• April 1, 2024
          Finalists reading: Creative Nonfiction, Fiction and Poetry
          April 3, 2024
          One Page Wednesday: APRIL
          April 4, 2024
          Everybody Reads 2024: Gabrielle Zevin
          April 8, 2024
          2024 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony
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Events, Classes, and Seminars

Our events, classes, and seminars bring the community together to hear, learn, and discuss the most compelling issues and ideas of our day. We hope you will join us in our downtown Literary Arts space, online, and at partnering venues across Portland and Oregon.

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Friday

Sep 8

Free Events   Oregon Book Awards Author Tour  

Casey Parks

Oregon Book Award winner Casey Parks  author of  Diary of a Misfit and a reporter for the Washington Post, will speak in Astoria Sept. 8 at a reading and reception hosted by the Writer’s Guild of Astoria and Peace First Lutheran Church as part of the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour The free event will

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Saturday

Sep 9

Tuesday

Sep 12

Wednesday

Sep 13

Delve Readers Seminars   Fall 2023   Online  

Zadie Smith: The Fraud

Zadie Smith is a critically acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, and playwright, whose work includes the novel White Teeth, winner of the Guardian First Book Prize, and On Beauty, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. This four-week Delve will focus on her new novel The Fraud, based on historical events from the 1800's. From the

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Wednesday

Sep 13

Fall 2023   Novel   online class   Writing Classes  

Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Wednesday

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels by authors including Han Kang, Tommy Orange, Lina Meruane, Mitchell S. Jackson, Deborah Levy, and Susan Steinberg, as well as craft essays by authors including

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Thursday

Sep 14

Fall 2023   Novel   online class   Writing Classes  

Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Thursday

This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels by authors including Han Kang, Tommy Orange, Lina Meruane, Mitchell S. Jackson, Deborah Levy, and Susan Steinberg, as well as craft essays by authors including

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Saturday

Sep 16

Youth Events  

Social Justice Storytelling: Youth Journalism Workshop (ages 14-18)

In this workshop, we’ll learn journalistic storytelling techniques and explore how they can be used to cover social justice stories. Utilizing examples from local and national news, students will practice using journalistic storytelling and media literacy to more thoughtfully engage with social justice issues in their communities. Access Program We want our writing classes and

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Tuesday

Sep 19

Tuesday

Sep 19

Thursday

Sep 21

Free Events   In-person  

Slamlandia

Event Series Slamlandia

Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month, 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 come share their work. We strive towards a safe space for poets to read their own poetry,

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Saturday

Sep 23

Fall 2023   In-person   Writing Classes  

Autofiction Weekend Intensive

During this weekend autofiction intensive, we will take a deep dive into the unique art of autofiction. Autofiction combines the disciplines of autobiography and fiction. It can be written like memoir or like fiction, but it generally comes down to style: autofiction is often highly introspective and mainly focuses on interior life. For this course,

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Saturday

Sep 23

Sunday

Sep 24

Delve Readers Seminars   Fall 2023   In-person  

Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past: Place Names: the Place

Proust’s magnum opus is often considered to be the greatest novel of the 20th century. It richly repays the careful attention it demands, and becomes unforgettable. First-time readers, however, may find the style and size of the work daunting. This seminar is intended for participants who have always wanted to read Proust, but who would

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Monday

Sep 25

Free Events   online class   Writing Classes  

The Break with Kaveh Akbar

Event Series The Break with Kaveh Akbar

In partnership with Alano Club of Portland, "The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation. Though many of the activities and discussions orbit or are inflected by recovery themes (Akbar has been in active recovery for eight years), participants are not

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Monday

Oct 2

Tuesday

Oct 3

Fall 2023   In-person   Writing Classes  

Pushing Through: Carrying Your Manuscript Over the Finish Line

This six-week course is designed to help students finish a draft of a fiction or non-fiction 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. This

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Wednesday

Oct 4

Delve Readers Seminars   Fall 2023   In-person  

Derek Walcott: Omeros

Published in 1990, Omeros is the masterwork of the Nobel Prize winning Saint Lucien writer  Derek Walcott, a book-length epic poem that invites comparisons with Homer while also probing the history and culture of his island home, the "Helen of the West Indies," and his own life as a well travelled writer.  Divided into seven

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Wednesday

Oct 4

Free Events   In-person  

One Page Wednesday- October

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. This month's featured reader is

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Sunday

Oct 8

Saturday

Oct 14

Tuesday

Oct 17

Ticketed Events  

An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver, in Conversation with Jess Walter

Please note: this event is sold out! Literary Arts is thrilled to present An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible and, most recently, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead. Kingsolver will be joined in conversation by award-winning author Jess Walter. Tickets at the $85 level include front-of-hall seats and a hardcover copy of Demon Copperhead.   About Demon

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Thursday

Oct 19

Free Events   In-person  

Slamlandia

Event Series Slamlandia

Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month, 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 come share their work. We strive towards a safe space for poets to read their own poetry,

Find out more
Saturday

Oct 21

Friday

Oct 27

Fall 2023   online class   Writing Classes  

Grief and the Lyric Essay

Throughout history, writers have used lyrical techniques to access states of consciousness we associate with grief. Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. The goal of this course is to find entry into writing through reading, conversation,and various prompts and exercises to catalyze memory and thinking. We will consider how writers

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Saturday

Oct 28

Monday

Oct 30

Tuesday

Oct 31

Wednesday

Nov 1

Fall 2023   online class   Portland Book Festival   Writing Class   Writing Classes  

STYLE AND THE SENTENCE

When it comes to writing short fiction and novels, the ideas we’ve absorbed about narrativizing from our outside lives often don’t apply. Even the most thrilling story, if written without a reverence to form, loses its audience quickly. In this seminar on literary style, we’ll study the most minute of authorial choices, coming to understand how subjectivity comes through on the subconscious level of the sentence.

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Wednesday

Nov 1

Wednesday

Nov 1

Thursday

Nov 2

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

Saturday

Nov 4

In-person   Portland Book Festival   Writing Class   Writing Classes  

The Unique Art of Autofiction

This is a three-hour, one-day intensive discussion on the unique genre of autofiction. This course will provide insight into the many nuances of autofiction, or autobiographical fiction. This “genre” involves writing that is based on real life experiences, but also utilizes fictional literary devices, making it  a very unique form.

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Sunday

Nov 5

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