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!

Telltale Presents: Don’t Be Afraid

Chapel Theatre 4107 SE Harrison St, Milwaukie, OR, United States

Hey, champ! Thanks for checking out Telltale. We are a monthly curated storytelling event for people that like to get vulnerable and take no shit. We are keen on connection, laughter, heartbreak, poignant moments, and community building. We are in our fifth season now, which is wild. After a number of zoom shows, and then a number of outdoor summer shows.... we are just rolling with what's happening around us and we are officially back inside the Chapel Theatre starting in October--unless the weather is magically perfect--with an all vaccinated staff, vaccinated performers, and a vaccine card requirement at the door, as well as many assertive reminders about wearing your mask properly. At Telltale, you can expect about 7-10 performers sharing something with you, in…

Free – $10

Live Wire: Tom Scharpling, Mohanad Elshieky, Kaveh Akbar, and MAITA

Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, United States

TOM SCHARPLING Tom Scharpling has hosted the weekly radio call-in comedy program, The Best Show with Tom Scharpling, for 18 years. He and his comedy parter Jon Wurster released a 16 disc compilation of their greatest hits, The Best of the Best Show, in 2015 to critical acclaim. He is also known as the voice of Greg Universe on the hit Cartoon Network animated series Steven Universe and as a writer-executive producer for the Emmy Award–winning show Monk. In his new book, It Never Ends, Scharpling is sharing a story he has never told before—his own harrowing coming of age. He chronicles the lengths he has gone to pull away from the brink of self-destruction, his difficult rehabilitation and how he committed himself to reinvention…

$30 – $45

BOOKLOVER’S BURLESQUE: The Gothic Edition

Alberta Rose Theatre 3000 NE Alberta St, Portland, OR, United States

Show | 7pm // Doors | 6pm “Deep into that darkness…dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” -Edgar Allen Poe Dream dreams you’ve never dared to dream before and venture into the darkness with us as Lacy Productions and the Alberta Rose Theatre present… BOOKLOVER’S BURLESQUE: The Gothic Edition A Booklover’s Burlesque special edition at the Alberta Rose Theater, where we explore the strange, the mysterious, the creepy, and the unexplained in the sexiest literary way possible, just in time for All Hallow’s Eve! Booklover’s Burlesque is the world’s sexiest literary salon which matches titillating, inspiring, and empowering book readings with burlesque, boylesque, and draglesque performances all in one show! Professional readers, actors, and/or local authors & writers read aloud a three to…

$20 – $30

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: Storytelling 101

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A virtual workshop on Zoom For aspiring, beginning and intermediate tellers Hone your craft! Shape and practice your story! Are you working on a short story to share with family, to tell at the Moth or a story swap, or to another audience? Would you like to polish a story to submit to the Guild Selection Committee in hopes of appearing in the Guild Storython, where many tellers share 5 minute stories? (The Storython is a prerequisite for new tellers to be considered for a PSG main stage show.) Join us in the workshop with a 5-6 minute story that you wish to prepare for presentation. Please check the story timing before the workshop. Aim for 5 minutes. Stories should be spoken rather than read.…

$25

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: Guild EXTRA Show

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Long time Guild member Ken Iverson shares many of his favorite Halloween stories. The program will include original stories as well as ones he's collected over 40 years of story telling. "Make some popcorn, get a favorite drink, turn the lights down and settle in. We'll have fun! These stories will help you laugh your way through the darkness." Ken Iverson has brought stories to life for audiences for over 35 years. He loves how a story can bring people together. He tells original stories and traditional and contemporary folktales and myths from around the world for all ages. Ken believes that the old adage “laughter is the best medicine is close to true. “It's not the only medicine,” he says, “but it is certainly…

$10

Pre-Show Music: DJ Mami Miami

Portland Center Stage 128 NW 11th Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for a Frida pre-show DJ set by DJ Mami Miami, AKA Chicana writer Emilly Prado, who will be spinning a mix of music that spans genres and geography from cumbia and quebradita to dancehall and perreo. This event is free and open to the public. All guests who attend events or gatherings at The Armory must provide documentation that they have been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by the date of their visit. If you are unable to be vaccinated, you may provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before your visit. Masks are also required at The Armory. FULL DETAILS HERE About DJ Mami Miami, AKA Emilly Prado DJ Mami Miami, AKA Chicana writer Emilly Prado, dreams of nights spent hips swaying in international multi-story discotecas. These…

Free

The Moth: StorySLAM: Fortune

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

FORTUNE: Prepare a five-minute story about Lady Luck. The unexpected discoveries or a peek into the future. A one in a million chance, the flip of a coin or the spin of a wheel. Wishing well wins or four leaf clover fails. The tea leaves say the next one will be THE ONE, so when opportunity knocks, open the door. *PLEASE NOTE THAT PROOF OF VACCINATION WILL BE REQUIRED FOR ENTRY.* Your last dose must be administered at least 14 days prior to date of arrival. Proof of a negative COVID test taken within 48 hours of the event will also be accepted in lieu of proof of vaccination.  We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 16+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available…

$15

HomePlate Presents Front Porch Sessions

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for a virtual event inspired by the power of sharing stories to build community. About this event In early August, we hosted a fun storytelling workshop for staff and youth to come together and build public speaking skills! This workshop, led by Front Porch Sessions founder Chris Williams, was a totally humbling experience where staff and youth were encouraged to put away their phones and open themselves up to the possibilities of connecting with each other. Staff and youth participated in exercises that showcased how much we all have in common with each other. Using the storytelling workshop as a launching pad, we are hosting a virtual Front Porch Sessions event inspired by the power of sharing stories to build community. With Chris…

Free

Portland Storytellers’ Guild: A Rug, An Arm, and A Scoundrel

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Stories exploring the unexpected. Wink Harner A multilingual transplant from Arizona, Wink Harner performs in Spanish, Portuguese, French, and English with some Quechua and Nahautl thrown in. First a professor of languages, she is now a professor of adaptive technology, a trombonist, and a storyteller who studied with the South Mountain CC Storytelling institute in Phoenix. Wink crafts all types of stories but favors those with humorous twists or flat out lies. Edward Hershey Edward Hershey draws a stories from a bi-coastal life and career in sports writing, news reporting, municipal government, higher education, with stints as an antiques columnist, author of books on baseball and police hostage negotiation, theater president, basketball announcer, and, for 44 years, a mainstay of the George Polk Awards in…

$10

Portland Book Festival 2021

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Portland Book Festival 2021 will be a hybrid event. There will be virtual events from November 8–12, leading up to an in-person festival day on Saturday, November 13, 2021 at Portland Art Museum and Portland’5, as well as in-person writing workshops at our downtown Literary Arts space. We will announce this year’s lineup of authors and events and tickets will go on sale on September 22. Youth 17 and under (and/or with a valid high school I.D.) will receive free entry. Although this continues to be an uncertain time, Literary Arts remains committed to the safety of all readers and writers and will follow all health and safety guidelines. Whether you join us online or in-person, we are excited to build community and celebrate books, storytelling, and the power of…

$15 – $25