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.
Bring one or two of your most promising poems-in-process, and we will work through ways to make them more like what they want to be. This will not be a critique session, but a workshop in generative revision.
Portland Book Festival will return to the Portland Art Museum and neighboring venues on Saturday, November 4, 2023. This daylong event features author discussions, pop-up readings, writing workshops for youth
Viet Thanh Nguyen will be joined in conversation with Tommy Orange. This is a special event at Portland Book Festival which requires an add-on ticket to attend. With insight, humor, formal invention,
In this workshop, we’ll discover parallels between visual and written art, and use pieces in the museum collection to inspire poetry.
In this workshop, we'll learn how to build a fictional world and add texture to imaginary settings.
In this workshop, we’ll learn journalistic storytelling techniques and explore how they can be used to cover social justice stories.
This is a special event at Portland Book Festival which requires an add-on ticket to attend. From the #1 best-selling author of The Big Short and Flash Boys, the story of FTX’s spectacular collapse and
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 writing that is based on real life experiences, but also utilizes fictional literary devices, making it a very unique form.
Let's spend a few hours together exploring the practice of revision! Too often revision is just a fancy word for copy-editing. But it can be more. In this three hour class we will explore different revision exercises using a recent poem and how we can break old revision habits and constructs.
Catherine Sloper is young—not clever, not quick, not ugly—and rich. Into her life in New York City’s fashionable Washington Square comes Morris Townsend—“the most beautiful young man in the world.”
Equal parts strategy, community, generative writing, and experiment, this class will help writers spark curiosity and deepen self-knowledge while crafting artistic habits that nourish. A good fit for writers who
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
The hybrid genre of erasure and collage often exists between and because of two different mediums: text and image. Through obscuring a pre-existing text using various methods, an original work
While we may know of essays as personal narratives crafted with creative storytelling techniques, essay as a verb means an attempt. In this six-week series, we’ll explore a variety of
“Your experience is not yours alone, but in some sense a metaphor for everyone’s.” -Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet’s Companion What we know in our personal worlds contain
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
Lynette Yetter, translator of Bolivian feminist poet Adela Zamudio’s work from the Spanish and Sara Guest, local teacher of American feminist Poet Adrienne Rich’s work will facilitate a “conversation” between these
Join us at Literary Arts for a panel discussion featuring local independent publishers, Buckman Journal, Lurch Zine, and Provecho Magazine. Hosted by Michael Kurt and Wesley Mueller of Berm Magazine.
Proust’s magnum opus is often considered to be the greatest novel of the 20th century. It richly repays the careful attention it demands, and becomes unforgettable. First-time readers, however, may
Young and beautiful Gwendolen Harleth is poised at a roulette table at a German spa, where she is observed by Daniel Deronda, an exceptionally handsome upper-class Englishman. Later, a reversal
The Faust Legend takes up the question of selling your soul to the devil for magical success in this world. This Delve seminar looks at the legend in three famous
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
What if we joined our sorrows? What if that is joy? - Ross Gay Following in the tradition of Ross Gay, and his new book, The Book of (More) Delights,
So the saying goes, “You should never meet your heroes.” The fact that this is such a common expression implies a longtime acceptance that the artist and the art they
Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) was maybe the greatest short story writer in English that you might not have read. In this Delve, we will read the two dozen stories she wrote
Writing novels can seem like a mystical process. Write every day, and a novel will appear. The work can feel isolating and disorienting, particularly for a writer’s first book, like
The 2024 Oregon Book Awards finalists will be announced on January 23, 2024 on our website. Winners will be announced at the 2024 Oregon Book Awards ceremony.
Sometimes we become so focused on productivity or “doing it right” that we stifle our creativity. In this class we’ll focus on one of the hardest parts of writing: writing.
"I’m half crazy with the wonder of it- the abundance of leaves, the quietness of the branches, the hopelessness of my effort. And I’m, in that delicious and important place,
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
Equal parts strategy, community, generative writing, and experiment, this class will help writers spark curiosity and deepen self-knowledge while crafting artistic habits that nourish. A good fit for writers who
Generate pages and explore the finer nuances of the world of your short story or novel in this Fiction Intensive! Over the course of 12 weeks, participants will work on
A translated collection of short stories from one of Korea's most renowned writers, Pak Kyongni, Age of Doubt explores the postwar Korea of the 50s and 60s. A time of
In this Delve, we will read Portuguese Nobel-laureate José Saramago’s breathtaking novel, Blindness (1995), focusing in particular on the concept of “community.” The novel posits the trope of community as
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
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
In this class, we will drop all worry about being “writers.” Instead, we will simply use writing as a means of grounding our own attention. We will be prompted by
Recipient of the 2023 Ken Kesey Award in Fiction, Sindya Bhanoo, and 2024 finalist Marcelle Heath will speak about their works at the Linfield Nicholson Library, as part of the
The Wild West has always been a fiction. The heroic cowboy settling the frontier is a myth. The Western novels of the mid-20th century rewrote genocide & colonialism to justify
Emily Wilson's new translation of the Iliad, building on the accomplishment of her recent translation of the Odyssey, has kindled fresh interest in Homer's perennially relevant war epic. In this
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
What is a ghost if not spirit energy yearning for form and expression? In our time together, we’ll explore a range of structures capable of hosting ghosts, from epistolary to
This six-week class will hold space for creative nonfiction writers to write and discuss short creative nonfiction works (memoir, essay, lyric essay). Writers at every level---from beginner to experienced---are welcome
Please join us for a reading featuring some of this year's Oregon Book Awards finalists in Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, and Poetry: Creative Nonfiction: Erica Berry Alyssa Graybeal Steven Moore Fiction:
Celebrate the power of books to create a stronger community by attending the 2024 Everybody Reads author event with Gabrielle Zevin! In partnership with Multnomah County Library and The Library
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