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
Rose City Comic Con
Friday, September 5th–Sunday, September 8th, varying hours | Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR
Rose City Comic Con returns to the Oregon Convention Center September 5-8! Portland’s premier pop culture event, Rose City Comic Con is produced locally with a weird and wonderful vibe that is unique to the Pacific Northwest. This year, RCCC is partnering with Powell’s Books to present a Book Fair with author panels and signings— and, of course, a Literary Arts table!
Journal Drive (Write Around Portland)
August 1–September 15 | Multiple drop-off locations
Write Around Portland’s annual journal drive runs from August 1 to September 15. You can drop donations off at Annie Bloom’s Books, Broadway Books, or contact the Write Around Portland office to set up a time to stop by. Journals need to be clean, unused and blank. This is also a great opportunity to clear extra notebooks off your shelves at home!
2025 Stories to Songs: A Musicians’ Intensive Workshop (Documentary Songwriters)
August 25–30, from 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. | Second Story Studios, 1330 NW 14th Ave, Portland, OR 97209 | $300-Sliding scale
Using DocSong’s seven-step documentary songwriting method, you’ll write songs out of stories that too often go unsung. In times of widespread isolation and fear, this practice becomes a form of medicine—creating bridges between people through shared stories and collaborative music-making. (Apply here)
Karleigh Frisbie Brogan in Conversation With Chelsea Bieker (Powell’s)
Tuesday, August 26, at 7:00 p.m. | Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St. Portland, OR 97209 | FREE
Karleigh Brogan author of Holding will be joined in conversation by Chelsea Bieker, author of Madwoman.
Doris Kearns Goodwin (Oregon Historical Society)
Tuesday, September 9, at 7:00 p.m. | Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway Avenue Portland, Oregon 97205 | Ticket prices vary
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a world-renowned presidential historian, public speaker, Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author, and a partner in Pastimes Productions.
The A.M. Memoir Workshop w Laura Moulton (Attic Institute)
Mondays, September 22–October 27, from 10:00–11:30 a.m. | Attic Institute, 1033 SW Yamhill St., Suite 405, Portland, OR 97205 | $249
Using prompts, short readings, and discussion, this generative nonfiction workshop will focus on mining our personal histories and crafting them into the form they deserve. We’ll also explore the ways we sometimes get in the way of our own stories — and how to use that to break through and write around the blocks. CNF, personal essays, journaling…all are welcome. Open to all writers.
Bard Bingo (Wonderwood Springs)
Tuesdays, 7:00–9:00 p.m. | Wonderwood Springs, 8811 N Lombard St, Portland, OR 97203 | $5
Bard Bingo at Portland Artist Mike Bennett’s Wonderwood Springs is a lively bingo event hosted by a traveling bard’s musical musings. Held every Tuesday night, this event features four exciting rounds with cards priced at $5 each. It’s cash-only, offering chances to win various prizes such as original artwork, stickers, gift cards, lawn signs, and the coveted jackpot.
CLASSES AND WORKSHOPS
The Art of Prose Poetry Workshop with Craig Brandis (Attic Institute)
July 10–August 14, from 6:30–8:00 p.m | Online Via Zoom | $249
Have you been wondering how to make exciting poems that combine the best elements of poetry and prose? The secret to prose poetry lies in layering cadences within narrative verse. Focus on building layers of rhythm, emotional resonance and imagery within storytelling. Apply those lessons to your own poems.
Resonate: A BIPOC Writing Circle (Write Around Portland)
2nd & 4th Thursdays of the month | 4:00–5:30 p.m. | Online via Zoom
Led by a Write Around Portland facilitator of color, Resonate consists of writing, sharing, and giving strengths-based feedback to each other. No preparation or experience in writing is required! Resonate is a great way to unlock your creativity, build or maintain a writing practice, and get some writing done! REGISTER HERE.
INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
No internship opportunities are available at this time.
RESOURCES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARTISTS AND WRITERS
2026 Howling Bird Press Short Nonfiction Prize (Howling Bird Press)
Deadline: August 31, 2025 | Prize: $2,500
The competition is open to all writers in English. Author of the winning manuscript receives a cash award of $2,500, which serves as an advance, with book subsequently published by Howling Bird Press under a standard book contract.
CREATIVE CRECIMIENTO ~ PARTICIPATION APPLICATION FORM (Portland In Color)
Various Dates | Online via Zoom
Applications are now open for Creative Crecimiento! This sliding scale professional development workshop series was created to increase accessibility to sustaining creative livelihoods for BIPOC artists across Oregon.
Workshop Topics & Dates (Classes are on Mondays, 5:30–7:30 PM, via Zoom):
- 9/15 – Groundwork for Growth: Small Business Foundations for Creatives with Emilly Prado
- 9/22 – Financial Literacy for Artists with Dr. Raquel Muller
- 9/29 – The Artist’s Journey: Emotional Self-care Through Storytelling with Joaquin Lopez
- 10/6 – Sustainable Futures: Leadership, Community-Building, and Long-term Planning Panel with Heldáy De la Cruz, Jené Etheridge, Erica Ledesma, and RedStone Rodolfo Serna
- 10/20 – Optional Celebration & Connection Event in Portland (Location TBA)!
Off The Grid Poetry Prize (Off The Grid)
Deadline: August 31, 2025 | Prize: $1,000
The Off the Grid Prize recognizes the work of older poets and highlights important contemporary voices in poetry. Winners receive $1000 and publication, promotion, and distribution of their book in print and audio formats. We are looking for work by poets over 60, whose writing practice is ongoing and whose vision is fresh while drawing from six or more decades of lived experience.
FOR KIDS & TEENS
Bard Storytime (Wonderwood)
Every Saturday, 11:00 a.m.–Noon | Wonderwood Springs, 7410 N. Chicago Ave. Portland, OR | FREE
Join us every Saturday as Gerard Bardler (the bard of Wonderwood) reads stories and sings songs! Books generously donated by our neighbors Twin Rivers Books. Family friendly, family fun, FREE!
IN THE NEWS
Op-ed: A case for art in urgent times
(Oregonian / Oregonlive)
RECOMMENDED READING
Encounters with the abyss: science fiction about being lost in space | (Multnomah County Library)
Animal fantasy and shape-changers | (Multnomah County Library)
Staff Picks | (The Literary Arts Bookstore)
Powell’s Picks of the Month | (Powell’s)
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!
