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!

A Black History Month Tribute to Toni Morrison

Multnomah County Library - North Portland Meeting Room 512 N Killingsworth Street, Portland, OR, United States

A prolific writer of novels, essays and song lyrics who first came to prominence in the early 1970s, Morrison focused particularly on the experience of women within the black community. Her work earned her numerous awards, most notably the Nobel Prize for Literature, for which she broke new ground as the first African American winner. Join us for a celebration of the life and achievements of Toni Morrison.

Free

Will Eisner and the Business of Comics

PSU - Smith Memorial Student Union 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

In honor of Will Eisner Week, PSU hosts this panel discussion featuring Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson, IDW's Ted Adams, and moderator Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

Free

Everybody Reads 2020: Tommy Orange

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Celebrate the power of books to create a stronger community by attending the 2020 Everybody Reads author event with Tommy Orange. Literary Arts is proud to host an evening with award-winning author Tommy Orange as the culminating event of Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads program. This year’s programming will center on Orange’s debut novel, There There. Tickets start at $15, available at Portland5.com With the selection of There There, Everybody Reads 2020 centers around the experience of urban Native Americans in Oakland, California. Through a shared reading experience, we will explore a multitude of themes in the book, from identity and ownership to the urban-rural divide. About There There: Orange’s shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow,…

$15

IPRC BIPOC Writer & Artist Residency Program Q&A Info Session

IPRC (Independent Publishing Resource Center) 318 SE Main Street #175, Portland, OR, United States

The IPRC’s mission has always been about access and empowering alternative paths to publishing for vital work & unique voices. To fulfill our mission better, we’re introducing this residency program that is designed specifically to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) artists and writers to develop and create their art, and to share with the wider community. We want to give artists and writers time, financial (in the form of $3k stipends) and community support, as well as resources to create. The Call For Proposals is now open: https://bit.ly/3bEnPaz with an application deadline of Wednesday, 3/25 at 11:59 PST. We're offering this info session with IPRC ED Alley Pezanoski-Browne for anyone interested in applying. Come bring your questions! Food will be provided. If…

Free

Longreads Club: How the Horrific 1918 Flu Spread Across America

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

The toll of history’s worst epidemic surpasses all the military deaths in World War I and World War II combined. And it may have begun in the United States. 4,600 words, about 30 minutes ARTICLE: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/journal-plague-year-180965222/ If you prefer to listen to the article, you can create a Text-To-Speech mp3 for free here: http://www.fromtexttospeech.com/. The TTS is a robotic voice, but many people get used to it fairly quickly. The Longreads Club is a twice-monthly program hosted by WorldOregon's Young Professionals group. Join us for Longreads Club where we discuss a long-form article focused on global topics every other week. Rather than skim the headlines, we are trying to dive deep and learn from each other to gain a better understanding of world events. No…

Free

Will Falk

Lucky Labrador Brewing Company 915 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

A discussion with author and attorney Will Falk, centered on his recent book How Dams Fall, about his attempt to seek rights of nature for the Colorado River.

Free

Powell’s Books Presents Rebecca Solnit in Conversation With Cheryl Strayed – SOLD OUT

Revolution Hall 1300 SE Stark St, Portland, OR, United States

This Event is All Ages and Reserved Seating. ALL SALES ARE FINAL. PLEASE, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR ORDER BEFORE PURCHASING. NO REFUNDS. TO ACCESS PRESALE TICKETS, CLICK ON "TICKETS" AND ENTER THE PASSWORD ON "ENTER PROMO CODE" An Evening With the Author of Men Explain Things to Me Renowned feminist writer Rebecca Solnit has been writing important, acclaimed, prize-winning books for years. Her 2014 essay collection, Men Explain Things to Me, won her an ardent readership among a new generation of young women readers who found a welcome touchstone in Solnit’s articulation of the female experience. Solnit’s new memoir, Recollections of My Nonexistence, offers an electric portrait of the artist as a young woman — and asks how a writer finds her voice in a society…

$36

Southern Oregon Online: Writing and Marketing Short Pieces with Sheila Bender

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Get Flashy - Writing and Marketing Short Pieces with Sheila Bender Flash nonfiction, flash fiction and flash series have gained traction in the publishing and literary worlds over the last years with iStories, New York Times Tiny Love Stories, Brevity, A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction, and anthologies such as Flash Fiction Funny, Flash Nonfiction Funny and You Have Time for This. The form, you may recognize, has been around for decades, even centuries, though not named flash. If you've been wondering about short pieces and how to get them published and marketed, join us at our online chapter meeting with author Sheila Bender. Sheila will discuss some of her favorite work from many sources and exercises for developing one's own flash pieces, sometimes by…

Free

Book Talk: Do You Have Kids? Life When the Answer is No

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

On the eve of Mother’s Day weekend, please join Kate Kaufmann and Jackie Shannon Hollis for an intimate, respectful, and frank conversation about what it means to be childless or childfree in a society that celebrates motherhood as the ultimate expression of female identity. This is a conversation for all of us--non-parents, parents and those as yet unsure--to explore a different path, whether by choice or circumstance, and to recognize the important role we all play in the lives of the children in our world. Register to join us on Crowdcast: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/book-talk-do-you-have Kate Kaufmann is the author of DO YOU HAVE KIDS? LIFE WHEN THE ANSWER IS NO (https://www.tworiversbooks.com/book/9781631525810), in which she explores topics from the shifting meaning of family to what we leave behind…

Free

THE BOOKSELLERS Q&A presented by Living Room Theaters

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Living Room Theaters presents a live Q&A with Michael Powell of the world-renowned Powell’s Books, actress/producer Parker Posey and director of THE BOOKSELLERS D.W. Young. The event will be a discussion of storytelling and the culture of books inspired by THE BOOKSELLERS, a documentary exploring rare book selling in New York City. THE BOOKSELLERS features book-loving luminaries Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Gay Talese and a gaggle of eccentrics, nerds, and oddballs whose passions are books and book collecting. The film compiles their stories and, in the telling, conveys the history of publishing, collecting, and the city of New York itself. Michael Powell  The roots of Powell's Books -- the world’s largest independent bookstore -- began in Chicago, where Michael Powell opened his first bookstore in…

Free