Events, Classes, and Seminars
We have moved many of our offerings online! We hope you will join us.
Featured Events
June 2021
Free Events
“George Venn: The Literary Lion of La Grande” Film and Q&A
Wed, June 23 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
‘George Venn : The Literary Lion of La Grande’ explores George Venn’s upbringing, his environmental work, writing process and legacy all while showcasing La Grande, Oregon as the beautiful backdrop for several poetry readings. Following the viewing of the short film will be a Q&A with filmmaker Erik Schultz from Paper Flames and George Venn. Click here to register for this event in advance.
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For Bipoc Writers Free Events
BIPOC Reading Series June
Fri, June 25 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
This bimonthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. The theme for June is "the sun." Come listen to our featured readers, or sign up to share your work in our open mic. Readings will be followed by a short community discussion. Click here to register for this event. This event is open to everyone, but only people who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color…
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Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Writing Towards Radical Self Love
Sat, June 26 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm PDT
“Liberation is the opportunity for every human, no matter their body, to have unobstructed access to their highest self; for every human to live in radical self love.” - Sonya Renee Taylor Radical self love is a liberation movement led by Sonya Renee Taylor, author of The Body is Not an Apology. It is through radical self love that we deconstruct and unlearn forces that keep us from our highest selves. In the process we relearn our innate belonging and…
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Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Wild Love: An Introduction to Nature Writing
Wed, June 30 from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm PDT
“I love you, love you, love you / sad as you are, O world.” — Adelia Prado This class will offer an introduction to nature writing that is celebratory, joyful, loving, even sexy. While there is much to lament or critique in our current ecological moment, there is also much to honor and embrace. When we fall in love with a place, we can be receptive to its vital complexity through that lens of love. You will receive weekly prompts,…
Find out moreSummer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Other than Human Love: Cats, Colors, Gardens and More
Wed, June 30 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
We fall joyfully in love with the other-than-human elements of our world all the time: pets, places, flowers, ideas... Doing so opens us, makes our hearts more receptive by presenting different versions of reciprocity and humility. This class will focus on writers who have embraced other-than-human love, allowing themselves to fall in love with a color, a cat, a river, a garden, and the world. Works we’ll look at will include (but not be limited to) Maggie Nelson’s Bluets, Takashi…
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
June BIPOC Craft Series: Setting
Wed, June 30 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
This monthly craft series for BIPOC writers invites you to stretch into new forms of written expression. In June, we will breathe life into the setting of your stories. Using beloved and renowned BIPOC writers as models for captivating narratives that draw us into place, we will notice, play, practice, share and grow as writers. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present…
Find out moreJuly 2021
Fiction Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Six Love Stories in Six Weeks
Thu, July 8 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
Using Jeffrey Eugenides, My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead, Great Love Stories from Chekov to Munro, we will fall in love, once again, with our writing. Did the pandemic take a toll on your creative spirits? I invite you to join me, speed date your way back to the page with a new story each week. We will read great love stories, then use them as (lovers’) leaps into new work. Come prepared to swipe right on many generative prompts, to…
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Delve Readers Seminars Summer 2021
Tove Jansson: The Summer Book
Mon, July 12 from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT
If you already know Tove Jansson as the author and illustrator of the Moominfamily stories and comic strips, you will meet her in this Delve seminar as the author of her superb The Summer Book. This is a novel that is so deep and yet so apparently casual that it will repay the close reading we will give it in this four-week seminar. We will also observe her imagination for fiction in her short stories, letters, and other works. But…
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Free Events
Incite: Queer Writers Read – July
Wed, July 14 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
Incite: Queer Writers Read is a curated, bimonthly reading series for Queer writers. Incite’s hope is to create conversation, connection, and greater understanding both within the Queer community and with other communities. Hosted by Vinnie Kinsella and Jennifer Perrine. The theme for July is Both/And. Register for this event in advance.
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Free Events
Slamlandia
Thu, July 15 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
An event every month that begins at 7:00 pm on day Third of the month, repeating until Thu, Aug 19, 2021
Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month. 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 safer space for poets to read their own poetry, witness others, and participate in community. Hosted by Julia Gaskill. Register in advance for this event If you have any questions, please contact slamlandia@gmail.com or jessica@literary-arts.org.
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Free Events
Emilly Prado: Funeral for Flaca
Fri, July 16 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
Join us for an evening of conversation with Emilly Prado and Celeste Noche, and a discussion of Funeral for Flaca, Emilly Prado's new book from Future Tense Books. You can read more about Emilly and the book in this feature story on Portland Monthly. Register in advance for this meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0oduqqrj4sEtAXV3Fj0pmKR8yQEme1Q_7U
Find out moreSummer 2021 Writing Classes
Craft Conversations: Dialogue
Sat, July 17 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm PDT
Dialogue, as much as anything else, reveals the character to the writer and, ultimately to the reader. I don’t have a very clear idea of who the characters are until they start talking. ~ Joan Didion Sometimes, when I’m lucky, a line of dialogue, either something I’ve dreamed up or overheard, will spark a story. Because dialogue is so revealing it can be an entrance point, a moment when a character speaking, reveals themself on the page. Because dialogue is…
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Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
For the Love of Roaming: Walking into the Lyric Essay
Sat, July 17 from 10:00 am - 4:00 pm PDT
From Hemingway’s Moveable Feast to Thoreau’s meditation on “Walking” to Virginia Woolf’s “Street Haunting” to Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust, writers have connected the act of writing with the art of roaming. During this weekend together, we will spend some time reading poems and personal meditations on walking, and use them as prompts for our own writing. By the end of the weekend you will have a draft that includes memories of roaming, accounts of current saunters, quotes from other wanderers, and…
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
July BIPOC writer workshop
Sun, July 18 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT
One-day Workshop: Open to writers of color at all levels writing in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and sharing new work in an informal setting. You can also bring your own prompts and questions about the writing process, and explore them with the group.
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Delve Readers Seminars Summer 2021
Shuggie Bain
Tue, July 20 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
Douglas Stuart won the 2020 Booker Prize with this debut novel about young Hugh (Shuggie) Bain, growing up in 1980s Glasgow and struggling to care for his wayward, alcoholic mother. Drawing on his own experience, Stuart portrays the difficulties of a working-class, queer childhood with heartbreaking tenderness, bringing Shuggie and his world vividly to life. This seminar will introduce readers to one of the most exciting new voices in literature. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible…
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Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Love Notes: Flash Prose
Sat, July 24 from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm PDT
In this prompt-driven 2-day intensive participants will create a series of connected flash love stories. With the aid of experimental exercises exploring prose and poetry (epistolary, lists, photo captions, etc.) we will celebrate and write about love in all its forms, including the flip side of love and more! Special attention will be paid to voice and technique. Fiction, non-fiction, all genres welcome. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background.…
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
July BIPOC Craft Series: Poetry
Wed, July 28 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
This monthly craft series for BIPOC writers invites you to stretch into new forms of written expression. In July, we will enter the boundless realm of poetry. Using beloved and renowned BIPOC writers as models for poems that let the words flow, we will notice, play, practice, share and grow as writers. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some…
Find out moreAugust 2021
Summer 2021 Writing Classes
Oracles, Intuition, and Creativity
Wed, August 4 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
Forge a deeper connection with your intuition in this 5-week course exploring intuitive processes and symbolism in creative practice. Students will work with The Personal Oracle deck, designed by instructor Coleman Stevenson, to stretch their symbolic awareness and sharpen their creative instincts. The cards and other divinatory methods will be used as prompts for storytelling and other creative writing exercises as well. This is a great class for card readers who want to expand their reading methods to include visual…
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Summer 2021 Summer of Love Writing Classes
Writing About Sex
Sun, August 8 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm PDT
From kissing to seduction—to the deed itself—writing about sex can be one of the hardest feats in storytelling. We’ll study the way writers like Lidia Yuknavitch, Melissa Febos, Zadie Smith, D. H. Lawrence, and others approach this facet of craft. Our conversations will explore how sex can be implied or explicit, while still being literary and classy. Class one is entirely devoted to writing the literary kiss, and future sessions will cover sex “implied” with its absence on the page,…
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
August BIPOC writer workshop
Sun, August 15 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PDT
One-day Workshop: Open to writers of color at all levels writing in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and sharing new work in an informal setting. You can also bring your own prompts and questions about the writing process, and explore them with the group.
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
August BIPOC Craft Series: Fiction
Wed, August 18 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
This monthly craft series for BIPOC writers invites you to dream and imagine new worlds and characters for fictional storytelling. Using beloved and renowned BIPOC writers as models for fictional narratives, we will notice, play, practice, share and grow as writers. Access Program We want our writing classes to be accessible to everyone, regardless of income and background. We understand that our tuition structure can present obstacles for some people. Our Access Program offers writing class registrations at a reduced…
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Delve Readers Seminars Summer 2021
The Book of Embraces
Tue, August 24 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
The vignetted format of this text sometimes expands into short stories and sometimes shrinks into prose-poems, but regardless of any section’s length, this book is always intimate, charming, and transportive. Galeano uses journalistic research, autobiographical anecdotes, and interviews to emphasize how there really is no distinction between the personal and the political. He writes of the military dictatorship in Uruguay that forced him into exile, an Italian pantomime performance that reminded him the importance of loving your craft, a pet…
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Summer 2021
Writing the Non-Fiction Book Proposal
Wed, August 25 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
This six-week class will take you step-by-step through the major parts of the nonfiction book proposal: the query letter, overview, competitive analysis, marketing and promotion, author background, outline and sample chapter. Bring an idea, and be ready to write. The class includes extensive handouts and questionnaires to guide your work.
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Free Events
On The Metaphysics of Deep Gossip: Bagley Wright Lecture Series
Wed, August 25 from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PDT
In this memoir and craft talk, Lisa Jarnot reflects on her entanglement in the New York poetry scene over twenty-five years. Beginning with the proposition that deep gossip and urban mindfulness are sacred practices, she explores the places where the New York School’s feminine, marvelous, and tough irreverence opens into a deeper mystery that is passed down as a liturgy of ecstatic connectedness. The Bagley Wright Lecture Series on Poetry supports contemporary poets as they explore in-depth their own thinking…
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Summer 2021 Writing Classes
BIPOC Revision Workshop
Mon, August 30 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PDT
This affinity space for BIPOC writers will support the transformation of your early drafts into new iterations and more polished pieces. How do we revise our writing in ways that feel energized and nimble? How do we identify writing habits that aren’t serving us and gather inspiration from fellow writers? What can supportive feedback offer to our word choice, sentences, and overall structure of our piece? How can we be intentional about the writing moves we’re making for clarity, engagement,…
Find out moreSeptember 2021
Fall 2021 Writing Classes
Refuse the Given World: Breaking Blocks Through Play
Tue, September 7 from 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm PDT
“When I sit down and start writing, I feel the given world recede, and I can just play.” --Sam Lipsyte Remember when you were a little kid, playing on the floor for hours and hours? Our best writing days are often imbued with that same sense of timelessness, freedom, wonder, and escape—in other words, our work often works best when it feels like play. In this generative writing course, we will tap into a playful mindset—by using silly rules, obstructions,…
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Fall 2021 Writing Classes
Nine-Month Novel Intensive
Wed, September 15 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm PDT
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 Dorothy Allison, Jane Alison, and Alexander Chee. Some weeks you’ll have craft assignments to complete outside of class, and other weeks we’ll do in-class exercises…
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Fall 2021 Memoir Writing Classes
Nine-Month Memoir Intensive
Sat, September 25 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm PDT
This class begins in September, with the goal of finishing a complete draft of a memoir by June. Participants do not need to be published writers; however, they should have some experience with elements of memoir, including character, setting, dialogue and scene, and have a clear project in mind that they will devote nine months to. They should also be comfortable in a workshop setting, giving and receiving criticism on works in progress. Download syllabus here. Contact Susan Moore at…
Find out moreOctober 2021
Portland Arts & Lectures
2021/22 Portland Arts & Lectures: Daniel James Brown
Thu, October 14 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
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Portland Arts & Lectures
2021/22 Portland Arts & Lectures: Cathy Park Hong
Thu, Jan 27, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PST
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Portland Arts & Lectures
2021/22 Portland Arts & Lectures: Brit Bennett
Thu, Feb 17, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PST
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Portland Arts & Lectures
2021/22 Portland Arts & Lectures: Richard Powers
Thu, Apr 21, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
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Portland Arts & Lectures
2021/22 Portland Arts & Lectures: Edwidge Danticat
Thu, May 12, 2022 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PDT
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