In this workshop, we will begin with an intriguing premise set forth by Phillip Lopate regarding the writing of personal narrative: “The antidote for defensiveness is self-curiosity.” Indeed it is the curious self, the reflective narrator willing to suspend defensiveness and instead cast back into the past to examine her own role in the dynamic, who is most engaging for the reader. We will spend these hours together discussing and then writing about the human impulse to blame the other, to blame the self, and how it is that the narrator can open up that propensity and instead become curious about her behavior and motivations and reactions. As Vivian Gornick reminds us, “We must know the loneliness of the monster and the cunning of the innocent.” 

Limited to 16 participants, contact smkorb@pacificu.edu to register ($125)

Join us every 3rd Saturday of the month for an Artist Talk! This June, we’ll hear from three creatives with an interdisciplinary show reflecting on the wildfires of 2017 and 2020. Each artist draws from personal experience with the fires in this show featuring paintings from Ann Ruttan, photography from Sarah Grew and writing from Apricot Irving.

Artists' Reception with Ann Ruttan, Sarah Grew and Apricot Irving

Join us in celebrating the work of Ann Ruttan, Sarah Grew and Apricot Irving. This interdisciplinary exhibit will feature paintings, photographs and language as vehicles for processing the wildfires of 2017 and 2020 which now visit us annually along the West coast. Meet the artists on First Friday, June 2 from 4-8pm.

We live among forests that are shaped by fire. There are so many actions we can take to protect our homes and communities as fire season approaches. And sometimes it’s important to remember what it felt like to see these beloved forests in flames—and to reflect on everything that we’ve learned, so that we’re grounded and ready for whatever we might be asked to face next. Setting aside time for grief can help build our resilience. And grief (strangely enough) can be an invitation to joy. Beautiful Bridal Veil Lodge, in conjunction with Firewise, is hosting a community writing event on Friday, April 28 from 7-9 pm, with an opportunity to walk along quiet forest paths before sitting down by the fire to write. No writing experience necessary. All ages welcome. This free workshop is for anyone who wants to spend an evening writing under the trees, reflecting on what it means to live in a fire-prone landscape and still keep our hearts open.

Readings at the Nick - a reading and Q&A from “The Gospel of Trees”

Author Apricot Irving in conversation with Deborah Reed at the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon.

Join us for a Spring Break afternoon on the Oregon coast, playing with words.

Point of View in Memoir: Playing with Perspective

In this workshop, we’ll expand the possibilities of the narrative voice by holding a scene up to the light and examining it from as many angles as possible. Memoirs are often written from a first-person point of view, but what happens when we expand those boundaries and tell the story from a different vantage point? What new truths can be discovered about a scene we thought we understood?

Community Partners for Affordable Housing signature fundraiser and well-respected literary event, includes dinner, silent auction, and local authors signing books available for purchase.

https://cpahinc.ejoinme.org/HWB2020

Ready for a furiously fast and fun hour of Literary Bingo? Join Lilla Lit for another round at Lit Crawl PDX November 8, at CENTRL Office. Got similes? Satire? Snakes? BINGO! Candy will be flung. Prizes will be won (by some). Bring your best game.

Our all-star lineup of Lilla friends: Becca Clarren, Kate Gray, Apricot Anderson Irving, Missy Ladygo, Gigi Little, Jessica Mehta, Elizabeth Scott, and Natalie Serber.

The Mid-Willamette Valley’s premier literary event, The Magic Barrel: A Reading to Fight Hunger, is held each fall in Corvallis, Oregon, to raise funds for Linn Benton Food Share. This unique event which began in 1993 is named after Bernard Malamud’s short story collection, The Magic Barrel, and features writers from around Oregon sharing their fiction, poetry, and works of nonfiction in brief readings.

2019 line-up: Barry Lopez, Mosley Wotta, Apricot Irving, George Estreich, Lauren Kessler, Suzy Vitello, Wendy Willis, Keith Scribner, Joe Wilkins, Sterling Cunio

The evening begins and ends with live music, beer, and wine, with all proceeds benefiting Linn Benton Food Share. The audience enjoys readings by novelists, poets, short story writers, and nonfiction writers. Courtesy of Corvallis’ local bookstore Grass Roots Books and Music, the authors’ books are made available to buy at the event, with all proceeds donated to Linn Benton Food Share.

​https://www.magicbarrel.org/

The event is supported by a major contribution from the OSU Center for the Humanities at Oregon State University, where Malamud once taught, and is organized by a group of Corvallis writers and readers.

An award-winning literary reading series. Events are held quarterly, on the third Sunday, from 4-6pm.. Each event features six authors, reading for eight minutes each on a specific theme.
• August 18: Truth and Reconciliation

Apricot Irving, Chelsea Biondolillo, Rebecca Clarren, Melissa Duclos, Michael Jarmer, Sara Rivara, Genanne Walsh, and John Sibley William

The Corkscrew Wine Bar is our venue, located at 1665 SE Bybee Blvd Portland, OR, 97202 http://www.corkscrewpdx.com

Please join us for a conversation about mistaken certainties and the missionary impulse.

Part history, part memoir, I Am a Stranger Here Myself taps the deepest dimensions of human yearning: the need to belong, the snarl of family history, and embracing womanhood in the patriarchal American West. Debra Gwartney becomes fascinated with the missionary Narcissa Prentiss Whitman, the first Caucasian woman to cross the Rocky Mountains and one of fourteen people killed at the Whitman Mission in 1847 by a band of Cayuse. Whitman’s role as a white woman drawn in to “settle” the West reflects the tough-as-nails women in Gwartney’s own family. Arranged in four sections as a series of interlocking explorations and ruminations, Gwartney uses Whitman as a touchstone to spin a tightly woven narrative about identity, the power of womanhood, and coming to peace with one’s most cherished place.

A quarterly literary reading series at SE Portland’s Leach Botanical Garden featuring poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on the evening’s theme. Join us from 4–6 PM on the third Sundays of February, May, August, and November, for food, drink, books, nature, culture, community, and readings from Portland writers and beyond.

Whether it’s a winter reading held in the warmth of the Fireplace Room or a summer afternoon under the trees on the Manor House terrace, the landscape and environment of Leach Botanical Garden infuses each reading with beauty.

Admission is sliding scale, with a suggested donation of $10. Food and drink are served.

The series is named after botanist Lilla Leach who, with her husband John, created the house and garden that is today Leach Botanical Garden. Every aspect of Lilla’s life story is captivating—her adventures and discoveries, her dedication to exploration and education, and her long and loving relationship with John. It feels fitting that a reading series held in her home be a continuation of Lilla’s own story. 

www.lillalit.com

www.leachgarden.org

Clackamas Community College’s annual creative writing conference – Compose – features a full day of workshops from local authors and publishers. This year, we are offering workshops in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, publishing, and more!!

Schedule for the Day:

8:45am-9:15am / Registration
9:30am-10:30am / Welcome Address
10:45am-12:15pm / Workshops
12:30pm-1:30pm / Lunch
1:45pm-3:15pm / Workshops
3:30pm-5:00pm / Workshops

Our Creatives confirmed so far (with more to be added soon):

• Kate Gray

• Kate Ristau

• Tabitha Blankenbiller

• Stephanie Lenox

• Dennis Stovall

• Brett Warnock

• Trista Cornelius & Robin Vada

• Melissa Duclos

• Apricot Irving

• Courtenay Hameister

• Jessica Wadleigh

• Wendy Willis

• Stevan Allred

• John Sibley Williams

Register here.

Workshops 3:30pm-5:00pm

Point of View in Memoir: Playing with Perspective

In this workshop, we’ll expand the possibilities of the narrative voice by holding a scene up to the light and examining it from as many angles as possible. Memoirs are often written from the first-person point of view, but what happens when we expand those boundaries and tell the story from a different vantage point? What new truths can be discovered about a scene we thought we understood?

Apricot Irving is the author of The Gospel of Trees, the 2019 Oregon Book Award winner in Creative Nonfiction. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and her reporting/writing has appeared on This American Life, Granta and On Being. She lives in the Columbia River Gorge.

 RSVP to https://beachbooks37.indielite.org/contact to reserve a spot

Cost: $35 includes catered lunch and autographed copy of The Gospel of Trees

An afternoon of reading and conversation with three Oregon Book Awards authors:

Apricot Irving, THE GOSPEL OF TREES, winner of the Sarah Winnemucca Award for Creative Nonfiction
Beth Wood, LADDER TO THE LIGHT, winner of the Reader’s Choice Award
Leni Zumas, author of the novel RED CLOCKS, winner of the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction

Join us for the 2019 Oregon Awards Ceremony, hosted by Cheryl Strayed on April 22 at the Gerding Theater at the Armory.

The Oregon Book Awards honor 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. Oregon Literary Fellowships provide financial support to Oregon’s emerging and established writers and publishers.

2019 OREGON BOOK AWARD FINALISTS

SARAH WINNEMUCCA AWARD FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION 
Judges: Amy Fusselman, Paul Lisicky, Terese Mailhot  

manuel arturo abreu, Incalculable Loss (Institute for New Connotative Action Press)
David Biespiel, The Education of a Young Poet  (Counterpoint Press) 
Apricot Irving, The Gospel of Trees (Simon & Schuster)
Dionisia Morales, Homing Instincts (OSU Press)
Meaghan O’Connell, And Now We Have Everything (Little Brown)

The winners will be announced live at the Ceremony on April 22.

For a list of the 2019 Finalists in all categories, and to buy tickets for the Oregon Book Awards, visit Literary-Arts.org

https://literary-arts.org/what-we-do/oba-home/