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!

Haunted: Writing into Death & The Dead with Sonya Lea — begins November 8th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Haunted: Writing into Death & The Dead Begins November 8th, 2022 Four weekly 2-hour sessions over Zoom on Tuesdays from 5-7PM PST (11/8, 11/15, 11/22, 11/29) “Many people live and die without ever confronting themselves in the darkness. Pray that one day, you will spin around at the water’s edge, lean over, and be able to count yourself among the lucky.” ― Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties “What would you read to someone who was dying? Annie Dillard had asked our class. She wanted this to be the standard for our work. There, at the memorial service for my friend, I thought of another: Dying, what stories would you tell?” ― Alexander Chee, How to Write An Autobiographical Novel: Essays “My grief…

$200 – $400

Recharge Your Writing Life: Experiments & Strategies

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Equal parts strategy, community, generative writing, and experiment, this class will help writers spark curiosity and deepen self-knowledge while crafting artistic habits that nourish. A good fit for writers who want to reimagine their creative life. We’ll discuss methods for working through blocks and rejection, rituals that refill the well, and ways to make time for creativity in a busy world. Each session will offer generative prompts, literary tinctures and tonics, and tactile practices that unite body and intellect. 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…

$285

Fall | Erasing the Male Gaze (and Other Power Structures) in Creative Nonfiction w Paige Thomas | Nov 9 – Dec 7

Attic Institute 4232 SE Hawthorne, Portland, OR, United States

It is not groundbreaking news that the literary canon and the study of writing has been dominated by work that was created for and by men. Slowly and imperfectly, the reasons behind their presence is being questioned, and rightfully so. The canon is diversifying, but that does not mean that our implicit writing techniques—how we think about writing, how we create narrative tension, how we read literary texts—is not still being influenced by a history that is saturated by the male gaze. In this class, group discussions and generative, prompt-driven exercises will be geared toward experimenting with modes of thinking and writing about life that undermines dominant narrative traditions. You see, a great work of writing does not need to have a plot. It does…

$175 – $197

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

Risograph Basics @ Outlet!

Outlet 2500 Northeast Sandy Boulevard, Portland, OR, United States

About the Workshop Welcome to our Risograph Basics course: a printing, collage, experimentation, and mark making extravaganza! Get to know Outlet and our RISO sisters (Barbara, Janet, Corita, and Tina) and learn the basics of this fun and unique print method with Kate Bingaman-Burt! This workshop is a great place to start if you’re new to riso, or if you’d like a refresher! We’ll take a deep dive into risograph history, an overview of how these machines work, the stencil-duplicator process, and the quirks and fun (sometimes unpredictable) outcomes of riso printing. The main focus of this class is EXPERIMENTATION. We’ll share print and zine inspiration, favorite mark making tools and how to use them for riso, and we’ll walk through a print demo on…

$85 – $100

Oregon BIPOC Publishing Event: Pitching, Submitting, & Proposing

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

Literary Arts, Ooligan Press, and Portland State University’s English Department partner to present the Oregon BIPOC Writers Publishing Event. This event is designed for writers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color to connect to the publishers and authors seeking to hear their voices. Pitching, Submitting, & Proposing: How to Make Money as a Writer  Join us for a panel discussion featuring local editors and grantors, as they discuss what makes for a successful pitch, submission, and grant proposal. Featuring Kelly Zatlin, Amy Lam, Karina Agbisit, and Jennifer Perrine. This event takes place in-person. Please see our Covid-19 guidelines for in-person events at Literary Arts. If you have any questions about this event, contact Jessica Meza-Torres at jessica@literary-arts.org. Jennifer Perrine Jennifer Perrine is the author of four…

Free

Calligraphy

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

*This workshop meets in-person. Masks & Proof of Vaccination + Booster required Register here Experienced and beginner scribes are welcome to join this 6-week class with instruction and quiet practice of 3 different calligraphic hands. Learn to use the edged pen, an edged brush, rule your paper, and study Uncial, Roman Capitals, and Italic. Instructor: Jade Novarino Sundays 10am—12pm November 6—December 18, with a break on November 27 Class Meetings: 6 Capacity: 10 $60-135 *2 no-cost spots available; BIPOC & 2S prioritized About the Instructor: Jade Novarino is an artist, farmer, pen-pal, and scribe.

$60 – $135

Delve Readers Seminar: The Art of Memory: Autofiction

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

“Fiction isn’t memory,” writes Jane Gardam, “but memory is fiction.” Autofiction embodies this view, blending truth and fiction to produce stories rooted in the writer’s life, but filtered through the imagination. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, and Saša Stanišić’s Where You Come From are compelling examples of the genre. To the Lighthouse is the story of the Ramsay family’s holiday on the Isle of Skye. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is composed as a letter from a young man to his mother, immigrants to the US from Vietnam. Through the story of their relationship, Vuong asks questions about race, violence, masculinity, addiction, and love. Bosnian-German writer Saša Stanišić is little known in the US but deserves a wider…

$245

Advanced Poetry Workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Poesis,” in ancient Greek, means “making.” What would it mean to make poetry a daily part of your life? How might this re-make your understanding of poetry, your life, and your self? This class will offer you the opportunity to explore these questions and consider poetry as a time-based art, a place-based art, and a body-based art.. You’ll read a wide variety of poems and craft analysis and be guided by in-depth weekly prompts. Class time will focus on discussion of readings, workshopping each other’s poems, and in-class guided writing. This course is for dedicated poets who are able to devote time to reading others’ work while keeping their own practice humming. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to…

$490

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