Create Your Own Writing Cafe

We love hosting events at The Stacks — especially reading and book signings. Once we decided to name ourselves The Stacks, and to fill our space with books, we started daydreaming about how to lean in to all things literary. Portland is a coffee town, but it’s also a city with a rich literary tradition — and so many incredible writers. Our official grand opening party, in early 2019, was a marathon reading - with 5-minute readings all day long, starting at 7am and going all the way until 6pm. Our first official writing workshop started in March of 2020….but quickly transitioned to an online workshop. During the pandemic, we hosted a handful of writing classes and workshops online.

Once it made sense to do things in person again, we wanted to host some kind of regular writing session, but we weren’t sure what that would look like. A class? An ongoing workshop? We wanted something that people could plan on, but also something that people could show up for at the last minute. Something that required people to do homework, or that relied on the exact same people showing up every week, wasn’t going to work.

What we came up with was Writing Cafe. Each week, we host two sessions, and each session begins with a poem being read aloud. I was inspired by my experience with the Pinewood Table writing group, where each workshop began with a poem — there was something magical about beginning the session by filling the room with words, and I wanted to replicate that. After the poem, we provide a writing prompt. Often, it’s inspired by the poem, but not always. Then, everyone writes! Toward the end of the session, we’ll turn the mic back on, and invite everyone to share what they’ve been working on — essentially a mini-open mic. It’s very low stakes, and casual — and a lot of fun.

Have you been to Writing Cafe? What did you think? Have you ever been inspired to make up your own version of a writing cafe/class/workshop? How did it go?