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.
FEATURED EVENT
Marilynne Robinson: Jack
Friday, October 2 | 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Presented by the Wisconsin Book Festival in partnership with The Believer Festival, Literary Arts, and The Loft’s Wordplay. Marilynne Robinson will appear live on Crowdcast, in conversation with novelist C Pam Zhang.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Authors in Conversation with Apricot Irving & Deborah Reed (Manzanita Writers’ Series)
Saturday, September 19
4:00 p.m. | $10 | Register here
Please join us via Zoom in conversation with novelist/bookstore owner Deborah Reed, and award-winning author Apricot Irving, as they discuss Apricot’s memoir, The Gospel of Trees, winner of the 2019 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction.
The Atlantic Festival
September 21–24
In 1857, The Atlantic was founded to explicate and illuminate the American idea. That mission is as urgent today as it was then.
Join us as we examine the magnitude of the events of 2020, who we are as a nation, and what we might become. The Atlantic’s marquee festival will bring brave thinking and bold ideas to life with four days of can’t-miss conversations, evening headliners, and more.
Register now to reserve your spot. The festival is free to attend, but space is limited.
Kim Johnson in Conversation with Black Cultural Library Advocates (Multnomah County Library)
Thursday, September 24, 5:00–6:00 p.m.
Join Carla Davis and Ebonee Bell, members of Multnomah County Library’s Black Cultural Library Advocates team, as they chat with author Kim Johnson about first novels, love triangles, and how teens and young adults can advance antiracism and social justice.
Kim Johnson’s debut novel, This Is My America, has been described as a cross between The Hate U Give and Just Mercy.
For teens and adults. Online event; registration required.
Know Sci-Fi &Fantasy: Virtual Think & Drink with Walidah Imarisha (Deschutes Public Library)
Monday, October 19, 2020 | 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Writer and educator Walidah Imarisha will explore the idea of “visionary fiction,” fantastical art that aids in imagining and building new just futures. She will do so engaging with the work of Octavia E. Butler, renowned Black feminist science fiction writer and public intellectual. Connecting science fiction to social change, Imarisha will show the necessity of imagination to change the world.
The Paris Review Fall Issue Launch
Wednesday, September 23
6:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Online via Zoom | Free (registration required)
Join The Paris Review’s editor, Emily Nemens, for the Fall issue launch, featuring several contributors to no. 234. The program will include readings of poetry and prose from the issue.
Virtual Festivals
AJC Decatur Book Festival presented by Emory University 2020
September 4 – October 4
Brooklyn Book Festival
September 28 – October 5
Fall into the Arts: A Radio Festival of Local Performances (All Classical Portland)
This nine-part concert broadcast series will air on Thursdays at 7pm PT, September 24 through November 19, in Portland at 89.9FM and streaming worldwide at allclassical.org.
Library of Congress National Book Festival
September 25-27
Litquake 2020 (San Francisco’s Literary Festival)
October 8–24
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
The Whiting Foundation is pleased to announce that the application window for the 2021 Whiting Literary Magazine Prizes is open, and to celebrate the 2020 Prize Winners.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
A Song Below Water, by Bethany C. Morrow (Reading is Resistance)
Guided anti-bias/ anti-racist reading, for Grades 4+
Teen Author Q&A and Writing Workshop with Aiden Thomas
Tuesday, September 29, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m.
Join Aiden Thomas, author of Cemetery Boys, for a Q&A and scary story writing workshop.
Cemetery Boys is a Dia de Muertos paranormal romance about Yadriel (a gay, trans brujo) who accidentally summons the wrong ghost.
For teens.
Online event; registration required.
What We’re Reading
An American Writer for an Age of Division (The New Yorker)
The playwright and novelist Ayad Akhtar has never been afraid of provoking audiences. His latest work explores the origins of Trump’s toxicity, the tensions of Muslim identity, and the splintering of a family and a country.
Ayad Akhtar is one of our 2020 Portland Book Festival authors.
When in Doubt, Smile Like an Axolotl
Aimee Nezhukumatathil in Praise of the Mexican Walking Fish (via LitHub)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil is one of our 2020 Portland Book Festival authors and will also be teaching a writing class during the festival.
FILM
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Online Panel Discussion (Portland’5 Centers for the Arts)
Monday, September 21 at 4:00 p.m.
Join Portland’5 Centers for the Arts and audiences from more than 50 arts nonprofits across the country for a screening of the riveting new documentary John Lewis: Good Trouble followed by a live virtual panel on Monday, September 21 at 4PM – featuring the film’s director and civil rights advocates as they talk about Representative Lewis’s legacy of fearless protest and how we can keep his campaign for justice alive.
First, rent the film directly from Magnolia Pictures for $12 (available through September 30). This rental allows you exclusive access to two other videos: Film of an interview Congressman Lewis gave to Oprah Winfrey shortly before his death earlier this year, as well as a one-hour panel, recorded in July, between the film’s director, Dawn Porter, and two of the other original Freedom Riders, Dr. Bernard Lafayette and Dr. Rip Patton. Your rental also includes a $5 donation to Portland’5!
Then, on Monday, September 21 at 4PM, join us for a live virtual panel with director Dawn Porter, Ras J. Baraka, Mayor of Newark, NJ, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Professor of History, Race and Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project, and Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Panel produced by New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ.
Register for the Zoom discussion
AND MORE!
Online Exhibition: Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott (Portland Arts Museum)
While Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott is currently open for visitors to safely see in person, this new online exhibition offers those still staying close to home the opportunity to experience the exhibition and watch an updated introduction video, along with videos from community partners.
