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!
In an era of rising nationalism and geopolitical instability, Megan Fernandes’s Good Boys (Tin House) offers a complex portrait of messy feminist rage, negotiations with race and travel, and existential dread in the Anthropocene. Ultimately, Fernandes’s poems possess an affection for the doomed: false beloveds, the hounded earth, civilizations intent on their own ruin.
Join us Friday February 28th at 7pm at Mother Foucault's Bookshop for a release party for Kirsten Ihns’s debut poetry collection, sundaey. Kirsten will be reading alongside John Beer. Kirsten Ihns earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and is currently a PhD student and Neubauer Presidential Fellow in English Literature at the University of Chicago. John Beer is the author of Lucinda & The Waste Land and Other Poems, and edited Poems (1962-1997) by Robert Lax. He teaches at Portland State University. sundaey will be the first title in the Propeller Contemporary Poetry Series.
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, February 29th, we'll have a feature from Micah Fletcher and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Allegra White! OUR FEATURE: Micah Fletcher Micah Fletcher is a nationally recognized poet and spoken word artist who took first place in Portland Oregon’s city wide youth poetry competition called Verselandia in 2013. YOUR HOST: Allegra White Allegra White is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. Allegra's chapbook of poetry On The Backs Of Product Request Forms (2019) explores themes of escapism and humor in the mundane. Her full length poetry collection will be released in 2020 by Lightship Press. She studied English…
James Yeary and Lisa Radon will read from their new books, Hawai'i and Age of Sand. "Hawai'i" is a survey of the emotional topography of the outer solar system. Different sources (all imagined) culture (microbiologically) its dreaming cartographer. Accompanying "Hawai'i," a serial poem called "Lucien" watches the self-mythologizing of an old galaxy that out of loneliness has started talking to itself. Hawai’i by James Yeary ciel o canth (Alderich Mime, Lake Vostok), 2020. Cover by Sam Lohmann. 52 pages, hand-sewn in an edition of 220. AGE OF SAND is a book of log entries that imagines impossible interconnectivities, rewritings and rewrightings of the digital and the analog, the past and the future through a cyberfeminist lens. What are the qualities of the permeable membrane between…
Each winter, the Spare Room reading series hosts a marathon reading of a long work. In 2020 we’ll be reading Ronald Johnson’s long poem ARK, which was written over about 25 years and published in sections between 1980 and 1996 (and reprinted in 2013 by Flood Editions). Guy Davenport wrote: "ARK is a metaphysical poem that could only have been written in our time, of which it displays a new vision. It is a late harvest of seeds sown by Blake, the Bible, and Zukofsky, all in a new architecture, a wholly new voice, and even a new chemistry of words and images. It is for those who can see visions, and for those who know how to look well and be taught that they can see them." Free.…
The Voice of Empathy continues at thetinytheaterPDX, 3306 SE 65th Ave, Portland, OR. Please spread out the parking around the neighborhood to avoid congestion. The series showcases poets whose work investigates the human capacity for compassion and generosity and invites the reader/listener to care deeply for others and the world. This description is for the poets’ reference only and does not presume to impose any constraints on the work selected for presentation. There is room for 37-39 poetry lovers. Please come a few minutes in advance to reserve your seats. In case of snow, please monitor this event for possible rescheduling. Poet-dramatist Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is inspired by the silent and silenced voices of history and herstory. Her new poetry collection, Inlay with Nacre: The…
Join us for another amazing poetry slam and open mic!!! This will be the first qualifier for our second semi-final for the International Poetry Slam! There is a 5 dollar suggested donation for this event but no one is turned away. We will have a feature from The Portland Poetry Slam WOWPS representative, Brianna Renae! More about Brianna: Brianna Renae is a spoken word artist from Portland, Oregon. She started writing as a way to heal herself and was pleased to find out that her words helped heal others as well. Brianna’s work centers around themes of activism for equality, vulnerability of love, and raw black girl magic. All of her work is centered from a female perspective. Brianna’s poetry embraces her intersectionality as a…
Free Range Poetry presents Jennifer Dorner, Ana Michalowsky, Matthew Spohn Monday 2, 2020 Northwest Library 2300 NW Thurman Street Portland 6:00 - 7:30 pm Please arrive early, capacity of room approximately 45 people An open mic will precede featured poets. Sign up for open mic begins at 5:30 pm Open mic readers limited to two pages of material Jennifer Dorner’s poetry has appeared in Chicago Quarterly Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Cloudbank, Sugar House Review, Timberline Review, The Inflectionist Review, Verseweavers and VoiceCatcher. Dorner was a finalist in the 2016 Ruth Stone Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2018 Hedgebrook Writers in Residence Program. In 2019, she received 1st Place in the Oregon Poetry Association’s spring contest in both the Poet’s Choice and Members Only…
Red O'Hare was born to a Jew and a Presbyterian in the California Bay Area and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She first started performing at 15 and has continued in spite of everything. Her work focuses on intergenerational trauma, the things we lose, and the people we shouldn't love. She recently released her first spoken word album, Seaglass Strange, with Lightship Press and Shady Pines Media. You can find it on bandcamp at https://redohare.bandcamp.com. I'm so pumped for the honor of hosting this event! Let's do this! --Mike G ♥
Join us on MARCH 5th for our semi final slam at Rocking Frog Cafe! Doors at 6:00 PM For this one off show, there will not be an open mic and the slam will be closed - so no sign ups! Show begins at 6:30 PM. Rocking Frog Cafe 2511 SE Belmont St. Portland, OR 97214 This show is all ages. Please see our Accessibility and Safer Space info below. There is a $1-5 suggested donation. This show will determine which four poets move on to our Grand Slam on April 5th. We will see the following eight poets compete for the top four slots: -- Ty Brack -- Red O’Hare -- Stephen Meads -- Space -- Vivian Knezevich -- Sarah Bat -- Josh Gross…
Clayton Adam Clark is in from out of town for a special engagement, joined by Derek Palacio. Clayton Adam Clark lives in Saint Louis, his hometown, where he works as a public health research scientist and volunteers for River Styx magazine. His debut poetry collection, A Finitude of Skin, won the 2017 Moon City Poetry Award and was published by Moon City Press in November 2018. He is a recipient of an Artist Support Grant from the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis, and his poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Poetry Daily, Shenandoah, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere. He earned the MFA in creative writing at Ohio State University and is studying clinical mental health counseling at University of Missouri-St. Louis. Derek Palacio received his MFA from…
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 7th, we'll have a feature from Caroline Holm and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Red O'Hare! OUR FEATURE: Caroline Holm Caroline Holm is a 25 year-old Oregon-based artist and writer. Her poetry touches on love, spirituality and the healing truths found present in the phases and systems of the natural world. She will be performing work from her new book of poems and original illustrations, Woodland, due out this spring. To learn more about her work and book release, visit carolineholmpoetry.com or @carolineholmpoetry on Instagram. YOUR HOST: Red O'Hare Red O'Hare is a Ashkenazi Jewish American poet…
Join us for another amazing poetry slam and open mic!!! This will be the first qualifier for our second semi-final for the International Poetry Slam! There is a 5 dollar suggested donation for this event but no one is turned away. We will have a feature from Joy Young! More about Joy: Joy Young is a performance and teaching spoken word artist based in Phoenix, AZ. Their work has been featured on Button Poetry and Everyday Feminism as well as on stages and in colleges and classrooms across the country. They are the cofounder and editor of Prickly Pear Printing, a project dedicated to highlighting written and visual work with a focus on growth, beauty, and the celebration of queer bodies. Whether creating storytelling curriculum…
In celebration of International Women's Day, Annie Bloom's welcomes Cindy Williams Gutiérrez, Kate Gray, and Gemma Whelan. Cindy Williams Gutiérrez's new poetry collection is Inlay with Nacre. Poet-dramatist Gutiérrez explores the global oppression of women--and testifies to their resilience--in over 20 countries around the world. Based on real-life incidents ranging from Brazilian "honor killings" and Indian sati to Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and "Mississippi appendectomies" to rape as a weapon during the Rwandan genocide, this poetry collection bears witness to the sociocultural forces that have waged war on women's bodies, freedom, and humanity. Now, in the #MeToo era, these poems both underscore and expand the conversation on the diminishment of women, reverberating across all continents and through 43 centuries. Inlay with Nacre is herstory--the plight of…
The Mouths of Others is proud to welcome Claudia Castro Luna. Claudia Castro Luna is Washington State Poet Laureate. She served as Seattle’s Civic Poet, from 2015-2017 and is the author of the Pushcart nominated Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press) also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry for This City, (Floating Bridge Press). She is also the creator of the acclaimed Seattle Poetic Grid. Castro Luna is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, the recipient of individual artist grants from King County 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, a Hedgebrook and VONA alumna, and a 2014 Jack Straw fellow, Born in El Salvador she came to the United States in 1981. She has an MA in…
Join us on MARCH 12TH for a Thursday Poetry Open Mic and Slam! Doors and sign-ups are at 6:30 PM Get there on time to get a spot in the open mic or slam! Show begins at 7:00 PM Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street Portland, OR 97205 This show is all ages. Please see our Accessibility and Safer Space info below. No door admission. We will have a feature from the incredible Cheryl Maddalena! Sarah Jean Valiquette is a Canadian actor, poet, photographer, fight director, and Pisces, as well as the creator and curator of (re)markable project. SJ has studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Banff Centre for the Arts and has a BFA in theatre from the University of…
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Lumbrazo Luna of Printed Matter Vancouver Featuring Mindy Nettifee 7 pm Thursday, March 12 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 $5 Suggested donation No one turned away for lack of funds Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660 angstgallery.com Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar: http://briz.us/ LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 https://printedmattervancouver.com/2020/02/14/ghost-town-poetry-open-mic-featuring-mindy-nettifee-at-angst-gallery-march-12-2020/ MINDY NETTIFEE is a poet, storyteller, trauma researcher, and psychonaut. She is the director of the creative and story services agency Free Delivery LLC; teaches writing and performance workshops for Literary Arts; and produces stories for radio and stage with…
WTRLMNS is a group of Portland poets who meet monthly to share and discuss their work. Join us for a reading by: VANDOREN WHEELER grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He has published poems in fine publications such as Forklift, OH, Conduit, and ratemyprofessor.com. His book The Accidentalist won the Dorothy Brunsman Prize and was published by Bear Star Press. He also creates single-copy art books by defacing children’s picture books. He teaches in Portland. CHRYS TOBEY’s poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Minnesota Review, Rattle, New Ohio Review, Verse Daily, The Cincinnati Review, and elsewhere. Her first book of poetry, A Woman is a Woman is a Woman is a Woman, was published in 2017 from Steel Toe Books. She curates the reading series Women Writers Against Trump with her sister Allison…
“Well, while I’m here I’ll do the work — and what’s the work? To ease the pain of living. Everything else, drunken dumbshow.” ― Allen Ginsberg, “Memory Gardens” (Fall of America, City Lights) Join us on Saturday, March 14 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Niche Wine Bar led by Christopher Luna. Poetry encourages empathy and compassion, and sparks the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. I look forward to sharing my passion for poetry with you. The Work is a drop-in poetry writing workshop for beginners as well as more experienced writers. We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 11:30-2:00. Doors open…
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 14th, we'll have a feature from Alejandro Jimenez and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Allegra White! OUR FEATURE: Alejandro Jimenez Alejandro is a multiple-time TEDx Speaker, multiple-time National Poetry Slam Semi-Finalist, and Emmy-nominated writer and poet from Colima, Mexico, living in the US. His work focuses on cultural identity, immigrant narratives, masculinity, memory, and the intersection of them all. His self-published book Moreno. Prieto. Brown. (2017) has sold over 1,000 copies - despite all the typos. More at www.alejandropoetry.com. YOUR HOST: Allegra White Allegra White is a writer based in Portland, Oregon. Allegra's chapbook of poetry On…
Join us for another amazing poetry slam and open mic!!! This will be the third qualifier for our second semi-final for the International Poetry Slam! There is a 5 dollar suggested donation for this event but no one is turned away. We will have a feature from Bri Gowdy! More about Bri: Bri Gowdy is a poet from Portland Oregon. In January she was published in The Rising Phoenix Review. Bri has traveled the country performing poetry and hosting workshops on writing and performance. Her chap book There is Room for You Here, (that is undoubtedly a Scorpio) covers topics such as self love, friendship and god stuff. Bri is most inspired when she is working with youth poets, or leading workshops. Bri above all…
Keats and Rilke and Donne and Wordsworth and Angelou and Plath and Yeats and Browning and Dickinson, oh my! Bring your favorite old poems to Classic Poetry Open Mic, co-hosted with Rose City Book Pub. This is a time to gather together to enjoy classic poetry from around the world. Memorization/recitation is highly encouraged, but you can also read from a digital/hard copy. This is not a time to share your own writing--there are lots of open mics for that! This is a time for poetry lovers to share and discuss favorite old poems that inspire and delight. Need some ideas? Check out this article about great poems that work well for recitation: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/lesson/committed-memory
Nikky Finney was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the civil rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amista murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World Is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). The John H. Bennett, Jr. Chair in Southern Letters and Literature at the University of South Carolina, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets. Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the 2011 National…
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge '69 was born in Beijing and grew up in Massachusetts. She is the author of 12 books of poetry including Empathy, Four Year Old Girl, I Love Artists and Hello, the Roses. A Treatise on Stars is forthcoming from New Directions Press along with a new edition of Empathy. She has collaborated with artists in the book arts and in theatre, including Frank Chin, Theodora Yoshikami, Richard Tuttle, Kiki Smith, Tan Dun, Davide Balula. Forthcoming is an album with nature recordings by Rafael Sanchez. She graduated from Reed College in 1969, and her thesis was a book of poems. She lives in New Mexico and New York City.
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 21st, we'll have a feature from Brennan Lucas Staffieri and a long set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Red O'Hare! OUR FEATURE: Brennan Lucas Staffieri Brennan Lucas Staffieri is a poet, playwright, podcaster, and director. He is currently a senior studying creative writing and theatre at Pacific University, and he founded and served as the president of the poetry club there, where he ran workshops and developed poetry programing for the campus. He is in the process of writing his first collection of poems, 41°43.5’ N, 49°56.8’ W, which explores grief aboard the sunken wreck of the RMS Titanic. He…
An engaging evening with some of Milwaukie and Portland's most talented hybrid artists performing works that integrate poetry or storytelling with other art forms on the themes of place, home, and rootedness (or lack of). Performers include Trevino Brings Plenty Alicia Jo Rabins, Jeff Alessandrelli, Emily Kepulis,Derek Hunter Wilson, Barry Brusseau, Jasmine Pettet, Chitra and Dao Strom. Please join us in supporting art in Milwaukie! The Chapel Theater is a 100-capacity converted church that has become the premier arts theater in Milwaukie, hosting plays, dance performances, classes, literary events and musical performances for the last two years. Beer, wine and pizza are available at all shows. You can buy a ticket ahead of time at the Brown Paper ticket link below. There will be sliding…
In Mercy, local poet Judith Montgomery chronicles the story of caring for her husband as he endures cancer treatment. Though brutal in its technology, the medical world Montgomery describes is merciful in its human form, peopled by chemotherapy nurses whose expertise is matched by mercy, as they "lift the plumped / sac, poisons mixed to pour fire into flesh." Anyone who has had even the least brush with cancer will find here an honest and hopeful world, where suffering is lightened by the sight of butterflies, "mutable flames that glide as we-- / refugees from the cancer center, / and stunned by treatment-- / ... glide in luxurious / light, afloat in paradise." Pansies, Oregon poet Carol Barrett's collection of thirty slight, delicate vignettes, recounts…
We are pleased to host poets Margaret Chula and Shawn Aveningo Sanders at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 25th, to read from their most recent books, Shadow Man and What She Was Wearing, respectively. In Shadow Man, Chula brings her father out of the shadows where he had been since 1957, the day her mother packed their five children—all under the age of ten—into the car and drove away. Over the years, Chula comes to accept the differences between a mother who wants China cups and a father content with Budweiser. Writing about these awkward, often heartbreaking, interactions with her estranged father, she discovers that there’s more than one truth and that each of us must find our own. Chula lived in Japan for twelve…
Annie Bloom's welcomes Northwest poets Linda Bierds & David Biespiel. The Hardy Tree is Washington poet Linda Bierds's latest collection. Focusing on figures such as Thomas Hardy, Alan Turing, Virginia Woolf, and the World War One poets, The Hardy Tree examines power, oppression and individual rights in ways that reverberate through our lives today. Uniting these themes is the issue of communication--the various methods and codes we use to reach one another. The book is arranged in four sections. The first visits Vladimir Nabokov as a child with alphabet blocks, Alan Turing at eleven writing home from boarding school with a "pen of his own making," Virginia Woolf as a teenager practicing her penmanship, and Wilfred Owen trying to draw a musical note from a…
Wordlights Saturday poetry evenings are presented by NovaPDX & Rocking Frog Cafe and curated by Portland poet Igor Brezhnev. On Saturday, March 28th, we'll have features from Red O'Hare & Nicole Jean Turner and a short set poetry open mic! This show is hosted by Igor Brezhnev! OUR FEATURES: Red O'Hare Red O'Hare is a Ashkenazi Jewish American poet from Oakland, California where she featured twice with Bay Area Generations. A product of Presbyterian missionaries from the Belgian Congo and Eastern European carny folk, Red has been performing poetry for 20 years with varying rates of success. She has recently released a poetry album Seaglass Strange (Lightship Press, 2019) and is currently working on a chapbook of poetry. Red works in a bakery and is…
Zoom meetup link here FROM BRIAUNA: Hey, Y’all! Here is some information on what to expect out of Teen Poetry Time: First off, this event is for EVERYONE and you don’t need to have any writing experience to get something out of our time together. We will not be working with any poetic structure and there are no rules. You already have poetry within you, you are a living thing! We are going to be focused on reading/ listening to poems, generating new work with prompts and free writing. Here is freewriting explained I like to use tools in my writing practice, this includes oracle cards, objects, sounds, and other people’s poetry. In addition to a notebook and headphones, if you have objects that inspire…
Rachel Zucker is the author of ten books, including, most recently, SoundMachine (Wave Books, 2019). A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Colony and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, Zucker is an adjunct professor at New York University and the founder and host of the podcast Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People). Zucker is currently working on an immersive audio project (also called SoundMachine) and a book of lectures calledThe Poetics of Wrongness. Location: Frank Manor House