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!

Wendy Chin Tanner, Jennifer Perrine, and Pamela Santos

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

A reading featuring the poets Wendy Chin Tanner, Jennifer Perrine, and Pamela Santos Wendy Chin-Tanner is the author of the poetry collections Turn (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2014), which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards and Anyone Will Tell You (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019), and co-author of the graphic novel American Terrorist (A Wave Blue World). She is a founding editor at Kin Poetry Journal, poetry editor at The Nervous Breakdown, and co-founder at A Wave Blue World. Jennifer Perrine is a 2019 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient. She is the author of three books of poetry: No Confession, No Mass (2015), In the Human Zoo (2011), and The Body Is No Machine (2007). Her poems have been described as “muscular,” “hard-working,” “disciplined,” “grimly witty,”…

Free

Literary Bingo

The Big Legrowlski 812 NW Couch St, Portland, OR, United States

Join Why There Are Words PDX for a fast and furiously fun hour of Literary Bingo. Got simile? Suffering? Satire? Snakes? Seattle? Bingo! Candy will be flung. Prizes will be won. Bring your best game. Our all-star lineup: Brian Benson, Kate Carroll De Gutes, Rachel King, Ramiza Koya, Margaret Malone, Mary Milstead, Jennifer Perrine, Keith Rosson, Anca Szilagyi, and Valerie Wallace. Contact: Virginia Bellis Brandabur & Lisa Gluskin Stonestre

Free

Poetry reading: Amber West, Jennifer Perrine, Kelly Terwilliger

Rose City Book Pub 1329 NE Fremont, Portland, OR, United States

Amber West is a writer, educator, and theater maker originally from California with roots in Tennessee and Oklahoma. Her full-length poetry collection, Hen & God was published in 2017 and described by the Washington Independent Review of Books as "out of the ordinary writing." Greed and destruction have reigned too long! Artists, humans, Portlanders, it's time we EGG UP! Join poets Jennifer Perrine, Kelly Terwilliger, and Amber West at the delightful Rose City Book Pub for a free evening of poetry, conversation, and revelry. Amber is in town as part of the Oregon leg of her national #EggUp poetry book tour. See below for poet bios and book info. Please spread the word and we hope to see you there! About the Poets: Jennifer Perrine…

Free

Fall 2019: Contents Under Pressure: Experiments in Poetic Form

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

What happens when someone puts severe restrictions on the way you write? What if Edgar Allen Poe wanted to write “The Raven,” but couldn’t use the letter E? Participants will look at some poems created under these kinds of extreme constraints, and we’ll write to learn what happens when we accept such outrageous challenges. Jennifer Perrine is a 2019 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient. She is the author of three books of poetry: No Confession, No Mass; In the Human Zoo; and The Body Is No Machine. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Valparaiso Fiction Review and Salt Hill, and in the Broadsided Press folio “Bearing Arms: Responding to Guns in American Culture.” Her honors include the 2017 K. Margaret Grossman Fiction Award, the…

$135

Fall 2019: Talking Back: Poetry In Conversation With Other Texts

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

Limited to 10 students We all know that words carry weight, but some words—especially those in political speeches, sacred texts, and canonical literature—can seem overwhelming in their authority. We’ll choose texts that have influenced us—for better or for worse—and use them as scaffolding for constructing our own poems. In the process, we’ll see what happens when we give our words just as much heft as the texts that matter most to us. All levels. Jennifer Perrine is a 2019 Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient. She is the author of three books of poetry: No Confession, No Mass; In the Human Zoo; and The Body Is No Machine. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Pleiades, Valparaiso Fiction Review and Salt Hill, and in the Broadsided Press…

$135

Lilla Lit Presents BRAVE

Leach Botanical Garden 6704 SE 122nd Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Join Lilla Lit, the quarterly literary reading series hosted at Leach Botanical Garden for readings on the theme of Brave by six Oregon authors: Rebecca Clarren, Michelle DuBarry, John Larison, Jessica Mehta, Natalie Serber, and Leni Zumas, with guest introductions by Brian Benson (Going Somewhere) and Jennifer Perrine (No Confession, No Mass). Doors open at 4PM, readings begin at 4:15. $10 suggested donation at the door; proceeds benefit Leach Botanical Garden, a 501(c)3 nonprofit. For details, including readers’ full bios, see https://www.lillalit.com/fall-2019/

Free

Compose Creative Writing Conference

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Explore the practices and professions of creative writing and publishing at Clackamas Community College’s annual Compose Creative Writing Conference, hosted by CCC's English Department. Compose 2020 — online and FREE this year "See what can be found for remedy and comfort by writing stories down" - Kim Stafford, Compose 2020 keynote speaker Saturday, May 16, 10 a.m. Cost: Free! Location: Online. Details on accessing the conference via Zoom will be provided to registered attendees. This event has reached capacity and registration is now closed. Calling all writers and lovers of the written word. The annual Compose Creative Writing Conference is going online! The May 16 conference is offered for free and entirely online this year. Join Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford as he delivers his keynote address, "Who…

Free

The Occasion Radio Hour: Mothers

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The Occasion is a themed poetry show airing monthly on fourth Mondays from 10pm-11pm. Hosted by Jennifer Perrine, The Occasion features interviews with poets, who offer a selection of their “greatest hits,” read poems written specifically for the show’s theme, and recommend some of their favorite poems by other authors. Every episode offers something old, something new, something borrowed, and something true. The theme for May is "Mothers," and features guest poet Traci Brimhall. If you're not able to listen in on 90.7 FM or online, the recording will be available on the KBOO website. https://kboo.fm/program/occasion https://www.jenniferperrine.org/ https://tracibrimhall.wordpress.com/

Free

September Incite: Queer Writers Read

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

September Incite is coming up fast. This night will focus on the theme together/apart--which covers so much of 2020, we think. Hope we see you there! *You need to click the link to register and then you'll get the Zoom details: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMldO-hpzItE9QEfKijYS8WlWWG_60p4VqG* So, come together, right now... A curated reading series, hosted by Kate Carroll de Gutes and Kate Gray. The theme for September is “together/apart” Featured readers: Anel Flores Jennifer Perrine and Kate and Kate! Sign up in advance to attend here

Free

Livestream Poetry Reading: Megan Alpert, Amelia Diaz Ettinger, Jennifer Perrine

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Northwest poets Megan Alpert, Amelia Díaz Ettinger, and Jennifer Perrine for a livestream reading from their new collections, published by Portland's own Airlie Press. Register here: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/poetry-reading-megan Pre-signed copies of all books will be available for pickup, local delivery, or shipping. In Washington state poet Megan Alpert's The Animal at Your Side, narrators scavenge for clues, trying to stitch together a life in the midst of unrootedness. Finding bones, talismans, and half-heard voices that portal back to both personal and collective history, the speakers are haunted by diaspora, family estrangement, intergenerational trauma, and resilience. What are the costs of being far away from a homeplace? What are the costs of returning? And when the costs are too high on both sides, how do you…

Free