by Kate Jayroe
I’m very excited to be working as the latest Youth Programs intern at Literary Arts! In addition to assisting Literary Arts this spring, I’m also an MFA student studying fiction at Portland State University, editor with Portland Review, bookseller at Powell’s Books, and a staff member with the annual Sewanee Writers’ Conference. My writing can be found in print and online journals like NANO Fiction and Hobart, and in local publications such as Shirley Magazine and The Gravity of the thing, among other places.
While I’m a new addition to Literary Arts, I am no stranger to the diverse and wonderful services, programs, and opportunities that Portland’s nationally recognized center for writers, publishers, readers, and lovers of all literary arts continually offers. I was a representative of Portland State at the 2015 and 2016 Wordstock Festival, have read with the Last Sunday Reading Series hosted here at the end of every school term, and am a huge fan of the annual Lit Crawl and the local Unchaste Readers Series for women and women-identifying artists, which often has its home right here at Literary Arts.
In my very first week of graduate school, I had the opportunity to see the legendary Jane Smiley speak at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with Portland Arts & Lectures. Literary Arts has truly been engendering my ability to connect with the rich Portland literary community from the very beginnings of my journey here.
I look forward to working with the WITS program through the spring of 2017, and could not feel more fortunate to be involved with the Youth Programs of Literary Arts as they continue to inspire public high school students to write, revise, edit, publish, and perform their own creative writing.
