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!

Casey Parks in Conversation With Anna Griffin

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

Part memoir, part sweeping journalistic saga: as Casey Parks follows the mystery of a stranger's past, she is forced to reckon with her own sexuality, her fraught Southern identity, her tortured yet loving relationship with her mother, and the complicated role of faith in her life. When Parks came out as a lesbian in college back in 2002, she assumed her life in the South was over. Her mother shunned her, and her pastor asked God to kill her. But then Parks's grandmother, a stern conservative who grew up picking cotton, pulled her aside and revealed a startling secret. "I grew up across the street from a woman who lived as a man," and then implored Casey to find out what happened to him. Diary…

Free

The Prose Poem

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

The Prose Poem: This workshop is in person: Masks + Proof of Vaccination Required Register here How can we create poems when we no longer rely upon (or when we free ourselves from) one of poetry’s most powerful tools: the line? In this class, we’ll dive into this question, drawing inspiration from a diverse array of writers as we investigate how to heighten language to create the intensity of a poem within the short space of a paragraph. We’ll also examine writing that defies conventional genre classification, straddling the lines between poetry, fiction and essay. Through in-class exercises, weekly prompts, and supportive discussion of one another’s work, we’ll immerse ourselves in our creative processes, generating our own prose poems and pieces of writing that push…

$65 – $185

William Deresiewicz in Conversation With Audrey Bilger

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

What is the internet doing to us? What is college for? What are the myths and metaphors we live by? These are the questions that William Deresiewicz has been pursuing over the course of his award-winning career. His new book, The End of Solitude (Henry Holt), brings together more than 40 of his finest essays. Ranging widely across the culture, they take up subjects as diverse as Mad Men and Harold Bloom, the significance of the hipster, and the purpose of art. Drawing on the past, they ask how we got where we are. Scrutinizing the present, they seek to understand how we can live more mindfully and freely, and they pose two fundamental questions: What does it mean to be an individual, and how…

Free

Trivia Night

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

Trivia is conducted hybrid online and in person. Join us at the bar or join us through Zoom. This is one of our most popular events. Come early to make sure you get a table, and come early so that you can order food and drinks and get settled in time. It is also important to come up with a clever team name. If you come as a single person or a pair and are looking to make new friends, let us know and we will place you with welcoming regulars, or we might place you with other new folks. Trivia night is a great way to make new friends, and they will be sure to be good people since Publiners are quality folks. The…

Free

HOCUS Open Submissions: October 21st Reading with Theme: “Spirits”

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

HOCUS has opened submissions for an October 21st reading at Rose City Book Pub, with a central theme of "Spirits." HOCUS is looking for prose and poems of up to 2,000 words related to hauntings, liquor, or states of mind! The submission deadline is September 23rd.

Free

BIPOC Reading Series – August

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This bimonthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. Come listen to our featured readers, or sign up to share your work in our open mic. Readings will be followed by a short community discussion. Click here to register for this event. This event is open to everyone, but only people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color will be invited to read. If you have any questions, please contact our host Jessica at  jessica@literary-arts.org.  

Free

Joint Patio Reading: Dale Champlin and Marc Janssen

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

Rose City Book Pub is thrilled to host not one, but two joint readings on the patio on August 26th at 7pm. The star readers in question will be Dale Champlin reading excerpts from Callie Comes of Age and Marc Janssen reading excerpts from November Reconsidered. Show up to listen to some fantastic poetry and order some food if you’re feeling it. Praise for Callie Comes of Age Ringing with an exquisite lyricism, Dale Champlin’s amazing Callie Comes of Age—a novel in the form of poetry will hold you in thrall. Set in the harsh ranch country of the American West, which shapes her life, Callie’s story evolves from an early childhood filled with tenderness and a strong sense of belonging into a grim tale of…

Free

Patio Reading: Jessica Wadleigh

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

A reading and zine launch celebrating Alone (With You), a zine by Jessica Wadleigh. With performances by Sylvia Rodemeyer, Alissa Hattman, Alayna Becker, and Misha Moon. Friends, please save the date! My zine launch/birthday party is going to be on Saturday, August 27 from 6PM - 8PM on the back patio at the Rose City Book Pub, and you’re invited! @not_plath @poemsbymisha @dudelookslikealayna_ @alissahattman will be joining us for the evening to share their wonderful words as we welcome Alone (With You) into the world. I hope you can join us! Doors at 6 PM, reading starting promptly at 6:30. I am so grateful to be back at the @rose_city_book_pub for an in-person event - very excited to share space with all of you again.…

Free

Book Sale

Ledding Library of Milwaukie 10660 SE 21st Avenue, Milwaukie, OR, United States

Sundays May through October (weather permitting) from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. the Friends of the Ledding Library will sell books you'll love next to the amphitheater at the north end of the Ledding Library building. Sales of donated books benefit library programs and purchase. From early readers to teens and adults, the library serves all our community. You can help by purchasing books and by joining the Friends and/or volunteering. Learn more at www.leddingfriends.org (link is external). Room Location: Next to the amphitheater

Free

Community Art Day

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

Community Art Day is bringing people together to connect and create every 2nd and 4th Sunday from 2-6 pm. This free event is open to the public and features art classes, collaborative projects, supplies to do your own thing and a creation station made just for kids! There will be a different art form with support from a local artist every time.

Free