It still feels very much like summer here in Portland. However, fall is just around the corner. It’s a great time of year to renew your commitment to your writing and reading through one of our many writing classes or Delve Readers seminars.
We offer classes both online and in person, and aim to build a supportive community that provides opportunities for students from a wide range of backgrounds and interests to participate in an enriching experience. We have upcoming writing classes in memoir, writing for television, autofiction and more. Our popular nine-month novel intensive also returns this September.
Our Delve Readers seminars are discussion-based, led by experienced guides. These seminars cultivate community around the shared experience of in-depth explorations of works. Some of our upcoming Delve seminars focus on Ursula K. Le Guin, Zadie Smith, Anthony Trollope and The Hunger Games.
We strive to make our offerings accessible to more people. Through our Access Program we offer reduced-rate tuition and all classes and seminars have at least one spot available.
If you have feedback, questions, or just want to let me know how your writing is going, feel free to contact me at susan@literary-arts.org. I’d love to hear from you.
We hope to see you in a class, online or in person!
Susan Moore
Director of Programs for Writers
Literary Arts
Upcoming Writing Classes
Six-Month Memoir Intensive
Wednesdays, September 6-December 20, 2023 & January 10-February 28, 2024
6-8pm (Pacific)
Online via Zoom
Instructor: Michelle Kicherer
This six-month class is designed for memoirists in the early to mid stages of their memoir writing journey looking for consistent, in-depth feedback on their work.
Register Now
Having And Keeping A Beautiful Mind
Wednesdays, September 6-October 11, 2023
6-8pm (Pacific)
Online via Zoom
Instructor: Samandar Ghaus
In-class discussion and creative response will be supplemented by weekly generative writing homework designed to deepen our observation practices and empower us to interpret the world around us as lyric.
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Binge-Watchable
Saturday and Sunday, September 9 & 10, 2023
10am-2pm (Pacific)
In person at Literary Arts,
925 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregon
Instructor: Janna King
A treatment is the main foundational document that any writer will need to sell a TV series. In this weekend intensive, we will talk about all the elements needed in the most compelling TV series treatment.
Register Now
Nine-Month Novel Intensive: Thursday
Thursdays, September 14-May 16, 2024
6:30-8:30pm (Pacific)
Online via Zoom
Instructor: Cari Luna
This course for dedicated writers is designed to guide you through the writing and/or revising of your novel. 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.
(Class is also offered on Wednesdays).
Register Now
When Memory is Fractured: Using Fragments To Craft Memoir
Tuesdays, September 19-November 21, 2023
6-8pm (Pacific)
Online via Zoom
Instructor: Shilo Niziolek
In this ten-week workshop we will work with the cyclical nature of traumatic memory to begin crafting our memoirs, making form meet function.
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Pushing Through: Carrying Your Manuscript Over The Finish Line
Tuesdays, October 3-November 7, 2023
6-8pm (Pacific)
In person at Literary Arts,
925 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregonegon
Instructor: Emme Lund
This six-week course is designed to help students finish a draft of a fiction or non-fiction manuscript. We’ll read craft essays about drafting a book, set aside time each week to discuss problems we’re having with manuscripts, and design a schedule for each student to ensure everyone addresses the issues specific to their draft.
Register Now
View All Writing Classes
Upcoming Delve Readers Seminars
Zadie Smith: The Fraud
Wednesdays, September 13-October 4, 2023
6-8pm (Pacific)
Online via Zoom
Guide: Kesha Ajose-Fisher
This four-week Delve will focus on Zadie Smith’s new novel The Fraud. Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”
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Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Cycle
Tuesdays, September 19-October 24, 2023
6-8pm (Pacific)
Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregon
Guide: Benjamin McPherson Ficklin
The Left Hand of Darkness, The Word for World is Forest, & The Dispossessed are three of the most iconic novels by the legendary author Ursula K. Le Guin. Written within less than five years of each other, these novels all occur in the same science fiction universe that is most often referred to as Le Guin’s Hainish Cycle.
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He Knew He Was Right: Anthony Trollope
Mondays, October 2-November 6, 2023
6:30-8:30pm (Pacific)
Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregon
Guide: Sara Atwood
In this seminar we will explore the novel’s nineteenth-century historical and social context and consider the ways in which its themes continue to resonate for us today. We will also discuss the novel’s reception, influence and adaptations.
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The Hunger Games Trilogy: Building Even As We Tear Down
Tuesdays, November 7-December 12, 2023
6:30-8:30pm (Pacific)
Literary Arts, 925 SW Washington Street, Portland, Oregon
Guide: Heaven-Leigh Carey
This seminar is designed for anyone interested in social justice, political systems and dystopian literature. While it is a young adult novel, it remains a powerful and continuously timely commentary on the function of revolution.
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View All Delve Seminars
Upcoming Events
One Page Wednesday
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
7-9pm (Pacific)
In person at Literary Arts,
925 SW Washington St., Portland, Oregon
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 to read — or come to listen and prepare to be inspired. Hosted by Emme Lund.
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Oregon Book Awards: Submission Deadline
Submissions due Friday, September 8, 2023 by 5pm
Complete guidelines for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards are here, and guidelines for the award in Graphic Literature are here.
The Oregon Book Awards program honors the state’s finest accomplishments by Oregon writers who work in the genres of poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, literary nonfiction and literature for young readers. The finalists for the 2024 Oregon Book Awards will be announced in January 2024, and the winners will be announced at the Oregon Book Awards Ceremony in April 2024.
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Oregon Book Awards:
Special Awards
Nomination Deadline
Nomination deadline is Friday, September 8, 2023 by 5pm
Full guidelines and the nomination form can be found here.
As part of the Oregon Book Awards, Literary Arts offers three awards that recognize significant contributions to Oregon’s literary culture:
- The Charles Erskine Scott Wood Distinguished Writer Award is presented to an Oregon author in recognition of an enduring, substantial literary career.
- The Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award is presented to a person or organization in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s literary community.
- The Walt Morey Young Readers Literary Legacy Award is presented to a person or organization in recognition of significant contributions that have enriched Oregon’s young readers.