Portland Book Festival Hits the SW Park Blocks this Saturday

Engage with your favorite authors and speakers on writing, reading, and art!

On Saturday, November 9, the Portland Art Museum and the SW Park Blocks will host the Portland Book Festival, formerly known as Wordstock. This festival will span the several blocks that make up the Park, with tents and stages set up outside for the events that can’t be contained within the museum and surrounding buildings. Each stage will feature several speakers and authors discussing various topics, ranging from discussions of specific books to searching for identity in literature to writing children’s books and cookbooks. Unfortunately, there will be limited seating — but even if an event is full, there are smaller pop-up events happening every fifteen minutes where an author speaks about their work in relation to one of the pieces in the Portland Art Museum. Those events are open for all festival goers to enjoy. Aside from events, there will also be several stalls for both readers and writers of all different kinds of media. 

The event runs from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 if purchased before the event ($20 if bought day of), or free for those under 17, veterans, or active military members. Two of the events require an additional ticket: “Malcolm Gladwell: Talking to Strangers”, and “Ambassador Susan Rice: Tough Love.” These tickets can either be purchased online or at the box office and come with a $5 voucher for anything sold at the stalls within the festival. The box office opens at 8 a.m. and will stay open during the festival itself. The festival is created and maintained by the Literary Arts nonprofit organization. Hope to see you there!