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!

OryCon 42

Red Lion Hotel on the River Jantzen Beach 909 N. Hayden Island Drive, Portland, OR, United States

OryCon is Oregon’s premier, fan run, annual science fiction/fantasy convention held in Portland since 1979. After taking our convention online for a mini-con in 2020, we're happy to be in person for Orycon 42, November 12th - 14th, 2021! We are retaining our original theme for OryCon 42 of “Humor, Satire, and Parody in Science Fiction and Fantasy”. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce that memberships are still available at the current rate of $50 until July 15th, 2021, with discounted rates for youth memberships. If you have not already done so, please register at: https://42.orycon.org/registration/ The pricing schedule afterward is as follows: $60 from July 16, 2021 until October 15, 2021 $75 at the door As attendance may be subject to…

$60 – $75

Bookarts: Stab Stitch & Variations

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Register here $25-55 sliding scale 3 no-cost spots available; BIPOC prioritized; reach out to hquinn@iprc.org to inquire Bookarts Workshop: Stab Stitch & Variations In this introductory book arts workshop, participants will come away equipped with a basic understanding of the tools required for bookbinding, and will learn how to bind books through Japanese stab binding. This non-adhesive binding makes gorgeous decorative patterns on the spine of the book. We’ll go over several different styles and techniques, and you’ll leave class with 3-4 notebooks handmade by you! Paper materials provided. Beginners welcome. Instructor: Isabel Diana Class capacity: 10 Class meeting: Sunday, August 15th, 12-2pm PST $25-55 sliding scale 3 no-cost spots available; BIPOC prioritized; reach out to hquinn@iprc.org to inquire Required Materials: Waxed Linen Thread Awl…

$25 – $55

Virtual Author Event: Jen Hewett, author of THIS LONG THREAD, in conversation w/ Mia Nakaji Monnier

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for a pre-publication celebration of the diverse work of women of color in the craft community. Weaving together interviews, first-person essays, and artist profiles, THIS LONG THREAD explores the work and contributions of people of color across the fiber arts and crafts community, representing a wide spectrum of race, age, region, cultural identity, education, and economic class. Be inspired by the work and stories of innovative artists and artisans, such as Cynthia Alberto, Windy Chien, Naiomi Glasses, Sonya Philip, Latifah Saafir, and Lisa Woolfolk, who are making exceptional contributions to the world of craft. About Jen Hewett: Jen Hewett is a printmaker, surface designer, and teacher based in New York's Hudson Valley. In addition to designing and selling her own products, Jen designs…

$5

Debby Applegate in Conversation With Abbott Kahler

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Madam (Doubleday) — the new book from Debby Applegate, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Most Famous Man in America — is the compulsively readable and sometimes jaw-dropping story of the life of a notorious madam who played hostess to every gangster, politician, writer, sports star, and Cafe Society swell worth knowing, and who as much as any single figure helped make the twenties roar. Simply put: Everybody came to Polly’s. Pearl “Polly” Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring Twenties became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld — and had a good time…

Free

Science Fiction Book Club (REMOTE)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join us November 16th at 6:30pm for our Science Fiction Book Club. We will discuss Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. About the Book: From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reckoners series, Words of Radiance, and the Mistborn trilogy comes the first book in an epic new series about a girl who dreams of becoming a pilot in a dangerous world at war for humanity's future. Spensa's world has been under attack for decades. Now pilots are the heroes of what's left of the human race, and becoming one has always been Spensa's dream. Since she was a little girl, she has imagined soaring skyward and proving her bravery. But her fate is intertwined with her father's--a pilot himself who was killed years ago when he abruptly deserted his team, leaving…

$11.99

Livestream Reading: Joan Nockels Wilson

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Lewis & Clark College alum Joan Nockels Wilson for a reading from her new memoir, The Book of Timothy: A Sister's Pursuit. Joan will be in conversation with Lewis & Clark Law School Professor Janet Steverson and the book's subject, Timothy Nockels. Please register in advance for this Zoom event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpd-uqrTsqH9S2BFywd_xq31yi-BJXRfal About The Book of Timothy: Set in Rome, Chicago, and Anchorage, and spanning thirty years from crime to confrontation, The Book of Timothy: A Sister's Pursuit recounts in lyric movements a sister's journey, partly through trickery, but eventually through truth, to gain a long-absent admission from the priest who abused her brother. While on that journey, Nockels Wilson, a former prosecutor, confronts not only the priest, but her personal quest for…

Free

Incite: Queer Writers Read – November

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 November is “Bare.” Register for this event in advance. Andrew L. Huerta lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he has spent the last twenty-four years in Higher Education teaching/advising students who are the first in their families to attend college. With his MA in Creative Writing and PhD in Education, he just published a collection of short stories entitled A Different Man (Bold Stroke Books) and is now looking to complete his first novel, Raggedy Anthony. His short stories have appeared in Chelsea Station Magazine,…

Free

Write Around Portland: Online Writing Workshops

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Writing is often thought of as something done in isolation; we know there is immense power when writing is done in community. Join us for 90 minutes of creativity and community-building, with generative writing exercises, sharing and strengths-based feedback. Our workshop model, refined over 22 years, is proven for people of all writing levels: from the budding writer to the published author. Fall 2021: Every other Thursday, September 23 through December 16, from 11 am to 12:30 pm (Pacific Time).  Thursday, Sept 23 from 11 am-12:30 pm – Registration Closed.  Thursday, Oct 7 from 11 am-12:30 pm – Registration Closed. Thursday, Oct 21 from 11 am-12:30 pm – Registration Full. Please join us next month! Thursday, Nov 4 from 11 am-12:30 pm Thursday, Nov 18 from 11 am-12:30…

Free – $30

Columbia Writers Series: Sloane Crosley

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Sloane Crosley is a fiercely funny author and essayist whose humor is lively and genuine. She is a relentless comedic force who the New York Times called, “an incisive observer of human nature.” Sloane Crosley is the author of The New York Times bestselling essay collections, I Was Told There’d Be Cake and How Did You Get This Number. The former was a finalist for The Thurber Prize for American Humor, and was described as “perfectly, relentlessly funny” by David Sedaris. Her debut novel, The Clasp, was a national bestseller, a New York Times editor’s choice, and it has been optioned for film by Universal Pictures. Sloane’s most recent book of essays, Look Alive Out There, was met with high praise. Steve Martin said of…

Free

Transmit Culture: Diversity and Inclusion in the Children’s Publishing Workspace

PSU - Fariborz Maseeh Hall 1855 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

A conversation on how the children's publishing industry handles diversity and representation through their employees and authorship. With guest speaker Nakita Simpson, Designer and Art Director for Portland-based company A Kids Company About. Moderated by the publisher, author, and illustrator Brian Parker from Believe In Wonder. Nakita is an art director, designer, and illustrator—someone who draws words for a living. She's a now Portland-based Creative by way of Georgia, Florida, and Toronto (her hometown) who works as an Art Director at A Kids Company About. She's a lifelong learner who loves to explore creativity through work, travel, crafts, and cooking. The conversation will be moderated by PSU's very own Brian Parker. Brian is the current adjunct instructor for Children’s Book Publishing. In 2015, Brian started an…

Free