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.
Portland International Film Festival
March 5–14, 2021
This year’s Portland International Film Festival offers new ways of seeing through virtual, drive-in, and special program experiences. The Northwest Film Center’s annual festival offers more ways than ever to experience the intersection of art and cinema. Tickets and passes are available for purchase now.
Get 20% off any ticket purchase with discount code: FESTFRIEND44
VIRTUAL EVENTS
Walidah Imarisha Reading and Q+A
Friday, March 5 at 4:00 p.m. PST | Online via Zoom
Co-presented by the Portland State University’s Creative Writing and Black Studies programs. This event will have ASL interpretation.
This is Not For You Book Launch (Powell’s)
Friday, March 5 at 6:00 p.m. PST | Online via Zoom
This Is Not for You (OSU Press) tells the story of activist and photographer Richard Brown, a Black Portlander who has spent decades working to bridge the divide between police and the Black community. Brown’s memoir (written with Brian Benson) brings readers with him into the streets with fellow activists, into squad cars with the rank-and-file, and to regular meetings with mayors and police chiefs.
Echoes of The Kalevala in Karl Marlantes novel Deep River
Friday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. PST
Nordic Northwest’s next Friday Night Lecture Series event will be presented by Deep River author Karl Marlantes. This Friday Night Lecture Series will take place online on March 5, at 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Karl Marlantes will do a presentation on his most recent novel and draw parallels between his novel and the Finnish Kalevala epic.
Amplify Women (XRAY FM)
Monday, March 8 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (PST)
https://xray.fm/
Amplify Women is XRAY’s annual radio teach-in to celebrate International Women’s Day. Each year for this event, we cancel all our regular programming for 12 hours and take over the airwaves with engaging conversations from community leaders, activists, educators, changemakers, and overall impactful women and femmes from around Portland.
Rebecca Solnit with Jia Tolentino (Powell’s)
Tuesday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. PST | Book purchase required
Purchasing a preorder copy of Recollections of My Nonexistence by Rebecca Solnit ($16) through the above link at Powell’s entitles you to attend this event. After you’ve purchased the book, Powell’s will automatically register you for the Zoom event, and will send you a confirmation email two days prior to the event containing a Zoom link to the event and instructions on how to access it.
Tickets must be purchased by 3:00 p.m. (PT) on March 9 to reserve your seat at the event.
Broadway Books Book Club Discussion
Tuesday, March 9 at 6:30 p.m. PST
Join us for the first Broadway Books Book Club meeting of 2021 and our inaugural event celebrating our Year of Toni Morrison. We will be discussing the new, highly touted debut novel by Robert Jones, Jr., The Prophets. Jones’s lyrical, third-person writing style has been likened to the writings of Toni Morrison. In our discussion we will compare and contrast his new work to Morrison’s Beloved.
The Moth Virtual StorySLAM: Nostalgia—Yoshitomo Nara
Friday, March 12 at 7:30 p.m. PST | Get tickets
Join LACMA for an evening of art and storytelling in this StorySLAM co-produced with The Moth. StorySLAM is a community-focused, open-mic storytelling competition in which anyone can share a five-minute story on the night’s theme.
Memoir Monday featuring featuring Candace Jane Opper, Marcos Gonsalez, Jeannine Ouellette, and Randa Jarrar.
Monday, March 15 at 5:00 p.m PDT/ 8:00 p.m. EDT
Memoir Monday is a collaboration between Narratively, Catapult, The Rumpus, Granta, Guernica, and Literary Hub to bring the very best first-person writing together in a weekly newsletter and a quarterly reading series.
HATFIELD LECTURE SERIES: Joanne B. Freeman
Author of The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War
Tuesday, March 16 at 7:00 p.m. PDT | Tickets start at $25 | Buy Tickets
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS
Civil Rights Memorial Center Seeks Poem Submissions for New Exhibit
The Civil Rights Memorial Center is partnering with New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander to produce a community poem for a new exhibit that will be featured at the Center when it reopens later this year. The public is invited to submit poems to be considered for the exhibit.
Submissions will be accepted from February 10-March 10, 2021.
Anyone living in the United States can submit a poem for consideration.
Tin House Summer Residencies Applications Open
Deadline: March 14, 2021
Residencies available for debut writers, teachers, and parents.
PEN America Emerging Voices Fellowship
Deadline: March 17
The Emerging Voices Fellowship is an immersive mentorship program for early-career writers who are traditionally underrepresented in the publishing world.
2021 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant
Deadline: April 26
The Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant of $40,000 will be awarded to as many as eight writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general readership.
FOR KIDS/TEENS
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
A kids podcast about the things that matter, like Racism, Body Image, and Belonging. Each episode opens up the dialog we’ve begun in our groundbreaking A Kids Book About series. Created by folks who’ve been there. Honest. Important. Relevant. Start the conversation. We know you’re ready.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Powell’s Books Women’s History Month Reading List
In honor of Women’s History Month, we have compiled our favorite lists of books by and about women who ground us, inspire us, and give us courage. From early feminist novels to compelling modernist prose, from passionate activists to groundbreaking rockers, these lists call attention to the diverse nature of the female experience.
AND MORE…
Word is Bond is Hiring a Program Manager
Word is Bond is seeking a passionate leader to manage our dynamic racial justice programming for young Black men in Portland, Oregon.
Click here for job description
