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.
In partnership with Multnomah County Library and the Library Foundation, Literary Arts is proud to host an evening with Javier Zamora as the culminating event of the Library's Everybody Reads program. This year's selection is Zamora's memoir, Solito. Everybody Reads is an annual community-wide project that promotes shared reading and discussion around a single book.
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
Please join us in celebrating the artwork of second grade students at Margaret Scott Elementary School! Featuring paintings inspired by the work of Nigerian American artist Odili Donald Odita. Family and friends are welcome for light refreshments and artist appreciation. The exhibit will be up from March 11–31. The City of Portland’s Art Access Fund,
Each week we’ll use new prompts and guided activities to inspire new creation. We’ll look at the work of writers we admire and ask: how’d they do that? As they say, writing is a muscle, and no matter what your experience level, you have to continually exercise that muscle and practice new tools to keep your writing nimble and moving.
This seminar offers an in-depth exploration of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (Der Zauberberg, 1924). The novel invites the reader to multiple trajectories of reading: As a modernist epic, The Magic Mountain intimates the tradition of the Bildungsroman, only with an ironic twist. It draws an unforgettable portrayal of a lost world, the cosmopolitan European society before the First World War.
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 featured readers for March are Eric Tran, Jessie Carver, and RJ Equality Ingram. This Month's Theme: Grounding
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
Bring the whole family for a magical Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore! Sing, play, and dive into the world of Spanish storytelling hosted by Adventures in Spanish. Join us for a fun and engaging way to enhance your child’s Spanish skills through lively stories and interactive activities! Every fourth Saturday of the month.
In this seminar we will read Marx both for his ideas and and for the pleasures of his prose. We will observe his use of Greek myths and other legends, the inspiration he took from European fiction and poetry, his journalistic reports of life in his own day, his lively historical accounts, his vast range of allusions from literature, his critiques of the arts, and his refined expression of his sense of the tragedy and the hope in life.
Please join us for the first of two readings featuring the 2025 Oregon Book Awards finalists in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction: Fiction Miriam Gershow Kimberly King Parsons Poetry Valerie Witte Charity E. Yoro Creative Nonfiction Tim Palmer Becky Ellis This event is FREE to attend and open to the public. A second finalists reading
Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres, this monthly reading series is intended to prioritize the safety, creativity, and stories of Black people, Indigenous people, and People of Color. Featured readers for March: Daphne Kauahi’ilani Jenkins and Tieara Myers. This event is open to everyone, but only people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color will
Students can work on one or two stories in greater depth, or come away with a handful of starts to many different stories. For beginner and intermediate writers looking to get their work off the ground in a supportive, creative community.
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
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. April's featured reader is Kimberly
Han Kang recently made history by becoming the first Korean and first Asian woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in Literature. As a writer, Han Kang is preoccupied with questions of violence. How and why are humans so violent to one another? And what does it mean to belong to the human species amidst
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Jonathan Hill's Lizard Boy 2: The Most Perfect Summer Ever . Book two in this acclaimed graphic series explores intolerance through a relatable—and empowering—cast of middle-grade cryptids, immigrants, and outsiders. In human disguise, the Lizk’t family of Elberon is now comfortably settled in Eagle Valley as the all-American
Join us in celebrating local author and Literary Arts faculty Michelle Kicherer's debut novella, Sexy Life, Hello. Michelle will be joined in conversation by Portland Radio Project's Executive Director Veronica Bisesti. About Sexy Life, Hello "A dark comedy about a nanny who doubles as a porn star’s sexter." After getting fired from her job as
Join us for a very special storytime with author/illustrator team Fern Wexler and Kelsey Buzzel to celebrate their new book, Families of a Feather!
Please join us for the second of two readings featuring the 2025 Oregon Book Awards finalists in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction.
Emily Wilson joins Literary Arts' 40th anniversary season of Portland Arts & Lectures on Tuesday, April 15, 2025.
Yallah! Muslims Write is a monthly workshop with the expressed intent to foster a joyful, supportive, and courageous space for self-identifying Muslim artists.
Join us for a celebration of National Poetry Month with local Fernwood Press poets Ayelet Amittay, Casey Killingsworth, Emmett Wheatfall, and Sherri Levine! The poets will share pieces from their recent work and discuss their creative process, followed by audience Q&A. Poet bios: Ayelet Amittay is a poet and psychiatric nurse practitioner in Eugene, Oregon.
Slamlandia is a poetry open mic and slam that meets every month at Literary Arts, 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
Join us on Saturday, April 19th at 10:30am in the Literary Arts Bookstore for a very special story time featuring a puppet presentation and tree treasures to explore, with local author and Oregon Book Awards finalist Leslie Barnard Booth!
The title of this workshop is a line from a Lucille Clifton poem. We’ll use this poem and a range of others as lenses to consider the ways our cultural and ecological moment is an invitation to widened wonder and love. This workshop is open to everyone. No prior experience with writing or reading poetry is needed or expected. We will talk, read, and write together
An evening with four of the Oregon Book Awards finalists for fiction at the Corvallis Museum, as part of the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour: Miriam Gershow Victor Lodato Kimberly King Parsons Charlie J. Stephens
Verselandia! is the annual youth poetry slam championship presented by Literary Arts. It is the Grand Slam for the winners from individual school slams hosted by public high school librarians across the Portland region. Finalist poets compete for five great prizes. Members of the public are invited to cheer on the youth poets as they
This Saturday, April 26, is Independent Bookstore Day! Come celebrate with us at 716 SE Grand Avenue from 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m for a day full of books, community, festivity, and surprises! ☕️ Free drinks and snacks all day long! 🎨 Free tote bag! Featuring art of our beautiful new storefront for anyone spending
Bring the whole family for a magical Story Time at the Literary Arts Bookstore! Sing, play, and dive into the world of Spanish storytelling hosted by Adventures in Spanish. Join us for a fun and engaging way to enhance your child’s Spanish skills through lively stories and interactive activities! Every fourth Saturday of the month.
In this 1-hour workshop, participants will review three different types of writing prompts and explore how each of these types of prompts can serve their writing. Participants will then choose the prompt that speaks to them and complete a short writing exercise, with room to share reflections at the end.
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
Join us for an evening honoring our state's most accomplished writers in the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, young readers, and drama.
This 8-week class is focused on helping each writer push one story, essay or poem through the drafting and revision stages on over the finish line. We'll meet weekly to share accountability updates, read some work-in-progress with the group, set or revise goals for your weekly writing practice, and share successes and challenges with fellow writers.
Join local author Megan Woodward, for a hilarious interactive reading of her picture book This Book is Definitely Not Cursed which will be followed by a creative group activity, a silly craft, and a Q&A with a puppet. Get ready to giggle! Book description: Engage even the most can’t-sit-still little ones with this laugh-out-loud, interactive
This class series focuses on developing a clear roadmap for memoirs, self-help books, or narrative nonfiction. Through hands-on exercises, participants will outline their projects, identify key themes, and learn techniques for organizing research and storytelling.
Marilynne Robinson’s 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead appears as one long and intimate letter from an aging father, the Reverend John Ames, to his young son. The letter is an accounting for Ames’s one life, lived essentially always in one Midwestern place, and the letter opens doors onto lives and times often more dramatic than
Join the incomparable Jon Klassen at the Literary Arts Bookstore for a grown-up discussion about our youngest readers celebrating the release of 3 new original board books. Klassen will be in conversation with fellow illustrator Carson Ellis.
In this generative class, we’ll explore the form’s history, then follow the brush into the ecotone between prose poem and lyric essay. Along the way, we’ll push, stretch, and experiment with the form’s possibilities for internal reflection. Writers will leave class with first drafts of zuihitsu on topics of their choosing, which can be further refined at home.
This is a course for artists, writers, or any human wanting to better define their purpose in life. We will read historical manifestos as well as contemporary artist statements and look at those artist and writer's work in the context of their words. Participants will then write their own statements, leaving the class with a long version, a condensed version, and a sense of how their practice will change to follow their stated purpose.
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. May's featured reader is Autumn Bettinger.
Masha Gessen joins Literary Arts' 40th anniversary season of Portland Arts & Lectures on Thursday, February 13, 2025.
Families are invited to join us weekly on Saturday mornings from 10:30-11:00 a.m. at the Literary Arts Bookstore for story time! Each week our booksellers will read from picture books we love and enthusiastically share our love of reading and play with our youngest community members. Every fourth Saturday of the month we're teaming up
In this seminar, we will tackle Melville’s whale of a book, exploring its philosophical insights, its debts to other writers (especially Shakespeare and Hawthorne), its commentary on US politics and culture, and (of course) its cetology, the chapters about whales and whaling. Across six weeks, we will take up Melville’s challenge—“Read it if you can”—and join the Pequod’s crew on their quests for knowledge, for friendship, and for revenge.
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