Each month, 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
The Immigrant Story | I Am My Story: Voices of Hope
Through Aug. 22, 2021
The Oregon Historical Society
Thea Prieto in Conversation With Leni Zumas (Powell’s Books)
Thursday, August 12 from 5:00–6:00 p.m.
Free Event | Via Zoom
Thea Prieto’s From the Caves (Red Hen) presents the past, present, and future in tandem, reshaping ancient and modern ideas of death and motherhood, grief and hope, endings and beginnings. Prieto will be joined in conversation by Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks.
(Leni Zumas won the 2019 Oregon Book Award for Red Clocks.)
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic featuring Leah Mueller
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Morgan Paige
Thursday, August 12 from 7:00–8:00 p.m.
Free Event ($5 suggested donation) | Via Zoom
Open mic readers are invited to share one poem for three minutes or less. Email christopherjluna@gmail.com by no later than 3 pm on August 12 to indicate your interest in participating. In the subject line, share if you are “Reading” or “Just Listening.” You will receive instructions for how to join the meeting. If you are willing to donate to support the series, please use Christopher Luna’s PayPal account (christopherjluna@gmail.com) or contact him to make other arrangements. Include a memo stating that the money is for Ghost Town Poetry.
Holding: A Virtual Reading
Presented in partnership with the Regional Arts & Culture Council & the IPRC
Saturday, August 14 from 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Free Event | Via Zoom
Join the IPRC for an evening of virtual readings to celebrate Holding, a memoir in progress by Karleigh Frisbie-Brogan. Presented in partnership with the Regional Arts & Culture Council & the IPRC. Register here and zoom link will be sent on the day of the event.
Poetry Is A Prompt: Community Healing Project (IPRC)
August 16–September 11 | Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 12:00–6:00 p.m.
Martha Grover Zine Library | 318 SE Main Street, Suite 155
The Independent Publishing Resource Center invites you to the new Martha Grover Zine Library/classroom to contribute to a collaborative poetry garland that is a collective meditation on grief and healing from the past year of heightened racist violence and the evolving COVID pandemic, as well as the many personal losses each of us experience. Come visit the IPRC to be, to write, and to take away journals and booklets made by IPRC staff to help you continue your healing journey through writing. Masks required.
Author reading and Conversation with Jessamyn Stanley (Multnomah County Library)
Tuesday, August 17 from 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Free Event | Via Zoom | Register/join online
Multnomah County Library’s Black Cultural Library Advocates are thrilled to host internationally acclaimed yoga instructor and author Jessamyn Stanley. Join for a reading and discussion about her new book, Yoke, My Yoga of Self-Acceptance. Attendees will be entered into a drawing to win a copy of Yoke, My Yoga of Self-Acceptance signed by Jessamyn.
Field Guide: Night Sky (Pop Up Magazine + Earthjustice)
Wednesday, August 18 from 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Free Event | Via Zoom | Register/join online
Grab your headphones and find a quiet place for a meditative journey as Author Roxane Gay (Hunger), radio show host David Greene (NPR’s Morning Edition), author and comedy writer Bess Kalb (Nobody Will Tell You This But Me, Jimmy Kimmel Live), photographer Evgenia Arbugaeva (National Geographic), and more explore our mysterious world at night.
Refining Our Writing Voice Through Poetry (with Nick Jaina, Fishtrap)
Wednesdays, September 8, 15, 22, and 29
Online | Register here
One of the core components of writing is developing a distinctive voice. Oregon Book Award finalist Nick Jaina (Get It While You Can) teaches this workshop on developing a poetic heart to improve our writing, no matter what genre it might be.
Campfire Stories (Artists Repertory Theatre + BackFence PDX)
September 18–25
Artists Repertory Theatre
In collaboration with BackFence PDX, ART presents CAMPFIRE STORIES, an outdoor storytelling event you won’t want to miss! Spend a fall evening around a campfire enjoying your favorite outdoor treats while your favorite Portland storytellers spin tales of wonder.
2021 Waterston Desert Writing Prize (High Desert Museum)
Wednesday, September 29, from 5:30–7:30 p.m.
Thursday, September 30, from 5:30–8:00 p.m.
High Desert Museum | Bend, OR | Registration required
The Waterston Desert Writing Prize honors literary nonfiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place, and desert literacy with the desert as both subject and setting. The Prize events will span two evenings — on Wednesday, September 29 to honor the winner and finalists of this year’s Prize and on September 30 to hear from the keynote speaker. This year, the Museum welcomes Elizabeth Woody (Navajo, Warm Springs, Wasco, Yakama) as the Prize’s guest judge. Woody, the executive director of the Museum at Warm Springs, is also a renowned poet, author, essayist and visual artist. She was named Oregon’s Poet Laureate in 2016, won the American Book Award in 1990 and the William Stafford Memorial Award for Poetry in 1995, and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards in 1995.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
A message from the National Endowment for the Arts
The NEA wants to ensure that artists and arts organizations are aware of the existing resources through the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, and how they can best be used to keep people in their homes. We believe this could provide real aid to members of the arts and creative industries during this very challenging time.
Arts practitioners and artists who have been experiencing housing instability, or are having trouble making rent or mortgage payments as a result of the coronavirus pandemic should know that they are not alone. Federal, state, and local governments are offering help with housing expenses and avoiding eviction. Information is available at the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s mortgage and housing assistance site on available resources.
The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence
Deadline: August 15
The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence honors Louisiana’s revered storyteller, Ernest J. Gaines, and serves to inspire and recognize rising African-American fiction writers of excellence at a national level. Authors may submit a work of fiction (novel or collection of short stories) that will be published in 2021. Galleys for a 2021 publication are also accepted. The cash prize is to support and enable the writer to focus on writing.
KHN Residency
Deadline: September 1
Nebraska City, NE | Residency Period: January 3–June 24, 2022
The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts awards up to seventy juried residencies per year to established and emerging visual artists, writers, composers, and interdisciplinary artists from across the country and around the world. Residencies are available for 2 to 8 weeks’ stays. Each resident receives a $100 stipend per week, free housing, and a private studio.
Oregon Arts Commission Career Opportunity Grant Program
Applications open for activities taking place between November 1–30, 2022
Deadline: September 8, 2021
The Career Opportunity Grant program supports individual Oregon artists by enabling them to take advantage of timely opportunities to enhance their artistic careers. Awards range from $500 to $2,000 depending on the scope and nature of the opportunity. Artists from the following disciplines may apply: Literature, Dance, Music, Theatre and Performance Art, Visual Arts, Design Arts, and Media Arts. Folk & Traditional artists whose practice falls in one of the identified disciplines are welcome to apply. Artists from traditionally or currently underserved communities, including rural communities and communities of color, are especially encouraged to apply.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
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):
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
Free Virtual BizTec Virtual Camp (sponsored by PPS)
Camp Sessions for Middle and High School Students:
August 9–13 August 23–27
August 2–6 August 16–20
Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–7:30 p.m.
This summer we will be offering free scholarships to middle and high school students in the Portland Public School District to attend BizTec, a unique, one-week virtual camp for students interested in learning about business, innovation, leadership, technology and the mindsets of success. Students will even participate in a “Shark-Tank” Pitch Contest at the end of the camp week for a chance to win up to $250 in venture capital grants to launch their own business.
Beaverton Night Market (Downtown Beaverton along 1st St and Tucker Ave)
Aug 13 & 14, 4:00 p.m.– 10:00 p.m. | Free
One of two night markets aimed at fostering cross-cultural exchange with food and crafts for families of all backgrounds. This year features an exciting collaboration with the La Strada dei Pastelli Chalk Art Festival. Two of the Festival’s sites will be located within and feature live artists during the Market so attendees can experience both events when they visit.
Multnomah Days (Multnomah Village)
August 21, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Explore this lovely family-friendly street festival with scheduled live main stage musical acts, street entertainers, art and vendor booths as well as food & beverage services via outdoor street dining and food carts.
Summer Reading (Multnomah County Library)
Read for fun and prizes this summer. Babies, kids and teens can play the Summer Reading game by starting a daily reading habit. In addition, the library will have lots of fun interactive virtual performances, storytelling, and arts and crafts for kids and families. Concludes August 31.
PDX Kids Film Festival (The Lot at Zidell Yards)
Sunday, September 12 from 1:00–10:00 p.m.
| “The Best of the Festivals Short Films” will feature nine fun, inspiring and clever short films for kids, curated by the team at PDX Kids Film Festival. They will screen the 1984 classic movie The NeverEnding Story, about a boy who dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book. The Portland Kids Film Festival is Portland’s first international film festival for children and their families. The PDX Kids Film Fest has proudly screened over 100 beautiful and impactful animated, live action and documentary films from all over the world. |
YoungArts National Arts Competition
Deadline: October 15
The application for YoungArts’ award for emerging artists ages 15–18 or in grades 10–12 from across the United States is open until October 15. Each year, the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars selects 20 YoungArts award winners at the Finalist level as U.S. Presidential Scholars in the Arts, one of the nation’s highest honors for high school students who exemplify academic and artistic excellence.
The Amanda Gorman Poetry Award
Opens: October 1 | Deadline: February 1, 2022
Penguin Random House has announced a partnership with Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, to launch the Amanda Gorman Award for Poetry, a new creative writing award focused on poetry for public high school students. With a first-place prize of $10,000, the award will recognize a student for an original literary composition in English for poetry. The competition will also award an additional first-place prize to the top entrant from the N.Y.C. area in recognition of the Creative Writing Awards previously being centered in New York City. Those who are currently in their senior year of high school who attend public school in the United States, the District of Columbia, all U.S. territories, and are planning to attend college–either a two-year or four-year institution–in the fall of 2022 are encouraged to apply.
IN THE NEWS
Introducing Lambda Literary’s 2021 Emerging Writer’s Retreat Fellows & Writers-in-Residence (Lambda Literary)
A.M. Rosales, a former recipient of the Oregon Literary Fellowship for Women Writers, was selected as a Fellow for the Lambda Literary 2021 Emerging Writer’s Retreat.
You Can Start Putting Ursula K. Le Guin on Your Mail (Tor)
The United States Postal Service released a postage stamp memorializing legendary Portland author Ursula K. LeGuin
The Best Independent Bookstores Across the U.S. (Veranda)
This roundup of the best indie bookstores in the U.S. includes our very own Powell’s Books!
SUMMER READING
15 Compelling Fall 2021 Books to Add to Your Reading List (Cosmopolitan)
Need a New Summer Read? Here’s a Diverse List to Pick From (PBS)
New Literature in Translation: July 2021 (Powell’s)
A Summer Reading List from UO Faculty Members (University of Oregon)
Read Local: Favorite Books Written by Oregon Authors and Set in Oregon (Washington County Cooperative Library Services)
