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!

Queer Bodies/Queer Forms: Leaving Behind the Retrograde w/ Cooper Lee Bombardier

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Queer Bodies/Queer Forms: Leaving Behind the Retrograde A 6-week online workshop STARTS: May 23rd, 2021 COST: $350 (scholarships available - priority to queer/trans POC writers - click here to apply) Cooper Lee Bombardier says: “To me, queer is expansive, queer is hybrid, queer is taking what works and leaves behind the retrograde.” Yes, for many queer is also an identity but you don’t have to identify as queer to benefit from a look at queer forms, or attempting to queer your own work. We’ll look at work that might be considered queer in content as well as form, and will embark on multiple generative writing “experiments” where we try on the forms and constraints studied, enter into conversation with them, become inspired by them, apply them to our…

$350

Application Deadline: Tin House Fall Residency: YA

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Now accepting applications for our YA Residency. This two-week program runs from Sept 3rd-19th & comes with a $600 stipend & studio apt in PDX. Application fee waivers are available. The deadline to apply is 5/23.

Free

Jonathan Taplin in Conversation With Robbie Robertson

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band in the ’60s, producer of major films in the ’70s, an executive at Merrill Lynch in the ’80s, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service in the ’90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts — from the folk scene to Woodstock, Hollywood’s rebellious film movement, and beyond. Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. With…

Free

Oregon Historical Society: Rethinking American Grand Strategy

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Rethinking American Grand Strategy recasts both historical and modern dimensions of U.S. grand strategy by broadening the factors, events, and figures that could be considered political, and therefore strategic. Join us for a 30-minute lecture with one of the volume’s co-editors and co-authors, Christopher McKnight Nichols, laying out some of the broad themes, major events, and transformations in U.S. grand strategy, including an explanation of how an ensemble of leading scholars approached the history of the United States’ place in the world from the framework of rethinking. Following the book talk, Derrick Olsen will facilitate a discussion between Nichols and Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates on how the historical insights provided in Rethinking American Grand Strategy could aid in reconceptualizing domestic needs and foreign policy in a post-COVID-19 world. Copies…

Free

Daniel Barbarisi in Conversation With Jason Gay

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Daniel Barbarisi’s Chasing the Thrill (Knopf) is a full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt created by eccentric millionaire art dealer — and, some would say, robber baron — Forrest Fenn that became the stuff of contemporary legend. When Fenn was given a fatal cancer diagnosis, he came up with a bold plan: He would hide a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness, and publish a poem that would serve as a map leading to the treasure's secret location. But he didn't die, and after hiding the treasure in 2010, Fenn instead presided over a decade-long gold rush that saw many thousands of treasure hunters scrambling across the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of his fortune. Barbarisi first learned of Fenn's hunt in…

Free

Cirro-numinous Presents: CIRRO-NUMINOUS SALON: THE MASK

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

THE MASK is the first in an ongoing series of lectures/salons investigating the components of craft, embodiment, and perception. During each event, we’ll take a different lens to the question “how do these interrelated undertakings interact with a holistic creative practice?” Masks aren’t just tools of performance—they can also be an important ritual artifact. When we introduce an obstructing layer between ourselves and the world, we further our own power to move beyond a limiting view of the self. We’ll explore the topic deeply over the course of an hour and a half through a combination of lecture, discussion, and generative writing.

Free

SPRING Online: Craft of Memoir w Brian Benson FULL — WAIT LIST ONLY

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Whether you're just getting started or looking to improve your work-in-progress, this new workshop will help you translate your personal experiences into a vivid, absorbing memoir. Through a mix of discussion, guided exercises and peer critique, we'll explore the many ways to pull compelling, relatable stories from one's life story, and we'll read and discuss a wide variety of memoir for inspiration and insight. Students will leave the workshop with many reading recommendations and writing resources. | Maximum 12 students Register for this workshop NOTE: To protect everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic, we're offering our workshops via Zoom. All students must first sign up for a free Zoom account. Setting it up is easy. And we can help you with questions, if needed. For each class, you'll receive a…

$215 – $242

Remote Writers Group

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join fellow writers the first Wednesday of the month for a friendly critique. The goal is to support one another with constructive feedback and participate in writing exercises. All experience levels welcome! Join Online Meeting ID: 230 496 085

Free

Education: Book & Film Circle, May 2021

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In an ever-changing country filled with political turmoil, understanding our histories is the only way for us to move forward. The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education’s Student Advisory Board hosts a Youth Book and Film Circle, where students in grades 8 – 12 meet to discuss films and books covering topics related to the museum’s core exhibits and mission.   For the final session in the Book & Film Circle series, we will be exploring and discussing Indigenous narratives. Participants are asked to watch the documentary film Awake, A Dream From Standing Rock (available for free online, with an opportunity for donations: https://awakethefilm.org) and/or the book Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine. After RSVPing, you will receive an email 24 hours prior to the event with a zoom…

Free

One Page Wednesday: June

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Here is an opportunity to share or listen to one page of work in progress from talented writers from everywhere. Come with a single page of work and sign up to read – or come to listen and prepare to be inspired! Hosted by Natalie Serber. June’s featured reader is Kelli Russell Agodon. Click here to register in advance. You don’t need to live in Portland to participate. If you have questions, please contact jessica@literary-arts.org Kelli Russell Agodon is the author of four collections of poetry. Her newest book is Dialogues with Rising Tides from Copper Canyon Press. She is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press where she works as an editor and book cover designer. She is also the Co-Director of Poets on the…

Free