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.
UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
Affinity Space Conversation: Honoring Multiracial Identity and Navigating Antiracism (Oregon Humanities)
Tuesday, July 28
7:00 – 8:30 p.m (PDT)
For bi/multiracial people, whose identities are complex, navigating the world, relationships with others, and relationships with ourselves is nuanced and can be difficult to do alone. How do we honor ourselves and our cultural identities? How do we respond to society and individual assumptions about how we think, act, question, and live based on how we look or identify? How do antiracism, whiteness, and white supremacy affect us?
Facilitated by Jacqueline Fitzgerald
The Moth Presents: Play it Again, SLAM!
Wednesday, July 29
4:15 – 6:15 p.m. PDT
Join The Moth for their second ever SLAM showcase, featuring beloved storylines picked from our StorySLAM series. Stories that split guts, broke hearts, took up residency in the backwaters of our minds. No hat. No judges. Just stories carefully curated and directed anew. SLAM selects, director’s cut, fresh takes!
Safety, Justice, and Policing with Samuel Sinyangwe and Nkenge Harmon Johnson (Oregon Humanities)
Tuesday, July 21
5:00 p.m. PDT
What do our communities need to experience safety and justice? What role, if any, can policing play in creating these conditions? Are there aspects of policing that should be preserved as existing systems are reformed or replaced? Join us July 21 for a live conversation about these and other questions with Nkenge Harmon Johnson, president and CEO of Urban League of Portland, and activist and data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe, cocreator of Police Scorecard and Mapping Police Violence, moderated by Omar El Akkad.
SfSx Volume 1 Launch featuring Tina Horn and Carmen Maria Machado (Bluestockings)
Wednesday, July 22
7:00 p.m.
Join us for a virtual conversation between Carmen Maria Machado (author of the critically acclaimed memoir In the Dream House and the horror comic The Low, Low Woods) and Tina Horn to celebrate the release of the first paperback collection of Tina’s sci-fi sex rebel comic book series SfSx: Protection.
Carmen and Tina will discuss: the differences between scripts and prose, queer fabulism in genre fiction, sexual horror, and more!
Donations from this event will benefit Ceyenne Doroshow’s black trans sex worker future fund GLITS. https://www.glitsinc.org/donations
Virtual Festivals
By The Books (Mailchimp)
Mailchimp is hosting a virtual literary festival featuring books curated by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, essays collected by Ashley C. Ford, and so much more.
The John Hewitt Society Digital Festival of Literature & Ideas
Monday, July 27 – Saturday, August 1
Click here to see the full program
Litquake on Lockdown
San Francisco’s Literary Festival returns to the online ethers with summer programming featuring a diverse set of authors talking about their books, books in general and the writing life.
Upcoming events:
Litquake on Lockdown: Caitlin Myer and Wiving with Joe Loya
Wednesday, July 22, 12:00 – 1:15 p.m.
Former San Franciscan (now living in Portugal) Caitlyn Myer is interviewed by Joe Loya regarding her new memoir Wiving: A Journey of Loving Then Leaving the Patriarchy
Litquake on Lockdown: Billy Ray Belcourt and A History of My Brief Body
Thursday, July 23, 6:00– 7:15 p.m.
Billy-Ray Belcourt, a Native American Rhodes Scholar living in BC, Canada, with his memoir, A History of My Brief Body, which has been described as “a brave, raw, and fiercely intelligent collection of essays and vignettes on grief, colonial violence, joy, love, and queerness”
Tin House Summer Workshop
Over the course of the next two weeks (July 12th-25th), over 200 writers will be gathering online to participate in Tin House’s 2020 Summer Workshop. They will be streaming many of the lectures, conversations, and readings that will be taking place.
Upcoming Events:
Saturday, July 18th | 3:00 pm PST
Short Form: A panel with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, Rion Amilcar Scott, Lesley Nneka Arimah, moderated by Dantiel W. Moniz
Examining the craft behind the first sentence, story, collection, and beyond.
Tuesday, July 21st | 5:00 pm PST
Anatomy of Melancholy: Bassey Ikpi and Melissa Febos in Conversation
A discussion about making narrative (and aesthetic) sense out of the darkest parts of their pasts.
Thursday, July 23rd | 11:00 am PST
The Vocation of Poetry: A panel with Oliver Baez Bendorf, Franny Choi, Anis Mojgani. Moderated by Eloisa Amezcua
A conversation about money, careers, and the poetic eco-system.
Upcoming Readings:
Saturday, July 18th | 5:00 pm PST
Kristen Arnett, Nicole Dennis-Benn, & Brandon Taylor
Monday, July 20th | 5:00 pm PST
Megan Fernandes, Jonathan Hill, Jenn Shapland, & Jeannie Vanasco
Wednesday, July 22nd | 5:00 pm PST
Mira Jacob, Saeed Jones, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, & Elissa Washuta
Film
First Cow, directed by Kelly Reichardt (Northwest Film Center)
Based on a story by Literary Arts board member Jon Raymond!
Your ticket will directly support both NWFC and PAM and we encourage all of our members, staff, and supporters to join us—and spread the word.
Shirley, directed by Josephine Decker (Northwest Film Center)
Renowned horror writer Shirley Jackson is on the precipice of writing her masterpiece when the arrival of newlyweds upends her meticulous routine and heightens tensions in her already tempestuous relationship with her philandering husband.
Your $3.99 ticket will directly support both NWFC and PAM and we encourage all of our members, staff, and supporters to join us—and spread the word.
For Kids/ Teens
Kids’ Storytime With Skylaar Amann (Powell’s Books)
Saturday, July 25
11:00 a.m. PST
Young Mammals Zine Collaborative with Katie Guinn (Corporeal Writing)
A three-week online workshop for young mammals ages 13+ (teenagers)
What We’re Reading
The Guardian’s Power of Touch Series
Stories and poems full of loss, longing and tenderness curated by V (formerly Eve Ensler) and Mahogany L Browne.
And more…
Dear Stranger (Oregon Humanities)
Dear Stranger is a recurring letter-exchange project that connects Oregonians through the mail to share experiences, beliefs, and ideas. Since 2014, almost 1,000 people have exchanged letters through the project. Everyone is invited to participate—whatever your age, your place of residence, or your circumstances, Dear Stranger wants to hear from you. Deadline to submit a letter: July 31.
