Words Matter Fall 2012

FALL 2012

MATTER Literary Life Beyond the Classroom

by Hunt Holman

Like many of the adolescents we serve,

Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program is changing rapidly.

Our core residency program, begun in 1996 at Grant High School, continues to provide Portland public high school students with semester-long workshops taught by professional writers. Poets, playwrights, journalists, fiction writers, memoirists, and graphic novelists help students refine their skills in the fundamentals of the writing process: composing, revising, editing, and publication. Each residency culminates in a celebratory reading at a neighborhood bookstore or café, and many students are published in the annual WITS anthology. While this program remains the foundation of WITS’ engagement with our public schools, lately we have added some new tools to the kit.

One flourishing program is the partnership between Multnomah County

Legendary broadcaster Tom Brokaw meets with students at the Literary Arts events space.

Library, the Library Foundation, and Literary Arts to present the Everybody Reads author at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in March. Over the past two years, nearly 1,900 students from throughout Multnomah County have received free tickets for the Wes Moore and Heidi W. Durrow lectures, as well as free copies of the Everybody Reads books, and transportation to the Schnitzer. Another successful initiative is Students to the Schnitz, which is helping teens become a regular presence throughout our Portland Arts & Lectures season. This year Literary Arts donors will give school groups 100 free tickets, free books by the respective authors, and transportation to each Arts & Lectures event.

To help teens connect strong writing and creative thinking with success in the real world, we also coordinate school visits by many of our Portland Arts & Lectures authors. Last year, for example, Tom Brokaw, Abraham Verghese, and Chimamanda Adichie met with students. When nationally recognized storytelling troupe The Moth arrives next February, they will lead a schoolbased MothSHOP at Franklin High School, as they have in years past at Marshall and Benson High Schools.

This weeklong intensive concludes with

WITS Fundraiser Join us on Tuesday, October 16 at Bluehour restaurant for the annual WITS fundraiser. We will enjoy delicious food, great wine, and hear firsthand from the teens, teachers, and principals who are most affected by the Writers in the Schools program. This inspiring event celebrates student possibility and achievement. If you’d like to be involved, please contact Lydah DeBin at 503.227.2583 x106 or lydah@literary-arts.org.

students telling true stories of their own experience to an audience of their peers.

WITS also offers one-day college writing workshops at three high-need schools, pairing volunteer writing mentors with 90 students to help them develop their college admission and scholarship application essays.

Last year, audiences packed the 300seat Mission Theater for the first-ever continued on page 6

Words from the Director › 2 The Delve Experience › 3

Connect with Literary Arts online!

Calendar of Events › 4 – 5

»» Visit literary-arts.org »» Find us on Facebook: facebook.com/literaryarts »» Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/literaryarts »» Get news about Oregon writers and readers: paperfort.blogspot.com

@LiteraryArts Begins › 6

1

Words from the Director If you subscribe to Portland Arts & Lectures, there’s a moment I want you to seek out. Arrive in the lobby a little early for one of our presentations and head up to the balcony that overlooks the grand lobby of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. At first you will observe loyal subscribers arriving to pick up tickets, meeting their friends, or having a drink at the bar. What happens next does not belong to our past, but to our present and our future. One hundred high school students will arrive. They will pour into the lobby and bring a colorful burst of energy. Many of them will look up into the high vault of that ceiling for the first time. By the end of the evening, those students will have heard an author of international renown speak about their life and work, and will have observed you, our large and engaged audience. Some of them will realize this very grand concert hall belongs to them, too. Reading and writing are not simply school activities, but values that people carry throughout their lives.

But Portland Arts & Lectures and special events are just one of the ways Literary Arts serves the community. Taken together, the programs of Literary Arts reach tens of thousands of Oregonians to build and support an intergenerational community around literature. We give direct financial support to writers and bring those writers into our public school classrooms.

Students are invited out of classrooms and into the concert hall. And in our new center in downtown Portland, we’re providing access to an incredible group of local writers presenting work in highly innovative ways.

This year we will celebrate our finest writers at the Oregon Book Awards ceremony and crown a new crop of young poets at the second annual city-wide teen slam poetry competition, Verselandia. You will hear us on the radio statewide, and the Oregon Book Awards author tour will travel to nine towns to offer free workshops, readings, and classroom visits.

So whether you are a subscriber, or a Delver, a seasoned writer or just finishing your first poem, we hope you will find something inspiring in our programming this year—something that will remind you of the incredible literary culture that is thriving in Oregon.

Literary Arts is funded in part by: Andrew Proctor, Executive Director andrew@literary-arts.org

Build community with us.

Your support will help: • Send writers to teach semester-long creative writing workshops in Portland’s public high schools. Last year we reached 1,015 students in 44 different classes across the curriculum.

• Support over 100 writers a year with awards and employment, and send writers on an author tour across Oregon.

• Hold over 135 literary events statewide.

• Reach a total audience of over 10,000 plus tens of thousands of additional people through radio broadcasts and poems posted on TriMet buses.

Contributions from individuals and businesses make up 60% of our operating budget.

Give today!

Donation envelope enclosed

2

MATTER

The Delve Experience by Caroline Petrich recently who waved at me and, seeing my confusion, called out, “Ulysses!”

Ah, yes, that Delve—nice to see you, friend! Who knows who else I’ll meet in future seminars, traversing the world of the three Brontë sisters, getting lost in Samuel Beckett’s fiction, or wandering around William Faulkner’s fertile Southland.n

Upcoming Delves Works of Octavio Paz

I must confess: I’ve taken fourteen

Delve Readers’ Seminars, so I’m a bit unabashed in my enthusiasm for them.

These unique and accessible seminars offer a satisfying complement to Portland Arts & Lectures, which has introduced me to many amazing living authors. It’s Delve, though, that brings legendary works to life. I relish discovering that they have something to say to me now, not to mention taking me on such memorable adventures: stepping gingerly on deck around Captain Ahab, touring Hell with Dante, spending a summer day with Leopold Bloom, and storming the Bastille with Madame DeFarge—and all in the company of fellow readers, many of whom are now friends.

Literary Arts started Delve in 2005.

The small seminars allow participants to study celebrated literary works unpinned and outside of the scholarly glass case. Books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin or The Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, placed within the context of the early 21st century, take on an especially potent resonance. Consider Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, which compelled my fellow Delvers and me to feel the experience of combat and how it impacts all of society, whether the theater is in Japan or Afghanistan in the War on Terror.

Delvers Carl Wilson, Lois Leveen, and Stella Voreas

Delve participants digest texts slowly through six two-hour seminars held weekly, being led by a local literary scholar who guides the discussions beyond stale review. Because of this, Delve welcomes an audience diverse in age, profession, and familiarity of literary works. What participants share is a curiosity to know more and a desire to read deeply, which inspires a rich exploration of—take your pick—novels, essays, plays, and poetry from the legendary greats like Homer and Milton to the modern brilliance of Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace.

Occasionally I’ll see someone I think I know, like the guy at the theater

Literary Arts pairs with AHA! Literary Arts is excited and proud to welcome AHA! as our creative communications agency partner. On behalf of our community of writers, readers, subscribers, and donors, many thanks to Betsy Henning and the entire AHA! team.

Octavio Paz was a writer, poet, diplomat, and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. He was a profound, thoughtful, and brilliant intellectual who led and defined the literature and cultural scenes of Mexico.

Mondays, Sept. 24 – Oct. 29 6:30–8:30pm, $185

The Poisonwood Bible

We’ll explore the richness and depth of themes of Kingsolver’s most famous novel, including colonization, religious fervor, and the complications of family dynamic.

Thursdays, Nov. 1–15, 6:30–8:30pm, $100

The Beckett Trilogy

Most people know Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett for his plays, Waiting for Godot to name one, but Beckett considered himself a novelist first. The Irishman is well-known for stripping the narrative form to its bare bones.

Mondays, Nov. 5 – Dec. 10 6:30–8:30pm, $185

William Faulkner

In reading The Sound and the Fury alongside The Unvanquished, we’ll see Faulkner at his most and least experimental. Though both novels are set in his imagined Yoknapatawpha County, aesthetically they seem worlds apart.

Tuesdays, Nov.13–Dec. 18 6:30–8:30pm, $185

3

Feb.– May 2013: Oregon Book Awards Author Tour

Events are added regularly. For complete and updated information visit www.literary-arts.org Sept. 5 — John Updike: The “Rabbit” Series (Delve Seminar)

Between 1960 and 1990, John Updike wrote four novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom that, read together, offer readers not only one character’s experience of 20th-century America, but also an overview of the career of one of America’s most significant writers.

Wednesdays, September 5 – October 24, 2012 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts

Sept. 8–29 — Advanced Fiction Class with Emily Chenoweth

In this intensive, four-week workshop, students will read and discuss their worksin-progress; it is these texts that will be the primary focus of our time together. Class size limited to nine. Registration by invite only.

Saturdays, September 8 – 29, 2012 10:00am – 12:00pm Contact Susan Denning with questions susan@literary-arts.org or 503.227.2583 x107

Sept. 9 — Ira Glass: Reinventing Radio Ira Glass is the host and creator of the public radio program This American Life.

Under Glass’s editorial direction, This American Life has won the highest honors for broadcasting and journalistic excellence, including several Peabody and DuPont-Columbia awards.

Sunday, September 9, 2012 at 7:00pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Sept. 13 — The American Short Story (Delve Seminar)

This Delve seminar will look into some of the foundational texts of American consciousness—the stories so familiar that they have become our myths—and ask what, if anything, we can take away from them today.

Thursdays, September 13 – October 18, 2012 6:30–8:30pm at PCS

Sept. 20 Mark Bittman: The Future of Food

Mark Bittman is one of America’s best-known and most widely respected food writers. He is also a regular on the Today Show and he has authored more than a dozen cookbooks.

Thursday, September 20, 2012 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Tickets available at Ticketmaster Sept. 24 — The Works of Octavio Paz (Delve Seminar)

Octavio Paz was a writer, poet, diplomat, and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. He was a profound, thoughtful, and brilliant intellectual who led and defined the literature and cultural scenes of Mexico.

Mondays, September 24 – October 29, 2012 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts Oct. 2012 — Writers in the Schools Fall Residencies Begin

Professional writers will teach semester-long creative writing workshops at Benson, Cleveland, Madison, and Wilson High Schools. Workshops culminate in public readings at bookstores and cafés throughout Portland.

Oct. 11 Jeffrey Toobin

Portland Arts & Lectures season launches with Jeffrey Toobin, a staff

writer at the New Yorker and the bestselling author of The Nine and The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court. Toobin is also a senior legal analyst at CNN.

Thursday, October 11, 2012 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Oct. 16 — Writers in the Schools Luncheon Fundraiser

Each year, Literary Arts publishes an annual anthology of poems, prose, comics, and drama written by WITS students. In celebration of this year’s release, writers and students will share stories with new and longtime donors to raise funds in support of the WITS program.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012, 11:30am Bluehour — 250 NW 13th Avenue Call Lydah at 503.227.2583 x106 if you would like to attend or host a table.

Student Anthology. Each year, Literary Arts publishes an anthology of poems, prose, comics, and drama written by WITS students.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 7:30pm at Powell’s Books — Free and open to the public Jan. 2013 — Oregon Book Awards Finalists and Oregon Literary Fellowships Recipients Announced

The Oregon Book Awards honor outstanding books by Oregon authors. Oregon Literary Fellowships provide financial support to writers and independent publishers as they initiate, complete, and develop literary projects.

Finalists and Fellowships Recipients will be listed at www.literary-arts.org Jan. 10 — Jonathan Franzen

Oct. 19 — David Byrne

Powell’s Books and Literary Arts present David Byrne, author of How Music Works, in conversation with Portlandia writer and star Carrie Brownstein.

Friday, October 19, 2012 7:00pm Bagdad Theater

Nov. 2012 — Writers in the Schools college essay writing workshops at Portland high schools Nov. 1 — The Poisonwood Bible (Delve Seminar)

We’ll explore the richness and depth of themes of Kingsolver’s most famous novel, including colonization, religious fervor, and the complications of family dynamics.

Thursdays, November 1 – November 15, 2012 6:30 – 8:30pm at PCS Nov. 5 — The Beckett Trilogy (Delve Seminar)

Most people know Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett for his plays, Waiting for Godot to name one, but Beckett considered himself a novelist first. The Irishman is wellknown for stripping the narrative form to its bare bones.

Mondays, November 5 – December 10, 2012 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts Nov. 13 — William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury & The Unvanquished (Delve Seminar)

In reading The Sound and the Fury alongside The Unvanquished, we’ll see Faulkner at his most and least experimental.

Though both novels are set in his imagined Yoknapatawpha County, aesthetically they seem worlds apart.

Tuesdays, November 13 – December 18, 2012 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts Nov 16 — Barbara Kingsolver

Portland Arts & Lectures continues with Barbara Kingsolver, whose novels include The Poisonwood Bible, Animal Dreams, The Bean Trees, and The Lacuna. Her nonfiction includes the influential bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. Kingsolver’s work has earned literary awards and a devoted readership at home and abroad. Kingsolver will be in conversation with Literary Arts’ Executive Director, Andrew Proctor.

Friday, November 16, 2012 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Dec. 4, 2012 — Writers in the Schools Anthology Release Party at Powell’s Books

Join us for a celebratory reading of student work published in our 2011–12

Portland Arts & Lectures continues with Jonathan Franzen, whose books include The Corrections, Freedom, How to Be Alone, and the memoir The Discomfort Zone. A new essay collection, Farther Away, will appear in April 2012. Freedom won the 2011 John Gardner Prize for fiction and the Heartland Prize.

Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Jan. 15 — Contemporary Israeli Narrative: Oz, Yehoshua & Keret (Delve Seminar)

We will explore three of the most influential contemporary authors in Israel today including Amos Oz’s The Same Sea and A.B. Yehoshua’s Mr. Mani and Keret’s short stories from The Nimrod Flipout.

Tuesdays, January 15 – February 19, 2013 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts

Jan. 21 — Charles Dickens: Our Mutual Friend (Delve Seminar)

This Delve will explore Dickens’s complex world beset with money, obsession, social climbing, and murder along with love, charity, and compassion. Our Mutual Friend is a unique mirror that Dickens holds, reflecting his times as well as ours.

Mondays, January 21 – February 25, 2013 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts Jan. 23 — Irish Theatre (Delve Seminar)

Irish theatre experienced a renaissance with the founding of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin in 1904. We will explore plays by John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey, and contemporary playwrights such as Brian Friel, Conor McPherson, and Marina Carr.

Wednesdays, January 23 – February 27, 2013 6:30 – 8:30pm at Literary Arts Feb. 2013 — Writers in the Schools Spring Residencies Begin

Professional writers will teach semester-long creative writing workshops at Alliance, Grant, Lincoln, MLC, Open Meadow, and Roosevelt High Schools.

Workshops culminate in public readings at bookstores and cafés throughout Portland.

Feb. 5 — The Moth in Portland

Imagine only having ten minutes to tell your life story. Back by popular demand, The Moth returns to Portland. This storytelling troupe sells out quickly so get your tickets early and experience one of America’s favorite podcasts in person.

More information at www.literary-arts.org

Tuesday, February 7, 2013 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

The Oregon Book Awards Author Tour brings finalists to bookstores, libraries, and art centers in towns throughout Oregon for readings, workshops, and conversation. We hope to see you at one of our tour readings.

More information at www.literary-arts.org

March 5 — Stephen Greenblatt

Portland Arts & Lectures continues with Stephen Greenblatt, who recently won both the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern. He is Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard and is generally considered the preeminent Shakespeare scholar in the United States today.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Mar. 12 — Everybody Reads: Sherman Alexie

In partnership with Multnomah County Library and the Library Foundation, Literary Arts is pleased to host Sherman Alexie, whose books The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Ten Little Indians are the 2013 community reading project.

March 12, 2013 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Apr. 8 — Oregon Book Awards Fundraising Dinner

Each year, Literary Arts hosts a dinner to celebrate the accomplishments of Oregon’s literary community. In celebration of this year’s awards, writers will read and share testimonies with donors to raise general funds in support of the OBAs. More information at www.literary-arts.org

Monday, April 8, 2013 at 5:30pm Apr. 8 — Oregon Book Awards 26th Annual Ceremony

Join us as we honor some of Oregon’s best writers and celebrate our 26th Annual Award Ceremony.

More information at www.literary-arts.org

Monday, April 8, 2013 at 7:30pm Gerding Theater Apr. 23 Nikky Finney

Portland Arts & Lectures continues with Nikky Finney, who won the National Book Award for her most recent book of poetry, Head Off & Split.

Her other books include The World Is Round, Rice and On Wings Made of Gauze. She is Professor of English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 7:30pm Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Apr. 30 — Verselandia!

The second annual Verselandia! is a citywide, all high school poetry slam presented by Literary Arts and hosted

by PPS high school library media specialists.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013 at 5:00pm Wonder Ballroom

June 28 — Oregon Literary Fellowships Application Deadline Oregon Literary Fellowships help Oregon writers and publishers initiate, develop, or complete literary projects.

Applications and information at www.literary-arts.org

Aug. 30 — Oregon Book Awards 2014 Submission Deadline

Oregon Book Awards are presented annually for the finest accomplishments

by Oregon writers.

Applications and information at www.literary-arts.org

Programming Begins @LiteraryArts Last September, Literary Arts moved into a

newly renovated storefront center in downtown Portland. In line with our mission, one of our main goals in relocating was to more fully engage the literary community and reach new audiences. Now that the dust has settled (both figuratively and literally), we’re happy to report that this September we’ll begin several new partnerships with other organizations, bringing unique and exciting opportunities for participation among readers, writers, and a diversity of literary talent.

With the plethora of literary goings-on in Portland, Literary Arts wanted to help elevate and showcase the abundance of great work being done by so many reading series and programs across the city. Such outreach and connectivity has already had fantastic results. Last month, Paul Martone of Late Night Library interviewed Rob Spillman, an editor at Tin House Books, at the Literary Arts space, and then broadcast it online as part of the Late Night Library podcast.

With a number of artistic organizations, bookstores, and art galleries near Literary Arts in Portland’s West End district, we plan to host partnership programming

throughout the fall; several of the events will coincide with First Thursdays, and all are free and open to the public. Along with another reading and recording by Late Night Library this December, Literary Arts will also present Literary Mixtape, Small Doggies, and Loggernaut.

We’ll also open our doors in September for a publication release party for Oregon Literary Fellowship-winner basalt literary magazine. Jeffrey Levine of Tupelo Press, the judge for publishers fellowships last year, said, “basalt is doing gorgeous and exciting work.” The event will feature readings from the new issue’s contributors, including Greg Chaimov, Michael McGriff, Jenny Root, Ingrid Wendt, and others.

In addition, we have begun to offer classes taught by Oregon Book Awards authors. This fall, Emily Chenoweth, author of Hello Goodbye, will hold an advanced fiction-writing workshop and Oregon Book Award-winning poet Carl Adamshick will teach an advanced poetry class called “Building Your Book.” These new classes at the center are limited to nine students, and registration is by permission only. More classes will be offered this winter.

Organizations interested in partnering with Literary Arts, or writers interested in registering for the workshops, should contact Susan Denning at susan@literary-arts, or 503.227.2583 x107.n

@LiteraryArts events Loggernaut featuring Coleman Stevenson, Carter Sickels & Dan DeWeese September 6 at 7:30pm

basalt Release Party featuring current contributors September 13 at 7:00pm

Literary Mixtape featuring Chloe Caldwell, Michael Heald & James Bernard Frost October 4 at 7:30pm

Small Doggies featuring Brian S. Ellis, Lidia Yuknavitch & Rick Klaras November 8 at 7:30pm

Late Night Library featuring Kara Candito & Dan DeWeese December 6 at 7:30pm

continued from page 1

Literary Life Beyond the Classroom

6

The 2011–2012 WITS student anthology (cover design

by AHA!) will be released this fall.

Verselandia!, a district-wide poetry slam made possible through a collaboration with Portland Public Schools high school librarians and Literary Arts.

Students at each school competed and three finalists from each school came together to compete at the Mission for prizes including iPads, gift cards from The North Face, and the roaring cheers of the crowd. Verselandia! was marred by one really awesome flaw: there were not anywhere near enough tickets to meet community demand. This year, as Roy Scheider’s character said in Jaws, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat,” and we’re thankful for the support of

Portland Monthly, Dan Wieden, and Wieden+Kennedy.

Alongside these new ways to serve youth, WITS remains grounded in classrooms, partnering with high school teachers across the disciplines to offer semester-long workshops that deepen, amplify, and extend existing curriculum for writing. Literary Arts is grateful to host a uniquely vital branch of the national conversation that is our literature. The diversity of our programming helps us welcome young people into that conversation, and prepares them (and us) for the day they will lead it.n

MATTER

We thank our event sponsors Literary Arts Board Susheela Jayapal, Chair

Baker Ellis asset management llc

Betsy Amster Rick Comandich Tracy Daugherty Rebecca DeCesaro Robert Geddes Pamela Smith Hill Kurt Hutton Frank Langfitt

Phillip Margolin John Meadows Jessica Mozeico-Blair Jim Reinhart Barry Sanders Jacqueline Willingham Thomas Wood

POWERING

Strunk & White Society

An honorary society of distinguished advisors

Gwyneth Booth Bart Eberwein Brian Gard Diana Gerding Molly Gloss Ursula K. Le Guin Barry Lopez Carrie Hoops

Julie Mancini Brenda Meltebeke Diane Ponti Michael Powell Halle Sadle Steven Paul Taylor Steve Wynne

Oregon Book Awards & Fellowship Advisory Committee Tracy Daugherty, Co-Chair Pamela Smith Hill, Co-Chair Katie Anderson Nancy Boutin Karyle Butcher Julie Dixon

Cecelia Huntington Linda Leslie Michael McGregor Barry Sanders

Portland Arts & Lectures Patron Advisory Council Susan Hathaway-Marxer, Co-Chair Jessica Mozeico-Blair, Co-Chair Seth Alley Liana Colombo Rebecca DeCesaro Sue Einowski Ann Emmerson Nancy Gronowski Kristi Wallace Knight Deidra Miner

Steven Neighorn Jan Oliva Nancy Ponzi James Reinhart Reuben Rich Grace Sanders Roslyn Sutherland

Staff Andrew Proctor, Executive Director Jenny Chu Lydah DeBin Susan Denning Jennifer Fejta

Marshall Miller Mary Rechner Evan P. Schneider Mel Wells

Newsletter design by Olivia Croom

7

NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION US POSTAGE

PAID

PORTLAND, OR PERMIT NO.1652

MATTER

Contact Us:

Phone: 503.227.2583 • www.literary-arts.org Write or visit: 925 SW Washington St, Portland, OR 97205

Our mission is to engage readers, support writers and inspire the next generation with great literature.

Oregonians are passionate about books. And ideas, and great writing.

Literary Arts shares this passion.

The programs of

Literary Arts Portland Arts & Lectures brings the world’s most celebrated writers,

artists and thinkers to our community. In addition to live events that are broadcast statewide on OPB Radio, the program connects readers and writers of all ages with classroom visits and workshops.

Writers in the Schools hires professional writers to teach in Portland’s

public high schools for semester-long residencies that span the curriculum, reaching 2,800 students each year. Students share their work at community readings across the city, online and in print anthologies.

Oregon Book Awards & Fellowships celebrates Oregon’s

writers. The program promotes Oregon’s literature and provides financial support to writers and independent publishers. The Oregon Book Awards Author Tour connects writers and readers throughout the state with readings, workshops and school visits.

Delve: Readers’ Seminars offers the opportunity to explore great books with an experienced guide in the company of other dedicated readers.

Seminars are lively, in-depth discussions led by local scholars.