Each month, Literary Arts staff will round up news, events, and more happening in Portland, and beyond. Let us know in the form below the blog if you have any events or news to share.
EVENTS
Author Reading with Pat Thomas and Josh Mills: Ernie in Kovacsland (Annie Bloom’s Books)
Thursday, August 24, at 7:00 p.m. | In person at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland | FREE
Annie Bloom’s welcomes Pat Thomas and Josh Mills for an in-store reading from their new book Ernie in Kovacsland: Writings, Drawings, and Photographs from Television’s Original Genius. Pat and Josh will be in conversation with Portland author Shawn Levy.
Compassion Through Literature Celebration of Diversity (Positive Charge PDX)
Saturday, August 26, from 1:00–5:00 p.m. | Q Center, 4115 N Mississippi | FREE
Diverse Speakers & Performers, Free Books, Yummy Snacks EMBRACING DIVERSITY ONE BOOK AT A TIME. Positive Charge! PDX’s Compassion Through Literature initiative is hosting an afternoon celebration of the power of books to cultivate awareness, understanding, and inclusion.
Jen Soriano in Conversation With Janice Lee (Powell’s)
Thursday, August 31, at 7:00 p.m. | In person at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, Portland, OR
Beginning with a shocking timeline juxtaposing Soriano’s medical history with the history of hysteria and witch hunts, Nervous (Amistad) navigates the human body — centering neurodiverse, disabled, and genderqueer bodies of color — within larger systems that have harmed and silenced Filipinos for generations. Soriano will be joined in conversation by Janice Lee, author of Separation Anxiety.
Rose City Comic Con
September 22–24 | In person at the Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Portland, OR | Buy badges
Rose City Comic Con returns to the Oregon Convention Center September 22-24! Don’t miss the RCCC Book Fair in partnership with Powell’s Books featuring Terry Brooks (The Sword of Shannara series), William Ritter (Jackaby series), Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes), Lauren Beukes (The Shining Girls), N.E. Davenport (The Blood Gift), and many more!
2023 Visiting SAGE: The Future of Community, Featuring Keynote by David Brooks (Senior Advocates for Generational Equity)
Wednesday, September 27, at 6:00 p.m. | In person at First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave, Portland
Celebrated writer and social commentator David Brooks will speak about America’s crisis of connection and the need to weave a new, inclusive social fabric at the 2023 Visiting SAGE. Brooks will spotlight how we can all help shift our culture to value deep relationships and community success over a narrow focus on personal achievement. At this special event, Brooks will also talk with several speakers from Weave: The Social Fabric Project, which he founded at the Aspen Institute in 2018. These grassroots leaders are showing what it means to weave community in our schools, our workplaces and in other parts of life. Brooks and our panelists will share stories and insights on how we can better know each other, trust each other, and break down barriers between us.
2023 Portland Fermentation Festival
Thursday, October 19, from 6:00–9:00 p.m. | In person at Ecotrust’s Irving Studio Suite on the ground floor, 721 NW 9th Ave, Portland, OR | All ages, open to the public, $15-$30 advance, $20-$35 cash at door (Children 12 and younger attend for free) | Tickets
Please join us for Portland’s annual, open-to-the-public, all-ages celebration of fermented food and drink. Bring kimchi, try kimchi. Bring miso, try miso. Come out for Portland’s fermented food and drink skill sharing, recipe sharing and tasting event of the year.
The Oliver Lecture, featuring Blaine Harden
Saturday, October 21, at 7:00 pm. | In person at First Congregational Church, 1126 SW Park Ave, Portland | Tickets
The 2023 Oliver Lecture will feature Blaine Harden, author of Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West. Harden’s book examines the 1847 killing of Protestant missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and 11 others, all white, at a mission station near Walla Walla by a small number of Cayuse Indians. This incident became infamously known as the Whitman Massacre. Murder at the Mission reveals the true history of the incident and its aftermath. First Congregational UCC invited Harden to present this story as a step towards reckoning with the role of Congregationalists in the taking of the Northwest from indigenous tribal people.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
Creative (Writing) Drop-In Sessions (with Haldane King, MFA)
Every Wednesday, from 5:00–6:00 p.m.
In person at the Vintage Conference Room. Vida Coworking Space, 401 NE 19th Avenue Suite #200, Portland, OR and online via Google Meet
Email HaldaneKing@gmail.com to sign up
Haldane King is an author and facilitator currently working with the Why There Are Words Literary Organization. He has an MFA in Writing & Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies. The Creative (Writing) Drop-in is open to everyone and all forms of creative expression, with an emphasis on the written form.
WNDB IS SEEKING 2024 MENTORS
Are you a traditionally published author or illustrator? WNDB mentors are paid a stipend of $1,000 and work one-on-one with an unpublished writer or illustrator for the entire year (January-December 2024). Mentors must be traditionally published with three or more forthcoming/published books in their category, either: Illustration, Picture Book, Middle Grade, or Young Adult. If you are interested in serving as a mentor, please email mentor@diversebooks.org with the subject line ‘2024 WNDB Mentor,’ with your name, your publication history, and the genre you are seeking to mentor.
Pick Your Wilderness Writing Adventure (Fishtrap’s 2023 Outpost Programs)
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
Scribes Summer Camps (Hugo House)
Online options available | Through 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.
Summer Reading at Multnomah County Library
Through August 31
Find Your Voice at Multnomah County Library. Play the Summer Reading Game! 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 fun interactive virtual performances, storytelling, and arts and crafts for kids and families. It all kicks off June 16! Kids of all ages can play online or on paper. Summer Reading Volunteer applications will be available online and in libraries on April 15. Visit our volunteer page.
IN THE NEWS
Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani Is Rewriting the Role (Portland Monthly)
Take a moment to read Portland Monthly’s incredible profile on Anis Mojgani, Oregon poet laureate. We’re so grateful and honored to work with him on our Board of Directors and as the host of our youth poetry slam championship, Verselandia!
Creation Story (The New Yorker)
2022 Portland Book Festival author Tayi Tibble has a poem in The New Yorker. Enjoy!
The Divine Comedy of Roman Emperors’ Last Words (The New Yorker)
2023/24 Portland Arts & Lectures author Mary Beard writs on how “In the end, godlike aspirations often met with all too human final moments.” Get tickets for the 23/24 season of Portland Arts & Lectures now!
On Killing Charles Dickens (The New Yorker)
2023/24 Portland Arts & Lectures author Zadie Smith did everything she “could to avoid writing my historical novel. When I finally started The Fraud, one principle was clear: no Dickens.” Get tickets for the 23/24 season of Portland Arts & Lectures now!
RECOMMENDED READING
Broadway Books Summer 2023 Reading Challenge
Summer Reading Lists (Multnomah County Library)
Pickathon 2023 Reading List (Broadway Books)
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!
