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!

Africa to America: Adjusting to a New Life

Multnomah County Library - Midland Meeting Room - Large 805 SE 122nd Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

New Americans from the African Diaspora discuss what it means to be a Black immigrant, and to navigate questions of identity, race and belonging. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

Decolonizing Beauty

Multnomah County Library - Kenton Meeting Room 8226 N Denver Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

Explore what it means to think and live beyond colonial structures and understandings of beauty and bodily worth, with Cory Lira and a panel comprised of Black, indigenous, and other people of color. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

“The Danger of a Single Story” Screening and Discussion

Multnomah County Library - Hillsdale Meeting Room 1525 SW Sunset Boulevard, Portland, OR, United States

View Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story," then join a discussion led by Portland Community College instructor Tim Krause. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

Race, Bias, and the Brain

Multnomah County Library - Hollywood Meeting Room 4040 NE Tillamook Street, Portland, OR, United States

Dr. Binyam Nardos of OHSU presents his findings on race, emotional arousal and racial bias, and how they affect our perceptions and decisions, sometimes with life-threatening implications. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

Everybody Reads 2019: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Celebrate the power of books to create a stronger community by attending the 2019 Everybody Reads author event with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie! In partnership with the Multnomah County Library and The Library Foundation, Literary Arts is proud to present a lecture by award-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie as the culminating event of Everybody Reads 2019. This year’s programming will center on Adichie’s two novels, Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists. With the selection of two titles, Everybody Reads 2019 offers an opportunity to explore a multitude of issues, including the experience of Africans in America and feminism in the 21st century. We Should All Be Feminists will be the center of curricula around the project in participating high schools. Americanah will be distributed to…

SOLD OUT

From Historical Trauma to Historical Wisdom: How a Generation Is Healing

Multnomah County Library - US Bank Room 801 SW 10th St, Portland, OR, United States

The Indigenous 20-Something Project began as a movement to heal Native young adults from the lasting impacts of intergenerational trauma caused by colonization. In this interactive talk, Shalene Joseph (A'aniih, Athabascan) and Josh Cocker (Ka'igwu, Tongan) will share their perspectives on the power of historical wisdom to create resilience, hope and community connection. Join us for Everybody Reads, Multnomah County Library’s annual community reading project.

Free

Everybody Reads 2020: Tommy Orange

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

Celebrate the power of books to create a stronger community by attending the 2020 Everybody Reads author event with Tommy Orange. Literary Arts is proud to host an evening with award-winning author Tommy Orange as the culminating event of Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads program. This year’s programming will center on Orange’s debut novel, There There. Tickets start at $15, available at Portland5.com With the selection of There There, Everybody Reads 2020 centers around the experience of urban Native Americans in Oakland, California. Through a shared reading experience, we will explore a multitude of themes in the book, from identity and ownership to the urban-rural divide. About There There: Orange’s shattering novel follows twelve characters from Native communities: all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow,…

$15

Everybody Reads 2021: Ross Gay

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The selection for Multnomah County Library’s 19th annual community reading project, Everybody Reads, is acclaimed author and poet Ross Gay and his collection of essays, The Book of Delights. Each year, Literary Arts presents the culminating event of the program—an author lecture. This year, the event will be held virtually on Thursday, April 8, at 6:00 p.m (PDT) and will feature an approximately 30-minute talk from Ross Gay, followed by an approximately 40-minute interview with local bestselling author, Lidia Yuknavitch. We are pleased to offer free registration for community members suffering financial hardship, as well as a range of tickets rates, to ensure this event can be accessible to all. Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of…

Free – $100

Everybody Reads: OLGA TOKARCZUK’S THE BOOKS OF JACOB

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The 2022 Levy Event The Sixth Annual Levy Event at Portland State University Everybody Reads: OLGA TOKARCZUK’S THE BOOKS OF JACOB We invite you to read Olga Tokarczuk’s masterpiece, now translated for the first time into English, and attend a worldwide discussion of the book guided by our distinguished panelists, held on Zoom. HOW TO PARTICIPATE: 1. Read the book. Go ahead and start reading! The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk is widely available! Purchase through your favorite bookseller! 2. Register. This event is free with prior registration and will be held on Zoom. Please go to our registration page. 3. Log in on May 15 and participate in the community-wide discussion. About the book and its author Poland’s literary star Olga Tokarczuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2019.…

Free

Everybody Reads 2023 celebrates Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being

Keller Auditorium 222 SW Clay St, Portland, OR, United States

Let’s read, reflect and learn together. Everybody Reads is a community-wide project that promotes shared reading and discussion around a single book. About the book Ruth Ozeki’s award-winning novel A Tale for the Time Being tells the story of two strangers whose lives become connected across time and an ocean. Ruth is a novelist living on an island off the coast of British Columbia. While beachcombing, she comes upon a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed ashore, detritus from a tsunami in Japan. Inside, she discovers the diary of 16-year-old Nao Yasutani of Tokyo. Ruth becomes absorbed by the drama of Nao’s life and her unknown fate. In Tokyo, Nao is the target of her classmates’ bullying, and she struggles with a pervasive sense of loneliness. Increasingly,…

$21 – $65