Each week, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in Portland, and beyond. Let us know if you have any events or news to share.
EVENTS
Liberation in Practice: Anti-Racism Workshops for API Heritage Month (APANO)
May 2021
The Immigrant Story | I Am My Story: Voices of Hope
May 14, 2021, through Aug. 22, 2021
The Oregon Historical Society
Windfall Reading Series: Susan Leslie Moore and Judith Montgomery
Tuesday, May 18, 6:00 p.m.
Join Lane Literary Guild and Eugene Public Library for a livestream of the Windfall Reading Series, a monthly gathering highlighting local and regional writers. This month, poets Susan Leslie Moore and Judith Montgomery will read and take questions online.
Ars Poetica: Literary journalist Sierra Crane Murdoch, reading and in conversation with Nick Neely
Thursday, May 20 at 7:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Please join us for a Sandra and Carl Ellston Ars Poetica Fund virtual reading and conversation featuring Sierra Crane Murdoch, a journalist and essayist whose work concerns, primarily, communities in the American West.
(Sierra Crane Murdoch won this year’s Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction in our Oregon Book Awards)
The Day I Woke Up Different, Author Reading and Discussion (Multnomah County Library)
Sunday, May 23
2:00–3:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Join author Andy Nguyen, illustrator Thi Doan, and composer Phuong Nam Doan in this special author reading and discussion of the book, The Day I Woke Up Different. The discussion will focus on the role and importance of self-acceptance, Vietnamese heritage and history, and answering audience questions. Win a copy of the book by attending!
From Concept to Object: The Zine as a Creative Conduit (Northwest Film Center)
Wednesday, May 26
6:00–7:30 p.m.
Join Mila Matveeva, illustrator, film producer, and zine-maker, for a virtual workshop on how the zine can become part of your creative work as a tool in exploring, developing, and materializing your ideas. We will look at examples of filmzines and explore how they can help you get started on a project with no equipment or funding, be a gateway to other mediums, and allow you to visualize an idea from your head to the page.
Milwaukie Poetry Series (Ledding Library)
Livestreamed on Ledding Library YouTube Channel
Second Wednesday of the month, at 6:30 p.m. (Pacific)
(Previous readings are archived)
Anis Mojgani | May 12, 2021
Paulann Petersen | June 9,2021
Emma Wheatfall | July 14, 2021
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
MAKE | LEARN | BUILD Grants Available through RACC
Deadline: May 19
MAKE | LEARN | BUILD grants are designed to support the ongoing work of our arts community in all stages. They offer funding at either the $1500 or $3000 level for artists and arts-based businesses/organizations in three categories:
MAKE: the creation of work in any artistic discipline
LEARN: artistic or administrative learning, skill buildings or
professional development to improve art practice or business
BUILD: a transition or pivot for an art business or operations,
including equipment purchase or staffing costs.
Round two closes: 5 p.m., May 19. Awards announced by June 30.
LitUp: A writer’s fellowship for unpublished, underrepresented women.
Apply by: May 30
LitUp is a brand new program in partnership with Hello Sunshine and Madcap Retreats that will offer an all-expenses-paid writer’s retreat, a three month mentorship with a published author, and marketing support from Reese’s Book Club to five selected writers.
Don’t Write Alone (Catapult)
At Catapult, we believe there’s a better—or at least less lonely—way to write. Here you’ll find writing resources, advice, job and fellowship opportunities, prompts and craft talk, and more.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
Bodecker Foundation Spring Workshops
Led by professional artists, writers, musicians, and educators, our FREE creative workshops for high school students include a mix of online group activities and offline individual and/or collaborative project work. Class size is generally limited to 12 students.
Virtual Genre-Based Writing Camps (Write the World)
In each session, up to 25 campers will explore new styles of writing and connect across continents as they create pieces they’re proud of. Writers of all levels are invited to participate in the following offerings (for full camp descriptions, please click here):
Sci-Fi/Fantasy — July 5-9
Screenwriting — July 12-16
Writing Poetry for Social Justice — July 19-23
Flash Fiction — July 26-30
Writing to Change the World — August 2-6
Humor Writing — August 9-13
Learning from Agents & Editors: Writing for Publication — August 16-20
Micro Memoirs — August 23-27
RECOMMENDED READING
A Reading List for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month 2021 (CLMP)
Portland Slam Poet Jordan Wolmut on Trauma, Performance, and Her Poem Trigger Warning (Portland Mercury)
Slam Poetry Succeeds with Powerful Performances at Virtualandia (The Indy)
A great write-up of our recent Youth Poetry Grand Slam Championship event in Clark College’s student-run paper.
White people, black authors are not your medicine | Yaa Gyasi (The Guardian)
When Yaa Gyasi’s book rocketed up the charts after last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, she grieved. Treating authors of colour as tools for self-improvement is an impoverished response to centuries of harm.
Vanessa Veselka’s paths converge in award-winning book (Portland Tribune)
Vanessa Veselka is this year’s Ken Kesey Award for Fiction winner in our 2021 Oregon Book Awards.
