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!

Ongoing

Winter Poetry Festival

Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) 511 Northwest Broadway St, Portland

Portland’s second Winter Poetry Festival is a joyful gathering of poets and poetry lovers. Winter is a magical time where the beauty of language burns brightly in the darkness. The festival will feature a marketplace where you can support poets by buying from them directly, inspiring workshops for poets of all levels of experience, innovative performances and craft-talks from top-notch poets, a guest-screening from Seattle’s Cadence: Video Poetry Festival, and the “Poet’s Playground” an ephemeral pop-up of poetic challenges and collaborations. The Festival will be housed in the beautiful PNCA. ADA accessible. Centrally-located, near many major transit lines.

Free

Monster Colored Glasses, Poetry with Ken Yoshikawa

Japanese American Museum of Oregon 121 NW 2nd Ave, Portland

Poet Ken Yoshikawa will read from his newly published book, Monster Colored Glasses a bilingual narrative exploring personal issues of trauma, vulnerability and personal transformation while addressing social responsibility themes. Ken Yoshikawa is half-Japanese, and a poet-actor from Portland, Oregon. He is an active voice in the spoken word community and his acting has been seen in diverse performances in local theatres. Ken’s powerful use of words are featured in his first autobiographical poetic solo, The Art of Fly Swatting, which was performed off-Broadway in NYC at the Pan Asian Repertory Festival in 2019 and his poems have appeared in Nailed Magazine, Letters from the Void, Hapa Mag and Discover Nikkei. The evening includes a reception, book signing, and poetry readings by Ken and guest…

$3 – $5

Chris Duffin

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

The world may know Chris Duffin as "The Mad Scientist of Strength," but you wouldn't have ever guessed that if you saw the scrawny kid skinning rattlesnakes and chasing dragonflies in the early ’80s. The story of his unconventional life will take you from gripping tales of murder, trauma, heartbreak, and survival deep in the Pacific Northwest wilderness all the way to an idealization of the self-made man – still flawed, but never broken. In Duffin’s The Eagle and the Dragon (Lioncrest), you'll follow one man's journey into the darkness of his own heart and witness the transformation of alcoholism, pain, and defeat into vision, character, and victory.

Free

The Poe Show 2020

Clinton Street Theater 2522 SE Clinton St, Portland

Every year we celebrate Edgar Allan Poe with a birthday party/roast that includes a variety of performances. This year is no exception. We're looking at bringing six new acts to you along with some surprises. Join us for a taste of the macabre like only Portland can provide! Sally K. Lehman Melissa Lynne Katie Doyle Tim Stapleton Beats by Taber Arias Nastashia Minto performing The Raven and more TBA! Celebrate the master of the macabre with spoken word, music, improv, and skits that are inspired by Poe, are interpretations of his work, or roasts of Poe. DOORS AT 7:30pm. From the Poe Museum website: The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His…

$5