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!

One Day Poetry Workshop: The Deep Music of Prosody w John Morrison | Jan 14 | In-Person FULL — WAITLIST 0NLY

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

“To talk about formal verse is meaningless – poetry is form.” ~ Robert Pinsky Poets know that prosody is akin to prayer and how words gain and deliver their energy. But, for so many of us born into the free verse tradition, the study of prosody can sound like the poetic equivalent of “eat your peas.” Well, you can really like peas, fresh peas, anyway, and they are great for your skin. Prosody is the study and practice of the deep music in poetry (think meter, rhyme, cadence) and is key to all our strict forms like sonnet, villanelle, and sestina. In our Saturday session, along with drafting a few forms, we’ll explore how to “crack open” our own reluctant poems, discover our own rhythmic…

$88 – $107

Delve Readers Seminar: The Feminine Gothic: Victorian and American Horror

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

Novels of ghosts and haunted landscapes can open the door to discussions of sociology and repression, trauma, and the cathartic function of horror. In this seminar, we will examine themes of possession, repression, haunting, and the mad woman in the attic in four Victorian and American horror novels from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and Laura van den Berg’s The Third Hotel. In-Person Seminar Note: This seminar meets in-person at Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington.Please see our complete Covid-19 policy here. 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…

$245

In-Store Reading: Gregg Coodley: Patients in Peril

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes back local author Gregg Coodley for an in-store reading from his new book, Patients in Peril: The Demise of Primary Care in America. Signed and personalized copies are available for order! Please, please, please include the name for personalization in the order notes; or indicate "signed only." About Patients in Peril: Once, Americans could count on having a personal or primary care physician who would see patients for new or chronic problems, whether in the office or the hospital. The appeal of such a system is more than psychological, for both primary care and continuity of care with a physician over time are associated with improved patient care, greater patient satisfaction, and lower overall costs. These days are ending as primary care…

Free

The Moth: StorySLAM: Vices

The Old Church Concert Hall 1422 SW 11th Ave, Portland, OR, United States

VICES: Prepare a five-minute story about a wicked habit, a mild failing or a defect in your otherwise perfect self. Tell us what acts as kryptonite on your character! The ball and chain of developed habits and poisonous predilections. Give a special shout out to the backfiring virtues...when being too good is actually bad. COVID Requirements: See The Old Church's COVID Policy for details. We will not be selling any tickets at the door. This venue is 16+ *Seating is not guaranteed and is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please be sure to arrive at least 10 minutes before the show. Admission is not guaranteed for late arrivals. All sales final. Media Sponsors: OPB and Literary Arts  

$15

Portland Arts & Lectures 2022/23: Lauren Groff

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall 1037 SW Broadway, Portland, OR, United States

This event is part of our 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures. Subscriptions for the five-part lecture series are on sale now. All lectures will be held in person at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in downtown Portland, OR. For more information on the season, please see our FAQs or reach out to us at la@literary-arts.org. Lauren Groff Lauren Groff is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels and two short story collections. Her 2021 novel Matrix, which Esquire described as “Incandescent… a radiant work of imagination and accomplishment,” was a National Book Award finalist and was selected by President Barack Obama as one of his favorite books of the year. Her works have won The Story Prize, the ABA Indies’ Choice…

$90 – $355

In-Store Reading: Tara Shepersky: Tell the Turning

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes local poet Tara Shepersky for an in-store reading from her new collection, Tell the Turning. About Tell the Turning: Sometimes a thought, or a whisper, or a dispatch, Tell the Turning unfolds as lyrical journal, hymnal, and almanac all rolled into one volume, with its three poem cycles interweaving thematic rhythms and threads. It is an ambulatory archive, paced to poet Tara K. Shepersky's steps and treks along a stretch of the Pacific coast, from Oregon up to Washington and down to California. Then there’s a circadian and seasonal rhythm, with Tara attuned to the tug of moon on tide and tide on poet; the balance (and present-day imbalance) of the seasons; and the slumbers and awakenings of the earth and its…

Free

Slamlandia

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

Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month. This mic provides a creative, fun, and welcoming space for all literary communities in Portland. We encourage poets new and old to come share their work. We strive towards a safer space for poets to read their own poetry, witness others, and participate in community. This event takes place in-person. Proof of Covid-19 vaccine or a negative PCR test is required for admittance. Please see our Covid-19 guidelines for in-person events at Literary Arts. Hosted by Julia Gaskill. Julia Gaskill Julia Gaskill is a professional daydreamer hailing from Portland, Oregon. Her poetry examines the tightrope we sometimes walk of feeling our voices censored and also being unabashedly ourselves. Her poems touch on everyday…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: Plato On Love

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

The Symposium by Plato asks: what is love? It is the story of a banquet in classical Athens, attended by Socrates and his friends, at which each person tells a story about the origin of Love. These stories are full of deep psychological insight, powerful mythic imagination, and profound philosophical reflection that have made The Symposium one of the masterpieces of world literature and a crowning work of philosophy. Bawdy and sentimental, drunk and wise by turns, with a surprising turn of events near the end, each story illuminates a striking part of the human condition. The event is crowned by Socrates’ own story, telling us the origin of his gift and portraying the nature of the world in terms of Love. Throughout the night,…

$245

Delve Readers Seminar: The Brothers Karamazov

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

The American novelist Walker Percy described The Brothers Karamazov as “maybe the greatest novel of all time . . . . almost prophesies and prefigures everything—all the bloody mess and the issues of the 20th century.” It’s fair to extend Percy’s observation to include the mess of the present century as well. The Brothers K is Dostoevsky’s masterpiece: a gripping tale of murder and family conflict that explores profound questions of faith, doubt, free will, morality, and the existence of God. The novel’s structure is equally complex, featuring multiple narrators and shifting points of view, and a wide cast of characters and voices. Dostoevsky considered the book a complete expression of his thinking about the human condition. This Delve will offer participants the opportunity to…

$340

In-Store Poetry Reading: Dianne Stepp and Judith Montgomery

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Portland poets Dianne Stepp and Judith Montgomery for an in-store reading from their latest collections. About The Nest's Dark Eye: Some traditions believe a grieving woman-given her vulnerability, given the boundless expanse of her sorrow-stands at the spirit world's threshold. Grief gives her a kind of holiness, a sacred compassion and perception. Dianne Stepp's voice possesses such a power. Her poems are finely crafted, deeply musical lamentations for her son who committed suicide. Her poems are grateful paeans to the natural world's bounty and grace. A poet-mother trying to fathom her son's final, devastating actions, she's "craning to see, twisting / to search the shape / of his death." The Nest's Dark Eye offers us sorrow's keen insight, its fraught and luminous…

Free