All events and classes take place at Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave., Portland, OR, unless otherwise noted.
Paige Thomas in conversation with Blair Thomas [FREE]
Tuesday, March 3, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome our colleague and friend Paige Thomas to celebrate her debut poetry collection, Person Under! Paige will be in conversation with her sister, Blair Thomas.
One Page Wednesday – March [FREE]
Wednesday, March 4, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Here is an opportunity to share or listen to one page of work in progress from talented writers from everywhere. Come with a single page of work and sign up to read – or come to listen and prepare to be inspired. Our host is the one and only Emme Lund. March’s featured reader is kim thompson.
Kim Fu in conversation with Emma Pattee [FREE]
Thursday, March 5, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome Kim Fu to celebrate her latest book, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts. Fu will be joined in conversation by local author Emma Pattee.
Learn to Build a D&D Character [FREE]
Saturday, March 7, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Join us at Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for an intro into creating a character to take into your next campaign. There will be an experienced and knowledgeable Dungeon Master here to answer any questions about the game!
2026 Oregon Book Award Finalists Reading I [FREE]
Wednesday, March 11, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Join us at Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for an intro into creating a character to take into your next campaign. There will be an experienced and knowledgeable Dungeon Master here to answer any questions about the game!
Scott Broker in conversation with Peter Rock [FREE]
Tuesday, March 10, 6:30–7:30 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome Scott Broker to celebrate their debut book, The Disappointment. Broker will be joined in conversation by Peter Rock.
March Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX [TICKETED EVENT]
Thursday, March 12, 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Join us to hand-sew decorative plush to welcome the new leaves with our friends from SCRAP PDX! Sew spring flowers, birds, raindrops, and more.
2026 Oregon Book Award Finalists Reading II [FREE]
Tuesday, March 17, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Join us for an evening of celebration and readings from this year’s Oregon Book Award finalists in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Graphic Literature. This event is the second of two finalist readings hosted at the Literary Arts Bookstore and is free and open to the public.
March Write-In: Beware the Ides of March [FREE]
Wednesday, March 18, 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend us your pens—and join us for our monthly write-in! We’ll be listening to some instrumental music inspired by the Ancient Romans as we lock-in for two hours of focused writing time. Stop by the cafe for the special, Brutus’ Kiss—an iced matcha layered with a cranberry orange float, beware, this delicious drink will have you considering betraying your best friend just for a sip. Et tu?
Slamlandia [FREE]
Thursday, March 19, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month at Literary Arts, on the third Thursday. This mic provides a creative, fun, and welcoming space for all literary communities in Portland. We encourage poets, new and old, to share their work. We strive towards a safe space for poets to read their own poetry, witness others, and participate in community. Hosted by Julia Gaskill. March’s featured poet will be announced soon!
BIPOC Reading Series [FREE]
Wednesday, March 25, 7:00–9:00 p.m.
Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres, this monthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color.
An Evening of Readings and Conversation with Devon Walker-Figueroa, Lisa Wells, and Leni Zumas [FREE]
Friday, March 27, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe are excited to welcome authors Devon Walker-Figueroa, Lisa Wells, and Leni Zumas for an evening of readings and conversation.
2026 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Celebration for Karen Russell [FREE]
Monday, March 30, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Join us to celebrate 2026 Pacific Northwest Book Awards Winner Karen Russell, and the paperback release of The Antidote.
Writing Classes
The Art of Fiction
Tuesdays, February 10 – April 17, 4:00–6:00 p.m.
Designed for both beginner and advanced writers, this course meets for eight sessions in total. Students will have the opportunity to share two pieces (up to 25 pages each) and receive constructive feedback in a thoughtfully facilitated, supportive atmosphere.
Instructor: Rajesh K. Reddy
Poetry and Obsession
Tuesdays, February 17 – March 24, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
This online poetry class will focus on the idea of obsession as a driving force for writing poetry – what you, as a poet, are interested in in terms of subject, style, forms, and even research or archival work. We will explore obsession as a poetic concept, and read example poems/poets and interrogate how obsession can be a catalyst for generating writing.
Instructor: Mariah Bosch
Pushing Through: Carrying Your Manuscript Over the Finish Line
Mondays, February 23 – March 30, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
This six-week course is designed to help students finish a draft of a manuscript. We’ll read craft essays about drafting a book, set aside time each week to discuss problems we’re having with manuscripts, and design a schedule for each student to ensure everyone addresses the issues specific to their draft.
Instructor: Emme Lund
Humor Fiction Workshop
Tuesdays, February 24 – March 31, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
In this six-week workshop-meets-craft class, we’ll dissect five different short stories and figure out: How did the writer do that? We’ll then apply some of those same literary tools to your own stories.
Instructor: Michelle Kicherer
Feminist & Queer Approaches to Creative Writing
Thursdays, February 26- April 2, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
In their debut collection, Andrea Abi-Karam demands the writer to “Kill The Bro In Yr Head.” In this workshop, we will ask: what can writing teach us about the ways we move through the world? How can we use our words to dismantle our own biases and the systems that live within us? Through exploration of gender and sexuality in creative texts across genres by TLGBQ+ and gender non-conforming writers, we will cultivate our own texts of interrogation and self-discovery. Possible topics include the queer pastoral, the fable as means of social change, and art as activism.
Instructor: Brody Parrish Craig
Readers Seminars
Thomas Pynchon: Mason & Dixon
Saturdays, February 21 – March 28, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Thomas Pynchon’s novels are chaotic combinations of ideas, puns, characters, subplots, facts, fictions, and words. Set in the eighteenth century, Mason & Dixon includes all of the above plus a talking dog. Its plot is organized around the efforts of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, two Englishmen tasked with surveyed the disputed 233-mile line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. If history had unfolded differently, of course, the Mason-Dixon line might not have been all that important—but it came to bifurcate the United States in fundamental ways.
Guide: Elizabeth Duquette
The Waste Land in Our Time
Wednesdays, February 25- April 30, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
In this six-week seminar, we will make an effort to read Eliot’s poem with fresh eyes and open minds while also exploring the poem’s potential relevance to, and resonance with, our own time. For additional perspctive, we will conclude with a perusal of Eliot’s late poem, Four Quartets.
Guide: Christopher Zinn
Alone, Together: The Short Works of David Foster Wallace
Mondays, April 13-May 18, 20260, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
David Foster Wallace was uniquely prophetic in his ability to diagnose the ills of America and where they were headed in the early 2000s. Toxic masculinity, mental illness, authenticity, empathy, and dopamine exhaustion through media are constants in his work and are best showcased through his short fiction and nonfiction.
Guide: Andrew Maxwell
Marilynne Robinson: Home, Lila, and Jack
Wednesdays, April 15-May 27, 20260, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
The three novels in this seminar all overlap in time and space with the mid-twentieth-century world of Gilead, while offering whole other stories and lives that offer perspectives on the great themes of race and racism, faith and family, punishment and reconciliation, love and loss, and forgiveness.
Guide: Scott Korb
Faulkner and Morrison: Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved
Thursdays, April 30-June 3, 20260, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Read William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, both of which consider the many scars, healed and not, caused by enslavement and the Civil War. Thinking about history, memory, and what Morrison calls “rememory,” we’ll consider what it means to live in a nation, to inherit its past, and to fight for a better future.
Guide: Elizabeth Duquette
Classes and Seminars are subject to change. For the most up-to-date information, check out our full events calendar.
