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.
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!
A reading with some of the Oregon Book Awards finalists in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction: manuel arturo abreu David Biespiel Patrick deWitt Nick Dybek Apricot Irving John Larison Matthew Minicucci Dionisia Morales Meaghan O’Connell Wendy Willis Beth Wood Taylor Zajonc Leni Zumas
From a blazing new voice in fiction comes a gritty and lyrical American epic about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy and heads west. In the spring of 1885, 17-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family’s homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbors, she cuts off her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her outlaw brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess’s quest lands her in the employ of the territory’s violent, capricious Governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah — dead or alive. Wrestling with her brother’s outlaw identity, and haunted by questions about her own, Jess must outmaneuver those who…
John Larison spent much of his childhood in remote regions of Australia, the Caribbean, Canada, the South Pacific, Alaska, and the American West before graduating from high school in Ithaca, New York. He studied philosophy and literature at the University of Oregon, and became a renowned fly-fishing guide ahead of earning an MFA from Oregon State University, where he stayed to teach while writing Whiskey When We’re Dry. He lives with his family in rural Oregon. From a blazing new voice in fiction, a gritty and lyrical American epic about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy and heads west Synopsis: In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family’s homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation…
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/