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!

Readings

  1. Events
  2. Readings

Events Search and Views Navigation

Event Views Navigation

Today

Julian Aguon in Conversation With Karen Russell

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

Part memoir, part manifesto, Chamorro climate activist and human rights lawyer Julian Aguon’s No Country for Eight-Spot Butterflies (Astra House) is a coming-of-age story and a call for justice — for everyone, but in particular, for Indigenous peoples. In bracing poetry and compelling prose, Aguon weaves together stories from his childhood in the villages of Guam with searing political commentary about matters ranging from nuclear weapons to global warming. Undertaking the work of bearing witness, wrestling with the most pressing questions of the modern day, and reckoning with the challenge of truth-telling in an era of rampant obfuscation, he culls from his own life experiences — from losing his father to pancreatic cancer to working for Mother Teresa to an edifying chance encounter with Sherman…

Continue readingJulian Aguon in Conversation With Karen Russell
Free

LC English Fall ’22 Reading Series: Audrey Gutierrez

Lewis & Clark - Frank Manor House 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR, United States

We are delighted to kickoff our LC English Fall ’22 Reading Series by showcasing work by Visiting Instructor and LC alumna Audrey Gutierrez! Audrey Gutierrez is a Cuban-American writer from Lafayette, Louisiana. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a finalist of the 2022 PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship and of the Mary Blodgett Fiction Prize from the University of Iowa. In summer of 2022, Audrey was an Alaska State Parks Artist-in-Residence. Audrey has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and English language in Baeza, Spain. Currently, she is finalizing her gothic novel, The Fractures of Nos Castillo, about five sisters living on the edge of Cuba during the Revolution, as well as working on a collection of horror and…

Continue readingLC English Fall ’22 Reading Series: Audrey Gutierrez
Free

Neil Cochrane

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

Trans sailor Darragh Thorn has made a comfortable life for himself among people who love and accept him. Ten years after his exile from home, though, his sister asks him to reconcile with their ailing father. Determined to resolve his feelings rather than just survive them, Darragh sets off on a quest to find the one person who can heal a half-dead man: the mysterious enchanter who once gave him the magic he needed to become his true self. But so far as anyone knows, no one but Darragh has seen the enchanter for a century, and the fairy tales that survive about em give more cause for fear than hope. In lush and evocative prose, and populated with magical trees and a wise fox,…

Continue readingNeil Cochrane
Free

Deborah E. Kennedy in Conversation With Joanna Rose

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

Jenny Newberg, Queen of Bad Decisions, is about to make another one. In a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, down-on-her-luck single mother Jenny is on a first-name basis with the debt collector at the bank, who is moving toward foreclosure. She is constantly apologizing to her precocious young daughter, Billie Starr, who is filling a book with her mother’s sorries, and it seems to Jenny that no apology will ever be enough. Then a pair of strangers in black suits offers her a hefty check to seduce someone known as the Candidate. Finally, something will go her way. But nothing ever goes as Jenny plans, and she is swept into the Candidate’s orbit. Surrounded by a wide universe of new ideas, she realizes…

Continue readingDeborah E. Kennedy in Conversation With Joanna Rose
Free

Elizabeth Brooks in Conversation With Rene Denfeld

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

Elizabeth Brooks’s The House in the Orchard (Tin House) is a startling gothic tale of corrupted innocence that asks — when we look closely — what it really means to know the truth. 1945: war widow Peggy is grateful to have inherited Orchard House from her husband’s Aunt Maude; she looks forward to making a fresh start in rural Cambridgeshire with her young son. The moment she sets eyes on the rambling property, however, doubt sets in. From the bricked-up cellar to the scent of violets and rotting fruit, the place seems shrouded by dark mysteries. When Peggy discovers Maude’s teenage diary gathering dust inside a broken desk, she begins to read, searching for answers. 1876: orphaned Maude is forced to leave London, and her…

Continue readingElizabeth Brooks in Conversation With Rene Denfeld
Free

One Page Wednesday: October

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

One Page Wednesday is back in-person at our downtown center! Here is an opportunity to share or listen to one page of work in progress from talented writers from everywhere. Come with a single page of work and sign up to read – or come to listen and prepare to be inspired. Our host this month is the one and only, Emme Lund. Our featured reader is cosima bee concordia. Please review our Covid-19 guidelines. Be prepared to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR Test at the door. Masks are not required but encouraged. If you have any questions, contact Jessica at jessica@literary-arts.org. Emme Lund Emme Lund is an author living and writing in Portland, Oregon. She has an MFA from Mills College. Her work has…

Continue readingOne Page Wednesday: October
Free

In-Store Reading: Cai Emmons, Yuvi Zalkow, Kate Gale

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon author Cai Emmons who is presenting her new novel, Livid, published by Red Hen Press. The author Whitney Otto will be a stand-in reader for Cai, whose ALS precludes public speaking. They will be joined by fellow Red Hen author Yuvi Zalkow, whose new novel is I Only Cry with Emoticons, and Red Hen co-founder Kate Gale, whose new poetry collection is The Loneliest Girl. 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 Livid: Sybil White Brown returns from Boston to the small West Coast city where she once lived, hoping to heal after a terrible loss. Summoned to jury duty,…

Continue readingIn-Store Reading: Cai Emmons, Yuvi Zalkow, Kate Gale
Free

Coffee Talk #39

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Come hear 5 wonderful writers read their grief words. This zoom event lasts about an hour and is guaranteed to be the best heart medicine. Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84596161664?pwd=UktVamJyNlpKVGNUbjcxay9EY1Y4QT09 Meeting ID: 845 9616 1664 Passcode: 395080

Free

Poetry Reading and Open Mic

Milwaukie Floral and Garden 3306 SE Lake Rd, Milwaukie, OR, United States

Open Mic and Poetry Reading at Milwaukie Floral & Garden. Co-sponsored by the Milwaukie Poetry Series and St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church. Our Featured Readers are Christopher Luna, former poet Laureate of Vancouver, WA, and poets from the Ghost Town Poetry Group. They will be reading their own work or their favorite poets for about 35 minutes. There may be additional Featured Readers. The reading will be followed by an Open Mic. The Open Mic will follow their reading. Email Tom Hogan at tomhogan2@comcast.net (link sends e-mail) to register. Registration includes link to watch and listen on Zoom. Plan to read 1 or 2 poems depending on the number of participants and length of the poems. If time permits additional poems will be allowed. The event will be recorded and available for viewing on…

Continue readingPoetry Reading and Open Mic
Free

Other People’s Poetry

Mother Foucault's Bookshop 523 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States
Free
Click a category label below to view the calendar with only events in that specific category.