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
PEN Emerging Voices 2020
Tuesday, July 28. 5:00 p.m. (PDT)
During this live, online program, writers Damien Belliveau, Megan Dorame, Shannon Gatewood, M. Kiguwa, and Claire Lin read together for the last time as the culmination of their 2020 PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship. Mentors Chris L. Terry, Vanessa Angélica Villarreal, Rachel M. Harper, Antonia Crane, and Charles Yu provide personal introductions.
The Emerging Voices Fellowship is a literary mentorship based in Los Angeles that has been providing underrepresented, marginalized writers with the tools they need to launch a professional literary career since 1996.
Powell’s Books Presents Justin Taylor in Conversation With Tracy O’Neill
Friday, July 31, 6:00 p.m. (PDT)
With raw intimacy, Taylor’s new book, Riding With the Ghost, lays bare the joys and burdens of loving a troubled family member. It’s a memoir about fathers and sons, teachers and students, faith and illness, and the pieces of our loved ones that we carry with us. Taylor will be joined in conversation by Tracy O’Neill, author of Quotients.
Virtual Festivals
Design Week Portland
August 3 – 7
Built on the strength of independent events conceived and hosted by Portland’s creative community.
Library of Congress National Book Festival Announces Full Author Lineup
During the weekend of Sept. 25-27, virtual stages at loc.gov/bookfest will offer on-demand videos, live author chats and discussions, options to personalize your own journey through the festival with particular themes, and book buying possibilities through the festival’s official bookseller, Politics & Prose
Willamette Writers Conference 2020
July 31 – August 2
Share your story and launch your career at the 51st Annual Willamette Writers Conference, featuring keynote speakers Cheryl Strayed, Pete Souza, Mitchell S. Jackson, Zoraida Córdova, Rosanne Parry, and more! Pitch agents. Sit down with producers. Sharpen your manuscript with industry pros. You can do this all from the comfort of your own home on !
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
SLJ Teen Live! Our Voice, Our Time (School Library Journal)
August 5, 2020
Free Virtual Event
Often thought of as quiet places, libraries are, in fact, hotbeds of passionate communication, dialogue, and activity.
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellowships Open
Applications for BMI’s Shearing Fellowships for the 2021-22 academic year open Friday, July 31.
Last Chance to Apply for the PEN America Grants
From now through August 1, 2020, apply to the PEN/Phyllis Naylor Grant for Children’s and Young Adult Novelists and the PEN/Jean Stein Grant for Literary Oral History.
A Story Writing Class with Curtis Sittenfeld (New York Times At Home)
Thursday, August 6, at 6:00 p.m. ET / 3:00p.m. PT
The New York Times At Home section welcomes award-winning author Curtis Sittenfeld for an interactive conversation about learning to write short fiction in five, easy-to-digest steps. Unleash your inner author: join other Times readers in learning tips, sharing successes and getting help overcoming roadblocks. Send the opening sentence only of your short story to athome@nytimes.com with the subject line “My Short Story,” and it may be read live during the event. Hosted by Amy Virshup, travel editor for The Times.
ZoomWrites To Survive the Pandemic with Amy Minato
Tuesdays 10:00am to 11:30am
Fridays 10am to 11:30am
(alternate times possible on request)
I am able to offer up to 8 free sessions to two writers financially affected by COVID thanks to a stipend from the Booth Emergency Fund through Literary Arts.
ZoomWrites Format:
- Group check-in
- 10 minute solitary free-write
- 10 minute gather to share (optional)
- 10 minute theme discussion
- 30 minute solitary write
- 10 minute partner share (optional)
- 20 minute group share (optional)
- Classes are drop-in.
- Reduced suggested donations of $10-$25 through the crisis.
What We’re Reading
Here Are The 50 Most Impactful Black Books Of The Last 50 Years (Essence)
How One of America’s Whitest Cities Became the Center of B.L.M. Protests (New York Times)
The False Promise of Anti-racism Books (The Atlantic)
8 Memoirs and Essay Collections on Black Freedom and Liberation (Powells Blog)
“Through the power of story, I find hope. Here are eight powerful collections of essays and memoirs that explore the complexities of racism and hold aspirations of justice and liberation.” — Kim Johnson
Read more from Oregonian Kim Johnson, literary activist and author of the just-released This Is My America, on the Powell’s blog.
Listen
Gertrude Literary Podcast
The Gertrude literary podcast, brings engaging and honest conversations with amazing LGBTQ writers about touring, inspirations, setbacks, stories, and the writing life – in the many ways that looks. The first three episodes feature Arisa White, Carter Sickels, and Jericho Brown.
Read By: Leslie Jamison (92Y)
A tribute to Brian Doyle.
And more…
Community Voices Project (Portland Center Stage)
Have you been missing the Portland artists who create the brilliant work you love seeing on stage? The Community Voices Project delivers arresting, uplifting work straight from an artist’s home to yours. We asked each artist to share a monologue, poem, song, or visual art of their choosing.
We are thrilled to feature the work of 12 Black artists as the launching point for this new initiative as part of our efforts to to engage with and support the Black Lives Matter movement at every level of the organization. Portland Center Stage seeks to actively dismantle racism within our own institution and community, and also within the American theater establishment as a whole, where white supremacy has been a core foundation.
We look forward to amplifying the diverse voices of the actors, designers, and storytellers in our region as we add new artists each month!
This initiative is part of our PCS Remix: Original Works program. To explore the other offerings, visit PCS Remix.
