
Events, Classes, and Seminars
We have moved many of our offerings online! We hope you will join us.
Featured Events
November 2020
Poetry Portland Book Festival
Postcolonial Love Poem: Natalie Diaz & Live Wire Radio
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 from 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm PST
Natalie Diaz’s brilliant second collection demands that every body carried in its pages—bodies of language, land, rivers, suffering brothers, enemies, and lovers—be touched and held as beloveds.
Find out moreNonfiction Portland Book Festival
Live Wire Radio with Jill Lepore
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 from 1:30 pm - 2:15 pm PST
A revelatory account of the Cold War origins of the data-mad, algorithmic twenty-first century.
Find out moreFiction Portland Book Festival
Chosen Ones: Veronica Roth & Charlie Jane Anders
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 from 3:00 pm - 3:45 pm PST
What do you do when you’re the most famous people on Earth, your only education was in magical destruction, and your purpose in life is now fulfilled?
Find out morePortland Book Festival
Black Joy Social Happy Hour
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 from 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm PST
A moment of casual celebration and recovery, where Black writers and makers, from PDX and across the country share things that bring them joy in 2020. Hosted by Shayla Lawson. Featuring: Jericho Brown, Danielle Evans, Kim Johnson, Nate Marshall, Natasha Marin, Nicholas Nichols, Phillip B. Williams. Musical guest: Donovan Edwards.
Find out moreFree Events Portland Book Festival
BIPOC Reading Series- November
Fri, Nov 20, 2020 from 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm PST
This bimonthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. This event will be hosted by Jessica Meza-Torres, Program Assistant for Programs for Writers. The theme this month is "Ghosts." Our featured readers are Chris Stuck and Jacqueline Fitzgerald. After our featured readers, there will be time for a few members of the audience to sign up and share their work. The readings will be followed by a…
Find out moreFall 2020 Writing Classes
Writing Fairy Tales
Sat, Nov 21, 2020 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PST
The fairy tale is a fanciful storytelling genre that uses supernatural elements, personification, transformation, repetitive plot lines, and unambiguously good and evil characters to speak to social and cultural violence, oppression and shifts in power. How do we write an effective, inspiring modern fairy tale? We will read from the original Brother’s Grimm,Italo Calvino’s fairy tales,and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber with the form, tapping into its nuances and reach as we find inspiration for our own fairy tales. Class…
Find out moreNonfiction Portland Book Festival
Miami Book Fair x Portland Book Festival: Marcus Samuelsson & Dawn Davis
Sat, Nov 21, 2020 from 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PST
This event will be broadcast on Miami Book Fair's platform; register at MiamiBookFairOnline.com.
Find out morePortland Book Festival
The Archive Project: Portland Book Festival highlights on OPB
Sun, Nov 22, 2020 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
Listen to excerpts from the 2020 #PDXBookFest on OPB Radio!
Find out moreDecember 2020
Free Events
One Page Wednesday: December
Wed, Dec 2, 2020 from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST
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! Hosted by Natalie Serber. December's featured reader is Ellen Michaelson. Ellen is the author of The Care of Strangers. She is a physician in Portland and an MFA graduate from Pacific University. She is currently an assistant professor…
Find out moreFree Events
Hugo Moreno and Guadalupe García McCall
Thu, Dec 3, 2020 from 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm PST
Join us for a reading with two Oregon authors. Hugo Moreno, professor at Lewis & Clark college, will be reading from his new novel, Where The North Ends (Donde se acaba el Norte), and will be joined by Guadalupe García McCall, author of several books for young adult readers. Presented in partnership with Reed College and Lewis & Clark College. This event will take place on Zoom. Register in advance for this event: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtdOGpqzwoGNMGCwzVcC6cwQlo8SZZqePL .
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Writing Flash Prose
Sat, Dec 5, 2020 from 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm PST
In this 2-day intensive participants will create a mini scrapbook of vibrant vignettes, short short stories that tell tall tales. Mini epics. Through a series of experimental exercises focusing on key literary and poetic devices, students will bust through standard forms to draft vivid snapshots of life. We will also dig deep. Go behind the scenes, explore and bring to light what lies beneath. This is a generative workshop for flash fiction or non fiction. All genres welcome. Access Program…
Find out moreTicketed Events
The Moth Virtual Portland Mainstage
Sat, Dec 5, 2020 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PST
Each year, The Moth and Literary Arts team up to present the Portland Mainstage, and this year we are bringing it to you virtually. The Moth is true stories, told live and without notes. The Moth celebrates the ability of stories to honor both the diversity and commonality of human experience, and to satisfy a vital human need for connection. It seeks to present recognized storytellers among established and emerging writers, performers and artists and to encourage storytelling among communities whose stories often…
Find out moreFree Events Youth Events
WITS Writer Winter Reading
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 from 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm PST
Join Writers in the Schools (WITS) as we close out this year in community for our annual WITS Writer Winter Reading. Although we'd normally gather in the library at Literary Arts, we invite you to cozy up from the comfort of your own spaces and listen to literary excellence at this virtual reading held via Zoom. This free public event will feature WITS writers Brian Benson, CJ Wiggan, Dey Rivers, Matt Smith, Meg E. Griffitts, Valarie Pearce, Damien Miles-Paulson, and…
Find out moreFree Events Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships
First Draft Reading Series: David Wolman and Julian Smith
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 from 7:00 pm PST
Oregon Book Award winners David Wolman and Julian Smith will be reading from their book, Aloha Rodeo, winner of the 2020 Oregon Book Award in General Nonfiction. This event is presented in partnership with the First Draft Writers Series. The First Draft Writers’ Series is focused on encouraging discussion around issues within the community, the region and beyond. Notices about upcoming featured readers will be accompanied by a question or theme the audience and our Open Mic readers are asked…
Find out moreFree Events
Slamlandia: December
Thu, Dec 17, 2020 from 7:00 pm PST
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. Click here to register for this event. If you have any questions, please contact slamlandia@gmail.com or jessica@literary-arts.org.
Find out moreFall 2020 Free Events Writing Classes
An Appointment with Emily and Your Chair: Free Writing Session
Mon, Dec 21, 2020 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
An event every week that begins at 7:00 pm on Monday, repeating until Mon, Dec 21, 2020
Writing, even on a good day, is hard. So how do we do it on the not-good days, on the days when it feels like the world is upside-down? “Butt in chair” is the simple answer. We make ourselves sit down, and we don’t get up until we’ve gotten a few sentences down at the very least. But sometimes it feels impossible to even get to the chair. We’d honestly rather throw the chair out the window than sit in…
Find out moreJanuary 2021
Winter 2021 Writing Classes
Intermediate Poetry Workshop
Wed, January 6 from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm PST
An individually focused poetry workshop designed to give committed writers a chance to meet, connect, and give and get feedback in a supportive, guided environment. Our focus: Personalized assignments and feedback suited to each poet’s needs. Reading recommendations and assignments, both from contemporary poets and essays on craft. Weekly in-class writing exercises. An understanding of what it’s like to make things and how writers tend to get stuck (and unstuck). A community of others committed to doing this strange and…
Find out moreFree Events
One Page Wednesday: January
Wed, January 6 from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST
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! Hosted by Natalie Serber. Featured reading by Rebecca Clarren. Rebecca Clarren is an award winning writer who has been writing about the American West for more than twenty years. Her journalism, which is frequently supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism, is published…
Find out moreFree Events
Incite: Queer Writers Read
Wed, January 13 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PST
Incite: Queer Writers Read is a curated, monthly 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. Register for this event in advance. January's readers: Sarah A. Chavez, a mestiza born and raised in the California Central Valley, is the author of the poetry collections, Hands That Break & Scar (Sundress Publications) and All Day, Talking (dancing girl press).…
Find out moreFree Events Poetry
Brian Komei Dempster and Jennifer Perrine
Thu, January 14 from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm PST
Brian Komei Dempster's latest book of poems Seize focuses on his experience of raising a son who suffers from intractable epilepsy and pervasive developmental delays. Moreover, the book explores wartime incarceration, domestic/familial/racial tensions, and legacies of trauma and violence—along with paths towards resolution. Through juxtaposition, the poems link seemingly disparate events through a central metaphor: seizure. Dempster will be interviewed by Portland author Jennifer Perrine. Jennifer is the author of four books of poetry, most recently Again (Airlie Press, 2020).…
Find out moreFiction Winter 2021 Writing Classes
Collisions: Short Story Workshop
Thu, January 14 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
For writers at all levels In this fiction workshop, we will explore how to use all manner of combustible collisions, both small and large, as generative fuel. Have a slew of disparate ideas stewing in your brain? We’ll investigate the power of unexpected pairings—how colliding seemingly unrelated images or ideas can spark something entirely original and point your work forward. And we'll study different ways authors can open up possibilities for a story and introduce tension that keeps readers engaged.…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Intersections of Identity and Experience
Sat, January 16 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PST
In this webinar, open to prose writers and poets of all ages and backgrounds, participants will use freewriting, revision, and in-depth feedback as tools to create work that can spark new writing possibilities or build on an existing project. The class will address these types of questions: How do we synthesize our experiences and histories with acts of imagination? How do we break silences and heal from trauma through storytelling? How do we write about intersections between race, gender, sexuality,disability,…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Building a Writing Habit
Sun, January 17 from 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm PST
For writers at all levels Using The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron as a resource, this workshop gives writers the tools to establish a disciplined writing practice full of healthy habits so they can keep writing. Class time will be spent in discussion, writing and learning strategies for establishing a consistent writing practice. 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…
Find out moreDelve Readers Seminars Winter 2021
The “Middle space between languages”: Julia Alvarez and Ingrid Rojas Contreras
Sun, January 17 from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm PST
This seminar will be an exploration of what Ingrid Rojas Contreras so accurately refers to as, “the middle space between languages,” in her essay, Translation as an Arithmetic of Loss. We will discuss the ways in which the characters in the two novels, Afterlife by Julia Alvarez and Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras, as well as the speakers in the additional poems, navigate the in-betweenness of being bilingual. Each text is a discovery of the ways…
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WITS Reading: Gresham High School
Tue, January 19 from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm PST
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Writing the Non-Fiction Book Proposal
Tue, January 19 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
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.
Find out moreFree Events
Slamlandia: January
Thu, January 21 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
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. January's featured poet is Sheila J. Sadr. Click here to register for this event. If you have any questions,…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Essay Intensive: Lyric and Personal
Tue, January 26 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
In this eight-week intensive workshop, we will generate writing to prompts, finding our way into some lyric or personal essays. Participants will share drafts for focused feedback on specific craft issues and overall essay structure. The first four weeks will focus on one project, the second four weeks on another. Join this class to produce and workshop two essays and deepen your understanding of the essay form. I'm a strong believer in writing together and the kind of alchemy that…
Find out moreDelve Readers Seminars Winter 2021
Ursula K. Le Guin and Octavia Butler
Tue, January 26 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
“The world is full of painful stories. Sometimes it seems as though there aren't any other kind and yet I found myself thinking how beautiful that glint of water was through the trees.” Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed When the unimaginable is occurring, how do we navigate…
Find out moreFree Events Youth Events
WITS Reading: Madison High School
Wed, January 27 from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm PST
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in…
Find out moreFree Events Youth Events
WITS Reading: Benson High School
Wed, January 27 from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm PST
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in…
Find out morePortland Arts & Lectures
2020/21 Portland Arts & Lectures: Madeline Miller
Thu, January 28 from 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm PST
Madeline Miller is the author of The Song of Achilles (2011) and Circe (2018). Writing in a genre Miller refers to as “mythological realism,” these titles reimagine ancient Greek myths for the modern reader. The Song of Achilles won the 2012 Orange Prize (now The Women’s Prize for Fiction), was a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize, and was praised by acclaimed author Ann Patchett as “a book I could not put down.” Circe was a #1 New York Times bestseller…
Find out moreDeadlines Free Events Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships
Special Award Nominations Deadline
Fri, January 29
As part of the Oregon Book Awards, Literary Arts offers three awards that recognize significant contributions to Oregon’s literary culture: The Charles Erskine Scott Wood Distinguished Writer Award is presented to an Oregon author in recognition of an enduring, substantial literary career. Past recipients include George Hitchcock, Ken Kesey, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Barry Lopez. The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award is presented to a person or organization in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s literary…
Find out moreFebruary 2021
Delve Readers Seminars Winter 2021
A Different Sort of Gilead: Marilynne Robinson
Tue, February 2 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
Marilynne Robinson’s first novel, Housekeeping, was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction in 1982. In 2005, she was awarded the Pulitzer for her second novel, Gilead. In this seminar we will read both novels; a subsequent seminar will focus on Robinson’s third and fourth novels, which take up and expand upon the story told in Gilead. All novels are concerned with questions of family, home, memory, and the often fraught nature of human relationships. In Housekeeping, two sisters struggle…
Find out moreFree Events Youth Events
WITS Reading: Parkrose High School
Wed, February 3 from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm PST
Writers in the Schools (WITS) has served public high school students with creative writing residencies in Portland, and more recently Gresham, since 1996. Published local writers collaborate with classroom teachers to lead an immersive semester-long workshop series designed to further class themes, curricula, and student interests. Each residency culminates with a public reading, ordinarily held in a local café or bookstore. With distance learning, we look forward to hosting our reading on Zoom and invite you to join us in…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes Writing for Children
Kick Start Your Picture Book
Wed, February 3 from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm PST
Do you have an idea for a picture book that you’ve never had the chance to get on paper? Or a work in progress that you want to polish into picture book form? This 6-week intensive class will take you through the most vital steps in picture book writing. Through studying the picture book form, reading successful picture books, and focused writing exercises that help you develop your characters, narrative and voice, this workshop will help you write a picture…
Find out moreFree Events
One Page Wednesday: February
Wed, February 3 from 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm PST
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! Hosted by Natalie Serber. February's featured reader is Brian Benson. Register in advance for this event
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Hybrid Writing Along The Seam
Wed, February 17 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
Consider the sphinx: head of a woman, haunches of a lion, wings of a bird. A creature powerful and wise enough to guard the seam between the sacred and the secular, life and afterlife. Hybrid forms of writing possess a similar power, harnessing two or more established forms to create something new, unique, and potent. Hybrid forms are actually ancient, preceding all genres — genres are forms into which the hybrid was broken. When we reunite these forms, we welcome…
Find out morePortland Arts & Lectures Ticketed Events
2020/21 Portland Arts & Lectures: Ibram X. Kendi
Thu, February 18 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
Ibram X. Kendi is a New York Times bestselling author and the founding director of The Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. A professor of history and international relations, Kendi is a contributing writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of The Black Campus Movement and Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which won the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction. Kendi was awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship and he was honored on The Root…
Find out moreFree Events
Slamlandia
Thu, February 18 from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm PST
An event every month that begins at 7:00 pm on day Third of the month, repeating until Fri, May 21, 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.
Find out morePortland Arts & Lectures
Portland Arts & Lectures 2020/21 Season
Thu, February 18 from 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm PST
One event on Tue, May 18, 2021 at 7:30 pm
One event on Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 7:30 pm
One event on Thu, Feb 18, 2021 at 7:30 pm
One event on Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 7:30 pm
Literary Arts is pleased to announce the author line-up for the 2020/21 Season of Portland Arts & Lectures. Subscriptions start at just $90 for the series. Subscribe today! At this time, all lectures are scheduled to take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.
Find out moreFor Bipoc Writers Winter 2021 Writing Classes
February BIPOC writer workshop
Sun, February 21 from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm PST
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 moreFree Events Writing Classes
An Appointment with Emily and Your Chair: Free Writing Session
Mon, February 22 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
An event every week that begins at 7:00 pm on Monday, repeating until Mon, Feb 22, 2021
Writing, even on a good day, is hard. So how do we do it on the not-good days, on the days when it feels like the world is upside-down? “Butt in chair” is the simple answer. We make ourselves sit down, and we don’t get up until we’ve gotten a few sentences down at the very least. But sometimes it feels impossible to even get to the chair. We’d honestly rather throw the chair out the window than sit in…
Find out moreWinter 2021 Writing Classes
Four Letters: The Epistolary Form
Thu, February 25 from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
To write a letter is an inherently generous act that rewards both the writer and the recipient. Letters are also an accessible, relational, and forgiving form; everyone can write a letter. Letters bridge distance by slowing us down and fostering deep connections. In this class, you will write four letters. These four letters will serve as the four posts in the foundation of your new letter writing habit. You’ll receive inspiration, prompts, support, and guidance. We’ll learn from each other’s…
Find out moreFree Events
Ridgerunner: Gil Adamson in conversation with S. Tremaine Nelson
Thu, February 25 from 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PST
Join us for an evening with Gil Adamson, winner of the 2020 Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize for her new novel, Ridgerunner. Set against the backdrop of a distant war raging in Europe and a rapidly changing landscape in the West, Ridgerunner is a vivid historical novel that draws from the epic tradition and a literary Western brimming with a cast of unforgettable characters touched with humor and loss, and steeped in the wild of the natural…
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