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!

Omar El Akkad on Writing the Codacene: Literature in an Age of Endings | 57th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Lecture

PSU - Smith Memorial Student Union 1825 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Vanport Room (SMSU 338) The English Department presents the 57th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Lecture, "Writing the Codacene: Literature in an Age of Endings," with Omar El Akkad. What does it mean to tell stories in a moment where it seems so much of what the world once was, it is unlikely to ever be again? Every generation must grapple with its own conception of apocalypse, and literature is no stranger to the end of the world. In this talk, journalist and author Omar El Akkad discusses some of the reporting assignments, novels and works of non-fiction that have influenced his writing, and the uncertain space many contemporary authors must inhabit when writing about a world mid-calamity. Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born…

Free

TAP@PBF: Oregon Symphony

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Stay tuned for a special podcast-only Portland Book Festival episode of Literary Arts’ The Archive Project! A conversation between Oregon Symphony creative chair Gabriel Kahane and author Karen Russell (Sleep Donation). This event is podcast only, and will be released on The Archive Project wherever you get your podcasts as part of the 2022 Portland Book Festival. Karen Russell Karen Russell won the 2012 and the 2018 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia! (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has also written Orange World and, most recently, Sleep Donation. She has received a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship, the "5 under 35" prize from the National Book Foundation, the NYPL Young Lions Award, the Bard Fiction Prize, and is a former fellow of…

Free

Poetry Reading and Open Mic on Zoom

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Open Mic and Poetry Reading event on Zoom sponsored by the Milwaukie Poetry Series. The featured readers are to be announced. An Open Mic will follow. Register with Tom Hogan at tomhogan2@comcast.net (link sends e-mail). You will receive a zoom link prior to the event. Please indicate if you want to read in the Open Mic. Plan to read 2 poems depending on attendance. If time permits additional poems will be allowed. The event will be recorded and available for viewing on demand on the Ledding Library YouTube Channel (link is external)after the event. Room Location: Zoom Video Conference

Free

Oregon Humanities Live

Rontoms 600 East Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine for an evening of readings by recent magazine contributors. We'll hear essays and poems by Sallie Tisdale, Daniela Molnar, Paul Susi, and Laura Gibson. The event is copresented with Literary Arts as part of the Cover to Cover series and sponsored by Lyceum Agency. No RSVP is required.

Free

TAP@PBF: Motherhood Is Psychedelic

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Stay tuned for a special podcast-only Portland Book Festival episode of Literary Arts’ The Archive Project! This podcast will explore the myths and realities of raising children while writing; whether the desire for motherhood is a creative desire, and how intersectional identities impact both motherhood and creativity. Featuring a stellar line-up novelists, poets and memoir authors and witches: Kendra DeColo (Enchantments), Kaitlyn Greenidge (Libertie), Mya Spalter (I Am Not Trying to Hide My Hungers From the World), and Michelle Tea (Knocking Myself Up). This event is podcast only, and will be released on The Archive Project wherever you get your podcasts as part of the 2022 Portland Book Festival. Kaitlyn Greenidge Kaitlyn Greenidge's debut novel is We Love You, Charlie Freeman (Algonquin Books), one of the…

Free

Writing the Complicated Self

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

There is a great temptation to airbrush ourselves on the page, to fill in the pockmarks of our flaws—and yet this leaves us not only less trustworthy, but less interesting. Students will explore how the contradictions in their personalities—the gaps between dirty laundry and grace—are the most interesting spaces for both readers and writers. Together, we’ll discuss how craft choices around persona and structure can help us harness this charge and write into our gorgeous, complex selves. 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…

$80

Anniversary Party

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

Celebrating 4 years of the Book Pub!

Free

Sallie Tisdale and Elizabeth Fournier Death Trivia

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

Death is the start of a great adventure—never mind that you might not be around for it. Did you know there are more than 200 corpses of failed climbers frozen on Mount Everest, and that you're more likely to be killed at a dance party than while skydiving? Or in Japan, a burial site is sometimes offered as an employee benefit? There are three inevitable things in life: taxes, death, and wacky trivia about death. Join us for a macabre round of froth led by the Dames of Deathly Delights, writers Sallie Tisdale and Elizabeth Fournier, the Portland authors who brought you Advice for Future Corpses (And Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying and The Green Burial Guidebook: Everything You…

Free

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms This workshop is virtual, PST Register here Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms In this 6-week class, we will experiment with short form creative writing. Our focus—whether it’s flash fiction, lyric essay, prose poetry, or hybrid—will be on the art of compression. Each week, participants will be given a writing exercise, a short reading, and two workshop submissions from their peers. Class time will include workshop as well as discussion of readings and craft. Our workshop will be guided by observations, questions, and possibilities. We will be thinking less about how to “fix” a piece of writing and more about what we see, our curiosities, and how to recognize hidden opportunities. Each participant will receive feedback from…

$80 – $200

In-Store Reading: Rosanne Parry, Trudy Ludwig, Mark Fearing

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes our own Rosanne Parry for a reading from her new picture book, Big Truck Day. Rosanne will be joined by local authors Trudy Ludwig, whose new picture book is Calling the Wind: A Story of Healing and Hope, and Mark Fearing, whose new middle grade book is Welcome to Feral. This event is presented in coordination with Portland Book Festival's Cover to Cover program. This in-store reading is first come, first served. Seating is limited. Please be mindful of any store health policies that might be in effect on the night of the reading. About Big Truck Day: Get ready for Big Truck Day! Celebrate trucks, reading, sharing, and community with award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Rosanne Parry and debut illustrator…

Free