“Literary Arts is the central nervous system of Portland’s ambitious and impressive literary scene.”
—Willamette Week
Arts creates opportunities for readers and writers of all ages and walks of life to engage with literature. Explore our programming in the concert hall, in our community space, and on the radio all year long.
Attend live events, including author lectures and live storytelling.
Support for Literary Arts is provided by:
Enroll in writing classes and reading seminars.
Support writers of all ages.
Our live literary events bring the community together to hear and discuss the most compelling issues and ideas of our day. Join us throughout the year for special events with award-winning authors, artists, and thinkers.
Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer
Concert Hall
Tickets start at $30, at literary-arts.org
Join us for a special event with awardwinning author Ann Patchett in celebration of her forthcoming novel Tom Lake. After her talk, Ann will be joined in conversation with local bestselling author Cheryl Strayed. Tickets at the $85 level include a hardcover copy of the book.
Find a calendar of events at literary-arts.org/events
“One of our greatest living chroniclers of love and marriage—and its resounding impacts over generations— is back . . . Expect wonder."
—Elle
Tuesday, October 17, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
Keller Auditorium
Tickets start at $30, at literary-arts.org
Literary Arts is proud to present an evening with New York Times bestselling author Barbara Kingsolver in celebration of her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Demon Copperhead.
“May be the best novel of 2022. . . . Kingsolver's best demonstration yet of a novel’s ability to simultaneously entertain and move and plead for reform.”
—Washington Post
Tuesday, December 12, 2023, at 7:30 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer
Concert Hall
Tickets start at $25, at literary-arts.org
Literary Arts and The Moth are bringing a new lineup of storytellers to Portland. The Mainstage is the quintessential Moth experience, where five storytellers and a notable host share true personal stories, without notes. Experience true stories live.
We offer free and reduced priced tickets to all of our special events. Learn more at literary-arts.org/ community.
Thursday, April 4, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer
Concert Hall
Tickets start at $21, at literary-arts.org
Literary Arts is proud to host an evening with Gabrielle Zevin as the culminating event of the Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads program. This year's selection is Zevin's acclaimed novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.
In partnership with:
Since 1984, Portland Arts & Lectures has brought celebrated writers, artists, and thinkers to our community to discuss their work and the trajectory of contemporary culture, connecting readers and writers of all ages in a spirit of intellectual curiosity and engagement. Join us at the historic Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and be part of one of the largest live audiences for literature in the country!
“I am always pleasantly surprised by the authors I don’t know—which inspires me to be more adventurous with my reading selections.”
“Last year was my first year attending and I immediately knew this was an activity for myself that I wanted to continue to invest in. I feel excited to attend whether or not I know anything about the author.”
“I so enjoy that the authors do not read their works, but rather provide a lecture about writing or life or whatever they choose.”
“Literary Arts is a bright light. They are generous, organized, and forwardthinking. I wish every city had a literary arts organization with this much heart.”
— Ada Limón, 24th US Poet Laureate & 2022/23 Portland Arts & Lectures speaker
PORTLAND ARTS & LECTURES
2023/2024
ZADIE SMITH
SEPTEMBER 21, 2023
The 39th season of Portland Arts & Lectures offers five memorable nights with today’s most influential writers, including Zadie Smith, Mary Beard, David Grann, Charles Yu, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Zadie Smith will be interviewed by Parul Sehgal, New Yorker staff writer.
Subscribe today at literary-arts.org/PAL or by scanning:
MARY BEARD
OCTOBER 26, 2023
DAVID GRANN
JANUARY 25, 2024
Tickets start at $110 (just $22 per lecture!) for the five-part series.
CHARLES YU
FEBRUARY 29, 2024
AIMEE
NEZHUKUMATATHIL
APRIL 18, 2024
Thank you to our Portland Arts & Lectures sponsors and underwriters:
Portland Book Festival
returns to the Portland Art Museum and neighboring venues on Saturday, November 4, 2023. This daylong event features author discussions, pop-up readings, writing workshops for youth and adults, kids’ story time, an extensive book fair, local food trucks, and more.
“People were happy, polite, interested and courteous. The events that I was able to attend were terrific. Volunteers were so cheerful. The writers who I heard speak were terrific. Portland Book Festival made me fall in love with Portland again.”
— Portland Book Festival attendee
More information available at literary-arts.org/PBF
The Friday Night Book Market, sponsored by Wells Fargo, will take place Friday, November 3. Beat the crowd with early access to our exhibitor fair the night before Portland Book Festival!
Portland Book Festival
Cover to Cover expands the Festival into a weeklong event, featuring partner programming in unique spaces all over Portland! Make space on your calendar October 30–November 5.
Join us at the Portland Art Museum and neighboring venues. Stay tuned! The 2023 author lineup will be announced on September 12. Festival passes and writing class registrations will go on sale at that time.
#PDXBookFest
Learn more at literary-arts.org/PBF or by scanning:
Register and find more classes at literary-arts.org/write
Writing classes at Literary Arts are for students at all levels looking to advance their skills and make writing a priority in their lives. Whether you need help getting started or you’re a seasoned author seeking a community of writers who are serious about their craft, Literary Arts has a variety of offerings for you. We value experimentation, making mistakes, and learning from others as part of the process.
Delve Readers Seminars
cultivate community around the shared experience of reading. Explore classic and contemporary literature in an informal, friendly atmosphere. Students complete readings in advance and come prepared to discuss. We're continuing our “Delve for Writers” series focusing on close readings of narrative, form, and style that writers can incorporate into their own practice.
Thursdays, September 14, 2023–May 16, 2024 | 6:30–8:30 p.m. (29 sessions)
Online via Zoom
Instructor: Cari Luna | Tuition: $1,600
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. You’ll read excerpts from published novels by authors including Han Kang, Tommy Orange, Lina Meruane, Mitchell S. Jackson, Deborah Levy, and Susan Steinberg, as well as craft essays by authors including Dorothy Allison, Jane Alison, and Alexander Chee. Some weeks you’ll have craft assignments to complete outside of class, and other weeks we’ll do in-class exercises together. After the first month of meetings, two students will workshop each week. Each student will have the opportunity to workshop five times, turning in up to 25 double-spaced pages per submission. Students should be prepared to read and comment on up to 50 pages of their classmates’ work each week, in addition to keeping up with their own writing. (This class also runs on Wednesdays.)
Wednesdays, September 13–October 4, 2023 | 6:00–8:00 p.m. (29 sessions)
Online via Zoom
Guide: Kesha Ajose-Fisher | Tuition: $170
Zadie Smith, a 23/24 Portland Arts & Lectures speaker, is a critically acclaimed fiction writer, essayist, and playwright, whose work includes the novel White Teeth, winner of the Guardian First Book Prize, and On Beauty, winner of the Orange Prize for Fiction. This four-week Delve lead by Oregon Book Award winner Kesha Ajose-Fisher will focus on her new novel The Fraud, based on historical events from the 1800s.
Our Access Program offers writing class and Delve registrations at a reduced rate, which is 50% of the class tuition. For information on access rate tuition, visit literary-arts.org/access .
The Oregon Book Awards (OBA) & Fellowships program provides financial support and recognition to published and emerging writers across our state. The program also creates connections with Oregon’s readers and writers through free community programming throughout the state as part of the Oregon Book Awards Author Tour.
September 2023
Grand Ronde Community Center
Featured: Lidia Yuknavitch and Jon Raymond
September 8, 2023
The Writer's Guild of Astoria
Featured: Casey Parks
March 17, 2024
Linfield University and McMinnville Public Library
Featured: Sindya Bhanoo and Casey Parks
April 20, 2024
Cannon Beach: NW Authors Series
Featured: Sindya Bhanoo
Monday, April 8, 2024, at 7:30 p.m.
The Oregon Book Awards program honors the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction, and literature for young readers. Books published between September 1, 2022 and August 31, 2023 are eligible for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards. Finalists will be announced in January 2024, and winners will be announced live at the Ceremony. The award for Graphic Literature, which is biennial and alternates with Drama, will be awarded in 2024. Books published between September 1, 2021 and August 31, 2023 are eligible for the Graphic Literature award.
Oregon Literary Fellowships are intended to help Oregon writers at all stages of their career initiate, develop, or complete literary projects in poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, drama (including scripts for television and film), and young readers’ literature. Fellowships are also awarded to support Oregon’s independent publishers and small presses that demonstrate a commitment to literary publishing.
In January 2024, Literary Arts will award fellowships of $3,500 to eight writers and two publishers. In addition, Literary Arts will award two fellowships in the amount of $10,000, for writers of exceptional talent, to assist in the further development of their careers. One of these fellowships is specifically for a writer of color.
Find information and application guidelines at literary-arts.org.
Each year, Youth Programs inspires thousands of students through a variety of literary opportunities in the classroom and concert hall, including Writers in the Schools residencies, College Essay Exchange, Students to the Schnitz, and youth poetry slam competitions.
“I absolutely love words and using them in different ways to express feelings, thoughts, and emotion. Writing poetry has always either given me a sense of resolution or if not resolution, clarity. It helps me figure out what I really want or what I feel. Recently I have lost touch with this, and I had hoped that this [Writers in the Schools] experience would reignite my ability to write poetry, and my passion for it. I was not disappointed and look forward to going home so that I can spend time filling up an empty page with my own words.”
Thursday, April 25, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.
Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
Tickets start at just $10, available at literary-arts.org
Celebrate Portland’s youth poets during our annual Verselandia! poetry slam championship. Cheer on students from Portland and east Multnomah County public schools competing for poetic glory at this energetic and inspiring event.
Youth Programs hires local professional writers to teach over 40 creative writing residencies in Portland, east Multnomah County, and Woodburn public high schools. Residencies culminate in student readings, and the annual Writers in the School anthology, which launches at Portland Book Festival on November 4, 2023.
Volunteers from the Portland community meet with high school juniors and seniors to help with their college admission and scholarship essays. Fall and spring sessions available.
East Side Slam will continue to serve schools in east Multnomah County with their own poetry slam event.
Please contact alberto@literary-arts.org if you are interested in volunteering or scan to register:
Find
We host free events at our community space
year-round in downtown Portland. Resident series include the BIPOC Reading Series, Incite: Queer Writers Read, One Page Wednesday, and Slamlandia.
We partner with publishers, writers, and other organizations to host free events at our community space. Please contact jessica@literaryarts.org if you are interested in hosting a free event in the Literary Arts space in downtown Portland.
The Archive Project radio show and podcast features engaging talks, readings, and conversations from over 39 years of Literary Arts programming.
Presented in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Here are three ways to listen:
Tune in to OPB Radio every Sunday at 7:00 p.m.
Listen online at literary-arts.org/archive.
Subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Featured talks include:
In addition to recording current programming in consideration for future episodes of The Archive Project , the team at Literary Arts combs over 39 years of physical material, kindly stored by our friends at Multnomah County Public Library, to be converted and filed in our digital archive. Finding a working recording from our history and securing content rights allows us to share gems from the past for free with listeners in Oregon and beyond!
Literature strengthens our community through shared experiences and stories that deepen our understanding of the world and the people around us. Help ensure our programs remain free or low cost so that our entire community can participate.
Ticket sales cover just 36% of our programming budget, and we rely on generous donations from individuals like you.
SAVE
FOR
OCTOBER 5, 2023
Your gift of $2,500 or more helps strengthen our literary programming to reach the widest possible audience. For more information, please contact Bethany Byrd-Hill, Director of Development, at bethany@literary-arts.org or 503-227-2583 x 115.
After three years, we’re thrilled to gather again in person at the Portland Art Museum for Bookmark, our annual fundraising gala. Bookmark gathers our most passionate supporters who elevate our mission. Join us in celebration of the words and stories that inspire, connect, and transform communities. Learn more at literary-arts.org/bookmark.
Use this calendar for a quick reference of Literary Arts events happening all year long.
9/7 Special Event: An Evening With Ann Patchett, in conversation with Cheryl Strayed
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
9/12 2023 Portland Book Festival Author Announcement
9/21 Portland Arts & Lectures: Zadie Smith
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
10/5 Bookmark: A Benefit for Literary Arts
5:30 p.m., Portland Art Museum
10/17 Special Event: Barbara Kingsolver
7:30 p.m., Keller Auditorium
10/26 Portland Arts & Lectures: Mary Beard
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
11/4 Portland Book Festival
9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., Portland Art Museum
12/12 Special Event: The Moth Mainstage
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1/25 Portland Arts & Lectures: David Grann
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
1/29 Oregon Literary Fellowships and Oregon Book Awards Finalists Announcement
2/29 Portland Arts & Lectures: Charles Yu
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
4/4 Everybody Reads 2023: Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
4/8 Oregon Book Awards Ceremony
7:30 p.m., Portland Center Stage at The Armory
4/18 Portland Arts & Lectures: Aimee Nezhukumatathil
7:30 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
2024–2025 Portland Arts & Lectures
Season Announcement
View our full calendar of events and classes at literary-arts.org/events
4/25 Verselandia! Youth Poetry Slam Championship
7:00 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
