Each month, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in Portland, and beyond. Let us know in the form below if you have any events or news to share.
EVENTS
HopeBuilder Lunch (Habitat for Humanity)
Wednesday, April 26, at 12:00 p.m. | Free to attend | In-person at Oregon Convention Center Portland Ballroom, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR
Come together for a free, plated lunch on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at 12 pm, check-in will begin at 11:30 am, and discover the work we’re doing to help build a Portland region where everyone has a safe, affordable place to call home. Our keynote speaker and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Mitchell S. Jackson is a pivotal voice who paints a moving picture of who we can be as a community. You won’t want to miss hearing about the amazing Habitat communities that are in the works, stories from homeowners, and an update on our plans to help solve our region’s affordable housing crisis. We are excited to share them with you!
Poetry & The Creative Mind (American Academy of Poets)
Wednesday, April 26, at 4:30 p.m. (Pacific)
Online, free, and open to the public
This special event, which features actors, artists, and leaders from across culture, celebrates poetry’s important place in our society and its impact on the lives of readers. Features 2022/23 Portland Arts & Lectures speaker and US Poet Laureate Ada Limón. Single tickets for her April 20 lecture available now!
True Story by E.M. Lewis (Artists Repertory Theatre)
May 6–June 4
A troubled writer, raw with grief from the death of his wife, is hired to ghostwrite the biography of a wealthy man accused of murdering his wife but acquitted on technical grounds. Drawing from the classic noir detective stories about the slipperiness of truth and blurring the lines of good and bad, True Story propulsively examines how facts, biases, and perceptions are manipulated – and asks if discovering the truth is worth the ultimate price? Written by Oregon Book Award finalist E.M. Lewis.
Read the World (American Literary Translators Association)
May 16–23 | Online
Read the World will be an online bookfair taking place largely over social media. ALTA will provide a shared bookfair hashtag (#ReadtheWorld) and a shared discount code, along with graphics, for your use from May 16 through May 23.
Reading: Laura Read and Emily Kendal Frey (Annie Bloom’s Books)
Thursday, May 25, at 7:00 p.m. | In-person at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR | Free to attend
Annie Bloom’s welcomes Seattle poet Laura Read and local poet Emily Kendal Frey for readings from their latest collections. Laura Read is the author of the forthcoming But She Is Also Jane, served as poet laureate for Spokane, Washington from 2015-17, and teaches at Spokane Falls Community College and Eastern Washington University. Emily Kendal Frey lives in Portland, Oregon, and is an Oregon Book Award winner. Her latest collection, Lovability, is out from Fonograf Editions. She is a practicing psychotherapist.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
The 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant
Deadline: April 25
The 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant of $40,000 will be awarded to as many as ten writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general readership. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing at a crucial point mid-process, after significant work has been accomplished but when an extra infusion of support can make a difference in the ultimate shape and quality of the work. Projects must be under contract with a publisher in Canada, the UK, or the US by April 25 to be eligible. Contracts with self-publishing companies are not eligible.
The 2023 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
Deadline: April 30
The Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction is an annual $25,000 cash prize given to a writer for a single work of imaginative fiction. This award is intended to recognize those writers Ursula spoke of in her 2014 National Book Awards speech—realists of a larger reality, who can imagine real grounds for hope and see alternatives to how we live now. The nomination process for the prize is open to all, and will take place April 1 through April 30, 2023. Readers, authors, booksellers, publishers, librarians and anyone else can nominate work.
Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship for Emerging Writers of Color
Deadline: May 1
The National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum (NCPD@JANM) is thrilled to announce the Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship. This year’s inaugural fellowship provides two $5,000 unrestricted awards to promising writers of color who are focused on art criticism and/or reporting about the visual, performing, or media arts.
2023 Waterston Desert Writing Prize (High Desert Museum)
Deadline: May 1
The High Desert Museum is now accepting submissions for the 2023 Waterston Desert Writing Prize. The Prize honors outstanding literary nonfiction that illustrates artistic excellence, sensitivity to place, and desert literacy with the desert as both subject and setting. Emerging, mid-career and established nonfiction writers are invited to apply.
National Book Awards (National Book Foundation)
Deadline: May 17
The National Book Foundation is accepting submissions to the National Book Awards through May 17. Eligible books must be published by US publishers between December 1, 2022, and November 30, 2023.
Call for Submissions: Wild Birds (Red Shoe Press)
Deadline: May 31
Red Shoe Press accepts submissions March 1, 2023 through May 31, 2023 for the 2024 Oregon Poetry Calendar. The glossy wall calendar pairs expressive poems with compelling photographs. This year’s theme is wild birds. Work is accepted only from poets currently living in Oregon. Responses sent by July 2023, publication in August 2023. Poets whose work is published in the calendar receive one free copy. Submit 1-5 poems in a single Word document. Limit poems to 30 lines max. in length (including title and blank lines), and 50 characters max. in width (including spaces, letters, and punctuation). Previously published and simultaneous submissions are okay. There is no submission fee.
Call for Submissions: Wild Birds (Red Shoe Press)
Deadline: May 31
Red Shoe Press accepts submissions March 1, 2023 through May 31, 2023 for the 2024 Oregon Poetry Calendar. The glossy wall calendar pairs expressive poems with compelling photographs. This year’s theme is wild birds. Work is accepted only from poets currently living in Oregon. Responses sent by July 2023, publication in August 2023. Poets whose work is published in the calendar receive one free copy. Submit 1-5 poems in a single Word document. Limit poems to 30 lines max. in length (including title and blank lines), and 50 characters max. in width (including spaces, letters, and punctuation). Previously published and simultaneous submissions are okay. There is no submission fee.
Pick Your Wilderness Writing Adventure (Fishtrap’s 2023 Outpost Programs)
June 19–24 and September 3–8
Give yourself the time to explore a remote, natural environment as a way to find solitude, connect to the landscape in a meaningful way, and write about your experience. Registration opens December 1, 2022. Each Outpost experience includes a week of discovery, writing instruction, meals, and camping in an inspiring and unforgettable setting.
FOR KIDS/ TEENS
HeARTof Portland: A Portland Public Schools K-12 Arts Showcase (with the Portland Art Museum)
Reception on Tuesday, April 11, at 6:30 p.m. | Project on display until April 23 | In person at the Portland Art Museum’s Mark Building, Kridel Grand Ballroom, 1119 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR
Portland Public Schools is proud to partner with the Portland Art Museum to host the annual
HeART of Portland: A Portland Public Schools K-12 Arts Showcase. This event serves as a thank you to Portland taxpayers for supporting the Arts Education & Access Fund (Arts Tax) in our schools. This
year we celebrate Native American art and culture alongside the Portland Art Museum’s exhibitions
Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe and Jeffrey Gibson: They Come From Fire.
PPS visual arts students across the district responded to this exhibition through a collaborative project. This project, in addition to one separate representative piece of work from each school, will be displayed in Portland Art Museum’s Miller Gallery from April 11th through April 23rd. PPS performing arts students will showcase their talents as well for the HeART of Portland Opening Reception on Tuesday, April 11th at 6:30 PM. Additionally, this will be the debut performance of the first-ever PPS Latinx Affinity Community Choir and the public launch of our Master Arts Education Plan. This event and all exhibitions at the museum are free to all PPS students and families.
Virtual Storytime with Carrie Tillotson: B is for Bananas (Green Bean Books)
Thursday, April 20, at 11:00 a.m. | Online | Free to attend
Join a virtual storytime with Oregon Book Award finalist Carrie Tillotson. Be ready to laugh out loud as Banana comes back to do everything except go to bed!
Scribes Summer Camps (Hugo House)
Online options available | June 27–August 25
Scribes Summer Camps provide young writers the opportunity to participate in week-long, all-day workshops, during which you can focus on, dig deep into, and nurture your inner writer. You’ll work alongside instructors who are published writers and educators themselves, as well as guest teaching artists. Every camp offers the option to pay at 30%, 60%, 90%, or 100% of the registration amount. Just click on the pay option you prefer when you register online! If you are having trouble, please contact us at 206.322.7030 or email welcome@hugohouse.org.
IN THE NEWS
A Voice Among the Stars: Poem by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón Will Ride to Europa on NASA Spacecraft
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón is writing an original poem dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The poem will be engraved on the spacecraft, as a way to connect two water worlds – Earth and Europa, a moon of Jupiter believed to contain a vast ocean. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. We’re so excited for this!
Can Poetry Heal a Broken World? (Elle Magazine)
A profile of Ada Limón, the first Latina US poet laureate (and our final 22/23 Portland Arts & Lecture speaker), who believes that the power of words can help us navigate this time of crisis.
The Academy of American Poets to Award Capacity-Building Grants to Fifty-Three Literary Organizations Across the US (Poets.org)
Literary Arts is honored to be among the nonprofit recipients of grants supporting work serving poetry and poets.
OPB, The Oregonian, Oregon Artswatch, Portland Mercury, Portland Tribune, KOIN-6, and Willamette Week covered the winners of the 2023 Oregon Book Awards.
Thank you to the Oregon Arts Commission for including Literary Arts in the 53 organizations awarded $5,000 FY2023 Arts Build Communities grants!
RECOMMENDED READING
Kelly Link in Praise of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Genuine Magic (Lit Hub)
Kendrick Lamar’s New Chapter: Raw, Intimate and Unconstrained (The New York Times)
This incredible profile was written by Literary Arts board member Mitchell S. Jackson.
Community News Submissions
Let us know if you have any events, news to share, or opportunities for writers for the In the Community blog and we will consider adding it to the next blog post!
