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!

Livestream: Kim Johnson: This Is My America

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes debut author and University of Oregon administrator Kim Johnson, who will read from her young adult novel, This Is My America. Livestream registration link: https://www.crowdcast.io/e/kim-johnson-this-is-my The Hate U Give meets Just Mercy in this unflinching yet uplifting first novel that explores the racist injustices in the American justice system. Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time--her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy's older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a "thug" on the run, accused of killing a white…

Free

Kim Johnson & Ibi Zoboi

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Every week, 17-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time — her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present? Kim Johnson’s This Is My America (Random House)…

Free

Kim Johnson in Conversation with Black Cultural Library Advocates

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Kim Johnson's debut novel, This Is My America, has been described as a cross between The Hate U Give and Just Mercy. Join Carla Davis and Ebonee Bell, members of Multnomah County Library’s Black Cultural Library Advocates team, as they chat with Ms. Johnson about first novels, love triangles, and how teens and young adults can advance antiracism and social justice. More about the book: This Is My America tells the story of 17-year-old Tracy Beaumont, who is in a race against time to prove her imprisoned father's innocence and save him from death row. Then the unthinkable happens and the police accuse Tracy's talented older brother, Jamal, of a horrible crime. Register for event via Zoom: https://multco-us.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwrceyupzsuHtPs75wBd5COqAEidcutsXms

Free