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.
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.
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 smoke and mold, a literary journal invested in the narrative possibilities trans lives bring to our changing nature-culture. His first story collection, A Natural History
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.
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 their
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 novelist Emily Chenoweth for an afternoon of writing and community. Participants will spend time writing to a variety of prompts, sharing their work with classmates, and learning tips and tricks for creating and maintaining their writing practice. Writers of fiction, memoir, and poetry are all welcome for this fun, focused afternoon. Access Program We
Join local author and illustrator Rowan Kingsbury to celebrate her debut graphic novel, Avery and the Fairy Circle, the story of a girl and her fairy friend exploring the local forests of the Pacific Northwest! Kingsbury will teach us the art of plant journaling so that you, too, can learn about your local flora. About
In this six-week, workshop-meets-craft class, we'll dissect three different short stories and figure out: How did the writer do that? We’ll then apply some of those same literary tools to your own stories. This class for writers with some experience includes a workshop component.
Join us in welcoming Sarah Aziza and Omar El Akkad for a conversation on Sarah's new memoir, The Hollow Half. About the book: A brush with death. An ancestral haunting. A century of family secrets. Sarah Aziza’s searing, genre-bending memoir traces three generations of diasporic Palestinians from Gaza to the Midwest to New York City—and
From crystals to cults, Leah Sottile's Blazing Eye Sees All is an investigation into American New Age spirituality and the ways it helps and hurts people. Exploring themes of extremism, feminism and power, come listen to the conversation live and in person at the Literary Arts bookstore as it is broadcast on OPB's Think Out
Yallah! Muslims Write is a monthly workshop with the expressed intent to foster a joyful, supportive, and courageous space for self-identifying Muslim artists.
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 May are T. Thorn Coyle, Miranda Schmidt, and Juan Antonio Trujillo. The theme is Ritual.
Literary Arts and The Dougy Center present Susan Lieu, a Vietnamese-American author, playwright, and performer. Her works include her solo show "140 LBS: How Beauty Killed My Mother” and memoir The Manicurist’s Daughter.
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.
The Break is a monthly virtual gathering of writers and artists lead by Kaveh Akbar, celebrating amongness, collaboration, and interdisciplinary creative experimentation.
A talk with Jaclyn Moyer, author of On Gold Hill: A Personal History of Wheat, Farming, and Family, from Punjab to California at the Monmouth Public Library. On Gold Hill is the 2025 winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction. Braiding memoir with historical inquiry, On Gold Hill explores the complexities of the
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 up to share your work in our open mic. Readings will be followed by a short community discussion. Hosted by Kyle Yoshioka and Jessica Meza-Torres. The featured readers
Literary Arts and APANO are so excited to invite four incredible writers to read from their work and celebrate community during AAPI Heritage Month. Light refreshments will be served, and community building is encouraged! Bring a friend, make a friend, and absorb some wonderful stories. About AAPI Heritage Month In the month of May
Registration for the event opens on Friday, May 23 at 9:00 a.m. Tickets are free but capacity is limited. Register here. Agenda 🎶 Music from Joe Kye 💜 Janice Lee & Lidia Yuknavitch How to join 🍩 There will be Coava coffee & breakfast. 🚲 Public transit, biking and carpooling encouraged! Please only register if
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 for a very special story time reading and illustration demo with visiting author/illustrator Tom Toro to celebrate his newest book, Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! Tom Toro is an acclaimed New Yorker cartoonist, cover artist, and award-winning children's book author and illustrator. His books include Crocodiles Need Friends, Too! (Little, Brown), How to
Join us in celebrating Jonny Garza Villa's latest, Futbolista! A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romp that is equal parts raunchy and heartfelt. About the book: A classmates-to-friends-to-lovers romance that's equal parts raunchy, heartfelt, queer, and Mexican-American, centered on college football (the REAL football)! Gabriel Piña knows who he is: a college goalkeeper, a future Liga MX or MLS
Join us for a night of music and literary conversation with Gabriel Kahane and Ross Barkan, celebrating Glass Century. About the book: It's 1973 and Mona Glass is a 24-year-old amateur tennis star in a long-running affair with Saul Plotz, her former college professor. Her parents like Saul and desperately want the free-spirited Mona to
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. The featured reader for June is Amy
Literary Arts is thrilled to be a part of Portland Book Week 2025! Come on down to the store, buy a Portland Book Week tote bag, and check some items off your Bingo card! a bookstore that hosts classes or events a bookstore with metaphysical or spiritual books a bookstore that hosts a story time
Lyrical writing prioritizes music, rhythm, and emotion over the narrative arc. In this course, we will find entry into writing through reading, conversation, and various prompts and exercises to catalyze memory and insight.
Poetry can be found anywhere and be created from anything. To create found poetry, we rely on a preexisting text like news articles, published poems, or excerpts from legal and government documents, to rediscover ways in which we as writers rely on language to create art.
Join us at Literary Arts for a social event to meet local children's authors and learn about their work! It's the middle of Portland Book Week AND The American Booksellers Association's Children's Institute will be in town—what better time to celebrate the amazing Portland-area authors creating books for children. (Not a story time but kids
Join Literary Arts for a social mixer event to meet local children's authors and learn about their work! It's the middle of Portland Book Week AND The American Booksellers Association's Children's Institute will be in town — what better time to celebrate the amazing Portland-area authors creating books for children. (Not a story time but
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 experience), in addition to weekly craft essays on various genres (memoir, personal essay, autofiction).There will be an opportunity to submit either one or two short excerpts of your writing (can be from a short story or novel-in-progress) to be workshopped during the class.
Known for her “fearless and unbridled” writing about the natural world, Annie Dillard’s first three non-fiction books conjure lyrical insights so vivid that they seem to burn. So much more than a “nature writer,” Dillard’s observations of whatever she’s looking at—the transient effects of an eclipse viewing in a small town, a near-deadly airplane crash on an island in the Pacific Northwest, the unraveling of a tangled snake-skin she finds wandering through the woods—reveal the living textures of things: their ordinary strangeness and transcendent beauty.
On June 13, Coos Bay Public Library, in partnership with Literary Arts, will host a Writing Workshop With Willy Vlautin from 4:00pm-5:30pm and an Author Reading at 6:00pm. Join us to get started on your own novel and/or come back later to hear Willy read from The Horse, a 2025 Oregon Book Award finalist. Both
Join us on Saturday, June 14 to celebrate the opening of the Literary Arts Cafe! We will be open all day, but between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. we will have some fun giveaways courtesy of our cafe partners: Farina Bakery, Upper Left Coffee Roasters, OKAPI reusable cups, and Minor Figures oat milk.
Literary Arts welcomes Peyton June to celebrate her debut young adult horror, Bad Creek. Peyton will be joined by fellow debut novelist Isa Aganjanian, the author of Modern Divination, for a conversation about writing YA horror, life as a debut novelist, and more! Bad Creek Iris, Gum, and Aidan are vacationing in Bad
Learn creative process skills for sticking with a writing project from initial idea to completion. If you dream of writing that novel or finishing that poem, but you feel scattered, overwhelmed, or stuck with many beginnings but no finished product, this workshop will offer you gentle and effective ways to work through creative blocks so you can finally share your creative expression with your readers.
Explore Turkish Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk’s Nights of Plague (2022), an epic narrative which depicts the outbreak of the bubonic plague in the late Ottoman era. The stage is the fictional island Mingheria in the Levant, and the year is 1901.
Yallah! Muslims Write is a monthly workshop with the expressed intent to foster a joyful, supportive, and courageous space for self-identifying Muslim artists.
About the book: A genre-bending exploration of that most elemental force–water–through Indigenous storytelling, personal memory, and the work of influential artists and writers For many years, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson took solace in skiing—in all kinds of weather, on all kinds of snow across all kinds of terrain, often following the trail beside a beloved
Join Rachel Attias for an afternoon of writing. Participants will spend time writing to a variety of prompts, sharing their work with classmates.Writers of fiction, memoir, and poetry are all welcome for this fun, focused afternoon.
Join the Pacific Northwest College of Art writers Stephanie Adams-Santos author of Dream of Xibalba, Megan Milks author of Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body, Poupeh Missaghi author of Sound Museum, and Dao Strom author of Instrument, for an end-of-residency reading at the Literary Arts bookstore!
Literary Arts welcomes Our Bold Voices founder Paul Iorrobino and readers from the new Defiant Moments anthology: Noah Grabeel, Kyle Lang, Brandy Penner and Scott Strickland.
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