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!

Starting the Story

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This 4 -week short fiction workshop will focus on generating new work and simply getting words down on a page.  We will read excerpts, share just-written work aloud, and sometimes discuss assigned weekly readings together. We will investigate ways to unearth material together and share strategies for maintaining a regular writing practice. Participants will leave will many fragments and several starts for new work. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please…

$200

Write Around Portland: Bi-Monthly BIPOC Online Writing Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

"I love being witnessed, and I absolutely love witnessing the words of everyone else in the group. It’s our own kind of magic." —BIPOC Online Workshop Participant For people who identify as Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC). 2nd & 4th Friday of every month from 4 to 5:30 pm (Pacific Time), Free. Workshops are held via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. Registration opens the 1st of the month every month and closes when filled or at 12noon the day before the workshop. Pre-register for our 2nd Friday workshop here. Pre-register for our 4th Friday workshop here.  Click here for more workshop details. 

Free

Spring Forward, Fall Back: Time in Prose Writing

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

How to handle time can be challenging to master when writing in any genre. When should we slow down and dwell in a scene? When should we summarize and move rapidly through weeks, years, or even decades? Should we go back in time to unpack and understand a character’s motivation? How does the manipulation of time, the unfolding of events, work in a short story, a novel, or in memoir? This workshop will explore how writers bend time to create different narrative effects. We will read work by Tessa Hadley, Rachel Cusk, Sally Rooney, Toni Morrison, John Cheever and others, as well as look at examples from TV shows and films such as Ted Lasso, Atlanta, and The Lost Daughter. After the discussion, we’ll work…

$145

The Dandelions Are Prophesizing: A Writing Workshop Through Plant & Mycelial Encounters with Janice Lee —begins July 10th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Dandelions Are Prophesizing: A Writing Workshop Through Plant & Mycelial Encounters July 10 - August 6, 2022 (Synchronous Zoom sessions Mondays 7/11, 7/18, 7/25, 8/1) ***SOLD OUT! Email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com to add your name to the waitlist*** “The world is not a problem to be solved; it is a living being to which we belong. It is part of our own self and we are a part of its suffering wholeness. Until we go to the root of our image of separateness, there can be no healing. And the deepest part of our separateness from creation lies in our forgetfulness of its sacred nature, which is also our own sacred nature.” – Thich Nhat Hanh  “If we are interested in livability, impermanence, and…

$50

Forest Bathing and Writing: Hoyt Arboretum

Hoyt Arboretum 4000 SW Fairview Blvd., Portland, OR, United States

This class, held outdoors at Hoyt Arboretum, will guide you in practicing skills associated with shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing—a gentle, meditative approach to being with nature. The class will include several invitations to explore your senses and your relationship with nature, time for written reflection, and opportunities to share your observations and your writing, if you wish. In each class, you’ll learn approaches to writing and to being with nature that you can use in your everyday life to help promote a sense of relaxation, connection, and wonder. No prior experience with writing is required. All forest bathing and writing prompts may be practiced seated, standing, or walking, depending on your comfort, ability, and interest. Classes will be held rain or shine, so please dress…

$75

Summer Series: Paper Marbling

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

This workshop is in person: Masks / Proof of Vaccination Required Register here Join us for an evening of paper marbling with artist and printmaker Jillian Barthold. Learn about different types of paper marbling, and set-up and come away with several examples of marbled paper. Instructor: Jillian Barthold Capacity: 8 Sliding scale $10-55 2 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized

$10 – $55

Summer | Write from Life w David Biespiel | July 16 + 17 | In-Person + Online FULL for in-person; ONLINE available

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Praise for Writing from Life: "It was unbelievable. I feel like I just skied down Mt Hood." ~ Phil Meehan This popular tune-up workshop will be run twice this summer, in July and August. It's the kind of study every writer needs, an opportunity to write from studying your own life experiences and then seeing what new subjects that leads you to. The supportive approach emphasizes observation as the route to achieve new material, new possibilities, and new pieces, whether you are writing fiction, memoir, or poems. The approach teaches you new skills that you can use for all your future writing, as well as how to transfer your observations into clear notes, jottings, studies, and pieces of new writing. This method of writing is one of the foundational skill sets that all…

$215 – $244

Summer Series: Cyanotypes

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

Summer Series: Cyanotypes Register here Instructor: Katherine Spinella This workshop is in person: Masks + Proof of Vaccination Required Capacity: 8 Sun, July 17th 11am – 1:30pm Sliding Scale $10 – 55 2 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized Join us to explore the photographic alt-process of cyanotypes! Cyanotypes, otherwise known as blueprints, are one of the earliest forms of photography used by engineers and astronomers as a simple and low-cost process to produce copies of drawings. In this workshop, we’ll experiment with fun and easy ways to create cyanotypes. By laying film negatives and/or 2D objects on top of the chemically treated material, you’ll create a deep blueprint with bright, ghost-white silhouettes. Feel free to bring your own film negatives, spring botanicals, or…

$10 – $55

Write Your Rant with Lisa Loving

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

"Whatever stories in your community most need to be told, the best person to tell them is you." What really burns your toast? And what’s the best way to tell the world about it? Rose City Book Pub is extremely thrilled to host Lisa Loving's first of three writing workshops: "Write Your Rant." Join journalist and retired talk radio host Lisa Loving for the basics of online research, writing tips, narrative structure and where to bring it. Tickets are 25$ and include a copy of Street Journalist: Understand and Report the News in Your Community as well as a drink and some phenomenal shared appetizers. Get tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/374866454657 Lisa Loving’s Website: http://www.street-journalist.com/ Lisa Loving’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Media4thepeople

$25

Summer Series: Origami Summer Flowers & Creatures

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

Register here Instructor: Yuki Martin This workshop is in person: Masks / Proof of Vaccination Required Capacity: 8 Sliding scale $10-35 2 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized Tuesday, 7/19 Part 1; 6:30 – 8pm Tuesday 7/26 Part 2; 6:30 – 8pm Join Yuki Martin for an origami workshop focusing on summery flowers and creatures. This is a two-part workshop, with the first workshop geared towards beginners, and the second workshop designed to build on the skills in the first workshop. The second workshop is recommended for individuals who have taken the first workshop and/or have prior experience.

$10 – $35