LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.

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Modern Tarot

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

Tarot, the ancient card system, is having a 21st century renaissance. With more and more artists improving upon the medieval straight, white, thin and able-bodied imagery, today everyone can find a deck that speaks to them. Whether you are a curious newcomer to tarot, an burgeoning beginner or a pro, this lecture-style workshop will walk you through the structure and meaning of the 78-cards, pausing to answer participant questions as well as offer tips for spreads and ritual as well as fascinating trivia attached to the iconic images. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves 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 writing class…

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$80

The Punch-Up: Unleashing Your Humor on the Page

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

You have a sense of humor, but find it hard to translate that humor into your writing? You know what you’re going for, but feel like it’s falling flat? Explore methods and get tips on finding the funny in this “writers’ room” session. Bring your essays, stories, monologues, and screenplays to share. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves 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 writing class and Delve tuitions 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 apply here for access rate tuition. Contact Susan…

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$80

What is Love? Writing Queer Love Stories

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

In this workshop, we’ll discuss the craft components that make a compelling, contemporary, queer love story, examine excerpts from examples, and do a few writing exercises. We’ll deconstruct the love stories that move us and inform our lives, in an attempt to open up more expansive ways for our stories to twist, turn, and transform. We’ll talk about character development, narrative arc, form, perspective, and the kinds of love that don’t get enough attention. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves 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 writing class and Delve tuitions at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60%…

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$80

Michelle Tea in Conversation With Nicole J. Georges

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

From PEN/America Award winner, 2021 Guggenheim fellow, and beloved literary and tarot icon Michelle Tea comes a hilarious, powerfully written, taboo-breaking story of her journey to pregnancy and motherhood as a 40-year-old, queer, uninsured woman. Written in intimate, gleefully TMI prose, Knocking Myself Up (Dey Street) is the irreverent account of Tea’s route to parenthood — with a group of ride-or-die friends, a generous drag queen, and a whole lot of can-do pluck. Along the way she falls in love with a wholesome genderqueer a decade her junior, attempts biohacking herself a baby with black market fertility meds (and magicking herself an offspring with witch-enchanted honey), learns her eggs are busted, and enters the Fertility Industrial Complex in order to carry her younger lover’s baby.…

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Free

AUTHOR TALK: Stephen Altschuler on Beating Insomnia

Birdhouse Books 1001 Main Street, Vancouver, WA, United States

Seven-time author Stephen Altschuler will be reading from his brand new book “BEATING INSOMNIA: A No-Nonsense Way to Natural Sleep.” Find out more about Stephen in his new Columbian article: https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/aug/02/vancouver-author-best-way-to-get-good-nights-sleep-is-to-live-well-during-day/.

Free

Literary Arts at Pickathon 2022

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Literary Arts has partnered with Pickathon to feature author readings and a live recording of our radio show and podcast, The Archive Project. Authors featured on the Windmill Stage, Sunday, August 7 from 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Omar El Akkad WHAT STRANGE PARADISE Santi Elijah Holley MURDER BALLADS Michelle Ruiz Keil SUMMER IN THE CITY Jules Ohman BODY GRAMMAR Jon Raymond DENIAL Justin Taylor RIDING WITH THE GHOST Cecily Wong KALEIDOSCOPE 12:00 p.m. in The Lucky Barn: Jon Raymond and Dao Strom in conversation with Anis Mojgani for The Archive Project. When artists explore different genres or mediums for themself, what does that process look like? Are the differing explorations in conflict with one another, or in conversation? Do they aid and abet each other? Hinder? Or perhaps…

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$45

Geo Eros: Metaphorizing Place in Nonfiction and Memoir — August 7th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Geo Eros: Metaphorizing Place in Nonfiction and Memoir A Webinar with Lidia Yuknavitch In some ways, you are the places where you've been in your life. Since experience is difficult to carry around in our puny human bodies and often overwhelms us, metaphorizing—or creating core metaphors around place, objects, being and knowing—can open up new narrative strategies for storytelling. In this webinar we will identify and explore some of your core metaphors and test out some narrative strategies involving writing through place and environment, tracking your geographic origins and mapping out how place informs your life and narrative. Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the short story collection Verge (Riverhead Books), the novels The Book of Joan (Harper Books), The Small Backs of Children (Harper…

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$125

August Collage Night

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

Join us for Virtual Collage Night on the 1st Sunday of the month, 5-6pm. The first 40 mins or so will be open collage with occasional prompts, followed by a show & tell. Register here and we’ll send a zoom link the day of the event.

Free

SIGNING: Casey Gilly, “Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer”

Books with Pictures 1401 SE Division Street, Portland, OR, United States

Eisner Award-winning creator CASEY GILLY will be signing copies of the new "Buffy the Last Vampire Slayer" trade paperback in the garden, while we screen something ~thematically appropriate~ on the projector! Join us for a relaxing vampire-filled evening to round out your weekend!

Free

In-Store Poetry Reading: Brittney Corrigan and Jessica Pierce

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland poets Brittney Corrigan and Jessica Pierce to read from their new collections. Corrigan's latest is Daughters, and Pierce's is Consider the Body, Winged. This in-store reading is first come, first served. Please be mindful of any store health policies that might be in effect on the night of the reading. Signed and personalized copies are available! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About Daughters: This collection reimagines characters from mythology, folklore, fairy tales, and pop culture from the perspective of their daughters––daughters we don't expect such individuals to have, as we don't usually think of Bigfoot, the Mad Hatter, or Medusa…

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Free
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