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!

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: You Can Do Anything With Words and Images, with Courtney Cook

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

In the words of Harvey Pekar, from which this course draws its name, “Comics are just words and images. You can do anything with words and images.” This generative course is designed to spark inspiration by providing an exploration of the nearly endless ways text and image can be combined to create a symbiotic relationship that strengthens work as a whole. Created for writers and artists at every level, this course aims to eradicate self-doubt and the belief that one must embody a certain level of artistic skill to employ utilizing illustrated or visual elements in their own work. Through examining graphic narratives by creators such as Kristen Radtke, Yumi Sakugawa, Kevin Huizenga, Allie Brosh, and Theresa Wong, and participating in a series of generative…

$75

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Land Beyond Map, with Laura Da’

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This craft intensive is informed by the observational curiosities and imperatives of seasonality and land. This course uses the concept of the map and its inherent limitations as a central metaphor for crafting new work and evoking place. The creation, crossing, and elimination of boundaries of language and narrative will underpin writing prompts and extension activities designed to encourage new work and invigorate the revision process. Writing place has a long history in poetry, but this course will look closely at the ways that worldview shapes, guides, and hinders. Readings will include Cedar Sigo, Camille Dungy, and Megan Bang. Writers will leave this course with a variety of observational strategies and suggestions for future projects and ways of learning from the land. Tin House is…

$75

Inquiry as Narrative w/ Lilly Dancyger

The Corporeal Writing Center 510 SW 3rd Ave #101, Portland, OR, United States

Tuesday, October 12th, 5-8pm Pacific Cost: $150 payment plans available, email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com Where: Corporeal Center, 510 SW 3rd Avenue, suite 101, Portland, Or. 97204 Description: There's often so much emphasis on plot and narrative, but there are other ways to move a story forward. Sometimes the most interesting thing isn't what happened, and then what happened next, and then what happened next—but what we have to say about what happened, and how our perspective on a single event can shift and change over time. How the very process of writing about an experience—and the research and inquiry that goes into writing about our own lives—can change our relationship to the thing we're writing about. In this session, we'll talk about how to shape…

$150

2021 Tin House Virtual Craft Intensive: Seeding a Speculative World, with Dominica Phetteplace

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

This class will explore the joys of creating a world that departs from our agreed-upon reality in significant ways. Science-fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism and other genres have exciting storytelling potential arising from the way characters interact with their surroundings. This class will focus on character and world building exercises that set up narratives with depth and momentum. Tin House is proud to announce our latest virtual Craft Intensives Series. A series of 3-hour-long masterclasses lead by  Tin House Residents and Tin House Books Authors, these Intensives combine close reading, discussion, and in-class writing to offer a potent dose of inspiration and explore what makes writing work when it works. Join us! Applying Admissions are rolling—first come, first served—and will fill fast! You do not…

$75

Write Now Online: The Narrative Palimpsest w/ videos by Lidia Yuknavitch (Introvert Ongoing)

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Write Now: The Narrative Palimpsest - a Four-Week Online Creative Incubator Extrovert Version Begins Saturday, March 13th What is a Narrative Palimpsest? pal·imp·sest /ˈpaləm(p)ˌsest/ noun: palimpsest; plural noun: palimpsests a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain. 


something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form. Origin: mid 17th century: via Latin from Greek palimpsēstos, from palin ‘again’ + psēstos ‘rubbed smooth’ A narrative palimpsest is a story that carries LAYERS of meaning; meanings that carry the trace of each other a layer at a time, like an onion or something being uncovered through more than one strata. As if an idea or…

$99

Co-Dependencies: On Healing, Remembering, Breathing & Writing Trauma with Janice Lee —Begins June 5th

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Co-Dependencies: On Healing, Remembering, Breathing & Writing Trauma June 5 - July 2, 2022 (Synchronous Zoom sessions Mondays 6/6, 6/13, 6/20, 6/27) ***SOLD OUT! Email Daniel at registration@corporealwriting.com to add your name to the waitlist*** “What really exists is not things made but things in the making.” –William James “How other kinds of beings see us matters. That other kinds of beings see us changes things.” –Eduardo Kohn On han: “A feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one's guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong—all these combined.” –Suh Nam-dong "Death needs a…

$50

Spring Forward, Fall Back: Time in Prose Writing

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

How to handle time can be challenging to master when writing in any genre. When should we slow down and dwell in a scene? When should we summarize and move rapidly through weeks, years, or even decades? Should we go back in time to unpack and understand a character’s motivation? How does the manipulation of time, the unfolding of events, work in a short story, a novel, or in memoir? This workshop will explore how writers bend time to create different narrative effects. We will read work by Tessa Hadley, Rachel Cusk, Sally Rooney, Toni Morrison, John Cheever and others, as well as look at examples from TV shows and films such as Ted Lasso, Atlanta, and The Lost Daughter. After the discussion, we’ll work…

$145

Literary Speculative Fiction :: A Webinar with Lidia Yuknavitch — July 17

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Literary Speculative Fiction :: A Webinar with Lidia Yuknavitch Are you writing toward the territory of speculative fiction, the polyphonic novel, or literary innovations in fiction that take you off-road, possibly off-map? In this webinar we will talk about some recent examples of Literary Speculative fiction, explore some narrative strategies, and open up a few writing portals for practice. Good examples to eyeball ahead of time: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, The Overstory by Richard Powers, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin Lidia Yuknavitch is the author of the short story collection Verge (Riverhead Books), the novels The Book of Joan (Harper Books), The Small Backs of Children (Harper Books), and Dora: A Headcase (Hawthorne Books), and the anti-memoir The Chronology of Water…

$125

What is Love? Writing Queer Love Stories

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

In this workshop, we’ll discuss the craft components that make a compelling, contemporary, queer love story, examine excerpts from examples, and do a few writing exercises. We’ll deconstruct the love stories that move us and inform our lives, in an attempt to open up more expansive ways for our stories to twist, turn, and transform. We’ll talk about character development, narrative arc, form, perspective, and the kinds of love that don’t get enough attention. 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 offers writing class and Delve tuitions at a reduced rate. The access program for writing classes covers 60%…

$80

APPS DUE: SEP 12: Creative Nonfiction (CNF) Studio | Sep 22 – Dec 15,

Attic Institute 4232 SE Hawthorne, Portland, OR, United States

Write what you know you want to know The Creative Nonfiction (CNF) Studio is based on the idea that inspiration, accountability, and community are essential to every writer’s growth. The CNF Studio meets weekly for multi-month sessions, and its curriculum is designed to help you deepen your writing through a keener understanding of both literary craft and your own voice. The CNF Studio is open to applications from all writers, and members often return for multiple sessions. This creates the Studio’s special experience: a consistent, deep, and supportive study of your writing in the company of other writers. Each weekly session includes a close-reading and discussion of a selected work of creative nonfiction, a roundtable reading of take-home prompts, and in-depth critique of several works-in-progress. Over…

$548 – $583