Events, Classes, and Seminars

Visit St. Rita's Amazing Traveling Bookstore and create a page about your Portland community.

More than forty years after its original publication, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon, 1788–1940, remains the most comprehensive chronology of Black life in Oregon. Join us for the official book launch, hosted by Third Eye Books Accessories and Gifts, Portland’s only black-owned bookstore.

This special book launch event will feature a conversation between Toad editor Naomi Huffman and Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State. This event is cosponsored by Lewis & Clark Special Collections and Archives.

Join us at 6:30 PM at the Cascade Campus of Portland Community College in North Portland (Terrell Hall 122) as we celebrate this fantastic collection by late local poet Carolyn Moore, whose estate gave rise to PCC's Carolyn Moore Writing Residency. Readers will include Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani; poet Shelley Wong, whose debut As She Appears won the Pamet Prize from YesYes Books and was recently longlisted for the National Book Award; Carolyn Moore Writing resident Baruch Porras-Hernandez; and PCC's 2022-23 HARTS Writer-in-residence, Karah Kemmerly.

Join the editors of Oregon Humanities magazine for an evening featuring Sallie Tisdale, Daniela Molnar, Paul Susi, and Laura Gibson, and other recent contributors reading essays and poems.

There are three inevitable things in life: taxes, death, and wacky trivia about death. Join us for a macabre round of froth led by the Dames of Deathly Delights, writers Sallie Tisdale and Elizabeth Fournier.

(re)moved is an exhibition uncovering new meanings from the erasure of words. The project will include a collective of artists from PNCA’s Hallie Ford School of Graduate Studies who will consciously transform a pre-existing text to a new text.

Annie Bloom's welcomes our own Rosanne Parry for a reading from her new picture book, Big Truck Day. Rosanne will be joined by local authors Trudy Ludwig, whose new picture

Come to the beautiful, new Lincoln High School library and discuss romance books with the members of the nationally renowned Lincoln High School Romance Book Club.

Talk about poetry and make new friends while partaking of wine and snacks! Join us for an evening of pairings in which you’ll get to engage with other poets and editors to discuss the craft of writing, publishing, editing, and marketing with several rounds of fun conversation prompts. Hosted by Airlie Press.

Poetry Karaoke lets audience members perform a poem, accompanied by the Portland/Corvallis-based band Mule on Fire. Audience members pick a poem from the Poetry Karaoke book (like picking a song from an available song list during real karaoke . . . a curated book with well-known published poems--from Shakespeare to Dr. Seuss).

Wild Rose: Poetry & Story is a new reading and performance series brought to you by YesYes Books and hosted by KMA Sullivan. Our event on Friday Nov 4 features Stephanie Adams-Santos, Mindy Nettifee, Jae Nichelle, Nina Packebush, Courtney Faye Taylor, and Shelley Wong!

Calling all lovers of indie bookstores for the Portland Book Festival’s two-part event: a screening of a new literary documentary and a panel of the city’s foremost booksellers.

When an author crosses the country visiting bookstores and promoting his online-only novel, he discovers a community of readers who buy their books locally. These readers make their case for local bookshops in the short documentary film: "The Bookstour."

First Matter Press invites all participants to explore scrambling traditional poetry into something more playful and exploratory by journeying through our activity stations and collecting stickers for their event maps.

This is Portland brings together creativity across medium, making for a multi-genre experiential performance. Words will be the backbone, with multiple local writers taking the mic to share short-form work.

Join Corporeal Writing and Autofocus Lit for an inspiring evening of reading! Featuring performances from Yashwina Canter, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Marissa Korbel, Ryan Rivas, Marisa Siegel, and Kristen Millares Young. Hosted by Genevieve Hudson.

Renga is a form of collaborative Japanese poetry whereby multiple poets create and respond in turn. Join our group of poets from Portland and abroad for an afternoon of renga writing that examines some of today's most pressing concerns - bodily autonomy, religious extremism, and imminent environmental ruin.

Join Tin House as they celebrate their Autumn Workshop faculty with an evening of readings and merriment. Featured readers will include Carolina De Robertis, Lydia Kiesling, Kimberly King Parsons, and Morgan Talty. Please note that masks will be required.

Lit-Mondo is an improv comedy show inspired by prose, poetry, and other writing by local and traveling authors. A team of experienced improv comedians listen to short readings by authors and pull from the themes and ideas in their work to create hilarious original comedy scenes on the spot!