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.
Celebrate Portland’s youth poets during Literary Arts’ annual Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship. Cheer on students from Portland and East Multnomah County public high schools competing for poetic glory at this energetic and inspiring event. This program is supported in part by: In order to thrive, this program needs your support! To become a sponsor
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! This month's featured reader is Margaret Malone. Click here to register in advance.
Are you a working on a writing project and don't know what's next? Do you need tips on creating a better writing routine? Are you wondering if you need an agent? And what goes in a query letter anyway? Join us for a panel discussion featuring Oregon writers from various genres speaking about their publishing
Here’s an opportunity to meet with publishing experts about your current project or chat about any aspect of the publishing process you have questions about. Sign up for 15 minute face-to-face meetings with local publishing professionals from Microcosm, Ooligan Press, Pomegranate, and Tin House at our downtown center. To sign up, email Jessica Meza-Torres at
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the man with "the mind on fire," wrote some of the most important and greatest essays in American literature prior to the later twentieth century. Emerson's thought combined some of the most important trends in religion, culture, and philosophy from the start of modernity with the intense intellectual and moral culture of
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. This event will take place in-person at Literary Arts' downtown center. Please review our Covid-19 guidelines. The theme
This event is part of our Portland Arts & Lectures 2021/22 season. Our 2021/22 season is SOLD OUT! A limited amount of single General Admission tickets have been released to
Searching for a space to create new work with fellow BIPOC writers? This two-hour workshop meets on Zoom. A variety of prompts will be presented as avenues for generating and sharing new work in an informal setting. Open to BIPOC writers at all levels writing in poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Scholarships are available. Contact Susan
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
Join us for a reading and conversation with Susan Rich and John Sibley Williams, to celebrate the launch of Susan Rich's new book. A Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems collects the essential and award-winning poems from Susan Rich’s four books of poetry along with a generous selection of unpublished work. Rich’s
The first sentences of a work can connect instantly to your character and their dilemma so that your reader is immediately hooked into your story. In this 3 hour class, we'll unpack the beginnings from our favorite books and movies to understand how everything you release in the first paragraphs is vital for your story arc.
An evening with writers who took part in Margaret Malone’s Short Story Intensive class, from September 2021 to May 2022. Join us as they share pieces from the story collections they’ve been working on all year. Hosted by Margaret Malone Register in advance for this event:
Join us on Thursday, May 26 to celebrate the writers-in-residence and host teachers who make Literary Arts' Writers in the Schools program possible. Each year, Youth Programs hires local, professional writers to teach creative writing residencies in public high school classrooms. Our writers are so devoted to sharing their time, craft, and knowledge with students
How do you find literary magazines that want your work? What's the best way of getting an editor's attention? This workshop will give you the tools to set up your submission process so you can easily track submissions, learn when to follow up, and how to improve your chances of being published. Access Program We
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
One of the most talented and prolific writers of her (or any) generation, Virginia Woolf published novels, short stories, plays, essays, reviews, a biography (of Roger Fry), and an impressionistic, vividly realized memoir. She is a central figure of modernism, admired for her innovative style and attention to craft. In this seminar we will read
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 feature for June is Callum Angus. Click here to register in advance.
An unforgettable live multimedia experience. “Sweeping the nation with live performances of human interest stories…like an emotionally intellectual rock concert.”—Playbill Tickets to Pop-Up Magazine’s Spring Issue are on sale NOW! Get your tickets now and use code LITERARYARTS for $5 off. Pop-Up Magazine is the acclaimed live magazine show, featuring original and unforgettable true stories,
How do I decide what to write about? What if my memory is flawed? How much research do I need to do? What details are the most important? What’s the best way to give and receive feedback to writers in a workshop setting? This class invites you to explore the fundamentals of creative nonfiction, including
Written when she was only 25 years old, White Teeth catapulted Zadie Smith into renown as one of the most exciting authors in the English language. This profound & humorous
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 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
This class, held outdoors at Mt. Tabor Park, will guide you in practicing skills associated with shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing—a gentle, meditative approach to being with nature. The class will include several invitations to explore your senses and your relationship with nature, time for written reflection, and opportunities to share your observations and your writing,
Author Emily St. John Mandel told The LA Times in March 2020, “I would not recommend reading Station Eleven in the middle of a pandemic.” Now as we are firmly planted in 2022, what can a book such as this provide as we reflect on our own pandemic experiences and try to make sense of
This seminar is for BIPOC participants only Celebrating the 40th anniversary of this seminal publication, we will study Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee along with some of its academic critique. This work in many ways defies categorization--with its mixture of French and English, text and images, and the poetic and political. Though it has been described
This bimonthly 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. The theme for June is "Roots &
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung and Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park have just been translated into English from the original Korean by Anton Hur and have recently been shortlisted and longlisted (respectively) for the Booker Prize. Though very different from one another, by reading both we can get a taste of the exciting landscape that is
This 4 -week short fiction workshop will focus on generating new work and simply getting words down on a page. We will read excerpts, share just-written work aloud, and sometimes discuss assigned weekly readings together. We will investigate ways to unearth material together and share strategies for maintaining a regular writing practice. Participants will leave
How to handle time can be challenging to master when writing in any genre. When should we slow down and dwell in a scene? When should we summarize and move rapidly through weeks, years, or even decades? Should we go back in time to unpack and understand a character's motivation? How does the manipulation of
This class, held outdoors at Hoyt Arboretum, will guide you in practicing skills associated with shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing—a gentle, meditative approach to being with nature. The class will include
Questions about applying to this year's Oregon Literary Fellowships? Join us at this information session! Drop-in anytime between 3:00 - 4:00 p.m. Register in advance for this meeting here. Please
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
As modern life and literature focus more on material gains and martial conflicts, the work of Ursula K. Le Guin stands out for her commitment to depicting pacifism and environmentalism
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
Questions about applying to this year's Oregon Literary Fellowships? Join us at this information session! Drop-in anytime between 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Register in advance for this meeting here. Please
This 8-week class is focused on holding yourself and your classmates accountable to your writing goals. Each week, plan to share your work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals
Creative nonfiction utilizes non-linear structures to “think” into complex or ambiguous subjects. In this class, we will explore the relationship between form and content in memoir, deepening our practice by
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
Apply online for 2023 Oregon Literary Fellowships. Deadline to apply is Friday, August 5, 2022. Literary Arts will award 12 fellowships in the amount of $3,500. One of these fellowships
Tarot, the ancient card system, is having a 21st century renaissance. With more and more artists improving upon the medieval straight, white, thin and able-bodied imagery, today everyone can find
Literary Arts has partnered with Pickathon to feature author readings and a live recording of our radio show and podcast, The Archive Project. Authors featured on the Windmill Stage, Sunday,
Join us for a conversation with Adam White and Justin Taylor, moderated by S. Tremaine Nelson of the Northwest Review. This event is in-person at Literary Arts. Proof of
Etgar Keret is one of the most important Israeli authors alive today. He has mastered the genre of short fiction with a witticism that uses humor and farce to make readers step outside of their comfort zone and view things from the perspective of the absurd. In doing that, Keret brings a fresh, comical, and
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
Emily Dickinson has achieved the rarest of distinctions for a nineteenth-century poet (and a female one at that): lasting, evolving fame. Having escaped the confines of academic study and school syllabi, Dickinson has become a popular figure beloved by a wide and varied readership and the subject of films, television programs, and fan clubs. She
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