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!

Books & Prints by Ian van Coller

Passages Bookshop 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660, Portland, OR, United States

Passages Bookshop is excited to announce our summer exhibition •••• BOOKS & PRINTS BY IAN VAN COLLER •••• July 8 – August 20, 2022 Covid precautions: Proof of vaccination and masks required ================================================ For the past decade, Ian van Coller has traveled the globe in pursuit of images that communicate the realities of climate change and deep time. He has photographed disappearing glaciers, endangered and threatened birds, the oldest trees on earth, and the oldest ice yet discovered, traveling to Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda, the cloud forest of Colombia, Svalbard in the high Norwegian Arctic, and Glacier, Great Basin, and Rocky Mountain National Parks in the Western United States. He has accompanied climate scientists on expeditions to remote glaciers on…

Free

Lyndsie Bourgon in Conversation With Ed Jahn

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

There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves (Little, Brown Spark), Lyndsie Bourgon takes us deep into the underbelly of the illegal timber market. As she traces three timber poaching cases, she introduces us to tree poachers, law enforcement, forensic wood specialists, the enigmatic residents of former logging communities, environmental activists, international timber cartels, and indigenous communities along the way. Old-growth trees are invaluable and irreplaceable for both humans and wildlife, and are the oldest living things on earth. But the morality of tree poaching is not as simple as we might think: stealing trees is a form of deeply rooted protest, and a side effect of environmental preservation and protection that doesn't include communities…

Free

Chantel Prat in Conversation With Andrea Stocco

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

From University of Washington professor Chantel Prat comes The Neuroscience of You (Dutton), a rollicking adventure into the human brain that reveals the surprising truth about neuroscience, shifting our focus from what's average to an understanding of how every brain is different, exactly why our quirks are important, and what this means for each of us. With style and wit, Prat takes us on a tour of the meaningful ways that our brains are dissimilar from one another. Using real-world examples, along with take-them-yourself tests and quizzes, she shows you how to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own brain, while learning what might be going on in the brains of those who are unlike you. With sections like "Focus," "Navigate," and "Connect," The…

Free

Kristin Ohlson in Conversation With Lee van der Voo

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

What if Nature is more cooperative, and less competitive, than we think? In the follow-up to her previous book, The Soil Will Save Us, Kristin Ohlson’s Sweet in Tooth and Claw (Patagonia) extends the concept of cooperation in nature to the life-affirming connections among microbes, plants, fungi, insects, birds, and animals — including humans — in ecosystems around the globe. For centuries, people have debated whether nature is mostly competitive — as Darwin theorized and the poet Tennyson described as “red in tooth and claw” — or innately cooperative, as many ancient and indigenous peoples believed. In the last 100 or so years, a growing gang of scientists have studied the mutually beneficial interactions that are believed to benefit every species on earth. Sweet in…

Free

Madeline Ostrander in Conversation With Michelle Nijhuis

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

How do we find a sense of home and rootedness in a time of unprecedented upheaval? What happens when the seasons and rhythms in which we have built our lives go off-kilter? Once a distant forecast, climate change is now reaching into the familiar, threatening our basic safety and forcing us to reexamine who we are and how we live. In At Home on an Unruly Planet (Henry Holt), science journalist Madeline Ostrander reflects on this crisis not as an abstract scientific or political problem but as a palpable force that is now affecting all of us at home. She offers vivid accounts of people fighting to protect places they love from increasingly dangerous circumstances. A firefighter works to rebuild her town after catastrophic western…

Free

Randall Munroe & Sarah Andersen

Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd, Beaverton, OR, United States

The millions of people around the world who read and loved What If? still have questions, and those questions are getting stranger. Thank goodness xkcd creator Randall Munroe is here to help. Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. Want to know what would happen if you rode a helicopter blade, built a billion-story building, made a lava lamp out of lava, or jumped on a geyser as it erupted? Okay, if you insist. Before you go on a cosmic road trip, feed the residents of New York City to…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: Henri Bergson and the Revolution in Time

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

In 1889 Henri Bergson’s (1858-1941) bestseller Time and Free Will inaugurated a vast revolution of the understanding of time in world philosophy that was a keystone in the literature, art, and philosophy of the modern world. After an eclipse of his reputation for some decades, Bergson’s ideas have returned as one of the most powerful forces in the renewal of our attitudes toward nature and the cosmos today. We will read his startlingly elegant, clear, and persuasive expositions of these appealing concepts in Time and Free Will, Creative Evolution, and other works. We will also explore the thought of the scientists and philosophers who have continued to develop his seminal insights. In-Person Seminar Note: This seminar meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington. Access…

$245

Elizabeth Weinberg in Conversation With Chelsea Biondolillo

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

As wildfires char the American West, extreme weather transforms landscapes, glaciers retreat, and climate zones shift, we are undeniably experiencing the effects of the climate crisis in more and more destructive ways. Climate change is impacting every inhabited region of the world, but there is much we can still do. Unsettling (Broadleaf) explores human impacts on the environment through science, popular culture, personal narrative, and landscape. Using the stories of animals, landscapes, and people who have exhibited resilience in the face of persistent colonization across the North American continent, science writer Elizabeth Weinberg explores how climate change is a direct result of white supremacy, colonialism, sexism, and heteronormativity. Travel through the deep sea; along Louisiana's vanishing bayous; down the Colorado, Mississippi, and Potomac rivers; and…

Free

Josephine Woolington & Ramon Shiloh in Conversation With Michelle Nijhuis

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

In her debut work, Where We Call Home: Lands, Seas, and Skies of the Pacific Northwest (Ooligan Press), Josephine Woolington turns back the clock to review the events that have challenged Pacific Northwest wildlife in an effort to provide a deeper sense of place. Only then can we imagine how these imperious effects might be overcome. Join Woolington as she sheds light on the diverse species whose populations are slowly declining from the lands, seas, and skies of the Pacific Northwest. Only by acknowledging this truth can we understand that our impact on the Earth is deeper and far more significant than we ever imagined. Through interviews with local educators, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and artists from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the Haida Nation,…

Free

OMSI After Dark: Books & Brews

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) 1945 SE Water Avenue, Portland, OR, United States

Join us for OMSI After Dark: Books & Brews! Find your next favorite book, learn how to get self published and sample local brews. The ultimate night out! Typically the last Wednesday of the month, OMSI After Dark is a 21+ event that gathers local vendors, artisans, and science content for you to enjoy. Get ready to taste test a local brew, catch a show, or try a science demo – all while exploring the museum’s permanent exhibit halls. CURRENT COVID RULES Masks are optional for guests although we still highly encourage you to wear a mask and recommend you wear an N95 or KN95. We are limiting capacity to 1,200 guests. 21+ Only | A valid government issued ID is required for entry for…

$25 – $40