All events and classes take place at Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave., Portland, OR, unless otherwise noted.
Erin L. McCoy in conversation with Erica Berry [FREE]
Tuesday, May 5, 6:30–8:30 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome poet Erin L. McCoy to celebrate her debut novel, Underlake. McCoy will be in conversation with Erica Berry.
One Page Wednesday – May [FREE]
Wednesday, May 6, 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. The featured reader for April is Jessica E. Johnson.
May Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX [TICKETED EVENT]
Thursday, May 7, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is thrilled to partner with SCRAP PDX for monthly crafting events. Stay tuned for details on this month’s crafts!
Monuments We Need: A Creative Zine-Making Workshop [TICKETED EVENT]
Saturday, May 9, 2:00–4:00 p.m.
In this free, hands-on zine workshop, participants will use writing, drawing, and collage to creatively explore what they would like to see celebrated and remembered in Portland. Comics journalist and zine-maker Shay Mirk will lead this playful 90-minute workshop reflecting on Portland’s existing monuments and will lead the group through prompts to collaborate on a zine imagining monuments they think should exist. Every participant will take home a zine at the end. All supplies are provided and previous zine-making experience is not required, just bring an interest in history and enthusiasm for creating something new.
May Write-In: Light [FREE]
Tuesday, May 12, 5:30–8:00 p.m.
Join us at the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for our monthly write-in. At last, the long night has ended, and we’re ready for Spring! With a bookseller-curated mix of songs featuring sunlight and brightness, we’ll be channeling brighter days as we lock-in for a focused writing session.
Stephanie Fairyington in conversation with Andi Zeisler [FREE]
Thursday, May 14, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome Stephanie Fairyington to celebrate their book Ugly. Fairyington will be joined in conversation by Andi Zeisler.
Theatre Diaspora Presents: A Staged Reading of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them [FREE]
Friday, May 15, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe for a staged reading of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat, directed by Terry Kitagawa.
Rex Marshall in conversation with Michelle Kicherer [FREE]
Tuesday, May 19, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome Rex Marshall for his memoir, All the Work I Never Wanted. Marshall will be joined in conversation by Michelle Kicherer.
Slamlandia [FREE]
Thursday, May 21, 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.
Steven Pfau in conversation with Milo Muise [FREE]
Tuesday, May 26, 6:30–8:00 p.m.
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome Steven Pfau to celebrate his hybrid memoir, Say Nephew. Pfau will be joined in conversation by Milo Muise.
BIPOC Reading Series [FREE]
Wednesday, May 27, 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.
Sign up for our dedicated bookstore and cafe email list to be the first to hear about events at Literary Arts, new book releases, food and drink specials, and more.
Writing Classes
From Feeling to Form: Shaping Your Picture Book
Saturdays, May 2 through June 20, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
This course is for writers who already have an idea, a feeling, or a story they want to share and are ready to shape it into a picture book. Through an exploration of picture book fundamentals including structure, pacing, character, and vocabulary, you’ll learn how big emotions live inside small, carefully crafted stories. In a time that asks so much of us as writers and humans, this class welcomes your questions and nurtures your authentic voice.
Instructor: Emily Arrow
Hybrid Memoir Workshop
Saturdays, May 2 through June 6, 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Hybrid memoirists challenge outdated distinctions between academic, personal and creative discourses and disrupt popular notions of voice and narrative arc. In this class, we examine how hybrid memoirists strategize to tell stories that diverge from conventional forms of memoir and essay writing.
Instructor: Wendy Noonan
Cosmic Versus Detail: Finding Balance Between the Granular and Big Picture [Virtual Event]
Mondays, May 4 through May 25, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
This class will focus on special techniques to develop detailed scene exposition and contrast that towards larger narrative drive and big picture story development. We will read a variety of in-class readings to support our understanding of the essential concepts of story structure. Students can hope to take away 10-20 pages of refined writing/ multimedia projects that have received two iterations of review. Novelists, short story writers, budding filmmakers and multimedia storytellers all welcome!
Instructor: Radhika Sharma
Funny Fiction Workshop
Wednesdays, May 6 through June 10, 5:00–7:00 p.m.
In this six-week, workshop-meets-craft class, we’ll dissect six 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
Readers Seminar
Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems
Wednesdays, May 6 through June 10, 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Wallace Stevens is one of the most distinctive and extravagant voices in American poetry, an orator of the imagination and eloquent observer of the world’s beauty. Beginning with the appearance of the astonishing Harmonium in 1923, Stevens published seven volumes of poetry while living an ‘ordinary’ life as an insurance executive in Hartford, Connecticut. His Collected Poems is a book of wonders, one of the landmarks of American literary modernism, and his poems are admired and studied for their lustrous language, their philosophical profundity, and their commitment to the importance of poetry in our everyday lives. In this seminar, we will read through the Collected Poems, focusing on well known shorter lyrics such as “Sunday Morning,” “The Snow Man,” and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird,” as well as his formidable and rewarding longer poems such as “The Auroras of Autumn” and “Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction.” Through close reading and discussion, our goal is to become familiar and appreciative readers of his poems.
Guide: Christopher Zinn
Classes and Readers Seminar schedules are subject to change.
For the most up-to-date information, check out our full events calendar.
