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!

Summer Generative w/ Lidia Yuknavitch and the Corporeal Squad: July 22nd-24th

The Corporeal Writing Center 510 SW 3rd Ave #101, Portland, OR, United States

Sex. Heat. Abundance. Excess. Juice. Long hot nights, cool rivers, the moon the only witness. In this face2face generative workshop with Lidia Yuknavitch and the Corporeal Writing squad we will take “excursions” into the belly of summer to generate writing and art. For the adventurous and sly. Experimental, mixed genre, utterly liberating. Check out all the details, and please read the COVID note carefully. Summer: A Seasonal Generative Writing Lab with Lidia Yuknavitch and the Corporeal Writing Squad: Domi Shoemaker, Anya Pearson, Katie Guinn, and Daniel Isaiah Elder WHEN: July 22nd to 24th Friday 7/22: 7pm-9pm meet-and-greet over ZOOM Saturday 7/23 11am-4pm in-person with a 45minute break for lunch Sunday 7/24: 11am-4pm in-person with a 45minute break for lunch WHERE: The Corporeal Writing Center in…

$450

SUMMER: A (Virtual) Generative Creative Lab Through a Sensual/Sensory Lens — begins July 24th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

SUMMER: A Generative Collaboration Through a Sensual/Sensory Lens Collaboration Leader: Domi Shoemaker, alongside weekly videos featuring Domi and Lidia Yuknavitch in conversation When: Begins July 24th, 2022, and will run for five weeks. Where: Videos are hosted on our site—you’ll receive a link to one each week, and then have access to them always. Domi will host a Zoom meeting every Monday from 5:30-7:30PM PST. (Meeting dates: July 25th, August 1st, August 8th, August 15th.) Cost: $250—payment plans are available. Please contact Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com. Scholarships are also available—Apply Here. Sex. Heat. Abundance. Excess. Juice. Long hot nights, cool rivers, the moon the only witness. In this generative workshop we will take “excursions” into the belly of summer to generate writing and art. For the adventurous…

$250

Fall | Prose Poetry I w Ruben Quesada | Sep 14 – Oct 12 | Online

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Make It, Don't Break It Explore imaginative and innovative possibilities in writing poetry without line breaks. Our practice will employ the craft of lineated poetry and traditional narrative, including attention to language, syntax, and sound; rhythmic or imagistic patterning; repetition; precision; compression. This is generative class focused on the foundations of poetic prose. The intersection of poetry and prose offers a range of possibilities for style and subject. I encourage a diversity of styles and subject matters, and I encourage you to take risks in your work. We will write together and discuss elements of writing. No previous writing experience is needed. Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Ruben QuesadaTime: Wednesdays, Sep 14 - Oct 12, 5 - 7pm Pacific TimeLocation: Online via ZoomTotal Fee: Discounted…

$219 – $248

Fall | New Generative Writing: Grief and Compassion w Ed Sage | Sep 14 – Oct 12

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this exploratory, generative workshop we will be using our writing to be in relationship with our grief and compassion by meeting them, reimagining them, and bring light to the shadows. We will interrupt the "arrangements" in our lives that perhaps are not serving us well and redefine stubborn “truths” about our sorrow. You can expect to discover new threads in your work as well as create drafts of pieces that inspire more commitment. Writing about grief can free us to be more empathic and compassionate with ourselves and others; it can help us discover the universal in our experience and blessings we would share. Zoom link provided prior to start of workshop. Teacher: Ed SageTime: Wednesdays, Sep 14 - Oct 12, 7-9pm Pacific TimeLocation: Online via ZoomTotal…

$219 – $248

Writing the Ensemble Cast

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

In this generative workshop, students will work on creating artful characters focusing on plot, characterization and point of view. At the end of six weeks, students will created a 10-15 page manuscript of their work-in-progress and received detailed feedback from the instructor. This class is ideal for students at work on a novel or short story collection with several main characters. 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 program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access…

$285

Memoir: The Process — with Kimberly Dark — begins September, 22nd

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

STARTS: September 22nd, 2022 WHERE: Zoom WHEN: Four weekly 2-hour sessions over Zoom on Thursdays from 5-7PM PST (9/22, 9/29, 10/6, 10/13) TEACHER: Kimberly Dark COST: $350 (Payment plans always available—please contact Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com) SCHOLARSHIPS: Yes, scholarships are available. Please follow this link to apply. Memoir: The Process Memories aren’t enough. We have to connect them to culture, to history, to zeitgeist—and then be as clear and specific about our unique perspectives as possible. In this generative workshop, we’ll open a number of creative doorways (and windows and portholes and tunnels) into meaning and we’ll discuss how and why they work. We’re going to work on releasing the story without it getting caught in the mind first. We’ll work together in four, two-hour, face-to-face…

$350

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…

$175 – $197

Writing About Parenthood

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In this generative workshop, led by an editor at Literary Mama, we’ll mine our parenting experience for writing inspiration, while celebrating and honoring the integral role we play in the lives of others. This workshop is perfect for all levels and will include imaginative prompts, short readings, activities that will serve as catalysts for creativity, and optional opportunities to freshly-written work and receive encouraging feedback. Participants will learn fresh perspectives and new angles and approaches for developing material on this rich topic. The workshop will include a taste of SoulCollage®, an expressive arts method, through which we’ll create our own collaged cards surrounding the theme of parenting, then use them as writing prompts. (No artistic ability required.) Participants will have the opportunity to share their…

$75

Creating Vibrant and Complex Characters

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This generative workshop will focus on the skills involved in creating and sustaining vibrant and complex characters. Through a series of in-workshop prompts and exercises participants will create and bring to life vivid characters. We will focus on physical description, internal life, setting, scene, action, and dialogue to round out and bring our creations to life. Close attention will be paid to literary and poetic devices. Supportive in-workshop sharing and feedback will be part of the process. 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 program for…

$80

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