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.

Monday

Mar 30

Saturday

Mar 28

In-person   Writing Classes  

Advanced Short Story Workshop

In this short story-specific workshop we will read, discuss, and critique each other’s complete short stories in a supportive environment. We will also read published stories, and practice craft and editing techniques. We will close with an emphasis on radical revision practices so that you may continue polishing your work.

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Thursday

Mar 26

Wednesday

Mar 25

Saturday

Mar 21

Thursday

Mar 19

Wednesday

Mar 18

Bookstore   Free Events  

March Write-In: Beware the Ides of March

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend us your pens—and join us for our monthly write-in! We'll be listening to some instrumental music inspired by the Ancient Romans as we lock-in for two hours of focused writing time. Stop by the cafe for the special, Brutus’ Kiss—an iced matcha layered with a cranberry orange float, beware, this delicious

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Tuesday

Mar 17

Saturday

Mar 14

Thursday

Mar 12

Bookstore   Ticketed Events  

March Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX

Join us to hand-sew decorative plush to welcome the new leaves with our friends from SCRAP PDX! Sew spring flowers, birds, raindrops, and more. ✨ Bring a friend! Make a friend! Grab a beverage, browse the books, and gather round to sew some sweet spring things to celebrate the equinox. Traceable templates & embroidery stitch

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Wednesday

Mar 11

Tuesday

Mar 10

Bookstore   Free Events  

Scott Broker in conversation with Peter Rock

The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome Scott Broker to celebrate their debut book, The Disappointment. Broker will be joined in conversation by Peter Rock. About the book: Set during a doom-fated vacation to the Oregon coast, The Disappointment follows a couple trying to hold close to one another while a bent reality—warped by personal losses

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Saturday

Mar 7

Bookstore   Free Events  

Learn to Build a D&D Character

Have you ever felt like playing Dungeons and Dragons but didn’t know how to start? Join us at Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for a D&D character building workshop. We will go over races, classes, and pose questions and prompts to help you flesh out exactly who you want your character to be. We will

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Thursday

Mar 5

Bookstore   Free Events  

Kim Fu in conversation with Emma Pattee

The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome Kim Fu to celebrate her latest book, The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts. Fu will be joined in conversation by local author Emma Pattee. About the book: From the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century comes The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts—an eerie, spellbinding

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Wednesday

Mar 4

Tuesday

Mar 3

Bookstore   Free Events  

Paige Thomas in conversation with Blair Thomas

The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome our colleague and friend Paige Thomas to celebrate her debut poetry collection, Person Under! Paige will be in conversation with her sister, Blair Thomas. About the book: “Paige Thomas’s stunning debut Person Under is a work of pure magic. In Thomas’s talented hands, this impersonal, reductive guardianship

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Wednesday

Feb 25

Tuesday

Feb 24

Tuesday

Feb 24

In-person   Writing Classes  

Humor Fiction Workshop

What makes a funny story more than just an elbow jabbing good time? In this class, we’ll read several humorous short stories and figure out what makes them impactful, lasting and literature.
In this six-week, workshop-meets-craft class, we’ll dissect five 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. Each writer will have the opportunity to have one short story workshopped in this class, with written and verbal feedback from both instructor and peers.

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Monday

Feb 23

Saturday

Feb 21

Friday

Feb 20

Bookstore   Ticketed Events  

LitMic presents: LOVE IS MURDER

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. This is a ticketed event. Tickets available below.    About Lit Mic: Portland Lit Mic is

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Thursday

Feb 19

Tuesday

Feb 17

Thursday

Feb 12

Bookstore  

February Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX

Join us to hand-sew decorative plush charms to exchange with your beloveds and besties!! Embroider a love note, a candy heart, a strawberry, a chocolate truffle... ✨ Bring a friend! Make a friend! Grab a beverage, browse the books, and gather round to sew some sweet nothings to celebrate the season of love! Traceable templates

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Wednesday

Feb 11

Wednesday

Feb 11

Bookstore   Free Events  

February Write-In: Dreams

Fight off those last lonely nights of winter with an extra dreamy write-in at the Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe! In order to channel our most mystical energy, we'll be playing the stylings of Fleetwood Mac and offering a Lucid Lavender special in the cafe—a warming drink with the calming effects of lavender, sweetness of white

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Tuesday

Feb 10

Bookstore   Free Events  

Emily Nemens in conversation with Kathleen Boland

The Literary Arts Bookstore is proud to welcome author Emily Nemens to celebrate her latest book, Clutch. Nemens will be in conversation with Kathleen Boland. About the book As undergrads, Reba, Hillary, Carson, Gregg, and Bella formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promise—friendship that lasts a lifetime. Two decades later, the women are

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Tuesday

Feb 10

In-person   Writing Classes  

The Art of Fiction

While this course will predominantly take the form of a workshop, it will also feature discussions of published works to explore the “absolutes” that govern the art of fiction and creative nonfiction, as well as to equip students to appreciate how they might bend if not break these rules in service of the stories that they hope to tell.

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Tuesday

Feb 10

Saturday

Feb 7

Friday

Feb 6

Friday

Feb 6

Wednesday

Feb 4

Sunday

Feb 1

Wednesday

Jan 28

Free Events   In-person  

BIPOC Reading Series

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 readers for

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Tuesday

Jan 27

Monday

Jan 26

In-person   Writing Classes  

So the Story Begins

Every story emerges from a prompt: a memory, an image, an historical incident, a song, a family tale. Experimenting with a wide array of such prompts can be a great way of discovering and developing stories, especially the ones that you didn’t know you wanted to tell.

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Sunday

Jan 25

Bookstore   Free Events  

Charise Mericle Harper: WRONG FRIEND

Join the Literary Arts Bookstore for a very special event with Charise Mericle Harper for the release of her latest graphic novel, Wrong Friend! About the book: What happens when your BFF is no longer forever? A fresh and honest graphic novel about friendships lost and found. Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier! Charise and

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Thursday

Jan 22

Bookstore  

January Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX

The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe is thrilled to partner with SCRAP PDX for monthly crafting events. Join us to hand-sew decorative plush charms in the stylings of: tiny books! Plush pencils and pens! Wintery motifs! And more... ✨ Bring a friend! Make a friend! Grab a beverage, browse the books, and gather round to sew some

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Tuesday

Jan 20

Bookstore   Free Events  

Sangamithra Iyer in conversation with David Naimon

The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome Sangamithra Iyer to celebrate their book Governing Bodies. Iyer will be joined in conversation by David Naimon. About the book:  A beautifully rendered debut memoir of family, legacy, conservation, the natural world—and those who inhabit it. As a civil engineer, Sangamithra Iyer knows about resilience from studying

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Tuesday

Jan 20

In-person   Writing Classes  

Your Novel’s First Pages

In this workshop, we’ll read the first pages of novels by writers like Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Celeste Ng, Julia Armfield and more. We’ll consider the craft of a novel’s beginning and ways this can fit into the process of writing the full manuscript. Students will workshop their own first pages with each other and receive instructor feedback on up to 25 pages that begin their novels.

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Thursday

Jan 15

Thursday

Jan 15

In-person   Writing Classes  

Get Writing 2026: New Prompts for the New Year

In this 8-week, in-person class, we’ll focus on one of the hardest parts of writing: writing. If you’ve taken Get Writing before, in January 2026 we’ll use all new writing prompts and exercises. If you’ve never taken it, we encourage you to get writing! This class is open to all writers wanting to generate new work and learn more about the craft of writing.

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Tuesday

Jan 13

Bookstore   Free Events  

January Write-In

Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe for our first write-in of 2026! This month, we're channeling growth and change by celebrating metamorphosis. Whether it's you emerging from the soft blanket of the holiday season, a caterpillar shifting into a butterfly, or a salesman who inexplicably awakens as a bug, all stories welcome.

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