A resource for the PDX literary community. Produced by Old Pal.
LitPDX seeks to amplify marginalized voices, and welcomes all, their ideas, their events, and their words.
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Newcomers and visitors always welcome! T.C. O'Leary's Literary Society has two books clubs, both open to everyone. Monday nights the group reads Ulysses and Tuesday nights the group explores a variety of Irish literature. This famous Gothic horror novel is the latest endeavor.
The “mad woman in the attic” is a common trope in gothic literature, but who is she? And how did she end up there? Integral to the gothic genre are stories of madness and haunting, which often serve as metaphors for social violence, race, gender and class warfare, and the abject. Stereotypically, the female protagonist in gothic literature plays the role of victim, but what about when she participates in her own monstrosity? In this seminar, we will explore some lesser known gothic novels with female protagonists who became “monstrous”, and explore the intersections between horror, mental illness, psychoanalysis, sexual repression, and gender identity in these female authored 20th century gothic works. Texts: We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Wide Sargasso…
September Selection: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia https://www.tworiversbooks.com/book/9780525620808 “Creepy and romantic, Mexican Gothic is easily one of my favorite books of 2020! Upon receiving a strange letter from her cousin, Noemi Taboada goes to investigate the happenings of High Place, a decaying manor filled with secrets, and is plagued by terrifying dreams and visions. Moreno-Garcia delivers a fresh take on a classic gothic novel that will grab your attention from the very first chapter!” — Tyrinne Lewis, Rakestraw Books, Danville, CA Check your email for the Zoom link!
From Bram Stoker-nominated Caitlin Starling, author of The Luminous Dead, comes The Death of Jane Lawrence (St. Martin’s), a new gothic fantasy horror novel. Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town. Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is…
Show | 7pm // Doors | 6pm “Deep into that darkness…dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” -Edgar Allen Poe Dream dreams you’ve never dared to dream before and venture into the darkness with us as Lacy Productions and the Alberta Rose Theatre present… BOOKLOVER’S BURLESQUE: The Gothic Edition A Booklover’s Burlesque special edition at the Alberta Rose Theater, where we explore the strange, the mysterious, the creepy, and the unexplained in the sexiest literary way possible, just in time for All Hallow’s Eve! Booklover’s Burlesque is the world’s sexiest literary salon which matches titillating, inspiring, and empowering book readings with burlesque, boylesque, and draglesque performances all in one show! Professional readers, actors, and/or local authors & writers read aloud a three to…
Orphaned as a baby, 19-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being — and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer. However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer…
Hiron Ennes surreal and horrifying debut, Leech (Tordotcom) combines parasitic body horror with gothic family drama in a post-post-apocalyptic masterpiece — defying our understanding of identity, heredity, and bodily autonomy. In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed. In the frozen north, the Institute's body will…
We are delighted to kickoff our LC English Fall ’22 Reading Series by showcasing work by Visiting Instructor and LC alumna Audrey Gutierrez! Audrey Gutierrez is a Cuban-American writer from Lafayette, Louisiana. She earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is a finalist of the 2022 PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship and of the Mary Blodgett Fiction Prize from the University of Iowa. In summer of 2022, Audrey was an Alaska State Parks Artist-in-Residence. Audrey has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and English language in Baeza, Spain. Currently, she is finalizing her gothic novel, The Fractures of Nos Castillo, about five sisters living on the edge of Cuba during the Revolution, as well as working on a collection of horror and…
Elizabeth Brooks’s The House in the Orchard (Tin House) is a startling gothic tale of corrupted innocence that asks — when we look closely — what it really means to know the truth. 1945: war widow Peggy is grateful to have inherited Orchard House from her husband’s Aunt Maude; she looks forward to making a fresh start in rural Cambridgeshire with her young son. The moment she sets eyes on the rambling property, however, doubt sets in. From the bricked-up cellar to the scent of violets and rotting fruit, the place seems shrouded by dark mysteries. When Peggy discovers Maude’s teenage diary gathering dust inside a broken desk, she begins to read, searching for answers. 1876: orphaned Maude is forced to leave London, and her…
Novels of ghosts and haunted landscapes can open the door to discussions of sociology and repression, trauma, and the cathartic function of horror. In this seminar, we will examine themes of possession, repression, haunting, and the mad woman in the attic in four Victorian and American horror novels from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel. In-Person Seminar Note: This seminar meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington.Please see our complete Covid-19 policy here. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access…