• March 22, 2023
          Incite: Queer Writers Read – March
          March 24, 2023
          OBA Finalists Reading: Creative Nonfiction
          March 25, 2023
          Children’s Storytime! with 2023 OBA Finalists
          March 25, 2023
          OBA Finalists Reading: Middle Grade and Young Adult Literature
  • Box Office

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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Sunday

Dec 11

Tuesday

Dec 13

Ticketed Events  

The Moth: Mainstage in Portland

The Moth returns to Portland on Tuesday, December 13. This extraordinary performance sells out quickly, so reserve your seats early and experience unforgettable stories told live! Literary Arts and The Moth are bringing a new lineup of storytellers to Portland. Each Moth Mainstage show features five tellers who have developed their true stories with help from The

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Thursday

Dec 15

Monday

Dec 26

Tuesday

Jan 3

Delve Readers Seminars   In-person   Winter 2023  

Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair (“A Novel without a Hero”), by William Makepeace Thackeray (1848), belongs on the same shelf with other towering novels of the Victorian age: Bleak House, Middlemarch, Jane Eyre, and The Way We Live Now. Its protagonist, Becky Sharp, is one of the most tantalizing, bewitching, infuriating, charming, scheming, and amoral characters in all

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Wednesday

Jan 4

Free Events   In-person  

One Page Wednesday- January

One Page Wednesday is back in-person at our downtown center! 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

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Wednesday

Jan 11

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Six Month Short Story Intensive

This class is for experienced writers who are dedicated to starting the first draft of a story collection over the course of six months. Participants should have experience writing stories and familiarity with the elements of literary short fiction including scene, character, conflict, place, and revision. We will study individual stories by authors, read craft

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Friday

Jan 13

Free Events   In-person  

Ruby McConnell and Char Miller

Join us for an evening with Ruby McConnell and Char Miller discussing their latest books, Ground Truth: A Geological Survey of Life and Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril. Ruby McConnell is a registered geologist and outdoor adventurer. She is a recipient of numerous honors, including the Literary Arts Oregon Literary Fellowship, and

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Saturday

Jan 14

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Mastering the Short Story

In this intensive workshop, students will write and revise their short stories focusing on craft elements such as characters, voice, subtext, and story structure. At the end of the six weeks, students will have created a dossier of up to 20 pages of new work and received detailed feedback from the instructor. Access Program We

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Sunday

Jan 15

Delve Readers Seminars   In-person   Winter 2023  

The Feminine Gothic: Victorian and American Horror

Novels of ghosts and haunted landscapes can open the door to discussions of sociology and repression, trauma, and the cathartic function of horror. In this seminar, we will examine themes of possession, repression, haunting, and the mad woman in the attic in three Victorian and American horror novels from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries:

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Wednesday

Jan 18

Thursday

Jan 19

Friday

Jan 20

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Six Month Screenwriting Intensive

“Screenplays…are primarily a narrative blueprint for cinematic interpretation. They require certain beats, certain layouts, and certain terminology to communicate the visual and audio needs of an eventual production — a production that hundreds of professionals will collaborate on.” - Ken Miyamoto, Screencraft “The challenge of screenwriting is to say much in little and then take

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Sunday

Jan 22

Delve Readers Seminars   In-person   Winter 2023  

Plato On Love

The Symposium by Plato asks: what is love? It is the story of a banquet in classical Athens, attended by Socrates and his friends, at which each person tells a story about the origin of Love. These stories are full of deep psychological insight, powerful mythic imagination, and profound philosophical reflection that have made The

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Monday

Jan 23

Delve Readers Seminars   In-person   Winter 2023  

The Brothers Karamazov

The American novelist Walker Percy described The Brothers Karamazov as “maybe the greatest novel of all time . . . . almost prophesies and prefigures everything—all the bloody mess and the issues of the 20th century.” It’s fair to extend Percy’s observation to include the mess of the present century as well. The Brothers K

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Tuesday

Jan 24

Tuesday

Jan 24

Free Events   online  

Joy Castro & S. Tremaine Nelson

Join us for a conversation with Joy Castro, author of One Brilliant Flame, and S. Tremaine Nelson of the Northwest Review. This is a virtual event. Click here to register in advance. If you have any questions, reach out to Jessica Meza-Torres at jessica@literary-arts.org.    

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Wednesday

Jan 25

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Experiments in Creativity

If you allow them to, ideas for art and writing can come from absolutely anywhere. This creative generation class will put that theory to the test, through a series of experiments in creative problem-solving, spontaneous and chance-based play, and other exploratory prompts that challenge you to work outside your normal modes and investigate how the

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Thursday

Jan 26

Friday

Jan 27

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Grief, Lyrically

Writers often use musical 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 crafting stories

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Monday

Jan 30

Free Events   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

Jan 30

BIPOC only   Delve Readers Seminars   Winter 2023  

Language as resistance, words as collage: Don Mee Choi and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha

Though published many decades apart, these two texts share similarities both in their subject matter and their experimental qualities. Just as Dictee cannot be merely labeled as a memoir and DMZ Colony cannot be labeled purely as a poetry collection, both texts expand our understanding of genre by weaving together prose, poetry and photographs. Moreover,

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Wednesday

Feb 1

Free Events   In-person  

One Page Wednesday- February

One Page Wednesday is back in-person at our downtown center! 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

Find out more
Thursday

Feb 2

Tuesday

Feb 7

Wednesday

Feb 8

Thursday

Feb 16

Free Events   In-person  

Slamlandia

Event Series Slamlandia

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

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Wednesday

Feb 22

Thursday

Feb 23

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Writing For Television: Where to Begin

This unique course is designed for creative aspiring writers with no prior experience, as well as those with screenwriting experience, wishing to break into television writing. Learn in an interactive environment the basics of creating, writing, and presenting your first television script for both drama and/or comedy, including how to take your idea to the

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Saturday

Feb 25

Monday

Feb 27

Free Events   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

Find out more
Wednesday

Mar 1

Free Events   In-person  

One Page Wednesday- March

One Page Wednesday is back in-person at our downtown center! 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

Find out more
Friday

Mar 3

Free Events   In-person  

Mary Szybist & Laurel Nakanishi

Join poets Mary Szybist and Laurel Nakanishi for an interactive evening of poetry that will consider the concept of place. After a discussion and reading, the audience will be invited to write in response to a series of poetry-inspired prompts. Bring a journal and pen for a generative evening of writing. Everyone welcome!

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Monday

Mar 6

Saturday

Mar 11

Tuesday

Mar 14

Wednesday

Mar 15

Free Events   In-person  

A Discussion with Kamala Sankaram & Susan Yankowitz

In partnership with the Portland Opera, join us for a discussion with Thumbprint composer Kamala Sankaram and librettist Susan Yankowitz, moderated by Portland Opera Artistic Director Priti Gandhi. This event is free and open to the public. Thumbprint is inspired by the true story of Mukhtar Mai—a trailblazing Pakistani activist whose fight for justice and safety reminds

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Thursday

Mar 16

Free Events   In-person  

Slamlandia

Event Series Slamlandia

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

Find out more
Saturday

Mar 18

online class   Winter 2023   Writing Classes  

Jumpstart Your Memoir: Fundamentals and Strategies

In this six-week class, students will work on creating a narrative structure that will allow them to embark on the journey of the creation of their memoir. Through short and long readings, the class will study and develop characterization, setting, and narrative voice besides learning to mine memory and research for detail. A 10–15-page project

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Saturday

Mar 18

Monday

Mar 20

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