A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
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!
Join us for the first Incite of 2021! This time around, we'll be exploring the topic of relief with four fantastic queer authors: Clair Rudy Foster, Samson Syharath, Sarah A. Chavez, and Wayne Gregory. This is an online event. To register, use the link below: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIqc-ihpzooHtf-CI63Kbe7CghMaYWHaY72
Brian Komei Dempster’s latest book of poems Seize focuses on his experience of raising a son who suffers from intractable epilepsy and pervasive developmental delays. Moreover, the book explores wartime incarceration, domestic/familial/racial tensions, and legacies of trauma and violence—along with paths towards resolution. Through juxtaposition, the poems link seemingly disparate events through a central metaphor: seizure. Dempster will be interviewed by Portland author Jennifer Perrine. Jennifer is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Again (Airlie Press, 2020). Register in advance for this webinar https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_adX_8KcnSaKl2kkhsZP4WQ Brian Komei Dempster’s debut book of poetry, Topaz, was published by Four Way Books in 2013 and received the 15 Bytes 2014 Book Award in Poetry. His most recent book is Seize. He is the editor of both…
“Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist.” ~ Pablo Picasso You have a story to tell, but you’re not sure how to get started. The Writer’s Toolkit is the class for you. In this workshop, you will discover how to transform your ideas from imagination to a cohesive and compelling story that engages readers and keeps them turning the pages for more. You will learn some of the basic conventions for good writing that successful writers use: how to develop plot, how to create compelling characters, how to build dynamic scenes, and how to show rather than tell. You will learn by doing and will take away a wealth of writing tools and resources to keep honing your…
For writers at all levels In this fiction workshop, we will explore how to use all manner of combustible collisions, both small and large, as generative fuel. Have a slew of disparate ideas stewing in your brain? We’ll investigate the power of unexpected pairings—how colliding seemingly unrelated images or ideas can spark something entirely original and point your work forward. And we’ll study different ways authors can open up possibilities for a story and introduce tension that keeps readers engaged. You will build your own stories and receive the focused attention of a workshop environment. Thursdays, January 14-March 4, 2021 from 6:00-8:00 Pacific (eight sessions) online via Zoom Instructor: Josha Nathan Josha Nathan is a 2017 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient. He earned his MFA at…
For January’s Collage Challenge, we’re building off of last month’s theme. For December, the Collage Challenge was to create a collage based on Tarot imagery. To determine the theme of January’s Collage Challenge, we pulled a card, which as it happened is 2021’s Card of the Year— the Hierophant! So for January’s Collage Challenge, the challenge is to create a collage based on the Hierophant archetype. Tag the IPRC or join us Thursday, Jan. 14th for a virtual Show & Tell of your collage creations. Register here, and zoom link will be sent on the day of the event.
Annie Bloom's welcomes Oregon author Lori Tobias for a livestream reading from her new book, Storm Beat: A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast. She will be in conversation with Portland writer and publisher Laura Stanfill, author of Sad House: Parenting, Grief, and Creativity in the Coronavirus Crisis. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUsc-qhqT8pHNcWQ7O_ymBuNU0Fsu_x73yy About Storm Beat: Journalist Lori Tobias arrived on the Oregon coast in 2000. After freelancing from Newport for several years, she signed on with the Oregonian as a stringer covering the coast from Florence to Astoria; later she would be hired as a staff writer responsible for the entire coast—one person for more than three hundred miles. The job meant long hours, being called out for storms in the middle of the night in…
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Hosted by Christopher Luna, Toni Lumbrazo Luna, & Morgan Paige Featuring Chris Gonzalez 7 pm Thursday, January 14 On Zoom $5 Suggested donation LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, PRO-SCIENCE, ANTI-FASCIST, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004 Please support Niche Wine Bar, whose owner, Leah Jackson, has provided a home for the reading series since 2015: https://nichewinebar.com Chris Gonzalez is an educator, journalist, playwright, poet, musician, and creative-collaborator based in Portland, Oregon. Chris has been a featured poet for the past six years, performing alongside International Slam Champions Saul Williams and Shane Koyczan. His first book, water or bread, was published by Human Error Press in 2017. NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond everyone's control, this month's reading will take place over Zoom. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com…
C. R. Grimmer, who also goes by Chelsea Grimmer, is a poet, scholar, and lecturer at The University of Washington Seattle and Bothell campuses. Their latest collection is The Lyme Letters, which was completed with support from a Harlan Hahn Disability Studies Fellowship and won the Walt McDonald First Book Award from Texas Tech University Press. They are also the author of O–(ezekiel's wife), a chapbook and audiobook collaboration from GASHER Journal and Press that features visual art by PSU alum Colleen Burner and sound art by Judy Twedt. C. R. received their MFA from Portland State University and Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from The University of Washington, Seattle. They are the creator and host of The Poetry Vlog (TPV), a YouTube and Podcast teaching…
Stories have component parts, and they interact. Starting with the basic building block of scene we’ll start with character and move step by step through the micro-levels of sentences, concrete detail, cause and effect, narration, and structure. Each week includes a close read of an excerpt of a published work and a discussion of specific craft elements. Participants will be invited to turn in work each week and can expect to develop a language of non-judgmental critique that will lead to a supportive, in-depth conversation about each other’s work. We’ll look deeply into what it takes to build a prose narrative, real or imagined, long or short. | Maximum: 12 writers Register for this workshop NOTE: To protect everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic, we're offering our workshops via Zoom.…
In this webinar, open to prose writers and poets of all ages and backgrounds, participants will use freewriting, revision, and in-depth feedback as tools to create work that can spark new writing possibilities or build on an existing project. The class will address these types of questions: How do we synthesize our experiences and histories with acts of imagination? How do we break silences and heal from trauma through storytelling? How do we write about intersections between race, gender, sexuality, disability, and other aspects of our identities in effective and nuanced ways? Participants will be encouraged to draw from personal, family, and cultural histories, in a supportive yet critically constructive writing environment. Please register using “ticket” link below. Brian Komei Dempster’s debut book of poetry,…