Portland Book Festival This Weekend

Portlanders love books. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s grey and drizzly for roughly half of the year? Whatever the reason, Portland, Oregon, is a book lover’s paradise, and this weekend is one of the ways we celebrate. The Portland Book Festival (formerly known as Wordstock) is an annual event run by Literary Arts, and it’s being held this coming Saturday at the Portland Art Museum and some surrounding buildings.

Tickets are $15 for adults, and FREE for kids 17 and under (or with a high school ID). That’s one aspect that I love: there’s a whole slate of events for kids! I’ve taken all three of my kids to the event over the years, and they’ve gotten to see some of their favorite authors and illustrators in person, sharing the books they’ve created.

Check out the huge author lineup for this year! (I do wish this particular page had a short bio about each person rather than just the name and photo, but you can click through to find out more about each one, as well as their event schedules.) Some that we’re particularly excited for are writers and illustrators of some of our favorite comic books: Raina Telgemeier, G. Willow Wilson, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Molly Knox Ostertag, and Faith Erin Hicks, for instance. The two big events this year (which cost extra if you want guaranteed seating) are Macolm Gladwell and Ambassador Susan Rice.

And in case you can’t attend in person, many of the talks are recorded and can be accessed at the Archive Project on the Oregon Public Broadcasting website. (Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to include the children’s programming.) If you enjoy listening to authors talk in depth about their work, it’s well worth a listen.

Alas, this year I won’t be able to spend as much time at the festival myself because of some family scheduling conflicts, but I’m hoping I can sneak over for at least part of it, because I always enjoy the events I’ve been able to attend.

Disclosure: I have received a media pass for the Portland Book Festival.