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!

Whitney Otto, Art for the Ladylike

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We are so thrilled to be (virtually) hosting Portland author Whitney Otto with her new book Art for the Ladylike, published by Mad Creek Books. In this inviting blend of biography and memoir, Otto examines her life in terms of the women artists who influenced her, asking, “Is there any social effect when a woman is explicit in her observing?” She limns the lives of eight pioneering women photographers—Sally Mann, Imogen Cunningham, Judy Dater, Ruth Orkin, Tina Modotti, Lee Miller, Madame Yvonne, and Grete Stern— to in turn excavate her own writer’s life. The result is an affecting exploration of what it means to be a woman, what it means to be an artist, and the perils and rewards of being both at once. In…

Free

Gregory Gourdet in Conversation With Michelle Tam

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

When award-winning, trendsetting chef Gregory Gourdet got sober, he took stock of his life and his pantry, concentrating his energy on getting himself healthy by cooking food that was both full of nutrients and full of flavor. Now, the beloved Top Chef star shares these extraordinary dishes with everyone. Gourdet’s Everyone’s Table (Harper Wave) features 200 mouthwatering, decadently flavorful recipes carefully designed to focus on superfoods — ingredients with the highest nutrient density, the best fats, and the most minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants — that will delight home cooks. Gourdet’s dishes are inspired by his deep affection for global ingredients and techniques — from his Haitian upbringing to his French culinary education, from the cuisines of Asia as well as those of North and West…

Free

The Milwaukie Poetry Series: Anis Mojgani Poetry Reading

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Anis Mojgani's poetry reading will be livestreamed on May 12, 2021 on the Ledding Library YouTube Channel. (link is external) Anis Mojgani is the current Poet Laureate of Oregon. A two-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam and winner of the International World Cup Poetry Slam, he has been awarded residencies from the Vermont Studio Center, Caldera, AIR Serenbe, The Bloedel Nature Reserve, The Sou’wester, and the Oregon Literary Arts Writers-In-The-Schools program. Anis has done commissions for the Getty Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum, and his work has appeared on HBO, National Public Radio, and as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day series; and in the pages of the NYTimes, Rattle, Platypus, Winter Tangerine, Forklift Ohio, and Bat City Review. Known for his performances and well regarded for them…

Free

Incite: Queer Writers Read

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Incite: Queer Writers Read is a curated, bimonthly reading series for Queer writers. Incite’s hope is to create conversation, connection, and greater understanding both within the Queer community and with other communities. Hosted by Vinnie Kinsella and Jennifer Perrine. The theme for May is Wayfinding.  Register for this event in advance. Wayne Bund is a multidisciplinary artist weaving fantasy and identity through photography, performance, and writing. He wrote his own evening length solo performance, "Strong Female Protagonist," which he performed in Portland in 2018.  His works and performances have been exhibited nationally with Seattle Art Museum, On the Boards, and Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, the Ludlow Festival in the UK, SOMarts in San Francisco, and Risk/Reward Festival of New Performance, Portland Institute for Contemporary…

Free

Joseph Fink & Meg Bashwiner in Conversation With Symphony Sanders

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The First Ten Years: Two Sides of the Same Love Story (Harper Perennial) is the sometimes hilarious, occasionally heartbreaking, and always entertaining joint memoir by Joseph Fink, cocreator of Welcome to Night Vale, and his wife, writer and performer Meg Bashwiner, chronicling the first 10 years of their relationship from both sides. In 2009, 22-year-old Joseph, newly arrived to New York City from the West Coast, was juggling odd jobs to pay the rent and volunteering with a theater company in the East Village so he could snag free tickets to their shows. Meg, a 22-year-old aspiring performer and playwright, was living with her parents in New Jersey, working a desk job and commuting to her internship with that same East Village theater company. Joseph's…

Free

Airlie Press May Mixer Reading & Fundraiser

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us to celebrate our 2020 titles and preview our 2021 and 2022 titles. Readings by Megan Alpert, Brittney Corrigan, Amelia Díaz Ettinger, Jennifer Perrine, David Pickering, Jennifer Reimer, and Connie Soper. Plus a raffle and special surprises! If you'd like to make a donation to Airlie Press, you can do so at the time of registration or anytime before and during the event. For every $10 you donate, your name will be entered into the raffle drawing. If you donate $100 or more, your support will be included in the acknowledgments for our 2022 titles. Donate here: http://www.airliepress.org/donate

Free

Five Oaks Museum Showcase

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A Virtual Fundraiser & Celebration of Community Excellence In the first year under their new name, Five Oaks Museum has cut a new path for history and culture institutions. The Guest Curator program has produced three game-changing, community-led exhibitions so far: This IS Kalapuyan Land, Gender Euphoria, and DISplace. Join the museum for their first fundraising event within the new brand - a showcase of vibrant performances and speakers that celebrates these exhibitions and the incredible community leaders who created them. The virtual event is free and open to the public. Funds raised are infused back into the community as ethical compensation for the storytellers who shape the museum. Their exhibitions, Instagram takeovers, events, and collaborative projects bring vitality to local history, arts, and culture.…

Free – $50

Massy Arts presents Callum Angus, Hazel Jane Plante, and Corinne Manning

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Massy Arts Society and Metonymy Press present Callum Angus in conversation with Hazel Jane Plante and Corinne Manning. A celebration of A Natural History of Transition, the debut story collection by Callum Angus. Massy Arts Society and Metonymy Press present the author in conversation with Hazel Jane Plante and Corinne Manning A Natural History of Transition is a collection of short stories that disrupts the notion that trans people can only have one transformation. Like the landscape studied over eons, change does not have an expiration date for these trans characters, who grow as tall as buildings, turn into mountains, unravel hometown mysteries, and give birth to cocoons. Portland-based author Callum Angus infuses his work with a mix of alternative history, horror, and a reality…

Free

Livestream Reading: J. T. Bushnell

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon author J. T. Bushnell for a livestream reading from his debut novel, The Step Back. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZItf--upjMoGtH3HF4xJ9GsIm9szR-oBsrB About The Step Back: Ed Garrison has it all––a successful basketball career, a great relationship with his kid brother, the best dog a guy could ask for, and a supportive family. With summer vacation being the only thing standing between him and a full-ride scholarship to Berkeley, Ed feels invincible. But everything falls apart as high school comes to an end and his mother suddenly leaves his father for a woman three thousand miles away, leaving behind a broken home in the wake of her absence and betrayal. Ed feels helpless as his humiliated father turns to liquor and work and his brother…

Free

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Micah Fletcher AKA Kool Chief Rocker

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Micah Fletcher AKA Kool Chief Rocker Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige 7 pm Thursday, May 13 On Zoom $5 Suggested donation LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com/ Micah Fletcher, also known as Kool Chief Rocker, or Rocker for short, is a nationally-recognized poet and spoken word artist who took first place in Portland Oregon’s citywide youth poetry competition Verselandia in 2013. Micah’s style is hard hitting, vulnerable and razor sharp often moving listeners to tears with his deep self-reflection and critical social commentary His latest project, released alongside his mentor Mic Crenshaw, Brink…

Free – $5