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!

Garden+ Lecture Series: Christian Tagsold

Portland Japanese Garden 611 SW Kingston Ave, Portland, OR, United States

Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West The German author of Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West discusses his provocative and groundbreaking theories that the idea of the Japanese garden has less to do with Japan’s history and traditions than with the country’s interactions with the West. Tagsold, who has researched over eighty Japanese gardens in ten countries, explores their history, popularity, and shifting aesthetic, as well as that most elusive concept — authenticity. Limited copies of Christian Tagsold’s book Spaces in Translation: Japanese Gardens and the West will be available for purchase and signing at the event. Location: Yanai Classroom About the speaker Christian Tagsold is Associate Professor at the Institute for Modern Japanese Studies, University of Düsseldorf. He writes on Japanese…

$15 – $20

Translators Bruce Fulton & Ju-Chan Fulton

Powell's Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland, OR, United States

In this shocking English debut, Mina (Two Lines), award-winning Korean author Kim Sagwa delivers an astonishingly complex portrait of modern-day adolescence. With pitch-perfect dialogue and a precise eye for detail, Kim creates a piercingly real teen protagonist — at once powerful, vulnerable, and utterly confused. As one bad decision leads to another, this promising life spirals to a devastating climax. Crystal toils day and night to earn top grades at her cram school. She’s also endlessly texting, shopping, drinking, vexing her boyfriends, cranking up her mp3s, and fantasizing about her next slice of cheesecake. Her nonstop frenzy never quite manages the one thing that might calm her down: opening up about the pressures that are driving her to the edge. She certainly hasn’t talked with…

Free

Spanish Translator & Author Jeff Diteman

Mother Foucault's Bookshop 523 SE Morrison St, Portland, OR, United States

Spanish Translator & Author Jeff Diteman will read from his work. Jeff Diteman will read from his translation of the novel The Anarchist Who Shared My Name by Oulipo Member Pablo Martín Sánchez. Diteman will discuss the history of constraint-based literature and its complex relationship with politics and philosophy, referencing works by Oulipians Raymond Queneau, Georges Perec, Anne Garréta, and Michèle Audin. Jeff is a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, specializing in Latin American and francophone literature. His work has been published by Drunken Boat, Nailed Magazine, Inventory, Jacobin, McSweeney’s, and Deep Vellum. Lena Walker will present her translations of Russian poetry, including poems written in a Soviet prison by Yuli Daniel, a song by the dissident Vladimir Vissotsky,…

Free

Reading: Maureen Shaughnessy: The Scent of Buenos Aires

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

Annie Bloom's welcomes Maureen Shaughnessy, translator of The Scent of Buenos Aires: Stories, by Hebe Uhart. The Scent of Buenos Aires offers the first book-length English translation of Uhart's work, drawing together her best vignettes of quotidian life: moments at the zoo, the hair salon, or a cacophonous homeowners association meeting. She writes in unconventional, understated syntax, constructing a delightfully specific perspective on life in South America. These stories are marked by sharp humor and wit: discreet and subtle, yet filled with eccentric and insightful characters. Uhart's narrators pose endearing questions about their lives and environments - one asks "Bees - do you know how industrious they are?" while another inquires, "Are we perhaps going to hell in a hand basket?" Maureen Shaughnessy's translations from…

Free

Submission Deadline: Portland Review: Borders

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Portland Review welcomes submissions of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translation, and mixed-genre works for online publication. We are specifically looking for works that creatively interrogate the theme of borders. We’d hope to find work that explores borders, not as structures that operate as visible barriers, but those less seen: the lines between parent, child, and self; appetites and offerings; gender, bodies, and expectation; the subconscious, reality and its digitally augmented proxies. We’re particularly excited to read works that engage with the theme in ways beyond the topical. The unexpected is encouraged and appreciated. Submission Window: January 1st-15th Work must be original, unpublished, and follow our submission guidelines. For over sixty years, Portland Review has published the works of emerging writers and artists alongside the works of…

Free

Submission Deadline: Frontera Magazine, Vol. 3 “Natural States”

The Internet 001 SE Cyberspace Lane, Portland, OR, United States

Frontera está abierta para recibir entregas hasta el 1 de febrero (tendremos una semana extra si nos avisas por email.) Frontera es una revista bilingüe, escrita en Inglés y Español, y queremos recordarte que esos son los únicos idiomas que se aceptan. El tema del Vol. 3 es ESTADOS SILVESTRES, deja que la esencia del tema, en cualquiera manera, te inspire.  Frontera Magazine is currently open for submissions until February 1st (we observe a one week grace period if sent to our email). Frontera is an English-Spanish bilingual literary magazine, and we happily remind you that those are the only two languages we accept. The theme of Vol. 3 is NATURAL STATES, so let the nature of the theme and whatever it means to you, inspire you. Guías básicas //…

Free

Application Deadline: 2021 Tin House Summer Residencies

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Each residency will feature two writers at the same time (in separate apartments). If eligible, you may apply for all of the residencies using this single application. Tin House Workshop recognizes that the ongoing pandemic makes traveling and timelines more difficult than ever. We’re committed to working with each resident to make their visit as comfortable and safe as possible. Should anyone need to cancel their residency due to COVID concerns, we will still honor the stipend. Application Requirements (submitted as one document): A personal essay (1,500 words or less outlining your journey as a writer and description of the project you will be working on) + writing sample. Fiction and Nonfiction: One writing sample of no more than 7,000 words. A short story/essay or…

$25

Submission Deadline: Portland Review: TRANSIT / TRANSITION / TRANSLATION

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Themed submissions will open for 24 hours on April 14. Languages and change, buses and trains, the tracks of planets—for our series on transit, transition, and translation, we’re looking for stories, poems, and nonfiction that deal with change and movement in under 1000 words. We can't wait to read your work! Submissions will open at 12 a.m. PDT on April 14 and close at 11:59 p.m. ABOUT US: For over sixty years, Portland Review has published the works of emerging writers and artists alongside the works of well-established authors. We warmly encourage previously unpublished writers and artists to submit, and we aim to support work by those often marginalized in the artistic conversation, including (though certainly not limited to) people of color, women, disabled people,…

Free

Delve Readers Seminar: Feminist Horror and Millennial Anxiety in South Korean Literature

Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung  and Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park have just been translated into English from the original Korean by Anton Hur and have recently been shortlisted and longlisted (respectively) for the Booker Prize. Though very different from one another, by reading both we can get a taste of the exciting landscape that is modern Korean literature. Cursed Bunny is a short story collection that combines magic realism, horror and science fiction to address the real-life horrors of capitalism and patriarchy. Love in the Big City is a novel that captures the millennial loneliness and love affairs of a queer Seoulite. In addition to discussing the themes present in both texts, we will discuss translation and how it affects our understanding and interaction with the work.…

$130

Jewish Poetry Book Club at EJC

Eastside Jewish Commons 2420 NE Sandy Blvd., Portland, OR, United States

Love to read poetry? Drawn to Jewish poets writing in English, Hebrew, and Yiddish in translation? Let's lift the poetry off the page with some communal meaning-making. Jion us on some first Wednesdays 12:30 - 2 PM at the Eastside Jewish Commons, 2420 NE Sandy. June 7, 2023 September 6, 2023 December 6, 2023 Bring copies of two poems by your favorite Jewish poet to read together on June 7th. From there we will assemble and vote on which poets' books to read for the year. Bring your lunch. Please plan on making a small donation to EJC each time we meet. $3 - $10 is suggested. No one turned away for lack of funds. Under the instigation but not tutelage of Betsy Fogelman Tighe.…

$3 – $10