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!

Wendy Red Star in Conversation With Will Matsuda

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

Delegation (Aperture) is the first comprehensive monograph by Apsáalooke/Crow artist Wendy Red Star, whose photography recasts historical narratives with wit, candor, and a feminist, Indigenous perspective. Red Star centers Native American life and material culture through imaginative self-portraiture, vivid collages, archival interventions, and site-specific installations. Whether referencing 19th-century Crow leaders or 1980s pulp fiction, museum collections or family pictures, she constantly questions the role of the photographer in shaping Indigenous representation. Including a dynamic array of Red Star’s lens-based works from 2006 to the present, and a range of essays, stories, and poems, Delegation is a spirited testament to an influential artist’s singular vision. Red Star will be joined in conversation by writer and photographer Will Matsuda. Preorder a Signed Edition

Free

In-Store Poetry Reading: Kristin Berger, Cathy Cain, John Miller

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland area poets Kristin Berger, Cathy Cain, and John Miller for an in-store reading from their new collections, all published by local press The Poetry Box. This in-store reading is first come, first served. Please be mindful of any store health policies that might be in effect on the night of the reading.   About Earthwork: The poetry of Kristin Berger's Earthwork is centered around, sprung from, and located in the landscape of mothering during the increasingly mapless territory of climate change and the pandemic. These are poems that take careful care of the small wonders of childhood and parenthood against such large and looming realities; poems that never stray away from wide-eyed honesty, taking in grief, joy, memory, and the strangeness of…

Free

Matthew Dickman and Richard Tillinghast

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

We welcome back two highly regarded poets, Matthew Dickman of Portland and Richard Tillinghast of Hawaii and Tennessee, to read at 6 pm on Tuesday, September 13th. Dickman's new collection Husbandry was recently published by W.W. Norton. Written after a separation, during overwhelming single-fatherhood in the early days of Covid lockdowns, Husbandry is a love song from a father to his children. The poems refuse romantic notions of parenting and embrace all its mess, anguish, humor, fear, boredom, and warmth. They are composed entirely in vivid couplets that animate the various domestic pairs of broken-up parents, two sons, love and grief. Threading his anxieties with bright moments, the volume delights in seeing the world through the clear eyes of childhood and finds meaning in the…

Free

Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series: Naomi Shihab Nye

University of Portland 5000 N. Willamette Blvd., Portland, OR, United States

The Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series was founded in 1988 by Rev. Arthur Schoenfeldt, C.S.C., of the University's Holy Cross community, and his sister, University regent Suzanne Schoenfeldt Fields, in honor of their late parents. The series was permanently endowed by Suzanne Schoenfeldt Fields and her husband Fred Fields with a gift to the University's Defining Moment Campaign. Twice each year (usually in February and October), Schoenfeldt guest writers offer a public reading and also visit students and faculty during their time on The Bluff, especially those in literature, science, and journalism classes. Originally focused on fine writing in and of the American West, the Schoenfeldt Distinguished Visiting Writers Series is designed to honor and celebrate the best of American literature by bringing some of the…

Free

Fall | So, You Wanna Be A Writer w Wayne Gregory | Sep 13 – Oct 11 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

“Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ~ E. L. Doctorow You have a thousand stories inside your head. You dabble on the page but rarely if ever finish anything, much less share with others. “Is my work good enough?” you wonder.  “Do I have something original and interesting to say? What makes me think I can be a writer?”  The biggest obstacle for emerging writers is not lack of time nor lack of skill nor lack of things to write about. It’s a lack of self-confidence. This workshop is designed for those who want to be writers, but are not sure they can be.  It…

$219 – $248

Portland Book Festival Author Announcement

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Literary Arts is thrilled to announce the lineup of authors appearing at this year’s Portland Book Festival, presented by Bank of America, which will take place on Saturday, November 5, 2022. Passes to Portland Book Festival will also go on sale at this time.  

Free

Fall | Prose Poetry I w Ruben Quesada | Sep 14 – Oct 12 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Make It, Don't Break It Explore imaginative and innovative possibilities in writing poetry without line breaks. Our practice will employ the craft of lineated poetry and traditional narrative, including attention to language, syntax, and sound; rhythmic or imagistic patterning; repetition; precision; compression. This is generative class focused on the foundations of poetic prose. The intersection of poetry and prose offers a range of possibilities for style and subject. I encourage a diversity of styles and subject matters, and I encourage you to take risks in your work. We will write together and discuss elements of writing. No previous writing experience is needed. Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Ruben QuesadaTime: Wednesdays, Sep 14 - Oct 12, 5 - 7pm Pacific TimeLocation: Online via ZoomTotal Fee: Discounted…

$219 – $248

David J. S. Pickering Poetry Reading

Ledding Library of Milwaukie 10660 SE 21st Avenue, Milwaukie, OR, United States

The 16th season of the Milwaukie Poetry Series kicks off on September 14 at 6pm with a live reading at the library by poet David J. S. Pickering. Seating limited to 50. David J.S. Pickering is a native Oregonian, having grown up and lived much of his life in the working-class culture of the North Oregon Coast. He received the 2020 Airlie Prize for his first poetry collection, Jesus Comes to Me as Judy Garland (Airlie Press, 09/2021). His poetry is published in a variety of journals including Reed Magazine, Pine Row, Raven Chronicles, and Gertrude Journal. David never aspired to have his own website, so he is a bit nonplussed to find that he owns one, www.pickpoetry.com (link is external). David has retired from a…

Free

Fall | Getting Started (or Getting Started Again!) with Poetry w John Morrison | Sep 14 – Oct 12 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

“Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.”  ~ Theodore Roethke There is so much pleasure in poetry. Yes, there’s heartache, and mystery, and play, and drama, but there’s pure pleasure in the writing, the reading, and the sharing. Honestly, there’s just pleasure in joining the company of poets. This session is for those who are interested writing or sharing your poetry but you’re not quite sure. What will a workshop be like? What will others think? Will I belong? Here is your opportunity and now is your time. Although the session is available to all, we will always be mindful of writers who haven’t been in a workshop or haven’t been for a long time. For inspiration and edification, we’ll read marvelous…

$219 – $248

Incite: Queer Writers Read – September: SPECULATE

Literary Arts 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, OR, United States

Incite: Queer Writers Read is a curated, bimonthly reading series for Queer writers. Incite’s hope is to create conversation, connection, and greater understanding both within the Queer community and with other communities. Hosted by Vinnie Kinsella and Jennifer Perrine. This event will take place in-person at Literary Arts’ downtown center. Please review our Covid-19 guidelines.  Incite: Queer Writers Read is a curated, bi-monthly reading series for Queer writers. For September, our featured readers are Wendy N. Wagner, Lydia Rogue, and Christopher Rose. Our theme for the month is SPECULATE. This is a free event hosted by Literary Arts.  

Free