Free Events Online Class Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
44 events found.
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 community space and bookstore at 716 SE Grand Avenue, Portland, OR, online, and at partnering venues across Portland and Oregon.
Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships Ticketed Events
2025 Oregon Book Awards
Join us for an evening honoring our state's most accomplished writers in the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers, and drama.
Free Events For BIPOC Writers Bookstore
BIPOC Reading Series
This monthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. 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. Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres. The featured reader
Online Class Spring 2025 Writing Classes
The Finish Line
This 8-week class is focused on helping each writer push one story, essay or poem through the drafting and revision stages on over the finish line. We'll meet weekly to share accountability updates, read some work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals for your weekly writing practice, and share successes and challenges with fellow writers.
Bookstore Free Events
Story time with Megan Woodward
Join local author Megan Woodward, for a hilarious interactive reading of her picture book This Book is Definitely Not Cursed which will be followed by a creative group activity, a silly craft, and a Q&A with a puppet. Get ready to giggle! Book description: Engage even the most can’t-sit-still little ones with this laugh-out-loud, interactive
Writing Classes In-person
Mapping Your Nonfiction Book: Outlining Your Idea from Start to Finish
This class series focuses on developing a clear roadmap for memoirs, self-help books, or narrative nonfiction. Through hands-on exercises, participants will outline their projects, identify key themes, and learn techniques for organizing research and storytelling.
In-person Readers Seminars
Marilynne Robinson: Gilead
Marilynne Robinson’s 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead appears as one long and intimate letter from an aging father, the Reverend John Ames, to his young son. The letter is an
Free Events Bookstore
The Art of the Board Book, Jon Klassen in conversation with Carson Ellis
Join the incomparable Jon Klassen at the Literary Arts Bookstore for a grown-up discussion about our youngest readers celebrating the release of 3 new original board books. Klassen will be in conversation with fellow illustrator Carson Ellis.
Spring 2025 Writing Classes
Following the Brush: Experimenting with the Zuihitsu form
In this generative class, we’ll explore the form’s history, then follow the brush into the ecotone between prose poem and lyric essay. Along the way, we’ll push, stretch, and experiment with the form’s possibilities for internal reflection. Writers will leave class with first drafts of zuihitsu on topics of their choosing, which can be further refined at home.
Online Class Writing Classes
Missions and Manifestos: the artist statement and beyond
This is a course for artists, writers, or any human wanting to better define their purpose in life. We will read historical manifestos as well as contemporary artist statements and look at those artist and writer's work in the context of their words. Participants will then write their own statements, leaving the class with a long version, a condensed version, and a sense of how their practice will change to follow their stated purpose.
Bookstore Free Events
One Page Wednesday – May
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. May's featured reader is Autumn Bettinger.
Portland Arts & Lectures
RESCHEDULED: Masha Gessen: Portland Arts & Lectures 2024–25
Featured
Portland Arts & Lectures 2024–25
Masha Gessen joins Literary Arts' 40th anniversary season of Portland Arts & Lectures on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
Bookstore Free Events
Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
In-person Readers Seminars
Herman Melville: Moby-Dick
In this seminar, we will tackle Melville’s whale of a book, exploring its philosophical insights, its debts to other writers (especially Shakespeare and Hawthorne), its commentary on US politics and culture, and (of course) its cetology, the chapters about whales and whaling. Across six weeks, we will take up Melville’s challenge—“Read it if you can”—and join the Pequod’s crew on their quests for knowledge, for friendship, and for revenge.
In-person Writing Classes
Where Do I Go From Here: Writing the Novel
This weekend intensive is designed for writers who have written at least the first two chapters of a novel. Limited to 8 students, each participant will have their work discussed, with feedback from the class and the instructor. Discussions will be focused on character development and plot and how to chart the next steps with your novel.
Bookstore Free Events
Trans Nature Writing Extravaganza
Join local writers Charlie Stephens, Cavar, and Callum Angus for a celebration of the art of trans nature writing. Bios: Charlie J. Stephens is a non-binary/trans writer from the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in Salem, Oregon, Charlie is the owner of Sea Wolf Books & Community Writing Center on the southern Oregon Coast. Charlie’s short fiction
Spring 2025 Writing Classes
From Idea to Manucript: Crafting the Picture Book
Have you ever wondered how to turn your brilliant idea into a captivating picture book? In this 8-week course, you’ll learn the art of crafting picture books that leave a lasting impression. We'll explore the world of children's literature, studying beloved classics and contemporary favorites, to inspire your creativity. Through engaging lessons and hands-on workshops, you'll develop a picture book manuscript from concept to completion.
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia
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 come share their work. We strive towards a safe space for poets to read their
Bookstore Free Events
Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
In-person Writing Classes
Write with Emily
Join novelist Emily Chenoweth for an afternoon of writing and community. Participants will spend time writing to a variety of prompts, sharing their work with classmates, and learning tips and tricks for creating and maintaining their writing practice. Writers of fiction, memoir, and poetry are all welcome for this fun, focused afternoon. Access Program We
Free Events Bookstore
AVERY AND THE FAIRY CIRCLE: Crafts and Reading with Local Author Rowan Kingsbury
Join local author and illustrator Rowan Kingsbury to celebrate her debut graphic novel, Avery and the Fairy Circle, and participate in a special plant-lover's craft. About the book: Avery stumbles into a magical circle transporting her to a wonderous fairy world. Avery’s family has just moved to a small cottage in the forest. She is
In-person Writing Classes
Advanced Fiction Workshop Intensive
In this six-week, workshop-meets-craft class, we'll dissect three 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. This class for writers with some experience includes a workshop component.
Bookstore Free Events
THE HOLLOW HALF: Sarah Aziza in conversation with Omar El Akkad
Join us in welcoming Sarah Aziza and Omar El Akkad for a conversation on Sarah's new memoir, The Hollow Half. About the book: A brush with death. An ancestral haunting. A century of family secrets. Sarah Aziza’s searing, genre-bending memoir traces three generations of diasporic Palestinians from Gaza to the Midwest to New York City—and
Online Class Writing Classes
Yallah! Muslims Write
Yallah! Muslims Write is a monthly workshop with the expressed intent to foster a joyful, supportive, and courageous space for self-identifying Muslim artists.
Bookstore Free Events
Incite: Queer Writers Read
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 featured readers for May are T. Thorn Coyle, Miranda Schmidt, and Juan Antonio Trujillo. The theme is Ritual.
Bookstore Free Events
Healing Ourselves & Each Other with Susan Lieu
Literary Arts and The Dougy Center present Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer. Her works include her solo show "140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother” and memoir The Manicurist’s Daughter.
Bookstore Free Events
Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
Bookstore Free Events
Story time with Tom Toro
Join us for a very special story time reading and illustration demo with visiting author/illustrator Tom Toro to celebrate his newest book, Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! Tom Toro is an acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist, cover artist, and award-winning children's book author and illustrator. His books include Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! (Little, Brown), How to
Bookstore Free Events
Bilingual (Spanish/English) Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore
Bring the whole family for a magical Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore! Sing, play, and dive into the world of Spanish storytelling hosted by Adventures in Spanish. Join us for a fun and engaging way to enhance your child’s Spanish skills through lively stories and interactive activities! Every fourth Saturday of the month.
Free Events Online Class Writing Classes
The Break with Kaveh Akbar
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
Free Events Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships Oregon Book Awards Author Tour
OREGON BOOK AWARD AUTHOR TOUR: Jaclyn Moyer
A talk with Jaclyn Moyer, author of On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California at the Monmouth Public Library. Braiding memoir with historical inquiry, On Gold Hill explores the complexities of the immigrant experience, illuminates the ways colonialism and capitalism constrain our food system, and investigates what
For BIPOC Writers Free Events In-person
BIPOC Reading Series
This monthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. 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. Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres. The featured reader
Bookstore Free Events
Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
Free Events Bookstore
FUTBOLISTA! with Jonny Garza Villa
Join us in celebrating Jonny Garza Villa's latest, Futbolista! A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romp that is equal parts raunchy and heartfelt. About the book: A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romance that's equal parts raunchy, heartfelt, queer, and Mexican-American, centered on college football (the REAL football)! Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS
Online Class Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Grief and the Lyric Essay: SUMMER
Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. In this course, we will find entry into writing through reading, conversation, and various prompts and exercises to catalyze memory and insight.
Online Class Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Found Poetry: A Poetry Workshop
Poetry can be found anywhere and be created from anything. To create found poetry, we rely on a preexisting text like news articles, published poems, or excerpts from legal and government documents, to rediscover ways in which we as writers rely on language to create art.
Online Class Summer 2025 Writing Classes
WRITE THE SELF: 8 weeks intensive
This course is for all levels of writers and readers. We will read and discuss excerpts from contemporary authors who write the self (or write from the basis of personal experience), in addition to weekly craft essays on various genres (memoir, personal essay, autofiction).There will be an opportunity to submit either one or two short excerpts of your writing (can be from a short story or novel-in-progress) to be workshopped during the class.
In-person Readers Seminars
Annie Dillard: Holy the Firm
Known for her “fearless and unbridled” writing about the natural world, Annie Dillard’s first three non-fiction books conjure lyrical insights so vivid that they seem to burn. So much more than a “nature writer,” Dillard’s observations of whatever she’s looking at—the transient effects of an eclipse viewing in a small town, a near-deadly airplane crash on an island in the Pacific Northwest, the unraveling of a tangled snake-skin she finds wandering through the woods—reveal the living textures of things: their ordinary strangeness and transcendent beauty.
In-person Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Creative Clarity, Focus and Momentum
Learn creative process skills for sticking with a writing project from initial idea to completion. If you dream of writing that novel or finishing that poem, but you feel scattered, overwhelmed, or stuck with many beginnings but no finished product, this workshop will offer you gentle and effective ways to work through creative blocks so you can finally share your creative expression with your readers.
In-person Readers Seminars Readers Seminars
Orhan Pamuk’s Nights of Plague: Fairytale, History, Allegory
Explore Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s Nights of Plague (2022), an epic narrative which depicts the outbreak of the bubonic plague in the late Ottoman era. The stage is the fictional island Mingheria in the Levant, and the year is 1901.
In-person Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Experiments in Fiction
In this six-week generative course we will read, watch, and listen to a wide range of sources—from traditional short stories to anonymous online forum posts, podcast excerpts, and short videos of people arguing at home or in the street. Each week we’ll discuss what story lives inside our experimental source, and will then come up with a prompt based on that source together.
Online Class Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Storytelling Through Design
This course will examine indirect and non-sequential storytelling methods found in art and design. From religious iconography and still life painting, to traditional textiles and fashion design, to contemporary advertisements and product design, we’ll listen to images and objects telling us stories and then respond with our own words. This generative creative writing class is open to writers in any genre, but participants will be asked to try a variety of literary approaches including poetry, short fiction, and personal essay. Each week will present a different subject for study, followed by a writing prompt inspired by our analysis.
Writing Classes In-person Summer 2025
The Art of the Gut: Renovation and Revising as Rebuilding
This class is designed for nonfiction, so essayists, memoirists, and writers of literary reportage are all welcome. Please come with a complete early draft of a project — maybe it’s something fresh, or maybe it’s simply a piece on which you feel a bit stalled. By the end of the month, writers will emerge with a new set of revision strategies, and a clear path forward for revising their work-in-progress.
Online Class Summer 2025 Writing Classes
Short Story: Take Two!
Ideal for writers of short fiction and all levels, this fast-paced class will work on two drafts of the same short story to refine and review all the elements of craft, including character, tone, voice, and subtext from several different perspectives.
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Literary Arts716 SE Grand Ave
Portland, Oregon 97214
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- la@literary-arts.org
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