Bookstore Free Events
Banned Books Discussion
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore for a discussion on book bans with co-leader of the Oregon chapter of Authors Against Book Bans, Cat Winters. Learn more about how
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.
Online Class Writing Classes
Poetry Mixtape
In this 8 week class, we will read, explore and discuss the sequential poem in contemporary American poetry, from poets such as Lucille Clifton and Robert Hass to Sherwin Bitsui and Nam Le, and many more besides. Alongside conversations about published poetry we will build our own “mixtape” poems through a series of fun and inspiring exercises.
Free Events In-person
One Page Wednesday – October
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
Ticketed Events
Min Jin Lee in conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson
Literary Arts and The Reser are thrilled to present Min Jin Lee, author of the beloved novels Pachinko (an international bestseller and National Book Award finalist) and Free Food for Millionaires, for a conversation
In-person Writing Classes
Incredible Openings
What about any story makes you want to keep reading? In this class, we’ll look at the openings of several short stories and creative nonfiction pieces with a special focus on the craft: how was the story written in a way that makes it successful?
Bookstore Free Events
Andrew Barton, Ali Francis, and Lola Milholland in conversation
Literary Arts is excited to welcome author and journalist Ali Francis to celebrate her debut book, The Curious Lives of Vegetables, a wild journey through the hidden histories of plants.
Bookstore Ticketed Events
October Hand-Sewing Social with SCRAP PDX
 Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe to hand-sew decorative plush to celebrate spooky season! Sew felt pumpkins, ghosts, witch hats, candy, black cats, and more! ✨ Bring
In-person Writing Classes
Writing Spirals: Multicultural Contemplations on Beginnings, Endings, and Cycles
The spiral holds great meaning for cultures all over the world and has captivated our attention throughout ancient and modern time. In this 3-part generative writing workshop, we’ll expand our writing across multiple genres including poetry, essay, and narrative with prompts inspired by multicultural authors.
Free Events In-person
Slamlandia – October
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
We’ve Been Here the Whole Time!: Joey Clift
The Literary Arts Bookstore is thrilled to team up with Native Arts and Cultures Foundation to welcome Joey Clift for his book, We've Been Here the Whole Time! Featuring a
Bookstore Free Events
Kelly Grace Thomas in conversation with Joy Sullivan
The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe is excited to welcome author Kelly Grace Thomas to celebrate the release of her memoir-in-verse, Future Tense. Thomas will be joined in conversation by
Bookstore Free Events
Literary Trivia Night: Ursula K. Le Guin Edition
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for a night of literary trivia in celebration of legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin! Play as a team or solo
Bookstore Free Events
Dear Blind Lady: Elsa Sjunneson
The Literary Arts Bookstore is excited to welcome author Elsa Sjunneson to celebrate her new book, Dear Blind Lady! About the book: In Dear Blind Lady, Deafblind author and disability
Portland Arts & Lectures Ticketed Events
Portland Arts & Lectures 2026–27: Ayad Akhtar
Featured
Literary Arts is pleased to present Ayad Akhtar as part of the 2026-27 Portland Arts & Lectures series. Please note: a subscription to the entire 2026-27 Portland Arts & Lectures series is required to attend this event. Click here to subscribe.
Bookstore Free Events
ALTA BIPOC Translators Literary Caucus Reading
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for an evening of readings featuring members of the American Literary Translators Association’s BIPOC Translators Caucus. Co-organized by Elete Nelson-Fearon and
Bookstore Ticketed Events
Hand-Sewn Treasure Crows with SCRAP PDX
Literary Arts is thrilled to partner with our neighbor, SCRAP PDX, for a special crafty event! Join us in celebrating the return of the crows! You may have followed crows
Online Class Writing Classes
WRITING ANIMALS
Writing animals in fiction is a complex, rewarding and rejuvenating process. In this six week class, students will work on several in-class writing prompts to develop both writing and research skills to render an animal presence precisely on the page.
Bookstore Free Events
Ghostly Encounters: Open Mic
Join us at The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for a spooky storytelling open mic. Readers will have five minutes to enchant us with their ghoulish tales! Our only requirement
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Twice-Told Tales
This Delve seminar will focus on Hawthorne’s short stories—among the most thrilling, strange, and memorable in the American canon. We will explore his first collection of stories, Twice-Told Tales (1837, 1851) as well as a small selection of extraordinary later stories.
Free Events In-person
BIPOC Reading Series – October
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
Free Events In-person Oregon Book Awards Author Tour
Oregon Book Awards Author Tour Albany: Witches and Mystery
In partnerneship with Chapterhouse, Literary Arts brings the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour to Albany.
Free Events In-person Oregon Book Awards Author Tour
Oregon Book Awards Author Tour Redmond: Halloween Inspired
In partnerneship with Deschutes Public Library, Literary Arts brings the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour to Redmond with a spooky evening with Oregon Book Awards Authors.
In-person Writing Classes
Nature Writing
Throughout this six week course, students will look at the many ways in which humans are connected to our natural surroundings, both urban and remote. By delving into the inherent close relationship humans have with the natural world, each student’s path to writing their own stories using the natural world as scaffolding will emerge.
In-person Writing Classes
Roots in Old Stories: Writing with Folklore, Mythology, and Fairy Tales
In this course, we’ll study writing that engages with folklore in a wide variety of ways: speculative memoir that tangles with witch tales, poems that draw on botanical lore, short story fairy tale retellings, mythic poetry and fiction, and more.
Ticketed Events
Michael Lewis in conversation with David Shipley
On October 29, 2026, Literary Arts presents #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Lewis, in conversation about his new book.
Bookstore Ticketed Events
Lit Mic presents: Murder in the Bookstore II
The Literary Arts Bookstore and Cafe are thrilled to welcome Lit Mic for another immersive writing workshop! Participants will search for clues, interview witnesses, and conduct their own investigation
In-person Writing Classes
Journalism for Every Writer
As part of their training, journalists learn how to distill a story down to its core components, make it legible to a wide audience, and structure information to maximize impact. These are skills and practices that all writers can benefit from. Whether there’s a journalist character in your novel, a historical component to your memoir, a narrative aspect to your academic work, or a poem that provides a glimpse into an unknown world, this class will provide a basic understanding of journalism that any writer can apply to any project.
Free Class Portland Book Festival Writing Classes
Writing With Tarot
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.
Free Class Portland Book Festival Writing Classes
Starting the Story
This workshop will explore how to get started on writing the short story-- thinking through inspirations, exploring ways of writing compelling short story beginnings, and focussing on how to draw the reader in as you move the story forward from the beginning to the end.
Free Class Portland Book Festival Writing Classes
Plotting the Story
Explore ways plot functions in the short story, with tips and examples to guide you.
Free Class Portland Book Festival Writing Classes
Poetry as Personal Myth
Beyond the mundane details of our daily lives, our beings contain deeper layers that only the language of poetry can unveil; and myth has long been a way that poets have translated the epic, emotive, and transcendent qualities of their noticing. In this short workshop, we’ll look at a way to interweave mythos into our poetry writing, revealing personal mythologies, unexpected eruptions of wisdom, and a way of working that’s full of creative power.
Portland Book Festival Ticketed Events
The Hot Dog Cookbook Party with Farideh Sadeghin
Few foods inspire the kind of irrational devotion like a good hot dog. Chef Farideh Sadeghin is bringing The Hot Dog Cookbook: 50 Recipes for the World’s Best Food to
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Theodor Adorno: Minima Moralia
In this Delve we will study Adorno's Minima Moralia: Reflections from Damaged Life---the amazing book he wrote between 1944 and 1949 to explore his feelings about the calamitous situation of a world facing despotism.
Portland Book Festival
Soju Party at Han Oak
Closing out the Portland Book Festival with a special edition Soju Party, celebrating Korean food, drinking culture, and Irene Yoo’s James Beard Award-winning cookbook, Soju Party: How to Drink (and
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These and Foster
This is an important novella in the vein of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, but with an ending that packs a different punch. At its center is a man torn between family, community, church, and one young woman in a terrible predicament. He must make a choice, and Keegan’s exquisite, concise writing reveals that agonizing choice. It’s a perfect story to ponder and discuss: What would you choose in his situation?
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Claire Keegan: Small Things Like These and Foster (Tuesday nights)
Second section added for Tuesday nights. This is an important novella in the vein of Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, but with an ending that packs a different punch. At its center is a man torn between family, community, church, and one young woman in a terrible predicament. He must make a choice, and Keegan’s exquisite, concise writing reveals that agonizing choice. It’s a perfect story to ponder and discuss: What would you choose in his situation?
Online Class Writing Classes
Writing with Tarot
This multigenre workshop will introduce techniques for using tarot in one’s writing practice. We’ll use tarot cards to generate new ideas and new writing through writing exercises; practice character, story, and image development using tarot symbols; learn how tarot can help us plumb the depths of our ideas; and discover how to work with the tarot from generation through revision
Bookstore Free Events
November Write-In: Ancestors
Come on down to the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for our monthly write-in. This month’s theme is Ancestors! This month's specialty drink is called Grandma’s Favorite. This drink has all the comfort
Bookstore Free Events
Rebecca Handler in conversation with Selina Fillinger
The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome author Rebecca Handler to celebrate her new novel, In the Round. Handler will be joined in conversation by Selina Fillinger. About the
Ticketed Events
The Moth Mainstage: Tightrope
This December, The Moth’s anticipated Mainstage season comes to Portland in partnership with Literary Arts. One foot in front of another… Join The Moth this fall for TIGHTROPE, an evening
Bookstore Free Events
December Write-In: Little Women
Come on down to the Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for our monthly write-in. This month’s theme is Little Women! This month's specialty drink is called March’s Mulled Wine. Sit
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Charles Dickens: Our Mutual Friend
Dickens turns his pen onto a satiric look London’s pursuit of Money and Society, and a bitter one at the state of the poor and those whose living are derived from the great and polluted River Thames, the powerful controlling symbol that unites many of the characters and plots in the novel.
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Yu Miri: Tokyo Ueno Station
Through journaling and discussion, we’ll work our way toward a greater understanding of the novel Tokyo Ueno Station’s view on contemporary Japan, and the fractured structure Yu employs to explore one man’s memories. Over the course of our time together, we’ll gain insights into our own places, decisions, losses, and joys, reading and journaling toward a finer understanding of life’s fragility and resilience.
Online Class Writing Classes
Writing Authentic Characters
Writing Authentic Characters is a four-week course for writers who want to understand their characters more deeply and make them feel believable and relatable to readers. Each week will include examples from fiction or film, discussion, and guided writing exercises. In the final week, you’ll spend more time developing a short extract, either from your own work or from one of the prompts provided, using the techniques from the course to strengthen the character’s motivation and subtext.
Delve Readers Seminars In-person
Reimagining the Books That Shaped Us
In this four week Delve, we’ll revisit four iconic works of middle grade fiction—Island of the Blue Dolphins, Hatchet, Julie of the Wolves, and Jacob Have I Loved. We will come to these books as adults with new questions. Throughout the course, we will weave between how the books existed in their time and what they have to offer us now.
