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PUBLISHING: Literary Agent Rayhané Sanders—Seminar + Consultations—Oct 7th-9th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

We have the great privilege of hosting Rayhané Sanders, literary agent at Massie and McQuilkin, for a 90-minute webinar on Publishing (with ample opportunity for Q&A) on Saturday October 8th, 2022, from 11:00AM to 12:30PM Pacific. Yes, Rayhané represents our very own Lidia Yuknavitch.) In addition to the seminar, Ms. Sanders is taking on twenty private manuscript consultations. Over the course of a 20-minute meeting, she will give you feedback from an agent’s point of view on the first 25 pages of your manuscript, submitted ahead of time. (Please note, Ms. Sanders comes from New York publishing, and is very encouraging but also very direct!) The deadline for submitting your 25 pages will be September 15th, and you’ll be provided with specific formatting guidelines. Consultations will…

Continue readingPUBLISHING: Literary Agent Rayhané Sanders—Seminar + Consultations—Oct 7th-9th
$150 – $375

Fall | Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Attention to Detail or “Of Thumbs” w Paige Thomas | Oct 11 – Nov 1 | In-Person

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

Before being dubbed the inventor of the essay form, Michel de Montaigne was a grief-stricken man who locked himself away in a tower on his family’s manor on the French countryside where, for years, he labored over what would become his famous essays. In his solitude, he wrote a series of meditations titled “Of _____” — “Of Smells," “Of the Custom of Wearing Clothes,” “Of Posting,” (letters, that is), “Of Sleep,” and "Of Thumbs" — that attempted the impossible task of defining and then exhausting his interest in individual objects or desires. Modern life does not mirror Montaigne’s privilege of time, space, and quietude, but part of his beloved legacy still rings true: the necessity of attention to detail—to singularity—and how dedication to understanding the specific can crack open…

Continue readingFall | Creative Nonfiction Workshop: Attention to Detail or “Of Thumbs” w Paige Thomas | Oct 11 – Nov 1 | In-Person
$175 – $197

Isaac Fitzgerald in Conversation With Lydia Kiesling

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

Isaac Fitzgerald has lived many lives. He's been an altar boy, a bartender, a fat kid, a smuggler, a biker, a prince of New England. But before all that, he was a bomb that exploded his parents’ lives — or so he was told. In Dirtbag, Massachusetts (Bloomsbury), Fitzgerald, with warmth and humor, recounts his ongoing search for forgiveness, a more far-reaching vision of masculinity, and a more expansive definition of family and self. Fitzgerald’s memoir-in-essays begins with a childhood that moves at breakneck speed from safety to violence, recounting an extraordinary pilgrimage through trauma to self-understanding and, ultimately, acceptance. From growing up in a Boston homeless shelter to bartending in San Francisco, from smuggling medical supplies into Burma to his lifelong struggle to make…

Continue readingIsaac Fitzgerald in Conversation With Lydia Kiesling
Free

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

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 the instructor and from the other participants.…

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$80 – $200

Fall | The Why and How of Writing Your Life w Wayne Gregory | Oct 19 – Nov 16 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

"There is no greater burden than carrying an untold story." ~ Maya Angelou We live in a time when it is more important than ever for us to tell the stories of our lives. We are inundated with more information than we can ever process and while we communicate with more people via social media, we feel increasingly detached from the feeling of community. In short, we lack enough well-crafted human stories. Stories summon our imagination to experience the life of another and through that experience to better understand the other, as well as ourselves. This workshop is for the one who wants to discover how to identify her/his compelling story and how to create a work that will grab readers and take them on…

Continue readingFall | The Why and How of Writing Your Life w Wayne Gregory | Oct 19 – Nov 16 | Online
$219 – $248

Ecstatic Aesthetics w/ Amanda Montei — begins October 20th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Ecstatic Aesthetics Begins October 20th, 2022 Four weekly 2-hour sessions over Zoom on Thursdays from 4-6PM PST (10/ 20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10) Joy and pleasure are what we strive for as humans, and in an era that often feels grim, artistic representations of awakening and enjoyment are increasingly compelling to readers and writers. In this class, we will ask ourselves what the purpose of representing ecstatic experiences might be, as we examine our assumptions about the symbolism and syntax we use to communicate pleasure on the page. What does it mean to experience overwhelming delight, as both writer and reader? Can we give voice to exhilaration while avoiding nostalgia and denial? Together we will read theories and representations of heightened spiritual, sexual, and communal pleasure…

Continue readingEcstatic Aesthetics w/ Amanda Montei — begins October 20th
$200 – $400

Pushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

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 the instructor and from the other participants.…

Continue readingPushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms
$80 – $200

Elizabeth Weinberg in Conversation With Chelsea Biondolillo

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

As wildfires char the American West, extreme weather transforms landscapes, glaciers retreat, and climate zones shift, we are undeniably experiencing the effects of the climate crisis in more and more destructive ways. Climate change is impacting every inhabited region of the world, but there is much we can still do. Unsettling (Broadleaf) explores human impacts on the environment through science, popular culture, personal narrative, and landscape. Using the stories of animals, landscapes, and people who have exhibited resilience in the face of persistent colonization across the North American continent, science writer Elizabeth Weinberg explores how climate change is a direct result of white supremacy, colonialism, sexism, and heteronormativity. Travel through the deep sea; along Louisiana's vanishing bayous; down the Colorado, Mississippi, and Potomac rivers; and…

Continue readingElizabeth Weinberg in Conversation With Chelsea Biondolillo
Free

Amber Tamblyn in Conversation With Lidia Yuknavitch, Dr. Mindy Nettifee & Dr. Nicole Apelian

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

Edited by author, actress, and activist Amber Tamblyn, Listening in the Dark (Park Row) is an anthology on women’s intuition, with essays by Amy Poehler, Samantha Irby, Jia Tolentino, Jessica Valenti, US Poet Laureate Ada Limón, America Ferrera, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and others. Have you ever had a feeling about something that you just couldn’t explain? Something that was telling you in your gut what decision to make, which direction to go in, or what to believe. Most women are taught from an early age to ignore their intuition in favor of making logical, evidence-based decisions. But what if that small voice or deeper knowing was your greatest power? In a time when women are revolutionizing politics, entertainment, healthcare, and other industries, it’s critical to…

Continue readingAmber Tamblyn in Conversation With Lidia Yuknavitch, Dr. Mindy Nettifee & Dr. Nicole Apelian
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…

Continue readingPushpins & Portals: Experimenting with Short Forms
$80 – $200
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