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 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
This six-month course is designed to prepare writers for every stage of the novel writing process from beginning the first draft to finding an agent/editor once the manuscript is complete. The purpose of this course is two-fold: to discuss the novel-writing process and to create a community of writers working alongside one another.
This course invites students to dig deep, observe the world around them, slow down, bask in the beauty of the Pacific Northwest, and discover how their own unique stories can spring from nature.
By reading great writing and engaging with the natural world from a personal standpoint, students will develop their understanding of ecology and our human connection to it as a species.
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
This four-week class offers an in-depth exploration of how to optimize writing habits and routines for productivity and mental health. This class will have two main components. The first component will be a review of the resources available to writers who wish to refine their creative practices. The second component will be in-class writing, reflection, and discussion exercises. These exercises will help us hone our creative practices to feel happy and productive throughout our most arduous creative undertakings. Subjects will include: managing goals and deadlines; when, how, and who to ask for feedback; writing alone vs. working together. After four weeks, students will have composed a clear, concise, personalized work plan, including goals, routines, resources, and assigned reading.
Ideal for writers looking to develop a memoir idea or take an existing draft to the next level, this class will employ the art of observation as a core skill to mine memory and the present. Participants will generate 10-20 pages of a memoir in-progress. The class will also explore unconventional narrative structures and work extensively on imagery and creating authentic character development on the page.
In flash fiction, the whole is a part and the part is a whole. The form forces the writer to question each word, to reckon with Flaubert’s mot juste, and move a story by hints and implications. Flash stories are built through gaps as much as the connective tissue of words, so what’s left out of a story is often more important than what’s included.
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 two-part workshop, we’ll explore elegies, or poems of lament, through the lens of spirals. We can use these curved paths to structure poems, such as through recurring phrases or imagery, and to relax the brain while creating literary responses in conversation with death, loss, and transformation.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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.
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
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
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
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.
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, with feedback from the class and the instructor. Discussions will be focused on character development and plot and how to chart the next steps with your novel.
Join local writers Callum Angus, Cavar, and Miranda Schmidt for a celebration of the art of trans nature writing. Bios: Callum Angus is a writer, editor, and publisher of
Have you ever wondered how to turn your brilliant idea into a captivating picture book? In this 8-week course, you’ll learn the art of crafting picture books that leave a lasting impression. We'll explore the world of children's literature, studying beloved classics and contemporary favorites, to inspire your creativity. Through engaging lessons and hands-on workshops, you'll develop a picture book manuscript from concept to completion.
Literary Arts, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Tax ID# 93-0909494
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