Ticketed Events
An Evening With Ann Patchett, in conversation with Cheryl Strayed
Join us for a special event with award-winning author Ann Patchett in celebration of her forthcoming novel Tom Lake.
45 events found.
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 community space and bookstore at 716 SE Grand Avenue, Portland, OR, online, and at partnering venues across Portland and Oregon.
Free Events Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships
Oregon Book Award Submission Deadline
T he Oregon Book Awards program honors the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in the genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. The finalists for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards will be announced in January 2024, and the winners will be announced at the Oregon
Free Events Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships
Oregon Book Awards Special Awards: Nomination Deadline
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.
Free Events Oregon Book Awards Author Tour
Casey Parks
Oregon Book Award winner Casey Parks author of Diary of a Misfit and a reporter for the Washington Post, will speak in Astoria Sept. 8 at a reading and reception hosted by the Writer’s Guild of Astoria and Peace First Lutheran Church as part of the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour The free event will
Memoir Online Class Writing Classes
Fragments and Memoir
In this generative workshop, we’ll look at examples by writers who use fragments in various ways, and try inventive writing exercises and strategies for creating a memoir from fragments. Fragments
Online Class Writing Classes
The Self-Doubting Writer: Releasing Anxiety
Writing can be emotionally exhausting. It can have a substantial physiological effect on the body: as you imagine an emotional scene, your body will sometimes go through the experience as
Delve Readers Seminars Online
Zadie Smith: The Fraud
Zadie Smith is a critically acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, and playwright, whose work includes the novel White Teeth, winner of the Guardian First Book Prize, and On Beauty, winner of
Novel Online Class Writing Classes
Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Wednesday
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels
Free Events In-person
Incite: Queer Writers Read – September
Featured
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. The theme for September's event is "Balance." Our featured readers are Caitlin Delohery, Ash Good, and Dustin Hendrick.
Novel Online Class Writing Classes
Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Thursday
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. It runs from September through May. You’ll read excerpts from published novels
Youth Events
Social Justice Storytelling: Youth Journalism Workshop (ages 14-18)
In this workshop, we’ll learn journalistic storytelling techniques and explore how they can be used to cover social justice stories. Utilizing examples from local and national news, students will practice using journalistic storytelling and media literacy to more thoughtfully engage with social justice issues in their communities. Access Program We want our writing classes and
Memoir Online Class Writing Classes
When Memory is Fractured: Using Fragments to Craft Memoir
As many of us now know, traumatic memory doesn’t always function linearly. There is no clear beginning or end, as trauma literally relives itself in the brain. Because of this,
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Cycle
The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest, & The Dispossessed are three of the most iconic novels by the legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin. Written within less than five years of each other, these novels all occur in the same science fiction universe that is most often referred to as
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia
Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month, on the third Thursday. 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 safe space for poets to read their own poetry,
Portland Arts & Lectures
Zadie Smith: Portland Arts & Lectures 2023/24
Featured
Portland Arts & Lectures 2023/24
Zadie Smith will be interviewed by Parul Sehgal, New Yorker staff writer and former New York Times book reviewer. This event is part of our 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures. A series subscription must be purchased to attend this event. All lectures will be held in person at The Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
In-person Writing Classes
Autofiction Weekend Intensive
During this weekend autofiction intensive, we will take a deep dive into the unique art of autofiction. Autofiction combines the disciplines of autobiography and fiction. It can be written like
Online Class Writing Classes
BIPOC Writing Workshop: September
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
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past: Place Names: the Place
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 find the style and size of the work daunting. This seminar is intended for participants who have always wanted to read Proust, but who would
Free Events Online Class Writing Classes
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
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
He Knew He Was Right: Anthony Trollope
Nathaniel Hawthorne marveled at Anthony Trollope’s talent for conveying the truth of human experience, declaring his fictional world to be “just as real as if some giant had hewn a great lump out of the earth, and put it under a glass case, with all its inhabitants going about their daily business, and not suspecting
In-person Writing Classes
Pushing Through: Carrying Your Manuscript Over the Finish Line
This six-week course is designed to help students finish a draft of a fiction or non-fiction manuscript. We'll read craft essays about drafting a book, set aside time each week
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Derek Walcott: Omeros
Published in 1990, Omeros is the masterwork of the Nobel Prize winning Saint Lucien writer Derek Walcott, a book-length epic poem that invites comparisons with Homer while also probing the history and culture of his island home, the "Helen of the West Indies," and his own life as a well travelled writer. Divided into seven
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday- October
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 the one and only, Emme Lund. This month's featured reader is
Ticketed Events
Bookmark: A fundraising gala for Literary Arts
Featured
Join us on Thursday, October 5, 2023, at the Portland Art Museum for Bookmark, our annual fundraising gala. Bookmark gathers our most passionate supporters who elevate our mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation. Join us in celebration of the words and stories that inspire, connect, and transform communities.
In-person Writing Classes
EVERYBODY DOES IT: WRITING ABOUT WORK
In his 1974 book, Working, Studs Terkel begins by saying, “This book, being about work, is, by its very nature, about violence—to the spirit as well as to the body.”
Writing Classes Youth Events
Stranger than Fiction: Stepping into Speculation (ages 14-18)
Explore what it means to be alive in our current world through the weird and expansive genre of speculative fiction that gives us a way to look at social and/or
Ticketed Events
An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver, in Conversation with Jess Walter
Please note: this event is sold out! Literary Arts is thrilled to present An Evening with Barbara Kingsolver, author of The Poisonwood Bible and, most recently, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead. Kingsolver will be joined in conversation by award-winning author Jess Walter. Tickets at the $85 level include front-of-hall seats and a hardcover copy of Demon Copperhead. About Demon
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia
Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month, on the third Thursday. 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 safe space for poets to read their own poetry,
In-person Writing Classes
Where Do I Go From Here: Writing the Novel
This weekend intensive is designed for writers who have written at least the first two chapters of a novel. Limited to 8 students, each participant will have their work discussed,
For BIPOC Writers Free Events In-person
BIPOC Reading Series- October
Featured
We're back! And better than ever! Starting this month, the BIPOC Reading series will meet in-person at the Literary Arts event space in downtown Portland. We are also welcoming a new cohost, Kyle Yoshioka. This bimonthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of
Portland Arts & Lectures
Mary Beard: Portland Arts & Lectures 2023/24
Featured
Portland Arts & Lectures 2023/24
Literary Arts presents Mary Beard on October 26, 2023, as part of the 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures.
Online Class Writing Classes
Grief and the Lyric Essay
Throughout history, writers have used lyrical techniques to access states of consciousness we associate with grief. Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. The goal of
Online Class Writing Classes
BIPOC Writing Workshop: October
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
Online Class Portland Book Festival Writing Class
The Art of the Novella
The novella has its own parameters, intricacies, and rewards. Together we’ll look at the novella’s histories, jewels, origins, and how its varying structures still feed into the overall design. Students can use this experience to either enhance their own novellas, or learn more about this fascinating literary form.
Online Class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Writing About Animals
How and why do we write about non-human animals, and how might we write about them in new ways? Through discussion, short readings, and writing exercises, we will explore varying approaches to writing about other species in our time of mass extinction and global warming. No experience necessary.
Online Class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
STYLE AND THE SENTENCE
When it comes to writing short fiction and novels, the ideas we’ve absorbed about narrativizing from our outside lives often don’t apply. Even the most thrilling story, if written without a reverence to form, loses its audience quickly. In this seminar on literary style, we’ll study the most minute of authorial choices, coming to understand how subjectivity comes through on the subconscious level of the sentence.
Online Class Writing Classes
The Lyric Essay: Braiding the World
The lyric essay is a form that allows many small fragments to be drawn together to create a whole. A lyric essay might hold memories, research, a bit of poetry,
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday
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
Online Class Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Writing Deliciously: The Poetry of Food Writing
Together, we will delve into the intimate sensory memories that food evokes. How can writing about food open up evocative spaces of comfort, family, memory, shared rituals, and desires? How can writing through and about food radically strengthen our communities and open up our creative craft?
In-person Poetry Portland Book Festival Writing Class Writing Classes
Revising Poems
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 Ticketed Events
Portland Book Festival
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
Portland Book Festival Ticketed Events
Viet Thanh Nguyen: A Man of Two Faces
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-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Youth Events
Writing Poetry From Art (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we’ll discover parallels between visual and written art, and use pieces in the museum collection to inspire poetry.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Youth Events
Ekphrastic Worldbuilding (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we'll learn how to build a fictional world and add texture to imaginary settings.
In-person Portland Book Festival Writing Class Youth Events
Narrative and Social Justice Storytelling (Grades 9-12)
In this workshop, we’ll learn journalistic storytelling techniques and explore how they can be used to cover social justice stories.
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- la@literary-arts.org
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