Each week, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in the literary community. Let us know if you have any events or book news to share.
Virtual Festivals
Bay Area Book Festival #UNBOUND
#UNBOUND presents notable authors in free, stimulating literary conversations highly relevant for our challenging times. Programs debut on YouTube Premiere with live audience chat, then remain as recordings there and on our site. (Some special ticketed programs include live audience questions to the authors —join their mailing list to find out!)
Inaugural Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Virtual Festival
Indigo Arts Alliance and I’m Your Neighbor Books are proud to produce The Beautiful Blackbird Children’s Book Festival, an inaugural event in honor of artist Ashley Bryan. This one-of-a-kind program will celebrate authors and illustrators from across the African diaspora while honoring their roots, identity and resiliency.
Wisconsin Book Festival
Follow their Crowdcast page for upcoming events and to watch replays of past events.
Featured event:
Vanport Mosaic Festival
May 8 – 30
The annual Vanport Mosaic Festival cannot happen as originally planned in N/NE Portland venues rich with invisible and intangible history, but the Spirit of Vanport lives on through a virtual season of hope, moral imagination and solidarity.
The Vanport Mosaic Festival is a series of memory activism opportunities: screenings, presentations, conversations and art performances that amplify personal experience of individuals and communities impacted by the long-endured inequalities across American economic, social, and civic systems.
Virtual Events
Book Launch: Ed Skoog and Susan Leslie Moore (Hugo House)
Tuesday, May 26
7:00 p.m. PDT
Join us for a virtual evening of poetry with Portland poets Susan Leslie Moore and Ed Skoog and their new books, That Place Where You Opened Your Hands and Travelers Leaving for the City. RSVP for the Zoom conversation here.
Connect in Place (Oregon Humanities)
‘This Place Now’
Tuesday, May 26
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. PDT. Click here to RSVP.
In this time of COVID-19, physical distancing, and uncertainty, what does Oregon feel like to you, and how would you like it to feel for fellow Oregonians across the state? This virtual community conversation will connect people from all over Oregon to make sense of this moment together, to share what we envision for the future, and to start exploring how we might get there.
Spring Issue: At Home (Pop-Up Magazine)
Wednesday, May 27
6:00 p.m PST
Storytellers and musicians perform from their homes across the country in an all-new lineup of true, never-before-told stories paired with an original score, art, animations, and film. It’s the Pop-Up Magazine you know and love, presented in a creative new split screen experience (think of it as a cross between a live performance, a video, and a graphic novel).
Writing Workshops
Weekly Online Creative Writing Workshops (Write Around Portland)
Join Write Around Portland for 90 minutes of creativity and community-building, with generative writing exercises, sharing and strengths-based feedback. Their workshop model, refined over 21 years, is proven for people of all writing levels: from the budding writer to the published author.
Workshops are held via Zoom. Weekly registration opens Mondays at noon and closes one hour before the workshop.
In May:
Wednesdays from 4 to 5:30 pm
Thursdays from 11 am to 12:30 pm
Sliding Scale Registration $5-$30. Register here.
$0 registration available for past Write Around Portland participants at a social service agency and people experiencing financial hardship due to the coronavirus.
What We’re Reading
That Little Bit of Magic (The Rumpus)
A conversation with Ramiza Shamoun Koya, by Alex Behr
What I Want the Woman Behind the Counter to Know (New York Times)
Remember this the next time you order takeout. By Min Jin Lee
Activities for Kids & Teens
Roald Dahl
James and the Giant Peach
With Taika & Friends
Reading on Mon, Wed, Fri at 10:00 a.m. PST
Scribes Workshops & Writing Camps (Hugo House)
Calling all teens! Whether you’re just starting to explore the world of creative writing or looking to learn new forms and skills, Scribes Workshops and Writing Camps will introduce you to the writing life and inspire your creativity.
Podcasts/ Radio
The Last Archive (hosted by Jill Lapore)
The Last Archive is a show about the history of truth, and the historical context for our current fake news, post-truth moment. It’s a show about how we know what we know, and why it seems, these days, as if we don’t know anything at all anymore. The show is driven by host Jill Lepore’s work as a historian, uncovering the secrets of the past the way a detective might.
And more…
#breakforjoy (Write Around Portland)
In an effort to stay connected with our community during this time of remote interactions—and finding ourselves needing to take time out of each day to experience joy—Write Around Portland created the hashtag #breakforjoy on social media.
Follow @writearoundpdx on Facebook or Twitter and watch for daily #breakforjoy inspiration: writing prompts, pieces from writers in our community and more to help us all cope with a challenging time.
Share your own writing and moments to #breakforjoy!
Emily Wilson’s Odyssey translation, Book 1, read by Emily Wilson
Emily Wilson reads a section from her translation of The Odyssey, Book 1. Characters featured: Narrator; Athena, with mighty spear, and in disguise, with sunglasses; Telemachus, in Phillies hat.
Whatcom Museum’s Story Dome Project
Share your stories! Styled after StoryCorps, Story Dome invites users to submit short, 3 minute oral stories (or a poem, spoken word, interview, or song!) in response to a prompt.
Blog cover photo by Charles Deluvio
