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!

Summer 2020 Online: Starting The Story: Short Fiction workshop

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This 4 -week short fiction workshop will focus on generating new work and simply getting words down on a page.  We will read excerpts, share just-written work aloud, and discuss assigned weekly readings together. We will investigate ways to unearth material together and share strategies for maintaining a regular writing practice. Participants will leave will many fragments and several starts for new work.  This class takes place through Zoom. Participants will receive instructions on how to log on to the Zoom meetings. Contact Susan Moore at susan@literary-arts.org if you have questions. SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE: Scholarships pay for the entire class tuition. All of our writing classes have at least one scholarship position available, made possible by a generous gift from Dennis Steinman. To apply, email Susan…

$185

Stephanie Scott in Conversation With Margaret Malone

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

A gripping debut set in modern-day Tokyo and inspired by a true crime — for readers of Everything I Never Told You and The Perfect Nanny — Stephanie Scott’s What’s Left of Me Is Yours (Doubleday) charts a young woman’s search for the truth about her mother’s life — and her murder. In Japan, a covert industry has grown up around the wakaresaseya (literally “breaker-upper”), a person hired by one spouse to seduce the other in order to gain the advantage in divorce proceedings. When Satō hires Kaitarō, a wakaresaseya agent, to have an affair with his wife, Rina, he assumes it will be an easy case. But Satō has never truly understood Rina or her desires and Kaitarō’s job is to do exactly that…

Free

Fall 2020: Six-Month Short Story Intensive: Starting the Story Collection

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of 6 months. We will have 22 class meetings between October and April, with a four-week break from mid-December to mid-January to focus on generating and revising our work. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book. This class is specifically designed for writers who are comfortable in a workshop setting. We will be giving and receiving feedback on works in progress at each of our…

$925

Short Fiction Writers Share Their Work

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

An evening with writers who took part in Margaret Malone’s Short Story Intensive class, from September 2020 to May 2021. Join us as they share pieces from the story collections they’ve been working on all year. Hosted by Margaret Malone Register here for this event Margaret Malone is the author of the story collection People Like You (Atelier26), which was a finalist for the 2016 PEN Hemingway Award, winner of the 2016 Balcones Fiction Prize, and selected as a best book of 2015 by Powell’s Books, The Oregonian, The Portland Mercury, and elsewhere. She is an Oregon Literary Fellowship recipient and a co-host of the artist and literary gathering SHARE.

Free

Six-Month Short Story Intensive: Starting the Collection

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of 6 months. We will have 22 class meetings between October and April, with a four-week break in December to focus on generating and revising our work. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book. This class is specifically designed for writers who are comfortable in a workshop setting. We will be giving and receiving feedback on works in progress at each of our meetings. Students…

$975

Starting the Story

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This 4 -week short fiction workshop will focus on generating new work and simply getting words down on a page.  We will read excerpts, share just-written work aloud, and sometimes discuss assigned weekly readings together. We will investigate ways to unearth material together and share strategies for maintaining a regular writing practice. Participants will leave will many fragments and several starts for new work. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at least one access spot available. Please…

$200

Weekly Check-In: Getting the Work Done

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This 8-week class is focused on holding yourself and your classmates accountable to your writing goals.  Each week, plan to share your work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals for your weekly writing practice, and share successes and challenges with fellow writers. You’ll also learn strategies for keeping focused and staying on track. Occasional outside readings for discussion. This is not a workshop or feedback-based class. Worked shared will be about listening to each other’s voices and having a consistent deadline to meet on a weekly basis. All genres welcome. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program…

$395

Weekly Check-In: Getting the Work Done

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

This 8-week class is focused on holding yourself and your classmates accountable to your writing goals.  Each week, plan to share your work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals for your weekly writing practice, and share successes and challenges with fellow writers. You’ll also learn strategies for keeping focused and staying on track. Occasional outside readings for discussion. This is not a workshop or feedback-based class. Worked shared will be about listening to each other’s voices and having a consistent deadline to meet on a weekly basis. All genres welcome. Access Program We want our writing classes and Delves to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program…

$395

Six Month Short Story Intensive

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of six months. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place, and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft essays, and discuss several published collections and how the stories unite to form a book. Access Program We want our classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers class registrations at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60% of the class tuition. Most writing classes have at…

$1,100

Ben Nickol in Conversation with Margaret Malone

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

We are thrilled to welcome novelist Ben Nickol in conversation with Margaret Malone, discussing his newly published novel, The Sea Lanterns The book tells the story of Scott Darrow, marooned as athletic director at a backwater college and hungry for more, plotting his ascent to a better job at a better school. Darrow has the talent, charm, and Machiavellian nerve to go far, but when he hires a famous coach to run his basketball program, the coach proves to be unstable and possibly insane.Now, to escape professional oblivion, Darrow must maneuver and manipulate this coach, and manage the town's intensifying suspicions. Ben Nickol is also the author of Sun River: Stories, which was named a Quivering Pen Best Book of 2019. His stories and essays…

Free