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!

Jonathan Taplin in Conversation With Robbie Robertson

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Jonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and the Band in the ’60s, producer of major films in the ’70s, an executive at Merrill Lynch in the ’80s, creator of the Internet’s first video-on-demand service in the ’90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts — from the folk scene to Woodstock, Hollywood’s rebellious film movement, and beyond. Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. With…

Free

Oregon Historical Society: Rethinking American Grand Strategy

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Rethinking American Grand Strategy recasts both historical and modern dimensions of U.S. grand strategy by broadening the factors, events, and figures that could be considered political, and therefore strategic. Join us for a 30-minute lecture with one of the volume’s co-editors and co-authors, Christopher McKnight Nichols, laying out some of the broad themes, major events, and transformations in U.S. grand strategy, including an explanation of how an ensemble of leading scholars approached the history of the United States’ place in the world from the framework of rethinking. Following the book talk, Derrick Olsen will facilitate a discussion between Nichols and Ambassador Mary Carlin Yates on how the historical insights provided in Rethinking American Grand Strategy could aid in reconceptualizing domestic needs and foreign policy in a post-COVID-19 world. Copies…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: The Madwoman in the Attic and the Monstrous Feminine

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The “mad woman in the attic” is a common trope in gothic literature, but who is she? And how did she end up there? Integral to the gothic genre are stories of madness and haunting, which often serve as metaphors for social violence, race, gender and class warfare, and the abject. Stereotypically, the female protagonist in gothic literature plays the role of victim, but what about when she participates in her own monstrosity? In this seminar, we will explore some lesser known gothic novels with female protagonists who became “monstrous”, and explore the intersections between horror, mental illness, psychoanalysis, sexual repression, and gender identity in these female authored 20th century gothic works. Texts: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Wide Sargasso…

$240

Daniel Barbarisi in Conversation With Jason Gay

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Daniel Barbarisi’s Chasing the Thrill (Knopf) is a full-throttle, first-person account of the treasure hunt created by eccentric millionaire art dealer — and, some would say, robber baron — Forrest Fenn that became the stuff of contemporary legend. When Fenn was given a fatal cancer diagnosis, he came up with a bold plan: He would hide a chest full of jewels and gold in the wilderness, and publish a poem that would serve as a map leading to the treasure's secret location. But he didn't die, and after hiding the treasure in 2010, Fenn instead presided over a decade-long gold rush that saw many thousands of treasure hunters scrambling across the Rocky Mountains in pursuit of his fortune. Barbarisi first learned of Fenn's hunt in…

Free

MY BEGGING CHART virtual event with Keiler Roberts

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Keiler Roberts celebrates the release of her new graphic novel, My Begging Chart. Keiler is joined in conversation by special guest Jessica Campbell (Hot or Not, XTC69) to discuss the new book. Click here to join the live virtual event on Wednesday May 26, 5pm PST. Preorder the book here and receive a free signed and illustrated bookplate by Keiler Roberts! Keiler Roberts mines the passing moments of family life to deliver an affecting and funny account of what it means to simultaneously exist as a mother, daughter, wife, and artist. Drawn in an unassuming yet charming staccato that mimics the awkward rhythm of life, no one’s foibles are left unspared, most often the author’s own. When Roberts considers whether or not to dust the ceiling…

Free

From Concept to Object: The Zine as a Creative Conduit

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Self-published, limited distribution, one-of-a-kind works of text and images, zines have been a subculture mainstay for decades and continue to evolve. This workshop will recontextualize this definition as it relates to filmmaking today and examine how zines can become tools in exploring, developing, and materializing your ideas. We will look at examples of filmzines and explore how they can help you get started on a project with no equipment or funding, be a gateway to other mediums, and allow you to visualize an idea from your head to the page. Being works of art in and of themselves, we will touch on the history of the zine and the merits of physical objects in the creative process. Join Mila Matveeva, illustrator, film producer, and zine-maker,…

$60

Horror Book Club (Remote)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We will meet on Thursday May 27th at 6:30pm and discuss High Moor by Graeme Reynolds. About the book: When John Simpson hears of a bizarre animal attack in his old home town of High Moor, it stirs memories of a long forgotten horror. John knows the truth. A werewolf stalks the town once more, and on the night of the next full moon, the killing will begin again. He should know. He survived a werewolf attack in 1986, during the worst year of his life. It's 1986 and the town is gripped in terror after the mutilated corpse of a young boy is found in the woods. When Sergeant Steven Wilkinson begins an investigation, with the help of a specialist hunter, he soon realises…

$17

Teen Event online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Play games and get awesome Book Recommendations at these Friday evening events just for teens! Tonight's event: Devils in the Details (Jackbox game)

Free

Cirro-numinous Presents: CIRRO-NUMINOUS SALON: THE MASK

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

THE MASK is the first in an ongoing series of lectures/salons investigating the components of craft, embodiment, and perception. During each event, we’ll take a different lens to the question “how do these interrelated undertakings interact with a holistic creative practice?” Masks aren’t just tools of performance—they can also be an important ritual artifact. When we introduce an obstructing layer between ourselves and the world, we further our own power to move beyond a limiting view of the self. We’ll explore the topic deeply over the course of an hour and a half through a combination of lecture, discussion, and generative writing.

Free

Show:Tell Middle Grades Print Camp

Alder Commons 4212 NE Prescott St., Portland, OR, United States

This summer we’re partnering with Alder Commons on after school camps that will take place rain or shine in their ample and dynamic outside spaces! Check out the offerings and dates for camp below. Sliding scale and no-cost spots available. Reach out to showtell@iprc.org to inquire. Safety Considerations: We’ll be limiting enrollment to 10 campers per session, and doing all of our learning and making in outside spaces, and we will be practicing social distancing. We ask that campers bring masks. For more information about IPRC Youth Summer Camps, please email Alley Pezanoski-Browne at showtell@iprc.org. Middle Grades Print Tuesday, June 1st – Thursday June 3rd 3 – 5:30pm Registration form here Get ready to print the world in this exploratory print-making workshop with printmakers and visual artists Marissa Perez and Daniela…

$200 – $250