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Courtney Tait
Courtney Tait is a writer from Victoria, B.C. who lives in Portland. Read More
The Portland Book Festival
Portland’s premier book festival features more than 100 authors every November.
Courtney Tait
Courtney Tait is a writer from Victoria, B.C. who lives in Portland. Read More
When 8,500 people descended on the Portland Art Museum for the revived Portland Book Festival (formerly “Wordstock”) in 2015, the message to its new organizer, Literary Arts, was clear: Portlanders love to get their read on, and this festival — missing in action for two years — had not been forgotten.
Portland Book Festival History
Founded in 2005 by local writer Larry Colton and renamed in 2018, this annual festival always featured an impressive lineup of local and national authors along with a book fair. But its original incarnation, held at the expansive Oregon Convention Center (OCC) through 2013, wasn’t quite the “metaphorical public square” that Andrew Proctor, the festival’s then new leader (and the Executive Director of Literary Arts to this day), had in mind.
Enter the Portland Art Museum. As the festival’s primary venue for the past decade, the museum provides a backdrop for art, history and culture to merge with conversation, books and ideas. Other venues include theaters within the nearby Portland’5 Centers for the Arts performing arts center (like the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the Winningstad Theatre and the Brunish Theatre), the Judy Kafoury Center for Youth Arts and the Old Church Concert Hall, among others.
The Portland Book Festival Today
The festival is packed with on-stage author conversations, interviews, panels, pop-up readings, drop-in writing workshops, live music, an expanded book fair and — in true Portland fashion — food trucks parked outside on festival day. Around 100 authors normally participate:
- Check the lineup for more about this year’s authors
- Check the schedule for times and venues
- Learn more about the Portland Book Festival
Looking for more literary happenings? Cover to Cover is a series of Portland Book Festival-related events during the week surrounding the festival — they’re held in coffee shops, bars, restaurants, parks and other venues throughout the City of Roses. In addition to traditional readings, you’ll find fun events like literary trivia, film screenings, music and more. Check the Cover to Cover schedule, which is normally updated a few weeks before the festival, for more information.
When you think of Portland’s profile, it’s a cool town with great food and wine and people who love to read and are serious about the arts.
Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts
“When you think of Portland’s profile, it’s a cool town with great food and wine and people who love to read and are serious about the arts,” says Andrew Proctor, the Executive Director of Literary Arts. “The idea that you can have a festival of books and ideas that’s incredibly fun to be at, all distilled into downtown with a huge book fair and an entire museum, for [the ticket price of] $15–25 — this is something that could only happen in Portland.”
In short, the Portland Book Festival celebrates contemporary literature in a way that feels, well, contemporary — you don’t want to miss it.
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