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.
VIRTUAL EVENTS
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
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
Writing for Resilience: Finding and Using Joy as a Source – A virtual weekend writing workshop with Perrin Kerns (Fishtrap)
Saturday, March 13 and Saturday, March 20, 2021
10:00am to 5:00pm (PST)
Following in the tradition of Ross Gay, we will focus on writing about joy in the midst of pandemic, protest, climate change, and solitude. This is a generative writing class, where most of our time will be spent writing to prompts. At the end of our time together, we will share pieces we have pulled together from our shorter writings, and thus explore the lyric essay as a celebration of the fragment and the collage.
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.
Reading Claudia Rankine, led by Ashley Toliver (Soapstone)
April 24 through May 29
Six Saturday Mornings, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. via Zoom
$75, scholarships are available
To sign up, send an email to soapstonewriting@gmail.com, and once you receive a reply saying there is room in the group, we’ll ask for a check made out to Soapstone, 622 SE 29th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214. People of all genders and identities are welcome.
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.
34th Summer Fishtrap Virtual Gathering of Writers: Resilience
July 12-18, 2021
Adult workshops $855/$770 for Fishtrappers; Youth workshops $550
Notice: Summer Fishtrap is going virtual for 2021. Click here for details.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
New! After-school program for K-2 (Multnomah County Library)
We’re reading books aloud, telling stories and recommending books online after school.
#Virtualandia! Free Slam Poetry Workshops for High School students.
WHAT WE’RE READING
75 Artists, 7 Questions, One Very Bad Year (New York Times)
Musicians, authors, directors, comedians, painters and playwrights open up about trying to be creative, and sometimes failing, in quarantine.
How a Year Without My Library Has Changed Me (LitHub)
Lauren Du Graf on the Library as a Metaphor and Method
Powells Small Press Recommendations
March is Small Press Month! Find a new publisher to love in Powell’s Small Press section on Powells.com.
What Sets a Good Audiobook Apart (Slate)
Award-winning narrator Abby Craden has recorded nearly 400 books. Here’s how she does it.
AND MORE…
OPB launches new podcast ‘Relative Fiction,’ based on the award-winning graphic memoir by Nicole Georges
Launching March 29 on Apple Podcasts, the NPR One app, opb.org and wherever podcasts are available, “Relative Fiction” is based on writer and illustrator Nicole Georges’ award-winning 2013 graphic memoir, “Calling Dr. Laura.” It blossoms into a much larger story though, with more twists and turns.
Black Mountain Radio
An artist-driven, community-focused audio project returns to the airwaves with new stories this spring.
The season begins Sunday, April 4. Wherever you are in the world, listen live at noon PT via kwnkradio.org/listen or at 4 pm PT via kunv.org/live. Can’t make the live show? Don’t worry, you can still listen on your favorite podcast app.
Over six weeks, listeners will enjoy audio pieces like a meditation on Toni Morrison by essayist and BMI Fellow Niela Orr; a sound walk with poet Vi Khi Nao; an interview with the author of the upcoming essay collection White Magic, Elissa Washuta; a conversation between poet Douglas Kearneyand Afro-Electronic music composer Val Jeanty; and so many more surprises.
To get a sense of what the show is like, listen to the first episode. And don’t forget to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
Blog cover image from Powells.com
