Anytime an Oregon author, or any other prominent writer, gave a reading at Powell’s Books, Steve Arndt would show up early, sometimes by a couple hours, and reserve front-row seats for his fellow writers. He wanted the writer giving the reading to know they had the support of Portland’s literary community.
His friends say that habit embodies Arndt’s kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness, and the way he fostered and strengthened a sense of community in Portland’s literary scene.
Arndt passed away on Friday, February 6, 2026. He was 77. The cause of death, according to close friend and novelist Gigi Little, was complications related to heart failure.
As news of his passing spread, his Facebook page filled with condolences and praise, with people calling Arndt “a strong literary light,” “a true devotee of the written word,” “a provider, a nurturer, a guardian angel,” “kind and generous.”
“He was absolutely the ambassador to the literary community in Portland,” Little, a novelist, editor, book designer and close friend of Arndt’s for more than 20 years, told Oregon ArtsWatch.
Arndt co-founded the Portland Writers Picnic, which takes place annually in Laurelhurst Park, as well as the reading series “Steve Arndt and the Spanbauerians,” which takes place at Bold Coffee and Books and features writers who are alumni of Tom Spanbauer’s well-known “Dangerous Writing” class.
He was also a volunteer with Willamette Writers and Forest Avenue Press.
Arndt was an alum of Spanbauer’s class as well. He also studied with Monica Drake, and was a member of Pinewood Table, a writer’s group led by Joanna Rose and Stevan Allred. “22 years ago Monica Drake invited me to join her writing class,” Arndt wrote in 2022. “Five of us around her kitchen table, little did I know that it would lead to the great fortune of my life … that being, one by one, getting to know all of you. Monumental thank you Monica.”
He wrote poems and personal essays, predominantly about nature and stories based on his life. “He was a beautiful landscape writer,” Laura Stanfill, writer, publisher of Forest Avenue Press, and a member of writing groups that included Arndt, said.
His writing has been published in Clackamas Literary Review, McKenzie Creel, Mountain Bluebird Magazine, and the ekphrastic art book The Untold Gaze. He also co-authored the book Don Gambril: A Coach with a Heart, the biography of Olympic swimming coach Don Gambril.
For many years, Arndt was at work on an 800-page novel, titled Most Stars and based on his life. Little shared a short excerpt with Oregon ArtsWatch:
“If the sun ever pokes out, the rain falling is silver. It angles into my windowpane leaving thousands of pewter dots. Rooftops below shine up like small lakes and, look down, you see how fast clouds are. Brown water eddies under bridges and cars hiss over like mad wet jets. You don’t see as many logs coming downriver anymore. Barges haul mounds of gravel bar rock someplace better for rocks. The first spring salmon will be hooked early January.
Out that window is a story rivers tell the old way, the way land goes. If you can’t trust a river, then who?”
“He often had sentences that twisted and dipped and flipped into some wonderful deep heart place,” Stanfill said.
Arndt was a prolific writer who published little. “I think the joy of writing and talking about writing and sentences were more important to him than publishing a book,” Stanfill said. He was also a perfectionist, constantly seeking the right line edit to make the writing better.
Arndt was well-known for being a ubiquitous presence, attending seemingly every reading and literary event in Portland. “A lot of his contribution was him showing up in person and being present for writers, no matter what they wrote,” Stanfill said.
Little and Stanfill both said the biggest impact he made on writers was his ability to connect people. He introduced numerous writers, including Little and Stanfill, to Tom Spanbauer, the Pinewood Table, and other writing groups, and to individual writers.
“He would take young writers and bring them to mentors and get them ensconced,” Stanfill said. “He supported every writer no matter” what they wrote about. Stanfill said the kernel of the idea that led to the founding of Forest Avenue Press came from conversations with Arndt; both Little and Stanfill said their novels would not have been published without his encouragement.
His greatest legacy, Stanfill said, will be “crafting the fabric of our literary community in ways that made sure that all of us belonged, and brought us into community even more closely with each other.”
Arndt was an avid fisherman, former river guide, surfer, and swimmer. When he was in high school he swam competitively and trained to compete in the Olympics. He is survived by two sisters, a son, and a daughter.
Stanfill’s second novel will be published in November. She and her colleagues are planning to save a seat in the front row. “He would be there if he could.”
date: 2026-02-10 20:39:00
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