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!

Bagley Wright Lecture Series presents Dorothea Laskey

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland

Dorothea Lasky will read selections from ANIMAL, her new book of poetry lectures (Wave Books, 2019). Constellating four central topics—ghosts, colors, animals, and bees—Lasky serves as an encouraging guide through the startling, sometimes dangerous, always exhilarating landscapes of feral poetic imagination. Dorothea Lasky is the author, most recently, of Animal, published in 2019 in the Bagley Wright Lecture Series. She is also the author of five full-length collections of poetry Milk (Wave Books, 2018), Rome (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2014), Thunderbird (Wave Books, 2012), Black Life (Wave Books, 2010), and AWE (Wave Books, 2007). She is the co-editor of Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney's, 2013), co-author of Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac (with Alex Dimitrov, Flatiron Books, 2019) and is…

Free

Cult of Orpheus / Rose City Art Song Project

Valentine's 232 SW Ankeny St, Portland

Readings by poets collaborating on the Rose City Arts Songs Project (Phase 3, Valentine's). It's a great variety, from the lyrical symbolist imagism of Coleman Stevenson to the surreal invocations of Jason Squamata. Cult of Orpheus presents the Rose City Art Song project, featuring works of Portland poets set to music. On the eve of Portland Book Festival and the night of LitCrawl! Join us at 7 pm for poetry readings by Mo McFeely, Jason Squamata, Coleman Stevenson and James Yeary. At 8 pm, Cult of Orpheus presents musical performances of eight poems, two from each poet. Our featured vocalists are tenor Eric Asakawa, soprano Jocelyn Claire Thomas, baritone Dan Gibbs, and mezzo-soprano Sadie Gregg. Music composed by Christopher Corbell, with music direction by Erica…

Free

OPP – Other People’s Poems!

Mother Foucault's Bookshop 523 SE Morrison St, Portland

Come recite someone else’s poem from memory, or just listen. First Fridays 7pm sharp

Free

The Rose City Art-Song Project

Valentine's 232 SW Ankeny St, Portland

Cult of Orpheus is Portland's only all-original art-song and opera troupe, founded by local lyrical-music composer Christopher Corbell. This year we've been focused on collaborations with local poets, and this performance will feature eight new musical compositions setting words by four Portland writers. Performers: Sadie Gregg, mezzo-soprano; Dan Gibbs, baritone; Eric Asakawa, tenor; Jocelyn Claire Thomas, soprano; Patrick McCulley, saxophone; Christopher Corbell, guitar; Laura Gershman, English horn; Erica Melton, music director; Kristi Gray Lovato, emcee.

Free

Poetry Karaoke: Celebrity Judge Edition

The Cleaners at Ace Hotel 403 SW 10th Ave, Portland

In the return of this Lit Crawl Portland favorite, audience members perform poems, and a spin of the wheel determines the musical style in which poems are read/performed. Corvallis-based band Mule on Fire will provide on-the-spot accompaniment for a range of poetic options. And again this year, celebrated authors from Portland and beyond will judge poetry karaoke performances. At the end of 45 minutes, a winner will be crowned Poetry Karaoke Champion for the year.

Free