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!

Food Is a Weapon: Ghetto Gastro with Gregory Gourdet

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker of Bronx-based culinary collective Ghetto Gastro, and authors of the new book Ghetto Gastro Presents Black Power Kitchen, for a conversation with acclaimed Portland-based chef Gregory Gourdet. Part cookbook. Part manifesto. Created with big Bronx energy, Black Power Kitchen combines 75 mostly plant-based, layered-with-flavor recipes with immersive storytelling, diverse voices, and striking images and photographs that celebrate Black food and Black culture, and inspire larger conversations about race, history, food inequality, and how eating well can be a pathway to personal freedom and self-empowerment. “Black Power Kitchen is as much a cooking manual as it is a manifesto of Ghetto Gastro’s decade-long mission: Seeing eating as simultaneously a form of survival and a source of luxury, Black Power Kitchen…

Free

PBF Cover to Cover: Write a Renga, Save the World

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Renga is a form of collaborative Japanese poetry whereby multiple poets create and respond in turn. Join our group of poets from Portland and abroad for an afternoon of renga writing that examines some of today’s most pressing concerns–bodily autonomy, religious extremism, and imminent environmental ruin. We’ll take inspiration from Basho’s popular “haikai” style, which employed a satirical edge and witty playfulness, even while discussing complex topics. Event contact: Heather Brown, heather@mindthebirdmedia.com  

Free

Write a Renga, Save the World – A PBF Cover to Cover Event

Mother Foucault's Bookshop 523 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States

Renga is a form of collaborative Japanese poetry whereby multiple poets create and respond in turn. Join our group of poets from Portland and abroad for an evening of group renga writing that examines some of today's most pressing concerns - bodily autonomy, religous extremism, and imminent environmental ruin. We'll take inspiration from Basho's popular "haikai" style, which employed a satirical edge and witty playfulness, even while discussing complex topics. Guest facilitators - Mira Rosenthal, Becca Wadlinger This events is organized under the umbrella of PBF Cover to Cover

Free

Ledding Library Speaker Series

Ledding Library of Milwaukie 10660 SE 21st Avenue, Milwaukie, OR, United States

The Ledding Library Speaker Series is back!  Join us for a night with VM Brasseur, author of Forge Your Future.  Brasseur will give a presentation on the future of Open Source Software. Room Location: Community Room

Free

Transmit Culture: Libraries in the Publishing Ecosystem

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

What is the role of the library in the book ecosystem in 2022? Come hear a panel of industry experts discuss the changing relationship between libraries and publishers and authors, the controversies surrounding libraries in the book ecosystem, and career opportunities for those interested in working with libraries. Join the Zoom webinar: pdx.zoom.us/j/82587833760.

Free

THE CADENCE: A Tale of Paper and Cloth

Clinton Street Theater 2522 SE Clinton St, Portland, OR, United States

(2022 - 33m) Written, directed and edited by Luca Dipierro Art and animation by Luca Dipierro Original soundtrack by freddie Murphy and Chiara Lee Sound design and mix by Tommaso Barbaro Produced by DML The Cadence is a 33-minute animated film shot in stop motion by the artist Luca Dipierro, using marionettes made with paper, bookcloth, and thread. Five years in the making, the film features a soundtrack by freddie Murphy and Chiara Lee. The Cadence tells the story of a boy, lover of silence, and the journey toward his own beginning. It’s a tale made of tales, populated by bizarre characters who enter and exit swiftly, as on a puppet theatre stage: masked children waiting for the last leaf to fall; a moon-faced mother;…

$8

Emme Lund in Conversation with Stacy Brewster

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

We are thrilled to be hosting Emme Lund for the launch of the paperback edition of her novel The Boy with a Bird in His Chest. Emme will be in conversation with Stacy Brewster, who is the author of the story collection What We Pick Up.

Free

Aubrey Gordon in Conversation With Sarah Marshall

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

In her new book, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” (Beacon Press), Aubrey Gordon, co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast and creator of Your Fat Friend, equips you with the facts to debunk common anti-fat myths and with tools to take action for fat justice. The pushback that shows up in conversations about fat justice takes exceedingly predicable form. Losing weight is easy — calories in, calories out. Fat people are unhealthy. We’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Fat acceptance “glorifies obesity.” The BMI is an objective measure of size and health. Yet, these myths are as readily debunked as they are pervasive. In “You Just Need to Lose Weight," Gordon equips readers with the facts and figures to reframe myths about fatness…

Free

Ruby McConnell and Char Miller

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

Join us for an evening with Ruby McConnell and Char Miller discussing their latest books, Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of Life and Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril. Ruby McConnell is a registered geologist and outdoor adventurer. She is a recipient of numerous honors, including the Literary Arts Oregon Literary Fellowship, and she was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction. Ground Truth is an extended eulogy to a rapidly changing land, population and society awakening to the realities of logging, climate change, land-use and pollution. The book illuminates the central role of landscapes in our ideas of home and self despite the growing disconnect between modern lifestyle and the environment. Char Miller is the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental…

Free

Gemma Whalen in Conversation with Rene Denfeld

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

We are excited to host Gemma Whelan for the launch of her second novel, Painting Through the Dark. Gemma will be in conversation with Portland author Rene Denfeld, the author of several books, including The Enchanted, The Child Finder, The Butterfly Girl, and the forthcoming (May 2023) Fire and Water. Gemma's new novel tells the story of feisty 21-year-old Ashling O'Leary, who flees the emotional shackles of her family in Ireland and the convent where she was training to be a nun. She arrives in San Francisco in 1982 with a backpack, a judo outfit, her artist's portfolio, a three-month visa, and a determination to find a way to speak up about the abuse of girls and women in Catholic Ireland. As she becomes embroiled…

Free