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!

Slamlandia April Picnic PDX Poetry Open Mic

Picnic PDX 1305 NW 23rd Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Join us on APRIL 18TH for our third Thursday Poetry Open Mic! Doors and sign-ups are at 6:30 PM Get there on time to get a spot in the open mic! Show begins at 7:00 PM Picnic PDX 1305 NW 23rd Avenue Portland, OR 97210 This show is all ages. Please see our Accessibility and Safer Space info below. $5 suggested donation at door. This show will not have a poetry slam or a featured poet. We ask for just poetry on this mic, no music or stand up comedy. ★ •*´¨`*• O P E N • M I C •*´¨`*• ★ The open mic will start the show out. The open mic is a great way to share your wonderful poetry! You can share…

Free – $5

Washington County – Arthur Sommers

Another Read Through 3932 N Mississippi Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Washington County, Oregon is a visual history of Washington County with over 200 black and white images. Each image has a brief, informative, and accurate caption of approximately 40-100 words. The book has 9 chapters and covers timeframe of 1840s through 1960s with emphasis on turn of the last century. Arthur Sommers was born and raised in northern California, and earned a B.A. in History 1972 from San Francisco State College. Enlisted in Navy 1972-1976. Federal Government Civil Servant from 1978-1999. Many different jobs as civilian employee with the U.S. Air Force. Collects old photographs and uses them in visual histories of Placer County, California and now Washington County, Oregon. Living in Hillsboro, Oregon 2015-2019. Has also published three volumes of family history.

Free

Sophia Shalmiyev in Conversation with Leni Zumas

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

We are thrilled to welcome Sophia Shalmiyev at 7 pm on Thursday, April 18th, in conversation with Leni Zumas to discuss Shalmiyev's recently published memoir Mother Winter (Simon & Schuster). Born to a Russian mother and an Azerbaijani father, Shalmiyev was raised in the stark oppressiveness of 1980s Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). An imbalance of power and the prevalence of antisemitism in her homeland led her father to steal Shalmiyev away, emigrating to America, abandoning her estranged mother, Elena. At age eleven, Shalmiyev found herself on a plane headed west, motherless and terrified of the new world unfolding before her. Now a mother herself, in Mother Winter Shalmiyev depicts in urgent vignettes her emotional journeys as an immigrant, an artist, and a woman raised without…

Free

Northwest Academy: Victor Lodato

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

Northwest Academy presents a reading with Victor Lodato Victor Lodato is the author of two critically acclaimed novels: Mathilda Savitch, winner of the PEN USA Award, and the recently published Edgar and Lucy. His stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, The New York Times, and Best American Short Stories. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Born and raised in New Jersey, Victor currently resides in Ashland, Oregon.

Free

Alafair Burke

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

From Alafair Burke, author of the runaway hit, The Wife, comes The Better Sister (Harper), another twisty tale of domestic noir. When a prominent Manhattan lawyer is murdered, two estranged sisters – one the dead man’s widow, the other his ex – must set aside mistrust and old resentments… but can they escape their past?

Free

Mark Doten in Conversation With Justin Taylor

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

Twice a week, the president pilots his ultra-luxury airship Trump Sky Alpha (seats start at $50,000), delivering a streaming YouTube address to the nation, in which he trumpets his successes and blasts his enemies – until the day his words plunge the world into nuclear war. In his new novel, Trump Sky Alpha (Graywolf), Mark Doten, a satirist of unparalleled vision, brilliantly details how the Internet has infiltrated every aspect of our lives, laying the groundwork for the tumult of our current political moment, and, in the kaleidoscopic, queer, all-consuming, parallactic swirl of Trump Sky Alpha, for the future headed our way. Doten will be joined in conversation by Justin Taylor, author of Flings.

Free

Bone Tax Poem Club: April Edition

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR, United States

Readers: Skyler Reed, Andrew Rogers, Michelle Overby, and manuel arturo abreu. And host: Ross Robbins!

Free

Phantom Drift Literary Reading

Look Long Brewing Company 6550 N Interstate Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Phantom Drift is a non-profit journal dedicated to publishing fabulist writers and artists by producing a perfect-bound print edition and paying contributors for their work. Come hear some fantastical poetry and excerpts from these surreal and unusual pieces by local writers. The lineup so far includes Phantom Drift Editor Matt Schumaker, Brittany Corrigan, Donna Prinzmetal, John Morrison, Armin Tolentino, Pattie Palmer-Baker, and Devon Balwit.

Free

Will Alexander Reading

The Little Church 5138 NE 23rd Ave, Portland, OR, United States

The 2019 PSU/Tin House Writer in Residence, Will Alexander, will read at The Little Church in NE Portland. Alexander is a poet, novelist, essayist, philosopher, aphorist, playwright, visual artist, and pianist. His books include Asia and Haiti, The Sri Lankan Loxodrome, Compression and Purity, Sunrise In Armageddon, Diary As Sin, Inside the Earthquake Palace, Towards The Primeval Lightning Field, and Mirach Speaks To His Grammatical Transparents. Alexander is a recipient of the Whiting Fellowship for Poetry, California Arts Council Fellowship, PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award, American Book Award, and Jackson Poetry Prize. He lives in Los Angeles.

Free

Cat Winters

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

Seventeen-year-old Edgar Poe counts down the days until he can escape his foster family – the wealthy Allans of Richmond, Virginia. He hungers for his upcoming life as a student at the prestigious new university, almost as much as he longs to marry his beloved Elmira Royster. However, on the brink of his departure, all his plans go awry when a macabre Muse named Lenore appears to him. Muses are frightful creatures that lead artists down a path of ruin and disgrace, and no respectable person could possibly understand or accept them. But Lenore steps out of the shadows with one request: “Let them see me!” The Raven’s Tale (Amulet) is the new novel for teens from Cat Winters.

Free