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.
Join Ooligan Press to celebrate the launch of their latest title, Cepka by Leah Altman. About the Book For Leah Altman, growing up as an adoptee outside of her culture meant growing up without her cekpa, the Lakota connection to family and homeland. Now an adult, Leah departs her life in Portland, Oregon, to
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is thrilled to partner with SCRAP PDX for a special event. Hand-sew decorative fall plushies and felt garlands. Grab a beverage, browse the bookstore, and gather round to sew some leaves, mushrooms, acorns, and more in this seasonal celebration! This is a ticked event. Click here for more
In this one day class, we'll work to demystify the submission process. We’ll discuss how to find publications you’re excited to send your work to, set up personalized submission goals and to-do lists, and organize our own systems for keeping track of our submissions.
Join us in celebrating Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris for the debut of their new graphic novel, Making Nonfiction Comics! About the book: The definitive guide to writing, drawing, and publishing nonfiction comics from award-winning creators Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris Making Nonfiction Comics is an accessible guide to nonfiction comics perfect for graphic novel readers,
You're invited to a special One Page Wednesday in collaboration with the Portland Book Festival's Cover to Cover program of events! ONE PAGE PRESENTS: ASK ME ANYTHING WRITERS' EDITION WITH MARGARET MALONE Join us on November 5th for a very special One Page Wednesday. Prior to the reading and open mic, we will host an author
In this four-week class, we’ll read and discuss ekphrastic poems by a wide selection of writers, creating our own definition of ekphrasis, pushing the boundaries of what an ekphrastic poem can be. We’ll engage with several essays by poets to get us asking questions and diving deeper into our craft.
Join us in welcoming John Freeman to discuss his latest book, California Rewrtitten. Freeman will be joined in conversation by Deborah Miranda. This is a Portland Book Festival Cover to Cover event. Check out the full line up here. About the book: Dive into the revelatory worlds of California's most exciting writers, and discover how
At this three-hour class, we will read the beginnings of short stories, discuss their effectiveness, tone, and structure, and discuss whether they encourage us to keep reading and why.
In this three hour interactive workshop, you’ll refine your nonfiction book concept and clarify what your book is really about, who it’s for, and how it stands out. Whether you’re writing a memoir, self-help, personal growth, or thought leadership book, this session will help you focus your purpose and shape your message.
The David P. Thompson Elk Fountain has been a Portland icon for 125 years. Removed from its home downtown due to collateral damage from community protests in 2020, the Elk has been out of sight but not out of mind as it makes its return this fall. The Elk is not just a fountain. It’s
This foundational series is for personal nonfiction writers ready to shape real-life experiences into engaging stories with intention and clarity. Over four sessions, you’ll learn how to identify your memoir’s deeper message, build a strong narrative arc, and make structural choices that serve both your story and your reader.
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. The featured reader for October is Jenny H. Lee. This event is open to everyone, but only people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color will be
Join us for a very special spooky story time with local author A.A. Livingston and her book, Grizelda the Green Hates Halloween! Costumes encouraged! About the book: Told in silly, rhyming text, this is a not-so-scary Halloween tale about a grouchy old witch named Grizelda the Green who tries to destroy Halloween! Perfect for fans
This six-week seminar is designed for writers interested in doing deep reads of contemporary literature from a craft perspective. We will dissect the structure and language from five very different short stories so that we can apply some of the same tools these writers use in their work to our own. Delve for Writers is an occasional series of seminars designed to help writers improve their craft through close readings of contemporary poetry and prose.
Join us for GHOSTLY ENCOUNTERS, a spooky storytelling event at the Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe! There will be a sign up for the open mic where readers will have five minutes to enchant us with their ghoulish tales! Our only requirement is that these stories are true—or at least, true to you. Audience members
Learn the craft of narrative writing. Participants will learn to write perceptively – deploying their five senses and delving into feelings as they write. They will learn how to leverage narrative distance, writing between their ideas and the immediacy of their experiences to see how distance can affect the emotional weight of the work. They will learn how to use metaphors as a means of discovery, to harness verbs, and to modify sentences for focus and impact.
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,
Join us at the Literary Arts Bookstore for a special interview with visiting Portland Arts & Lectures author Elizabeth Gilbert, with OPB's Dave Miller, as it is broadcast live on Think Out Loud. This event is free and open to the public, however space is limited so we kindly ask you to RSVP below. FROM
Pick a card . . . or don’t! As always, our write-ins are free and open to everybody. Come share space with us as we channel some witchy October vibes with Tarot Card prompts and a special latte. Or just bring whatever it is you’re working on and hang out with us. Bonus points for
The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome Victoria Redel in celebration of her latest,I Am You, in conversation with 2025 Oregon Book Award Winner Kimberly King Parsons. An unforgettable love story about sex, art, and politics in 1600s Amsterdam. At age eight, Gerta Pieters is dressed as a boy and put to work
Readers generally considered The Plague, published in 1947 (and a large factor in Camus receiving the Nobel Prize for literature a decade later), to be a superior metaphorical novel about life during wartime and Nazi occupation. As we learned in 2020, it was also a pretty accurate look at how humans react to life during
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe are thrilled to welcome Lit Mic for a very special immersive writing workshop! Participants will search for clues, interview witnesses, and conduct their own investigation via creative writing prompts and sharing to solve the murder. About Lit Mic: Portland Lit Mic is a community-oriented organization, dedicated to getting writers
Join us in celebrating Jade Chang's latest novel, What a Time to Be Alive. About the book: A deeply moving and often hilarious novel following a woman who becomes an internet folk hero in the most unexpected way, catapulting her into fame and influence just as she’s finally beginning to reckon with her complicated past Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed,
Join us in welcoming Omar El Akkad, Jeff VanderMeer, and Crystal Willer for a conversation on the work of Katherine Dunn, celebrating the posthumous release of her short story collection Near Flesh.
Kick off Banned Book Week with us on Sunday, October 5th , between 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.! We’ve teamed up with Libro.FM, Silent Bookclub, and over 400 bookstores nationwide to host a Read-In in protest of censorship. Bring your own book or try a recommendation from our shelves, grab a bite from our cafe, and come
Visual poetry is as expansive as it is playful which can complement any writer’s practice. Over the course of this six-week workshop, writers can expect to generate four new poetry experiments, one complete visual poetry project, and leave the workshop with a working knowledge of this exciting genre.
Join First Matter Press in celebrating the launch of their 2025 titles: The Dying Room by Annemarie Eayrs, Brava by Violeta Garza, first you must destroy the world by Claudia
Join us for a solo violin performance and talk by Oregon Symphony 2025/26 Artist-in-Residence, Simone Porter. Porter’s presentation is inspired by the works of philosopher Simone Weil, and Weil’s insight
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
2024 Oregon Literary Fellow, Karleigh Frisbie Brogan, joins us to celebrate her new memoir, Holding with Jon Raymond. A stunning debut memoir about addiction, self-discovery, and the relationships between mothers
A generative writing workshop to create material from a variety of prompts, models, and methods. We will build community with each other, learn some revision hacks, share feedback, and come away from the weekend intensive with plenty more to think about and develop in our writing practice.
Join us for an evening of poetry and conversation celebrating janan alexandra's debut poetry collection come from (BOA Editions). janan will be speaking in conversation with Jennifer (JP) Perrine, author
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 eight-week memoir workshop teaches writers how to transform personal experiences into compelling scenes that captivate readers. Students will learn to craft authentic moments from memory, weave reflection seamlessly into narrative, and build scenes that invite readers into their lived experiences while revealing deeper emotional truths.
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
Don your vegetables and celebrate the harvest season with us! We're channeling Fall energy with an Over the Garden Wall themed write-in this month, complete with molasses latte to celebrate.
The Golden Ass is an outsider’s portrait of life in the Roman Empire, which is both shockingly familiar and alsi truly strange. It is the only complete surviving novel from Greco-Roman antiquity,
A rich young Roman named Lucius goes to the annual Festival of Laughter in a town in Thessaly and meets a witch. She mistakenly turns him into a donkey. On his travels to find the plant with the magic antidote that will restore his humanity, he experiences his society from the animal's point of view.
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
In Western literature, scholars often reduce supernatural fiction to pulp, pop, or entertaining"fluff," which is somehow less noteworthy than other works of literature. Yet horror fiction often uses supernatural tropes of haunting and monstrosity to depict oppression, marginalized identities, gender, and "madness."
Through conversation and writing, we can consider how these modern and postmodern feminist authors expand Western literature and the gothic tradition through provocative first-person narratives.
The Bostonians is Henry James’s most explicitly American novel—and not only because the characters spend their time arguing about politics and gender. Set in the wake of the U.S. Civil War, the book explores loyalty and love, fanaticism and friendship, family feuds and Boston marriages.
In this generative and craft-focused class, we’ll explore how close reading can unlock our own voice. We’ll study excerpts from your favorite authors, examine sentence structure, tone, rhythm, and emotional pacing, and organize our findings into a living document you can return to again and again.
You have a great idea—but is it ready to become a book? In this interactive workshop, you’ll refine your nonfiction concept and clarify what your book is really about, who it's for, and how it stands out.
Calling all graphic novel readers! Join us in welcoming Johanna Taylor to discuss her latest, The Ghostkeeper. About the book: Dorian Leith can see ghosts. Not only that, he listens
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
Join us in welcoming Montana Poet Laureate Chris La Tray for the paperback release of his bestselling memoir, Becoming Little Shell. “Nothing less than the history of a people in
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