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!

Liz Prato

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Liz Prato combines lyricism, research, and humor to explore her role as a white tourist in a seemingly paradisiacal land that has been largely formed and destroyed by white outsiders. In Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege (Overcup), Hawaiian history, pop culture, and contemporary affairs are masterfully woven with Prato’s personal narrative of loss and survival in linked essays, offering unique insight into how the touristic ideal of Hawai‘i came to be, and what Hawai‘i is at its core. Prato will be introduced at the event by Karen Karbo, author of In Praise of Difficult Women.

Free

Reading: Liz Prato: Volcanoes, Palm Trees, & Privilege

Gastro Mania - Multnomah Village 7850 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes back Portland author Liz Prato to read from her new book, Volcanoes, Palm Trees & Privilege: Essays on Hawai'i. Prato will be joined in-conversation with musician Jim Jones, who was raised on Oahu. The event will take place next door to Annie Bloom's at Gastromania, with food and drink available. Liz Prato combines lyricism, research and humor to explore her role as a white tourist in a seemingly paradisiacal land that has been largely formed and destroyed by white outsiders. Hawaiian history, pop culture, and contemporary affairs are masterfully woven with her personal narrative of loss and survival in linked essays, offering unique insight into how the touristic ideal of Hawai'i came to be, and what Hawai'i is at its core. “Liz…

Free

Liz Prato in Conversation with Jacqueline Keeler

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

We welcome Liz Prato, author of Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawaiʻi, in conversation with Jacqueline Keeler at 7 pm on Thursday, September 12th. Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege, published by Overcup Press, explores what it means to be a white tourist in a seeming paradise that has been formed – and largely destroyed – by white outsiders. Hawaiian history, pop culture, and contemporary affairs are woven with personal narrative in fifteen essays that examine how the touristic ideal of Hawai’i came to be. In the book, Prato examines her multi-layered relationship with Hawai’i and her soul connection with this group of islands. Author Lidia Yuknavitch describes the book as “a love letter to the land and people of Hawai’i.” Prato will read…

Free

Fall Five-Minute Reading Marathon

The Stacks Coffeehouse 1831 N. Killingsworth St, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for the Fall Five-Minute Reading Marathon! All afternoon, between 1-6pm, a series of fabulous local writers will get up on stage and read for five minutes. Stay for one or two, or all afternoon. 1:30 — Leni Zumas 2pm — Elizabeth Pickard 2:30pm — Aaron Gilbreath 3pm — Harold Johnson 3:15pm — Stevan Allred 3:30pm — Nikki Schulak 3:45pm — Missy Ladygo 4pm — Michael Keefe 4:15pm — Liz Prato 4:30pm — Liz Scott 4:45pm — Kalimah Abioto 5pm — Beth Wood 5:15pm — Laura Lampton Scott 5:30pm — jayy dodd 5:45pm — Alexa Weinstein

Free

Liz Prato

Mt. Hood Community College Theatre 26000 SE Stark Street, Gresham, OR, United States

The Mouths of Others presents author Liz Prato. Prato is the author of Volcanoes, Palm Trees & Privilege: Essays on Hawaii. Her essays combine lyricism, research and humor to explore the colonization of Hawaii and her role as a white tourist in a land that has been formed and destroyed by white outsiders. She discusses Hawaiian history, pop culture and contemporary affairs. Her work has been listed as a Notable selection in Best American Essays and Best American Sports Writing, and has been widely published in dozens of literary journals and magazines. WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 7 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. WHERE: Visual Arts Theatre, MHCC Gresham campus For more information, please email: Michele.Hampton@mhcc.edu or Andy.Gurevich@mhcc.edu

Free

Mt. St. Helens: Post-Eruption Recovery and Resilience

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Join Ruby McConnell (author of GROUND TRUTH) and Eric Wagner (author of AFTER THE BLAST) for a reading and discussion at the 40th-anniversary mark of the Mt. St. Helens 1980 eruption. They'll share their personal stories of Mt. St. Helens, discuss the most significant volcanic eruption in modern U.S. history, and the resilience and recovery of the surrounding land. Liz Prato (author of Volcanoes, Palm Trees, and Privilege: Essays on Hawai'i) will host this discussion. Visit this link to register: https://OvercupBooks.webinarninja.com/live-webinars/326664/register

Free

Livestream Reading: Megan Galbraith with Liz Prato

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Annie Bloom's welcomes author Megan Galbraith for a livestream reading from The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child's Memory Book. She will be in conversation with Portland author Liz Prato, whose latest book is Volcanoes, Palm Trees & Privilege: Essays on Hawai'i. Register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEufumpqjoqHtSkzzUVZXRHo13aHi9p3XAZ About The Guild of the Infant Saviour: Shortly before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, adoptee Megan Culhane Galbraith was born in a Catholic charity hospital in New York City to a teenaged resident of the Guild of the Infant Saviour, a home for unwed mothers. Decades later, on the eve of becoming a mother herself, she would travel to the former guild site; to her birth mother’s home in Scotland; and to Cornell University, where she discovered the startling history…

Free

Liz Prato in Conversation With Lidia Yuknavitch

Powell's City of Books 1005 W Burnside Street, Portland, OR, United States

Generation X was born between the legions of Baby Boomers and Millennials, and was all but written off as cynical, sarcastic slackers. Yet, Gen X's impact on culture and society is undeniable. In her revealing and provocative essay collection, Kids in America (Santa Fe Writers Project), Liz Prato reveals a generation deeply affected by terrorism, racial inequality, rape culture, and mental illness in an era when none of these issues were openly discussed. Examined through the lens of her high school and family, Prato reveals a small, forgotten cohort shaped as much by Sixteen Candles and Beverly Hills, 90210, as it was by the Rodney King riots and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Prato is unflinching in asking hard questions of her peers about what…

Free

In-Person Reading: Liz Prato and Yuvi Zalkow

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes back Portland authors Liz Prato and Yuvi Zalkow to read from their new books, Prato's essay collection Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning and Zalkow's novel I Only Cry with Emoticons. They will be in conversation with Jackie Shannon Hollis, author of the memoir This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story. Signed and personalized copies of both authors' books are available! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; all orders without a name specified in the order notes will be signed only. About Kids in America: Generation X was born between the legions of Baby Boomers and Millennials, and was all but written off as cynical, sarcastic slackers. Yet, Gen X's impact on culture and society…

Free

Liz Prato in Conversation with Aaron Gilbreath

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

We are thrilled to welcome back Liz Prato, in conversation with Aaron Gilbreath, to discuss her new book Kids in America: A Gen X Reckoning. In this revealing and provocative essay collection, Prato reveals a generation deeply affected by terrorism, racial inequality, rape culture, and mental illness, in an era when none of these issues were openly discussed. Part memoir, part journlistic exploration, Kids in America illuminates a generation often written off as cynical, sarcastic slackers, showing that its impact on culture and society is undeniable. Prato herself is a GenXer, growing up in Denver in the '70s and '80s, so the issues she explores here are issues of her generation, and a lot of the book is about coming to terms with things they…

Free