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!
Today at 2:30 pm PST, tune in with Laura van den Berg and ‘Pemi Aguda for their conversation How to Build a Universe in a Bottle: A discussion about stretching the boundaries of time and reality in the short form. Open to the public and with ASL interpretation.
Today at 4pm PST, join Dantiel W. Moniz and Leah Hampton for Unerasing the South: A conversation about busting open conventional perceptions of Florida, Appalachia, and “regional” fiction.
Dialogue, as much as anything else, reveals the character to the writer and, ultimately to the reader. I don’t have a very clear idea of who the characters are until they start talking. ~ Joan Didion Sometimes, when I’m lucky, a line of dialogue, either something I’ve dreamed up or overheard, will spark a story. Because dialogue is so revealing it can be an entrance point, a moment when a character speaking, reveals themself on the page. Because dialogue is the only time the reader directly hears from the characters without the filter of the narrator, the spoken words become a measure for the heart and mind of the characters. What do they want? What are they trying to gain or conceal? How is dialog…
What goes through an editor’s mind when they read the first lines of your story? What can you do right away to hook them and keep them turning pages? Which tired moves make them groan and lose interest fast? One of our most exciting salon events is back by popular demand! Recommended Reading editors Halimah Marcus and Brandon Taylor return to edit your anonymous first pages, submitted just for this event. They will read each page for the first time live on screen, sharing their immediate reactions as they go. Here’s what previous attendees said about this event: “Immediately planning to rewrite all my first pages.” “Live impressions are true-to-life and that's why this session has been so uniquely valuable.” “10/10 would pay for more of…
From kissing to seduction—to the deed itself—writing about sex can be one of the hardest feats in storytelling. We’ll study the way writers like Lidia Yuknavitch, Melissa Febos, Zadie Smith, D. H. Lawrence, and others approach this facet of craft. Our conversations will explore how sex can be implied or explicit, while still being literary and classy. Class one is entirely devoted to writing the literary kiss, and future sessions will cover sex “implied” with its absence on the page, homosexual sex, and heterosexual sex. We’ll cover the do’s and don’t’s, address common “cliches,” and inspect different ways writers represent sex in their stories, so that we can better assess what might work best for ours. Each writer will have the opportunity to share a…
This monthly craft series for BIPOC writers invites you to dream and imagine new worlds and characters for fictional storytelling. Using beloved and renowned BIPOC writers as models for fictional narratives, we will notice, play, practice, share and grow as writers. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classses have at least one access spot available. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you would like to take a writing class at the Access Rate. Jacqueline Fitzgerald is an…
WHAT: A three-hour online webgasm with a 15-minute intermission WITH: Lidia Yuknavitch and at least one special guest. WHEN: Saturday, August 21st 1PM-4PM Pacific (4PM-7PM Eastern) WHERE: ZOOM! (But of course.) Meeting ID will be provided ahead of time. (Interested in this event but unable to join it live? All registered attendees will receive a link to a recording of it that will be viewable for one week afterwards.) HOW MUCH: $150. Payment plans are available, contact Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com SCHOLARSHIPS: Scholarships are always available. Click here to apply. "No one is better at revealing how the stories we carry in our bodies need to find form and expression, before they eat us alive." —The New Yorker Revivify: Breathing Life into Dead Matter Do…
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.... WE ARE BACK, PAL! With an all vaccinated staff, we will be doing a series of summer shows outside of our old venue, Chapel Theatre. I said we'd do these shows until things stopped making me mad.... and well.... apparently there's an endless series of things to be angry at in this country. At Telltale, you can expect about 7-10 performers sharing something with you, in the way that feels right to…
We’re bringing one of our most popular workshops online for those of you who can’t be with us in person. We know sometimes generative workshops can leave you with an overwhelming amount of raw material. In this four-part series (guided by videos featuring our resident mermaid Lidia Yuknavitch) you’ll read, get inspired and discover the germ of an idea, write it, revise it, and finish it—and for those interested in publication, we’ll offer strategies towards that end as well! Two versions of this course will be offered: Introvert’s Narrative Braid: For $99, you’ll receive access to the four “weeks” of videos that Lidia has created for this series, and you will take them each on your own time from the safety and security of your…
We’re bringing another one of our hybrid writing intensives online for those of you who can’t be with us in person.In this four-part series (guided by videos featuring our resident mermaid Lidia Yuknavitch) you’ll read, get inspired and discover the germ of an idea, write it, revise it, and finish a first full draft of it—and for those interested in publication, we’ll offer strategies towards that end as well! Two versions of this course will be offered: Introvert’s Narrative Palimpsest: For $99, you’ll receive access to the four “weeks” of videos that Lidia has created for this series, and you will take them each on your own time from the safety and security of your writerly hidey-hole (OH BOY DO WE GET IT) The Introvert…