussing options for research, conducting interviews, gaining trust with subjects, writing effective pitches, outlining and playing with structure and the editing process. Discussions and lectures will focus on the building blocks of great nonfiction stories, including visceral scenes, effective interviews, interesting…

$395