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
Endnote—Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir
Decatur Book Festival
Sunday, October 4 | 4:30 p.m. EST
Discussion of Natasha Trethewey’s memoir, Memorial Drive. which dives deep into a shared human experience of sudden loss and absence, but also into the enduring ripple effects of white racism and domestic abuse in the American South.
Deborah Reed at the Cloud & Leaf Bookstore with Oregon State University Press
Tuesday, October 6 | 7:00 p.m
Celebrate the debut of Reed’s new novel Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan—the story of a world-renowned artist at the end of her life, and the long-buried secrets that she can’t keep hidden much longer. Deborah will be joined in conversation by Tina Ontiveros, fellow bookseller and author of the newly-released memoir rough house.
Litquake 2020
October 8—24
The annual Litquake festival kicks off next week—60 events, all almost entirely free! Including:
Sex and Vanity: Kevin Kwan with Amy Tan
Election: Film Screening and Conversation with Tom Perrotta
Every Day We Get More Illegal: Juan Felipe Herrerra with Jericho Brown. View the full schedule here.
A Reading with Coleman Stevenson, Shayla Lawson, Stephanie Adams-Santos (Daedalus Books)
Sunday, October 11 | 4:00 p.m.
Free | Register here
A virtual reading with Delve Guides and Oregon Literary Fellowship recipients Coleman Stevenson, Shayla Lawson, and Stephanie Adams-Santos.
Pop-up Magazine Fall Issue
Monday, October 12 | 6:00 p.m.
We have a stellar new lineup of comedians, artists, filmmakers, writers, and radio folks to bring you along for road trips of a lifetime, campfire tales, cross-continent friendships, intimate home movies, comedic dares, and more. Watch the trailer here.
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.
Electric Literature’s First Ever Virtual Salon Series
October 20–29
$10 | Register here
Authors Brandon Taylor and Ross Feeler will discuss Writing White Fragility; Halimah Marcus, Marie-Helene Bertino, and Elissa Washuta on Magical Feminism; and Swords Out: A Dungeons & Dragons Murder Mystery with John Darnielle, Leah Johnson, Daniel Lavery, Amber Sparks, R. Eric Thomas, and Dungeon Master Matt Lubchansky.
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
Lit Crawl Austin Goes Virtual
October 31–November 15
Lineup to be announced soon!
RESOURCES FOR WRITERS
Authors League Fund
Now accepting applications from writers experiencing income loss due to COVID-19.
The Fund exists to help professional writers continue their careers with dignity by providing no-strings-attached “loans” to pay for pressing expenses. Repayment of this emergency support is not required. For guidelines and to apply, click here.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
A Song Below Water, by Bethany C. Morrow (Reading is Resistance)
Guided anti-bias/ anti-racist reading, for Grades 4+
What We’re Reading
The Coffin, the Ship by Mel Kassel (Black Warrior Review)
“He saves me for last because I told him to—I should be the sip that seals the night, the taste that turns in circles before settling to roost in his mouth.“
The Things I Tell Myself When I’m Writing About Nature by Helen Macdonald
“A not-too-serious and also quite serious list that is entirely non-prescriptive, and is absolutely not a set of instructions. Your mileage will vary wildly. There are as many ways to write about the natural world as there are kinds of beetles. But these are the things I really do tell myself when I write about nature, and today I decided I’d confess them all.”
FILM
Noche de Película
Stream-at-home Film Festival (Hollywood Theater)
September 30–October 5
$12 | Tickets
Every year, Noche de Película brings Latinx queer stories from around the world in Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French. This year the program will highlight experiences of Hispanic, Latin-American, and Afro-Caribbean LGBTQIA+ persons with films from ten countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Los Estados Unidos, Mexico, Peru, Reino Unido, and Venezuela.
