In-person Writing Classes
Writing with the Seasons: Summer
Through brief readings, writing prompts, and generative exercises, we’ll welcome in and attune our writing to the time of year.
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.
Bookstore Free Events
Portland Book Week 2026
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is thrilled to be a part of Portland Book Week 2026! Come on down to the store, buy a Portland Book Week tote bag, and check some items off your Bingo card. Also, check out these events at Literary Arts during Portland Book Week: Tuesday, June 9 at 5:30
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday – June
***NEW START TIME*** Starting in June, One Page Wednesday will begin at 6:30 PM, with open mic sign-ups opening at 6:00 PM. Here is an opportunity to share or listen
In-person Writing Classes
WRITING FIRST-PERSON FICTION
In this course we'll read a number of first-person stories and discuss the advantages and risks of this perspective and how the first-person perspective is effectively established and sustained. Participants will use prompts to experiment with the many possibilities of the first-person in their own creative work.
Bookstore Free Events
Rosiee Thor in conversation with Sydney Langford
Kick off Pride Month at the Literary Bookstore & Cafe! We are excited to welcome Rosiee Thor to celebrate their book, Being Aro: A Collection of Aromantic Stories about Love. Thor will be in conversation with local author Sydney Langford. About the book: Explore expansive aromantic love and connection in stories across genres These twelve
In-person Writing Classes
Write Like You’re Swimming: From Self-Doubt to Compassion and Creative Flow
Through guided meditations, writing exercises, and reading excerpts of big-hearted, emotionally courageous literature, writers of fiction and nonfiction will develop more self-connection, feel compassion for themselves as writers as well as for their characters, and care for their nervous system during the writing process, so they can enjoy more flow, catharsis, and joy.
Free Events In-person
BIPOC Reading Series – May
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
Bookstore Free Events
Steven Pfau in conversation with Milo Muise
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome Steven Pfau to celebrate his hybrid memoir, Say Nephew. Pfau will be joined in conversation by Milo Muise.
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia – May
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
Bookstore Free Events
Rex Marshall in conversation with Michelle Kicherer
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome Rex Marshall for his memoir, All the Work I Never Wanted. Marshall will be joined in conversation by Michelle Kicherer. About the book: The lady at the plastic-cup-making factory is missing her fingers. The kid at the burger joint is spitting on patties. The newspapers
Bookstore Free Events
Theatre Diaspora Presents: A Staged Reading of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them
Join us at the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for a staged reading of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat, directed by Terry Kitagawa. This event is free and open to the public. If you plan to attend, RSVP on Eventbrite here. About the book: Filipino-American siblings Edith and Kenny are
Bookstore Free Events
Stephanie Fairyington in conversation with Neil Cochrane
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome Stephanie Fairyington to celebrate their book Ugly. Fairyington will be joined in conversation by Neil Cochrane. About the book: A tender, moving, and insightful account of queer motherhood and an interrogation of life on the margins of American culture as a self-described “ugly” woman Ugly
Bookstore Free Events
May Write-In: Light
Join us at the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for our monthly write-in. At last, the long night has ended, and we're ready for Spring! With a bookseller-curated mix of songs featuring sunlight and brightness, we'll be channeling brighter days as we lock-in for a focused writing session. Our Food and Beverage Assistant Manager, Miah,
Free Events
Monuments We Need: A Creative Zine-Making Workshop (Sunday)
Featured
In this free, hands-on zine workshop, participants will use writing, drawing, and collage to creatively explore what they would like to see celebrated and remembered in Portland. Comics journalist and zine-maker Shay Mirk will lead this playful 90-minute workshop reflecting on Portland’s existing monuments and will lead the group through prompts to collaborate on a
Free Events
Monuments We Need: A Creative Zine-Making Workshop
Featured
In this free, hands-on zine workshop, participants will use writing, drawing, and collage to creatively explore what they would like to see celebrated and remembered in Portland. Comics journalist and zine-maker Shay Mirk will lead this playful 90-minute workshop reflecting on Portland’s existing monuments and will lead the group through prompts to collaborate on a
Bookstore Ticketed Events
May Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is thrilled to partner with SCRAP PDX for monthly crafting events. Stay tuned for details on this month's crafts! Hand-sew decorative plush to celebrate the most important meal of the day... BREAKFAST! Sew felt eggs, pancakes, waffles, bacon, coffee, and more. ✨ Bring a friend! Make a friend! Grab
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday – May
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
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Wallace Stevens: Collected Poems
Wallace Stevens is one of the most distinctive and extravagant voices in American poetry, an orator of the imagination and eloquent observer of the world's beauty. Beginning with the appearance of the astonishing Harmonium in 1923, Stevens published seven volumes of poetry while living an 'ordinary' life as an insurance executive in Hartford, Connecticut. His Collected Poems is a book of wonders, one of the landmarks of American literary modernism, and his poems are admired and studied for their lustrous language, their philosophical profundity, and their commitment to the importance of poetry in our everyday lives.
Bookstore Free Events
Erin L. McCoy in conversation with Erica Berry
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome poet Erin L. McCoy to celebrate her debut novel, Underlake. McCoy will be in conversation with Erica Berry. About the book: Twelve years ago, Otta escaped her small town, determined to become a marine biologist. Now she’s returned, carrying the guilt of a friend’s disappearance
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Faulkner and Morrison: Absalom, Absalom! and Beloved
Read Willima Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, both of which consider the many scars, healed and not, caused by enslavement and the Civil War. Thinking about history, memory, and what Morrison calls “rememory,” we’ll consider what it means to live in a nation, to inherit its past, and to fight for a better future.
Free Events In-person
BIPOC Reading Series – April
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
Bookstore Free Events
Priscilla Bernard Wieden in conversation with Kim Stafford
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is excited to welcome Literary Arts board member Priscilla Bernard Wieden for a special reading from her poetry collection, Solitary Light. Priscilla will be in conversation with Oregon's former poet laureate, Kim Stafford. About the book: Poetry is a conduit for communicating our shared experiences and broadening our understanding
In-person Storytelling Writing Classes
Bring Your Story to the Stage
This class is for anyone ready to take a personal 5-minute story and actively shape it for an audience. You’ll work hands-on with one story. Drafting, refining, and testing it aloud. We’ll focus on structure, pacing, and point of view, helping you find the spine of the story and decide what belongs in this particular version of the story and what doesn’t.
Free Events In-person Writing Classes
Writing with Tarot: Independent Book Store Day
Come celebrate Independent Bookstore Day at Literary Arts and take part in a free, two-hour condensed version of Miranda Schmidt's Writing With Tarot class.
Bookstore Free Events
STORYTIME WITH Leslie Barnard Booth
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe on Independent Bookstore Day for a special storytime featuring local author Leslie Barnard Booth. Saturday, April 25, is Independent Bookstore Day! Come celebrate with us at 716 SE Grand Avenue from 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m for a day full of books, community, festivity, and surprises!
In-person Writing Classes
EPISTOLARY POEMS
Participants in this one day class will read, draft, and collaborate in revising letter poems that balance the public with the private, the close-to-bone with the common. Through generative, constraint-based prompts, participants will explore the tension between forms of direct address and forms of poetic allusion to speak to, or point towards, what’s been left unsaid in their poems.
Bookstore Free Events
Independent Bookstore Day 2026
Join us for a day of giveaways, free workshops, food and drink specials, and more as we celebrate indie bookstores! Saturday, April 25, is Independent Bookstore Day! Come celebrate with us at 716 SE Grand Avenue from 9:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m for a day full of books, community, festivity, and surprises! 🎧 Libro.fm Golden
Bookstore Free Events
Sakura: Kanako Nishi and Allison Markin Powell
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is thrilled to welcome Kanako Nishi, author of the Japanese language novel Sakura and Allison Markin Powell, the English translator of the best-selling novel. This event will be moderated by Jay Boss Rubin and feature musical guest Gabriella Page-Fort. About the book:Â Available in English at last, the international
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia – April
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
Bookstore Free Events
Mud & Cherry Blossoms: Poems for a Messy Season
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome local poets Rebecca Clarren, Margot Kahn, and Daniela Naomi Molnar for an evening of readings and conversation!
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Marilynne Robinson: Home, Lila, and Jack
The three novels in this seminar all overlap in time and space with the mid-twentieth-century world of Gilead, while offering whole other stories and lives that offer perspectives on the great themes of race and racism, faith and family, punishment and reconciliation, love and loss and forgiveness. Set in the American past, Robinson’s novels nevertheless offer challenging insights and hope for today—hope for art, for the nation, for each other and individual selves.
Bookstore Free Events
April Write-In: Poetry
Join us at the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for our monthly write-in. April is National Poetry Month, so we are celebrating our poets. Whether you write poetry, prose, or something in between, all stories welcome! Our Food and Beverage Assistant Manager, Miah, cooked up a new special, the Sigh Swoon Sigh; a tangerine ginger
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Alone, Together: The Short Works of David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace was uniquely prophetic in his ability to diagnose the ills of America and where they were headed in the early 2000s. Toxic masculinity, mental illness, authenticity, empathy, and dopamine exhaustion though media are constants in his work and are best showcased through his short fiction and nonfiction.
In-person Writing Classes
The Sijo: Crash Course in Traditional Korean Poetry
In this one-day class, we will learn about the history of the sijo, its relevance to Korean literature, and the unique sensibilities and affordances of the form, while also getting several opportunities to write our own with guided instruction.
Bookstore Free Events
April Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX
Join us to hand-sew decorative plush to celebrate the rain! Sew felt raindrops, umbrellas, crows, and more. ✨ Bring a friend! Make a friend! Grab a beverage, browse the books, and gather round to sew some righteously rainy things to celebrate the equinox! Traceable templates & embroidery stitch print-outs provided. This event is self-guided and
Bookstore Free Events
Robyn Saunders Wilson in conversation with Michelle Kicherer
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is thrilled to welcome Robyn Saunders Wilson to celebrate her debut, Junkyard Princess! Saunders Wilson will be in conversation with Michelle Kicherer. About Junkyard Princess The year is 1983. It’s a time of both mullets and glam, Bowie and the Smiths, and for twelve-year-old Robyn: rusty old vehicles, terrifying
In-person Writing Classes
WRITING WITH TAROT
Try a tarot reading for a character or write a poem inspired by tarot images! Tarot is both deeply symbolic and highly narrative, creating a system that can inspire and guide many forms of writing. This multigenre workshop will introduce techniques for using tarot in one’s writing practice.
Bookstore Free Events
Dead Poets Society: Open Mic
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe cordially invites you to the first annual meeting of the Dead Poets Society, an open mic for dead people and their enthusiasts. This National Poetry Month, we’re celebrating the voices of poets from the past. Join us to celebrate the work of your favorite dead poet by sharing it
In-person Writing Classes
Writing with the Seasons: Spring
Does what you write or how you write it change with the seasons? In these quarterly gatherings we’ll meet to be inspired by the turn of the world.
In-person Writing Classes
THRUSH NOTES: Place-Based Writing and Poems
In this three week class, participants will diversify approaches to place-based writing by following the auditory threads within their poems and worlds alike. Each week, we’ll identify and write with sound-oriented devices to channel the sensuous qualities of our chosen environments.
Bookstore Free Events
Emergency Horse Launch
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is pleased to welcome Emergency Horse for the launch of their latest issue. Join us for an evening of readings and celebration. This event is free and open to all. About Emergency Horse The relaunch of the magazine happened this past September. Emergency Horse #8 featured an interview of
Bookstore Free Events
Nonprofit Publishing in an Era of Authoritarianism with Graywolf Press
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome Graywolf Press for a special discussion on non-profit and independent publishing in the modern age. This event will feature Carmen Giménez and Serena Chopra in conversation. About Graywolf Press Graywolf Press is a nonprofit literary publisher of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and work in translation.
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday – April
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-person Writing Classes
Novel Support: Weekly Check-In
Are you writing a novel? Do you want company? Writing a novel is an intensive and often lonely experience. This course brings novel writers at all stages of the process together to support each other for 8 weeks.
In-person Writing Classes
Writing the Emotional Truth
Go beyond recounting events—discover how to write with emotional honesty and depth. This
class helps nonfiction writers translate lived experience into meaningful stories that resonate
with readers.
