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!

Zyzzyva Reading

Dorsa Brevia 625 NW Everett Street #103, Portland, OR, United States

Come join ZYZZYVA—San Francisco's revered literary journal, featuring some of the West Coast's best writers and poets since 1985—for a program of short readings by some of their past and most recent contributors. With a long tradition of publishing writers living in Oregon, ZYZZYVA happily returns to Portland for this showcase hosted by Editorial Assistant Zack Ravas. Readings by Robin Romm, Don Waters, Lydia Kiesling, and John Sibley Williams.

Free

Poetry Reading: Emmett Wheatfall & John Sibley Williams

Annie Bloom's Books 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland poets Emmett Wheatfall & John Sibley Williams. Emmett Wheatfall presents his latest poetry collection, Our Scarlet Blue Wounds. Wheatfall shows us how the roots of love grow deep in the soil of sacrifice. He illustrates the intensely complex relationship between idealism and realism. His poems hurt in just the right way. And it's no small feat opening one's own racial and cultural wounds for the world to see. It takes courage. It takes trust that a country will recognize itself, and its complicity, in those wounds. And Wheatfall trusts us to witness along with him. He proves himself ready and willing, even eager, to, as the titular poem in this collection demands, "build a new world" together. John Sibley Williams's latest…

Free

Lilla’s Winter Reading: Thirst

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

Lilla presents our Winter reading in the Fireplace Room of the Manor House at Leach Botanical Garden. The evening’s theme: Thirst. Featuring Jason Arias, Liz Asch Greenhill, Chelsea Biondolillo, Katie Grindeland, Mary Rechner, Armin Tolentino, and John Sibley Williams. Doors open at 4 PM; readings begin at 4:15 $10 suggested donation at the door Proceeds benefit Leach Botanical Garden, a 501(c)3 nonprofit As always: Wine, snacks, gorgeous surroundings, literary community aplenty Follow Lilla on social media, including Facebook, for more info See you there!

Free – $10

{Workshop} Burning Down the Old Year: Writing Poems about the New Year

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Platform: Zoom Tuition: $20 To register, email jswilliams1307@gmail.com. About the Workshop: In this intensive generative workshop, we will discuss how contemporary poets have explored the landscape and emotional changes of the New Year season. Despair, hope, burnt bridges, newly built ones; this time of year is rich with metaphor. We will analyze diverse poems from contemporary poets such as Ted Kooser, Naomi Shibab Nye, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Martha Collins, and others, followed by hands-on writing activities, prompts, and plenty of in-class writing time. About the Teacher: John Sibley Williams is the author of five collections, most recently As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Poetry Prize), Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize, University of Nebraska Press), and Summon (JuxtaProse Chapbook Prize). A twenty-four-time Pushcart nominee, John is the…

$20

FREE LITERARY WORKSHOP: “Mastering Magazine Submissions”

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Consistently submitting to and being published in literary magazines, both in print and online, is a crucial step in reaching new readers, creating a community around your work, and being taken more seriously by book publishers. In this free workshop, award-winning poet and literary agent John Sibley Williams provides you with all the tools and strategies you’ll need to successfully target and get accepted by literary magazines. From researching to cover letter writing, bookkeeping to submission tracking, goalsetting to retaining your enthusiasm (and sanity), you will learn how to get your publishing career off the ground…and your poetry into stellar magazines. No registration required. Please find the Zoom link and password below. Email me with any questions at jswilliams1307@gmail.com. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82488177085?pwd=TW0rVm1nbk1kNVBRM3hXMFQ3dUNTQT09 Meeting ID: 824…

Free

{Workshop} The Heartfelt & Heartbroken: Writing Evocative Love Poems

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Platform: Zoom Tuition: $40 To register, email jswilliams1307@gmail.com. Forms of payment accepted: PayPal, Venmo, and check. About the Workshop: Are you ready for Valentine’s Day? Is there someone in your life, present or past (even future) that you’d like to write a poem for? In this intensive generative workshop, we will explore the many facets of writing “love poetry”, from the ecstatic to the melancholic, from discovering that intimate connection to finding uniquely evocative ways of expressing that connection through poetry. We will study how best to show true emotion without leaning too heavily into sentimentality, as well exploring poems that deal with loss of a loved one. We will analyze diverse poems from contemporary poets, followed by hands-on writing activities, prompts, and plenty of…

$40

The Milwaukie Poetry Series: John Sibley Williams

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

The 14th season of poetry readings by established local poets will stream live on the Ledding Library YouTube channel (link is external) on the second Wednesday of each month February through July at 6:30 p.m. February 10, 2021 - John Sibley Williams March 10, 2021 - Quinton Hallett April 14, 2021 - Claudia Savage May 12, 2021 - Anis Mojgani June 9, 2021 - Paulann Petersen July 14, 2021 - Emmett Wheatfall DVDs of past the past two seasons of the Poetry Series readings are available for checkout at the library. Online you can access all past Poetry Series readings at the Ledding Library YouTube channel (link is external). For additional information please contact the Series Coordinator Tom Hogan at 503.819.8367 or tomhogan2@comcast.net (link sends e-mail) or Reference Librarian Sarah Roller…

Free

Brittney Corrigan and John Sibley Williams

Broadway Books 1714 NE Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

An evening of poetry with Brittney Corrigan and John Sibley Williams Brittney Corrigan is the author of the poetry collections Breaking, Navigation, 40 Weeks, and most recently, Daughters, a series of persona poems in the voices of daughters of various characters from folklore, mythology, and popular culture, published by Airlie Press. Solastalgia, a collection of poems exploring climate change, extinction, and the Anthropocene age, is forthcoming from JackLeg Press in 2023. Brittney was raised in Colorado and has lived in Portland for the past three decades, where she is an alumna and employee of Reed College. She is currently at work on her first short story collection. John Sibley Williams is the author of Scale Model of a Country at Dawn (Cider Press Review Book Award,…

Free

First Friday Poetry with John SIbley Williams and Emmett Wheatfall

Birdhouse Books 1001 Main Street, Vancouver, WA, United States

Join us for the last First Friday of the Summer season! This month at Birdhouse Books we'll be hosting John Sibley Williams, Emmett Wheatfall, and Kelli Russell Agodon in a truly incredible lineup. Show starts at 7pm! John Sibley Williams is the author of nine poetry collections, including Scale Model of a Country at Dawn (Cider Press Review Poetry Award), The Drowning House (Elixir Press Poetry Award), As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Poetry Prize), Skin Memory (Backwaters Prize, University of Nebraska Press), and Summon (JuxtaProse Chapbook Prize). His book Sky Burial: New & Selected Poems is forthcoming in translated form by the Portuguese press do lado esquerdo. A twenty-seven-time Pushcart nominee, John is the winner of numerous awards, including the Wabash Prize for Poetry,…

Free