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 EVENTS
Author Reading: The Index of Self-Destructive Acts by Christopher Beha / Power Ball by Rob Neyer (Two Rivers Bookstore)
Thursday, August 27, 6:30 p.m.
Join us for an evening of fiction, family, and baseball with Christopher Beha, author of The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, and Rob Neyer, former sportswriter and local author of Power Ball: Anatomy of a Modern Baseball game.
$5 Registration will benefit the Roosevelt High School Athletics Program.
Finish the Fight: A virtual play, celebrating the unsung heroes of suffrage.
Tuesday, August 18, 7:00pm E.T. | 4:00pm P.T.
They were tireless organizers. Tenacious fighters. And political geniuses. They were Black and Latinx. Indigenous and immigrant. Together, they won women the right to vote and laid the cornerstone for gender equality in the United States. Yet their stories have rarely been told. Until now.
This August, we give voice to these heroes of the suffrage movement. Join us for the premiere of this innovative new performance. Learn why their fight is far from over.
Based on
“Finish the Fight!: The Brave and Revolutionary Women Who Fought for the Right to Vote”
by Veronica Chambers and the Staff of The New York Times
Produced by The New York Times
This event is free for all to attend. A subscription is not required. Access details are shared on R.S.V.P. confirmation and on the day of the event.
Moss Volume 5 Launch (Hugo House)
August 15 at 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Pacific Northwest literary journal Moss is bringing its green, fuzzy tendrils from across the region together in their first-ever online event.
Celebrate their brand-new fifth volume with readings from award-winning novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, writer and scholar Beth Piatote, poet and editor Malcolm Friend, and Moss poetry editor Ashley Toliver
One Poem: A Protest Reading in Support of Black Lives (Academy of American Poets)
Tuesday, August 18
8:00 p.m. EDT
The founding members of the Poetry Coalition, a network of 25+ poetry organizations from across the United States, are honored to present One Poem: A Protest Reading in Support of Black Lives on Tuesday, August 18 at 8 pm EDT via live broadcast. In this first-ever nationwide reading curated by the coalition, a poet invited by each founding member organization will share a poem in support of Black lives.
Online Launch Party and Livestream Extravaganza (Open Signal)
Saturday, August 22, 3:00 – 10:00p.m.
Open Signal is launching a new digital network — join us for a day of films, music and interviews to celebrate and raise money for the Black Media Maker Response Fund!
Open Signal is launching a new digital network, a place for Portland to see itself and be seen. We highlight work from local, independent media makers and community organizations. We believe in creating people-driven alternatives to mass media—and that media should be available anytime, from anywhere.
To kick off our new network, join us for a livestream featuring work from Open Signal Labs’ Black Filmmaker Fellows, an interview with Don’t Shoot PDX, footage from Open Signal’s archive, DJ sets from Chuckk Pasta and DJ NO.Bi.Es and Deena Bee, and more! This event is a fundraiser for the Our Stories, Our Lives Black Media Maker Response Fund.
Portland Virtual StorySLAM (The Moth)
Tuesday, August 18th, 7:15 p.m.
ENTHUSIASM: Prepare a five-minute story about going full force. RAH RAH fervor and rearing to go. That high-energy, can-do spirit that gets things done—or ensures that everyone wants you dead. New love, new job, first day of school….LETS DO THIS! Sustaining interest, inspiring new zeal and reigniting the fire. … and the inevitable PUSH needed to get over the finish line.
Virtual Festivals
Brooklyn Book Festival Authors Announced
September 28 – October 5
Edinburgh International Book Festival
From August 15 to 31 enjoy 140 events for adults and children for free via our website, including live conversations, panel debates, discussions, readings and draw-alongs. Through the magic of technology, we’ll be crossing continents and time zones to beam events from more than 30 countries straight into your home.
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.
Venice Biennale’s Venice VR Expanded 2020
September 2 –12
For the first time in its 125-year history, La Biennale di Venezia (the Venice Biennale) is offering its programming both online and at select venues around the globe.
The Northwest Film Center and Portland Art Museum will be the exclusive U.S. partner for the Virtual Reality (VR) arm of the Venice Biennale through its Venice VR Expanded programming. Tickets go on sale at the Museum and Film Center websites the week of August 17.
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction
Deadline extended to September 1, 2020
Northwest Review open for Digital Submissions
Northwest Review are currently open for submissions of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, art, and interviews.
Writer As Fearless Citizen Workshop Featuring Cheryl Strayed
Saturday, September 26, 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. P.T.
Join us for this extraordinary *benefit* writing workshop featuring bestselling writer Cheryl Strayed where we will explore the role of the writer-citizen in these unprecedented times. This is a full day 10:00-3:30PM (Pacific Time) Writing Workshop with a morning AND afternoon session, including a 1 hour lunch from 12:00-1:00 PM. The morning session (10:00-12:00) will be hosted by memoirist, novelist, and nonfiction writer, Albert Flynn DeSilver, and include innovative “warm-up” writing exercises, talk and discussion. The afternoon session from 1:00-3:00PM will feature bestselling writer Cheryl Strayed—author of WILD (memoir), TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS (nonfiction), TORCH (fiction) Cheryl will be offering innovative writing exercises, a lecture/talk, discussion and Q&A. 3:00-3:30 will be for final sharing and closing remarks. A minimum 25% of net profit proceeds will benefit the Black Lives Matter movement via the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. The session will also be recorded!
Cost: $249 TO ATTEND. REGISTER HERE
What We’re Reading
I’m Writing to You: Letters From Writers of the Black Literary Community (Poets & Writers)
Reading As a Form of Protest by Gracie Bialecki (Epiphany Literary Journal)
LISTEN
Portland Story Theatre Podcast
Portland Story Theater delivers a potent blend of vulnerability and heart. Real, true stories told by real people; face-to-face, eye-to-eye, and heart-to-heart. Stories that offer a glimpse into the human experience and this journey we all share.
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
