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!

PSU MFA Alumni Showcase: C. R. Grimmer, Genevieve Hudson, & Suman Mallick

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

C. R. Grimmer, who also goes by Chelsea Grimmer, is a poet, scholar, and lecturer at The University of Washington Seattle and Bothell campuses. Their latest collection is The Lyme Letters, which was completed with support from a Harlan Hahn Disability Studies Fellowship and won the Walt McDonald First Book Award from Texas Tech University Press. They are also the author of O–(ezekiel's wife), a chapbook and audiobook collaboration from GASHER Journal and Press that features visual art by PSU alum Colleen Burner and sound art by Judy Twedt. C. R. received their MFA from Portland State University and Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from The University of Washington, Seattle. They are the creator and host of The Poetry Vlog (TPV), a YouTube and Podcast teaching…

Free

WITS Reading: Gresham High School

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in celebrating these students and their work. This end-of-residency reading will feature students who worked with WITS writers Brian Benson, Valarie Pearce, Bruce Poinsette, and Dey Rivers. Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkceqtrj0jEtFY8_hup8LY5RdjSWL-6eKq After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining…

Free

André Aciman in Conversation With Jonathan Burnham

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

André Aciman, the New York Times-bestselling author of Find Me and Call Me by Your Name, returns to the essay form with a collection of thoughts on time, the creative mind, and great lives and works. In Homo Irrealis (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Aciman explores what the present tense means to artists who cannot grasp the here and now. Irrealis is not about the present, or the past, or the future, but about what might have been but never was — but could in theory still happen. From meditations on subway poetry and the temporal resonances of an empty Italian street, to considerations of the lives and work of Sigmund Freud, Constantine Cavafy, W. G. Sebald, John Sloan, Éric Rohmer, Marcel Proust, and Fernando Pessoa,…

Free

Livestream Reading: Jack Estes

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes back Portland author Jack Estes for a livestream readings from his latest novel, Searching for Gurney. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwtfu-gpjMpGNMTQTTvICrt-2_SfXSyYru3 About the book: Searching for Gurney explores the damaged lives of three U.S. Marines and one North Vietnamese soldier in the late 1960s and '70s. Each character's story begins at a different place-JT, home and struggling with flashbacks; Coop, on leave and getting drunk at his grandfather's funeral; Hawkeye, at the moment a judge gives him the choice of jail or boot camp; and Vuong, leaving his small village to join the NVA with patriotic fervor. Sent home after a horrific ambush, the Marines face new battles with PTSD and a hostile American public that treats them as criminals. Nightmares, anger, and substance…

Free

Livestream Event: In Conversation with Alexi Pappas

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Hellenic-American Cultural Center & Museum (HACCM) is pleased to welcome award-winning writer, filmmaker and Olympic athlete Alexi Pappas to a virtual interview about her new book, Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas. Annie Bloom's is proud to be the official bookseller for this event. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/7416075434367/WN_OTf9EsrHTreMXYGIZQDF_w ALEXI PAPPAS is an award-winning writer, filmmaker, and Olympic athlete. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Runner’s World, Women’s Running, Sports Illustrated, The Atlantic, and Outside, among other publications, and she has been profiled in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, New York, and Rolling Stone. Pappas co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the feature film Tracktown with Rachel Dratch and Andy Buckley. Most recently, she co-wrote and starred alongside Nick Kroll…

Free

Slamlandia Digital Open Mic ft. Sheila J. Sadr

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month. This mic provides a creative, fun, and welcoming space for all literary communities in Portland. We encourage poets new and old to come share their work. We strive towards a safer space for poets to read their own poetry, witness others, and participate in community. Hosted by Julia Gaskill. January’s featured poet is Sheila J. Sadr. Click here to register for this event. If you have any questions, please contact slamlandia@gmail.com or jessica@literary-arts.org. Slamlandia is hosting another digital poetry open mic. This open mic - only poetry, no music please - will take place on January 21st. We'll be hosting this event with the help of Literary Arts. You can access our Zoom…

Free

Livestream Reading: Waka T. Brown

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland author Waka T. Brown for a livestream reading from her debut book, Middle Grade memoir While I Was Away. Waka will be joined in conversation by Rebecca Petruck, author of Boy Bites Bug. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEudOCtpjMtGNegY2Ij-Y2w5BqXMPfMQDir About While I Was Away: When twelve-year-old Waka's parents suspect she can’t understand the basic Japanese they speak to her, they make a drastic decision to send her to Tokyo to live for several months with her strict grandmother. Forced to say goodbye to her friends and what would have been her summer vacation, Waka is plucked from her straight-A-student life in rural Kansas and flown across the globe, where she faces the culture shock of a lifetime. In Japan, Waka struggles with reading and writing…

Free

WITS Reading: Benson High School

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in celebrating these students and their work. This end-of-residency reading will feature students who worked with WITS writers Jessica Mehta and Laura Moulton. Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUscO6gpzkiGdXFU6TzwJaP6-DlLalsllHb After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Jessica (Tyner)…

Free

WITS Reading: Madison High School

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in celebrating these students and their work. This end-of-residency reading will feature students who worked with WITS writers Alex Behr, Damien Miles-Paulson, and Bruce Poinsette. Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAudeuvqzwsHdU8y9B-SsKNHvBb2PamM132 After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.…

Free