Author Talks events in Portland

THUNOV 12

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

CraftsAuthor TalksTalks & Lectures

Lace History & Technique Demonstration

Anna Guillemot, a member of the Portland Lace Society, has been making lace for almost nine years. Her goal is to become comfortable with half a dozen techniques and to demonstrate them, and to spend the rest of her energy admiring the many others in existence in various parts of the world. She loves to teach, thereby encouraging new people to pursue an art that is very far from becoming extinct!

Website ↗

MONNOV 2

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

Anthea Kreston with Ling Ling Huang

Broadway Books1714 NE Broadway

Broadway Books is thrilled to welcome Anthea Kreston with her debut memoir Crescendo: Chronicles of an Adventurous Violinist (Paul Dry Books, 2026). She will be joined in conversation with Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty and Immaculate Conception.

When American violinist Anthea Kreston, called “An Indomitable Spirit” by Yo-Yo Ma, is selected as the fourth member of Germany’s Artemis Quartet, it is the culmination of decades of dedication. In Crescendo, her enchanting and deeply personal memoir, Kreston writes about growing up in a well-to-do but difficult family in Chicago, leaving home at age sixteen, studying at the ultracompetitive Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (Hilary Hahn was a classmate), then burning out and leaving it all behind for a commune in Oregon.

Broadway Books is thrilled to welcome Anthea Kreston with her debut memoir Crescendo: Chronicles of an Adventurous Violinist (Paul Dry Books, 2026). She will be joined in conversation with Ling Ling Huang, author of Natural Beauty and Immaculate Conception.

When American violinist Anthea Kreston, called “An Indomitable Spirit” by Yo-Yo Ma, is selected as the fourth member of Germany’s Artemis Quartet, it is the culmination of decades of dedication. In Crescendo, her enchanting and deeply personal memoir, Kreston writes about growing up in a well-to-do but difficult family in Chicago, leaving home at age sixteen, studying at the ultracompetitive Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (Hilary Hahn was a classmate), then burning out and leaving it all behind for a commune in Oregon.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

MONNOV 2

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Talks & LecturesAuthor Talks

A Talk by Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath

Sanctuary Hall at First Congregational UCC1126 SW Park Ave

Join an essential lecture by the acclaimed Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. Jared Cooney Horvath (PhD, MEd) is a neuroscientist, educator, best-selling author and expert in the field of human learning. His new book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kid's Learning - And How to Help Them Thrive Again, pulls back the EdTech curtain and explains the research showing how digital tools in the classroom consistently undermine learning. It also explains how parents, teachers and schools can push back with purpose.

As a leading expert in learning and technology, Jared testified before the US Senate on EdTech and is an internationally sought-after speaker.

Sponsored by the Institute for Families and Technology and OR Unplugged.

Join an essential lecture by the acclaimed Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. Jared Cooney Horvath (PhD, MEd) is a neuroscientist, educator, best-selling author and expert in the field of human learning. His new book, The Digital Delusion: How Classroom Technology Harms Our Kid's Learning - And How to Help Them Thrive Again, pulls back the EdTech curtain and explains the research showing how digital tools in the classroom consistently undermine learning. It also explains how parents, teachers and schools can push back with purpose.

As a leading expert in learning and technology, Jared testified before the US Senate on EdTech and is an internationally sought-after speaker.

Sponsored by the Institute for Families and Technology and OR Unplugged.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

THUNOV 5

4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

💰 $15+Drop-inMuseumsPoetryAuthor TalksLive Podcasts & RadioVarietyStand-UpHip-Hop

Live Wire: Dessa, Mac Barnett, Ed Park, and Mx. Dahlia Belle

Portland Art Museum1219 Southwest Park Avenue

Live Wire joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming. Performers will include poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries, giving visitors a chance to catch live performances and storytelling while moving through the PAM spaces. Completely free through PAM’s Free First Thursday general admission. Also, enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both.

Live Wire joins forces with the Portland Art Museum for an afternoon of roving performances ahead of an evening recording of the program. The event coincides with PAM's monthly Free First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival's expanded programming. Performers will include poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries, giving visitors a chance to catch live performances and storytelling while moving through the PAM spaces. Completely free through PAM’s Free First Thursday general admission. Also, enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide.

Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SUNNOV 1

10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

💰 $65+WorkshopsCraftsGalleriesMeditation

Giant Collaborative Neurographic Art

Church of Art1801 Northwest Upshur Street

Church of Art's collaborative neurographics is a mindfulness-based creative activity that provides therapeutic relaxation through intuitive mark-making on a grand scale. For this mindfulness-based collaborative art activity, Church of Art will cover a long row of tables with a roll of paper and acrylic paint pens in a variety of sizes and colors. Participants will move freely around the table, filling the paper with sweeping, colorful doodles to the sounds of calming music. The giant scale allows for whole-arm movements, which signal brains to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into a state of mental relaxation and improved focus. The collaborative aspect of this workshop teaches one to let go of perfection and expectation through shared creative exploration, while working large encourages greater freedom of expression.

Neurographic art is a relatively new form of focused, intentional mark-making that uses curved, bold lines, vibrant colors and calming patterns. Physician and neurographics practitioner Ruben Halperin, M.D., will be the guide, co-facilitating this workshop with artist and Church of Art founder, Erika Halperin.

Immerse yourself in this beneficial form of meditative doodling and experience the mood-boosting effect of creativity coupled with community gathering.

Using paper and acrylic markers. All materials and supplies are provided by the studio.

Tickets Include:

2 hours of guided creative exploration in a supportive, friendly environment with all supplies included.
Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages are included.
That wonderful feeling of joy and connectedness that comes from a few hours of in-person artistic play with other adults.

Church of Art's collaborative neurographics is a mindfulness-based creative activity that provides therapeutic relaxation through intuitive mark-making on a grand scale. For this mindfulness-based collaborative art activity, Church of Art will cover a long row of tables with a roll of paper and acrylic paint pens in a variety of sizes and colors. Participants will move freely around the table, filling the paper with sweeping, colorful doodles to the sounds of calming music. The giant scale allows for whole-arm movements, which signal brains to move out of fight-or-flight mode and into a state of mental relaxation and improved focus. The collaborative aspect of this workshop teaches one to let go of perfection and expectation through shared creative exploration, while working large encourages greater freedom of expression.

Neurographic art is a relatively new form of focused, intentional mark-making that uses curved, bold lines, vibrant colors and calming patterns. Physician and neurographics practitioner Ruben Halperin, M.D., will be the guide, co-facilitating this workshop with artist and Church of Art founder, Erika Halperin.

Immerse yourself in this beneficial form of meditative doodling and experience the mood-boosting effect of creativity coupled with community gathering.

Using paper and acrylic markers. All materials and supplies are provided by the studio.

Tickets Include:

2 hours of guided creative exploration in a supportive, friendly environment with all supplies included.
Light snacks and non-alcoholic beverages are included.
That wonderful feeling of joy and connectedness that comes from a few hours of in-person artistic play with other adults.

🎟️ Tickets ↗

WEDNOV 4

6:30 PM

ReadingsAuthor TalksPerforming Arts

Davide De Pierro

Alberta Rose Theatre3000 Northeast Alberta Street

Inspired by Davide De Pierro’s newly released novel The Letters I Never Sent, his live show blends personal storytelling, humor, and audience conversation. Throughout the night, De Pierro will deliver a monologue and read selections from the book, followed by an open Q&A with the audience. Limited meet-and-greet opportunities will also be available for those who purchase in advance. Davide is a New Jersey native that has cultivated over 3M followers on TikTok and 2.7M followers on Instagram and has been earning millions of views online. Known for his commentary on relationships, finances, and those relatable moments that capture the human experience, Davide is excited to be expanding into a fresh medium.

🎟️ Tickets ↗

THUNOV 5

10:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Live Podcasts & RadioVarietyStand-UpMuseumsPoetryAuthor TalksHip-HopTalks & Lectures

Free First Thursday with Live Wire Radio

Portland Art Museum1219 SW Park Ave

Overview

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

Free First Thursday + Museum pop-ups

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

tickets for free first thursday Live Wire Evening Recording

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

tickets for 7pm Live Wire recording Performers

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

About Free First Thursdays

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

Learn more about other discounted and free opportunities.

Overview

Portland Art Museum invites the community to join a Free First Thursday event, offering free admission to the museum for all, plus a Live Wire event as part of the Literary Arts Portland Book Festival. Visitors can take in the afternoon gallery pop-ups, the evening show, or both!

Free First Thursday + Museum pop-ups

4:30 – 6 p.m. — Free, pre-show, pop-up performances will take place throughout the Museum’s galleries. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle.

Free First Thursday tickets can be reserved online one week in advance and are also available at the door.

tickets for free first thursday Live Wire Evening Recording

7 p.m. — Enjoy a fully seated, ticketed Live Wire taping hosted by Luke Burbank with announcer Elena Passarello, featuring a blend of interviews, comedy, and music performed live for the audience, then edited into an episode for broadcast to over 200 public radio stations nationwide. Performers are poet and rapper Dessa, bestselling children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize Finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors will open at 6:30pm.

GA Tickets are $15. Preferred Seating is $40. Discounts available to Portland Book Festival passholders.

tickets for 7pm Live Wire recording Performers

Dessa is a singer, rapper, and writer who fell in love with language as a toddler—and just never got over it. Now, she works in fields that traffic in words: she’s recorded rap bangers as part of the fiercely independent Doomtree collective, released a live album with the Grammy-winning Minnesota Orchestra; contributed to The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler; delivered a TED Talk on the intersection of romance and neuroscience that’s notched more than 4 million views; hosted 2 seasons of behavioral science podcast Deeply Human (BBC/American Public Media); and published a memoir recounting most of the above called My Own Devices (Penguin Random House).

Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times bestselling author of stories for children. Mac’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read Aloud Awards and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, as well as several international prizes. He lives in Oakland, California. His latest book, illustrated by X. Fang, is Tom Nancy: The Sheep Who Swapped Brains with a Boy. From two of the most exciting picture book makers today comes a hilarious trickster tale and Freaky Friday switcheroo story: a sneaky, cheeky sheep named Tom Nancy has a brain swap proposal for an innocent farm boy named Felix that will change both of their lives forever. Laugh-out-loud, subversive, and totally unexpected.

Ed Park is the author of the novels Personal Days and Same Bed Different Dreams. He is a founding editor of The Believer, and has worked in newspapers, book publishing, and academia. His writing appears in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, and elsewhere. Profound, wily, and beautifully wrought, his new book Three Tenses: A Transmission from the Nineties is a meeting of memory and myth, confession and obfuscation, coalescing to offer a singular picture of creativity in action.

The princess of Portland comedy, best known for her breakout performance on the popular Netflix special Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda, Mx. Dahlia Belle has been compared to a Swiss Army knife—different tools to extract sharpness, softness, vulnerability, hope, and wicked wit. She’s been declared one of “11 Trans Comedians… Funnier Than Dave Chappelle” by Out Magazine, repeatedly featured on NPR, and has written for Cosmopolitan Magazine, The Guardian, The Stranger, and Portland Mercury. Her live performances have included NW Black Comedy Festival, Upper Left Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and an awkward conversation with John Waters and Piers Morgan. In the upcoming live taping of her comedy special Affirmed at Polaris Hall on November 22nd, Mx. Dahlia Belle delivers 60 new minutes of stand-up to celebrate and affirm being human in the modern world through a combination of the wholesome and mundane, anecdotes about house cats, liscivious foibles of the LGBT community, and an unapologetic account of her personal journey with gender-affirming care, all delivered with her trademark free form wit.

About Free First Thursdays

Free First Thursdays at the Museum and PAM CUT’s Tomorrow Theater aligns with the revitalization of the long-standing Portland art galleries’ tradition of opening their doors for openings, receptions, and events on the first Thursday of each month. In recent months art and culture organizations have joined to bring back this popular activity, including the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in the North Park Blocks.

Generous support provided by Art Bridges Foundation’s Access for All program.

Learn more about other discounted and free opportunities.

Website ↗

FRINOV 6

5:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Cultural HeritageDiningAuthor TalksLearning & TechHolidays & Seasonal

Chai Pani at Bollywood Theater: A Diwali Celebration

Bollywood Theater – Alberta2039 Northeast Alberta Street

Portland Book Festival welcomes Molly and Meherwan Irani, the husband-and-wife team behind Asheville’s nationally celebrated Chai Pani Restaurant Group. Their flagship restaurant, Chai Pani, was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2022.

This year, Molly and Meherwan each bring a new book to the table. Meherwan has written No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World: At-Home Recipes from the Streets, Truck Stops, Villages, and Palaces of India. Molly’s Service Ready: A Story of Love, Restaurants, and the Power of Hospitality was published earlier this year. Together, the books offer two very different—and deeply connected—perspectives on food, restaurants, and hospitality.

In celebration of Diwali—the Hindu festival of lights, marked by food, gathering, and celebration—Molly and Meherwan will join their longtime friend Chef Troy MacLarty at Bollywood Theater on Alberta Street for a collaboration. Bollywood Theater will serve a special menu inspired by recipes from Meherwan’s book alongside its own Diwali-inspired menu. It’s a gathering of longtime friends, great food, and two books that reflect different sides of a shared life in restaurants.

Both books will be featured at Portland Book Festival, and Molly and Meherwan will be on hand at Bollywood to meet guests and sign copies.

Portland Book Festival welcomes Molly and Meherwan Irani, the husband-and-wife team behind Asheville’s nationally celebrated Chai Pani Restaurant Group. Their flagship restaurant, Chai Pani, was named Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Foundation in 2022.

This year, Molly and Meherwan each bring a new book to the table. Meherwan has written No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World: At-Home Recipes from the Streets, Truck Stops, Villages, and Palaces of India. Molly’s Service Ready: A Story of Love, Restaurants, and the Power of Hospitality was published earlier this year. Together, the books offer two very different—and deeply connected—perspectives on food, restaurants, and hospitality.

In celebration of Diwali—the Hindu festival of lights, marked by food, gathering, and celebration—Molly and Meherwan will join their longtime friend Chef Troy MacLarty at Bollywood Theater on Alberta Street for a collaboration. Bollywood Theater will serve a special menu inspired by recipes from Meherwan’s book alongside its own Diwali-inspired menu. It’s a gathering of longtime friends, great food, and two books that reflect different sides of a shared life in restaurants.

Both books will be featured at Portland Book Festival, and Molly and Meherwan will be on hand at Bollywood to meet guests and sign copies.

Website ↗

THUNOV 5

7:30 PM – 10:00 PM

Advance ticket requiredAuthor TalksFilmTalks & Lectures

Film Screening & Author Talk with Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu

Hollywood Theatre4122 NE Sandy Blvd

SOLD OUT
Author Talk & Film Screening with Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu at Hollywood Theatre

Parallel Worlds Bookshop and the Hollywood Theatre present a special author conversation with Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu, celebrating the release of Jane’s debut novel, Public Access Afterworld, followed by a screening of Schoenbrun’s acclaimed film I Saw the TV Glow.

When: November 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Where: Hollywood Theatre 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97212
Tickets: $18 sold via Hollywood Theatre
Ticket price does not include a copy of the book. Preorder Here!

About Public Access Afterworld

A mysterious realm waits on the other side of our screens. A dark force draws victims into its static. An unlikely hero must save them, and herself, from an electric hell.

Spanning decades and realities, Public Access Afterworld follows an unforgettable ensemble of outcasts and obsessive television viewers whose lives become entangled with a surreal pirate network. At the center is Bethany Peters, a trans content moderator working the night shift at a sprawling tech corporation. When a young streamer begins appearing in her feed and calling out to Public Access Afterworld, Bethany is pulled into a conspiracy stretching across screens, timelines, and realities.

A mesmerizing collision of speculative fiction, horror, conspiracy, and queer transformation, Public Access Afterworld marks the literary debut of the celebrated filmmaker behind I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.

About Jane Schoenbrun

Jane Schoenbrun is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Their films include I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Their newest film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, releases in 2026. Public Access Afterworld is their first novel.

Event and Pre-Signing Information

Tickets for the screening and conversation are sold through the Hollywood Theatre. Copies of Public Access Afterworld will be available for purchase onsite from Parallel Worlds Bookshop.

Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu will not be signing books. Pre-ordered books or books purchased at event will be pre-signed.

Still photography is permitted. Audio and video recording are not permitted unless approved in advance.

Pre-Order Books Here

Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun - Signed Edition
(Pub Date: October 27, 2026)
A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Public Access Afterworld is the profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a novel by the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
Alchemised by Senlinyu Signed Edition (Out Now)
Alchemised by Senlinyu 3 Volume Deluxe Boxset(Pub Date: October 13)
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.

SOLD OUT
Author Talk & Film Screening with Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu at Hollywood Theatre

Parallel Worlds Bookshop and the Hollywood Theatre present a special author conversation with Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu, celebrating the release of Jane’s debut novel, Public Access Afterworld, followed by a screening of Schoenbrun’s acclaimed film I Saw the TV Glow.

When: November 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Where: Hollywood Theatre 4122 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland, OR 97212
Tickets: $18 sold via Hollywood Theatre
Ticket price does not include a copy of the book. Preorder Here!

About Public Access Afterworld

A mysterious realm waits on the other side of our screens. A dark force draws victims into its static. An unlikely hero must save them, and herself, from an electric hell.

Spanning decades and realities, Public Access Afterworld follows an unforgettable ensemble of outcasts and obsessive television viewers whose lives become entangled with a surreal pirate network. At the center is Bethany Peters, a trans content moderator working the night shift at a sprawling tech corporation. When a young streamer begins appearing in her feed and calling out to Public Access Afterworld, Bethany is pulled into a conspiracy stretching across screens, timelines, and realities.

A mesmerizing collision of speculative fiction, horror, conspiracy, and queer transformation, Public Access Afterworld marks the literary debut of the celebrated filmmaker behind I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.

About Jane Schoenbrun

Jane Schoenbrun is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Their films include I Saw the TV Glow and We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Their newest film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, releases in 2026. Public Access Afterworld is their first novel.

Event and Pre-Signing Information

Tickets for the screening and conversation are sold through the Hollywood Theatre. Copies of Public Access Afterworld will be available for purchase onsite from Parallel Worlds Bookshop.

Jane Schoenbrun and SenLinYu will not be signing books. Pre-ordered books or books purchased at event will be pre-signed.

Still photography is permitted. Audio and video recording are not permitted unless approved in advance.

Pre-Order Books Here

Public Access Afterworld by Jane Schoenbrun - Signed Edition
(Pub Date: October 27, 2026)
A mysterious realm on the other side of our screens. A dark force that draws victims into its static. The unlikely hero called to save them and herself from this electric hell. Public Access Afterworld is the profound, binge-all-night, headrush of a novel by the celebrated filmmaker of I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
Alchemised by Senlinyu Signed Edition (Out Now)
Alchemised by Senlinyu 3 Volume Deluxe Boxset(Pub Date: October 13)
In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy—and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

3:15 PM – 4:15 PM

Food & DrinkTalks & LecturesAuthor Talks

Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!: Alexis Nikole Nelson

Newmark Theatre1111 Southwest Broadway

Alexis Nikole Nelson, best known to millions of fans as Black Forager, invites you on an adventure to discover the delicious and wild foods hiding in plain sight. Alexis captivates people with her joyful enthusiasm and deep knowledge of foraging and inspires them to explore the bounty of their own backyards, parks, and trails, and now she does the same in her eagerly awaited first book.

Happy Snacking, Don’t Die! is a one-of-a-kind collection of recipes and foraging wisdom that teaches you how to turn common plants, flowers, and fungi into yummy, plant-based meals. This unique work is almost like two books in one—foraging plant guide and vegan cookbook—organized by season to guide you through a year of appetizing discoveries. In spring, you’ll learn to pickle Magnolia flowers and turn Japanese Knotweed into a refreshing granita. Summer is for frying up Milkweed Buds, making Juneberry Hand Pies, and crafting Rosewater Baklava. When fall arrives, you’ll be making savory mushroom dishes (a.k.a. chicken of the woods) like Maitake steak and bacon. And in winter, cozy up with Pine Shortbread Cookies and Oyster Mushroom Chowdah.

Alexis Nikole Nelson, best known to millions of fans as Black Forager, invites you on an adventure to discover the delicious and wild foods hiding in plain sight. Alexis captivates people with her joyful enthusiasm and deep knowledge of foraging and inspires them to explore the bounty of their own backyards, parks, and trails, and now she does the same in her eagerly awaited first book.

Happy Snacking, Don’t Die! is a one-of-a-kind collection of recipes and foraging wisdom that teaches you how to turn common plants, flowers, and fungi into yummy, plant-based meals. This unique work is almost like two books in one—foraging plant guide and vegan cookbook—organized by season to guide you through a year of appetizing discoveries. In spring, you’ll learn to pickle Magnolia flowers and turn Japanese Knotweed into a refreshing granita. Summer is for frying up Milkweed Buds, making Juneberry Hand Pies, and crafting Rosewater Baklava. When fall arrives, you’ll be making savory mushroom dishes (a.k.a. chicken of the woods) like Maitake steak and bacon. And in winter, cozy up with Pine Shortbread Cookies and Oyster Mushroom Chowdah.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SUNNOV 8

9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Hiking & WalkingParks & NatureBooksCraftsStorytimesTalks & LecturesHolidays & SeasonalKids (5-11)

Mushroom Mania

Friends of Tryon Creek11321 South Terwilliger Boulevard

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

In the Shadows: Maggie Stiefvater & Isabel Cañas

PAM CUT // Whitsell AuditoriumMap

Young adult authors, Maggie Stiefvater (The Dream Thieves) and Isabel Cañas (The House of Gardenias) come together for a conversation on the hauntingly enchanted worlds in their latest releases. In the newest installment of the graphic novel iteration of The Raven Cycle, Stiefvater and adapter Sas Milledge bring the original text to life with rich illustrations and suspenseful panels. Like Stiefvater, Cañas expertly constructs a gothic world threatened by an unimaginable ancient power. Moderated by Alicia Tate, these authors discuss the mythical worlds they built and the characters that try to understand them.

About The Dream Thieves:

The second book in Maggie Stiefvater‘s #1 NYT bestselling series The Raven Cycle, now gorgeously illustrated as a graphic novel!

Ronan Lynch is made of secrets. His longest kept one? He can pull impossible things out of dreams. It’s a secret that’s nearly killed him more than once. Waking the corpse road should have led Blue and the Raven Boys straight to Glendower, the Whelsh king rumored to be sleeping beneath the mountains of Henrietta. But instead, the forest of Cabeswater has disappeared, energy hums and sputters beneath the town, and the Raven Boys’ search is at a dead end.

Ronan’s dreams may be the key to finding Glendower, but none of the Raven Boys are prepared for what will be unleashed in Ronan’s desperate attempt to finally control his power. Reimagined as a stunning full-color graphic novel adapted and illustrated by Sas Milledge, Dream Thieves blurs the line between reality and nightmare until they are one and the same.

About The Houses of Gardenias:

A debut gothic YA from the USA Today bestselling author of The Hacienda and The Possession of Alba Díaz Sixteen-year-old Minerva has endured hunger, violence, and unrest in a capital city inspired by colonial Mexico.

Determined to escape her father’s cruelty, she reinvents herself in a wealthy loyalist enclave, becoming lady’s maid to the formidable widow Encarnación del Valle.

For the first time, Minerva knows stability with regular meals, warm light powered by magical chispa, and a measure of protection. When a ruthless regime rises to power, the household withdraws to the del Valle family’s secluded estate, Casa de las Gardenias. There, amid resentful heirs and rigid social hierarchies, something far older than the nation’s turmoil waits in the shadows.

It’s a haunting, timely gothic novel that weaves Mexican history, class tension, and supernatural dread.

Young adult authors, Maggie Stiefvater (The Dream Thieves) and Isabel Cañas (The House of Gardenias) come together for a conversation on the hauntingly enchanted worlds in their latest releases. In the newest installment of the graphic novel iteration of The Raven Cycle, Stiefvater and adapter Sas Milledge bring the original text to life with rich illustrations and suspenseful panels. Like Stiefvater, Cañas expertly constructs a gothic world threatened by an unimaginable ancient power. Moderated by Alicia Tate, these authors discuss the mythical worlds they built and the characters that try to understand them.

About The Dream Thieves:

The second book in Maggie Stiefvater‘s #1 NYT bestselling series The Raven Cycle, now gorgeously illustrated as a graphic novel!

Ronan Lynch is made of secrets. His longest kept one? He can pull impossible things out of dreams. It’s a secret that’s nearly killed him more than once. Waking the corpse road should have led Blue and the Raven Boys straight to Glendower, the Whelsh king rumored to be sleeping beneath the mountains of Henrietta. But instead, the forest of Cabeswater has disappeared, energy hums and sputters beneath the town, and the Raven Boys’ search is at a dead end.

Ronan’s dreams may be the key to finding Glendower, but none of the Raven Boys are prepared for what will be unleashed in Ronan’s desperate attempt to finally control his power. Reimagined as a stunning full-color graphic novel adapted and illustrated by Sas Milledge, Dream Thieves blurs the line between reality and nightmare until they are one and the same.

About The Houses of Gardenias:

A debut gothic YA from the USA Today bestselling author of The Hacienda and The Possession of Alba Díaz Sixteen-year-old Minerva has endured hunger, violence, and unrest in a capital city inspired by colonial Mexico.

Determined to escape her father’s cruelty, she reinvents herself in a wealthy loyalist enclave, becoming lady’s maid to the formidable widow Encarnación del Valle.

For the first time, Minerva knows stability with regular meals, warm light powered by magical chispa, and a measure of protection. When a ruthless regime rises to power, the household withdraws to the del Valle family’s secluded estate, Casa de las Gardenias. There, amid resentful heirs and rigid social hierarchies, something far older than the nation’s turmoil waits in the shadows.

It’s a haunting, timely gothic novel that weaves Mexican history, class tension, and supernatural dread.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

7:30 PM · Doors 6:30 PM

All agesLive Podcasts & RadioVarietyStand-UpTalks & LecturesMusicAuthor Talks

Live Wire with Luke Burbank

Alberta Rose Theatre3000 NE Alberta St

Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend.

With special guests TBA Fall 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy. Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

FRINOV 6

6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

DiningCultural HeritageAuthor Talks

A forgotten collection of Italian cookbooks comes to life

Nostrana1401 SE Morrison Street, Suite 105

The In Bocca books are a curious and beautiful collection of 20 Italian cookbooks, each devoted to a different region of Italy. Originally published in the 1970s, they’re filled with recipes, hand-drawn illustrations, folk art, and wonderfully wonky English translations, offering a glimpse into the food and character of Italy from region to region. Long out of print, they’ve become cult objects for collectors and lovers of Italian food.

For the past three years, Cathy Whims and the Nostrana team have cooked their way through the entire collection, creating 19 dinners: one for each book. Now, for the Portland Book Festival, that journey comes to an end with Roma in Bocca the 20th book.

For this special finale, Cathy Whims is welcoming Italia in Bocca director Robert Serrini, an expert and passionate champion of these remarkable books. Robert will mingle with guests throughout the evening and document the dinner as part of a short film about Roma in Bocca. He also dreams of one day seeing the full collection published once again, bringing these quirky, art-filled books back into the hands of a new generation.

Whether you’ve followed the series from the beginning or are discovering these peculiar books for the first time, come take one last trip Italy in Bocca with us.

Cathy Whims recently published her own culinary book: The Italian Summer Kitchen: Recipes for La Dolce Vita. During this event her book will be available for purchase and signing.

Reservations required. Limited seating available. Paid reservations sold by Nostrana nostrana.com/romabook

The In Bocca books are a curious and beautiful collection of 20 Italian cookbooks, each devoted to a different region of Italy. Originally published in the 1970s, they’re filled with recipes, hand-drawn illustrations, folk art, and wonderfully wonky English translations, offering a glimpse into the food and character of Italy from region to region. Long out of print, they’ve become cult objects for collectors and lovers of Italian food.

For the past three years, Cathy Whims and the Nostrana team have cooked their way through the entire collection, creating 19 dinners: one for each book. Now, for the Portland Book Festival, that journey comes to an end with Roma in Bocca the 20th book.

For this special finale, Cathy Whims is welcoming Italia in Bocca director Robert Serrini, an expert and passionate champion of these remarkable books. Robert will mingle with guests throughout the evening and document the dinner as part of a short film about Roma in Bocca. He also dreams of one day seeing the full collection published once again, bringing these quirky, art-filled books back into the hands of a new generation.

Whether you’ve followed the series from the beginning or are discovering these peculiar books for the first time, come take one last trip Italy in Bocca with us.

Cathy Whims recently published her own culinary book: The Italian Summer Kitchen: Recipes for La Dolce Vita. During this event her book will be available for purchase and signing.

Reservations required. Limited seating available. Paid reservations sold by Nostrana nostrana.com/romabook

Website ↗

WEDNOV 11

7:00 PM

DocumentariesAuthor TalksLGBTQ+Talks & Lectures

A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy

PAM CUT's Tomorrow Theater3530 Southeast Division Street

Join a special evening with trailblazing drag artist, activist, and political candidate Marti Cummings and Portland-based constitutional law professor and author Robin Maril. Before the film, Marti and Robin will sit down for a live conversation about queer representation, civic engagement, and the power of showing up for your community. The conversation will be moderated by Kyndall Mason of Basic Rights Oregon.

Following the conversation, stick around for Queen of New York, the acclaimed documentary following Marti Cummings’ groundbreaking 2020 campaign to become one of the first openly nonbinary members of the New York City Council. This evening also celebrates the launch of Robin Maril’s new book, A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy. Copies will be available for purchase on site.

ON SCREEN: Queen of New York

2023. Directed by Emma Fidel. Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Welcome to a different kind of drag race. As NYC emerges from the chaos of 2020, Marti Cummings (they/them), an audacious and big-hearted drag queen, goes all out in a historic bid to become a City Councilperson. It’s one of the most hotly contested Council races in years, and Marti’s strongest competitor is Shaun Abreu, a tenants’ lawyer with deep roots in the district’s Latinx community. As these first-timers race to do the most good for their Upper Manhattan neighbors, they offer very different visions for Democratic politics — one in a suit and tie, the other in combat boots and floral print. As this immersive documentary reveals, Marti’s passion inspires queer activists and allies to change the political system. Their campaign becomes a community of its own, especially for Marti’s non-binary peers who have never before seen themselves represented.

Join a special evening with trailblazing drag artist, activist, and political candidate Marti Cummings and Portland-based constitutional law professor and author Robin Maril. Before the film, Marti and Robin will sit down for a live conversation about queer representation, civic engagement, and the power of showing up for your community. The conversation will be moderated by Kyndall Mason of Basic Rights Oregon.

Following the conversation, stick around for Queen of New York, the acclaimed documentary following Marti Cummings’ groundbreaking 2020 campaign to become one of the first openly nonbinary members of the New York City Council. This evening also celebrates the launch of Robin Maril’s new book, A Queer Guide to Saving American Democracy. Copies will be available for purchase on site.

ON SCREEN: Queen of New York

2023. Directed by Emma Fidel. Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes.

Welcome to a different kind of drag race. As NYC emerges from the chaos of 2020, Marti Cummings (they/them), an audacious and big-hearted drag queen, goes all out in a historic bid to become a City Councilperson. It’s one of the most hotly contested Council races in years, and Marti’s strongest competitor is Shaun Abreu, a tenants’ lawyer with deep roots in the district’s Latinx community. As these first-timers race to do the most good for their Upper Manhattan neighbors, they offer very different visions for Democratic politics — one in a suit and tie, the other in combat boots and floral print. As this immersive documentary reveals, Marti’s passion inspires queer activists and allies to change the political system. Their campaign becomes a community of its own, especially for Marti’s non-binary peers who have never before seen themselves represented.

🎟️ Tickets ↗

FRINOV 6

8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Talks & LecturesAuthor Talks

Imagining Freedom: Toni Morrison and the Revolutionary Work of Words

Reed College — Eliot 314 - Classroom Lecture Hall3203 SE Woodstock Blvd

When Toni Morrison declares that she “can't wait for the ultimate liberation theory to imagine its practice and do its work,” she raises an issue at the heart of modern democratic life: What does freedom mean in the shadow of racial slavery and colonialism? While Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her contributions as a “revolutionary political thinker” remain underappreciated. Lawrie Balfour approaches Morrison’s political thought through her account of “word-work,” or the creative use of language, as a practice of freedom. First, Balfour considers Morrison’s defense of the necessity of writers to the flourishing of democracy and her reflections on the political implications of her own literary practice. Second, Balfour examines Morrison’s use of the language of “sovereignty” to convey what writers do, when they create worlds out of words. Third, she asks what Morrison might say about the part her novel Beloved played in the 2021 governor’s race in Virginia and concludes with some thoughts about the political urgency of Morrison’s word-work today.

Lawrie Balfour is James Hart Professor of Politics and a member of the American Studies faculty at the University of Virginia, where she offers courses on race, gender, democracy, and literature. She is the author of Toni Morrison: Imagining Freedom; Democracy’s Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W. E. B. Du Bois; and The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy. Lawrie’s current projects include a series of essays on reparations for slavery and a study of the Black feminist visions of the journal Freedomways (1961-1985).

Free and open to the public.

When Toni Morrison declares that she “can't wait for the ultimate liberation theory to imagine its practice and do its work,” she raises an issue at the heart of modern democratic life: What does freedom mean in the shadow of racial slavery and colonialism? While Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her contributions as a “revolutionary political thinker” remain underappreciated. Lawrie Balfour approaches Morrison’s political thought through her account of “word-work,” or the creative use of language, as a practice of freedom. First, Balfour considers Morrison’s defense of the necessity of writers to the flourishing of democracy and her reflections on the political implications of her own literary practice. Second, Balfour examines Morrison’s use of the language of “sovereignty” to convey what writers do, when they create worlds out of words. Third, she asks what Morrison might say about the part her novel Beloved played in the 2021 governor’s race in Virginia and concludes with some thoughts about the political urgency of Morrison’s word-work today.

Lawrie Balfour is James Hart Professor of Politics and a member of the American Studies faculty at the University of Virginia, where she offers courses on race, gender, democracy, and literature. She is the author of Toni Morrison: Imagining Freedom; Democracy’s Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W. E. B. Du Bois; and The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy. Lawrie’s current projects include a series of essays on reparations for slavery and a study of the Black feminist visions of the journal Freedomways (1961-1985).

Free and open to the public.

Website ↗

WEDNOV 11

7:00 PM

Talks & LecturesAuthor Talks

Ray Warren Symposium Keynote Speaker: Ijeoma Oluo

Fowler Student Center615 S Palatine Hill Rd

Please join us at the 23rd Annual Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies for “Creating Collective Liberation: How to Come Together in Frightening and Isolating Times to Create Real Community and Lasting Change,” a keynote presentation by Ijeoma Oluo.

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and internet yeller whose books include Be a Revolution and the NYT bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race.

No registration is required. ASL interpretation will be provided. Free and open to the public.

After the talk, please join us for a reception and book signing in the Beth Miller Lounge. Books by the keynote speaker will be available for purchase.

Please join us at the 23rd Annual Ray Warren Symposium on Race and Ethnic Studies for “Creating Collective Liberation: How to Come Together in Frightening and Isolating Times to Create Real Community and Lasting Change,” a keynote presentation by Ijeoma Oluo.

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker, and internet yeller whose books include Be a Revolution and the NYT bestseller So You Want to Talk About Race.

No registration is required. ASL interpretation will be provided. Free and open to the public.

After the talk, please join us for a reception and book signing in the Beth Miller Lounge. Books by the keynote speaker will be available for purchase.

Website ↗

WEDNOV 18

6:00 PM – 7:30 PM

WorkshopsCoursesCraftsKids & FamilyHolidays & Seasonal

Low Waste Holiday: Save Money, Make Memories

Waste Connections of WA9411 NE 94th Ave

Clark County Green Neighbors will host “Low Waste Holiday: Save Money, Make Memories,” a kid-friendly workshop from 6-7:30 p.m. Nov. 18 at Waste Connections of Washington 9411 NE 94th Ave, Vancouver. This workshop shares simple ways to cut holiday waste while shifting the focus from buying “stuff” to creating experiences, family traditions, and lasting memories. Get low‑waste decorating ideas, experience‑based gift alternatives and tips for planning holiday meals and managing seasonal leftovers. Then families can make upcycled ornaments, bookmarks and gift tags from repurposed vinyl records and other reclaimed supplies.

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SATNOV 7

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Author TalksTalks & LecturesCultural Heritage

Poetry and the Natural World: Victoria Chang & Beth Piatote

Portland’5: Brunish Theatre1111 SW Broadway Ave

Poets Victoria Chang (Tree of Knowledge) and Beth Piatote (distant waters) sit down for a conversation on their recent publications andtheir evocative use of nature throughout their poems. Moderated by writer and editor Alyssa Ogi, this discussion promises a rumination on our shared home, oppressive efforts of erasure, and the art and language that we use to understand our world and ourselves.

About Tree of Knowledge:

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

A poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, refracting and recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.

Joan Mitchell said, When I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.

Men assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet’s street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet and becomes the locus from which the rest of the collection spirals. It refracts across works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, and Hilma af Klint, whose painting series lends the collection its title and who becomes a model for engaging with the world. At the core of the collection, the long poem “Eureka” examines the violent 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from the eponymous California town. Roving, evocative, and intricate, Tree of Knowledge is rooted in Victoria Chang’s crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images —trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase—that resurface like apparitions.

About distant water:

As a scholar of Native American literature and law, Beth Piatote focuses on the endangerment of Indigenous languages. As an activist, she moves against the current of English-language colonization, working to rescue and revitalize the language of her people. Language, she posits, is an expression of land, a means through which we can travel great distances.

distant water brings the reader into the language of our shared home, North America, revealing a sonic world and grammar governed by rivers, kinship, and ancestral knowledge. “In our homes and homelands,” she writes, “we share the language with the plants and animals and waters and rocks and sky.” Inventive and playful, these poems explore the sounds, structure, and wisdom of the Nez Perce language, illuminating its vitality and capacity to organize relationships to time and place. Braiding aural, linguistic, and spiritual ecologies, distant water conveys an understanding that to be in language is to be in place. To be at home.

Poets Victoria Chang (Tree of Knowledge) and Beth Piatote (distant waters) sit down for a conversation on their recent publications andtheir evocative use of nature throughout their poems. Moderated by writer and editor Alyssa Ogi, this discussion promises a rumination on our shared home, oppressive efforts of erasure, and the art and language that we use to understand our world and ourselves.

About Tree of Knowledge:

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

A poet watches the limbs of a eucalyptus tree get sawed off: the image persists, refracting and recurring across poems of art, language, selfhood, memory, and loss.

Joan Mitchell said, When I talk about love, I mean loving a tree. When I talk about love, I mean loving where a tree used to be.

Men assess the eucalyptus tree growing on the poet’s street; a crane arrives. The sound of a chainsaw rings in the air and branches begin to fall. This tree-cutting haunts the poet and becomes the locus from which the rest of the collection spirals. It refracts across works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Joan Mitchell, and Hilma af Klint, whose painting series lends the collection its title and who becomes a model for engaging with the world. At the core of the collection, the long poem “Eureka” examines the violent 1885 expulsion of Chinese Americans from the eponymous California town. Roving, evocative, and intricate, Tree of Knowledge is rooted in Victoria Chang’s crystalline voice and generous, probing gaze, and by certain images —trees, a hanging figure, a branch, fingertips, a briefcase—that resurface like apparitions.

About distant water:

As a scholar of Native American literature and law, Beth Piatote focuses on the endangerment of Indigenous languages. As an activist, she moves against the current of English-language colonization, working to rescue and revitalize the language of her people. Language, she posits, is an expression of land, a means through which we can travel great distances.

distant water brings the reader into the language of our shared home, North America, revealing a sonic world and grammar governed by rivers, kinship, and ancestral knowledge. “In our homes and homelands,” she writes, “we share the language with the plants and animals and waters and rocks and sky.” Inventive and playful, these poems explore the sounds, structure, and wisdom of the Nez Perce language, illuminating its vitality and capacity to organize relationships to time and place. Braiding aural, linguistic, and spiritual ecologies, distant water conveys an understanding that to be in language is to be in place. To be at home.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

PoetryAuthor TalksTalks & Lectures

The Body Has Teeth: A Reading and Conversation

Bold Coffee & Books1755 Southwest Jefferson Street

BOLD is thrilled to host The Body Has Teeth: A Reading and Conversation with Amy Baskin, David Loring Nash, Anthony DiPietro, and Summer Stewart.

Four writers enter the dark from different doors. Anthony DiPietro’s poems move through gay love, sex, and the strange repetitions of desire. Amy Baskin gives Lilith—the first woman, cast as a demon—her fierce voice. Summer Stewart’s poems and essays expose the scripts written onto women’s bodies and lives. In David Loring Nash’s Northwoods, witchcraft, revenge, and human folly wait just beyond the treeline. Join them for a reading, followed by a conversation led by Summer Stewart.

BOLD is thrilled to host The Body Has Teeth: A Reading and Conversation with Amy Baskin, David Loring Nash, Anthony DiPietro, and Summer Stewart.

Four writers enter the dark from different doors. Anthony DiPietro’s poems move through gay love, sex, and the strange repetitions of desire. Amy Baskin gives Lilith—the first woman, cast as a demon—her fierce voice. Summer Stewart’s poems and essays expose the scripts written onto women’s bodies and lives. In David Loring Nash’s Northwoods, witchcraft, revenge, and human folly wait just beyond the treeline. Join them for a reading, followed by a conversation led by Summer Stewart.

Website ↗

THUNOV 5

10:00 AM – 4:30 PM

+17 dates

DanceHolidays & SeasonalCultural HeritageCraftsGalleriesParks & NatureWorkshopsWorld Music

Chrysanthemum Festival

Lan Su Chinese Garden239 Northwest Everett Street

Step into autumn’s splendor as the garden transforms with the colors and textures of chrysanthemums, a flower of nobility and longevity in Chinese culture. Stroll among 81 mum varieties, cascading displays along the waterfall, and sweeping floral sculptures that transform the garden into a living gallery.

From dazzling floral artistry to hands-on learning opportunities, Chrysanthemum Festival is one of the garden's most anticipated annual celebrations—and an unforgettable way to experience Lan Su in fall. Explore this beautiful flower and time of year.

Nov. 5-8 — Nights of the Golden Flower: Immerse yourself in the illuminated works of 18 talented local floral artists and featured designer Toni Tibbits as they interpret this year’s theme, Golden Blooms Upon Autumn Waters. Plus, enjoy gentle music by Lulu Guzheng Studio, dance performances by YZ Dance Academy, floral jewelry-making, and all-ages fun as you wander among glowing lanterns and vote for your favorite designs of the showcase. Sensory Night November 14.

Step into autumn’s splendor as the garden transforms with the colors and textures of chrysanthemums, a flower of nobility and longevity in Chinese culture. Stroll among 81 mum varieties, cascading displays along the waterfall, and sweeping floral sculptures that transform the garden into a living gallery.

From dazzling floral artistry to hands-on learning opportunities, Chrysanthemum Festival is one of the garden's most anticipated annual celebrations—and an unforgettable way to experience Lan Su in fall. Explore this beautiful flower and time of year.

Nov. 5-8 — Nights of the Golden Flower: Immerse yourself in the illuminated works of 18 talented local floral artists and featured designer Toni Tibbits as they interpret this year’s theme, Golden Blooms Upon Autumn Waters. Plus, enjoy gentle music by Lulu Guzheng Studio, dance performances by YZ Dance Academy, floral jewelry-making, and all-ages fun as you wander among glowing lanterns and vote for your favorite designs of the showcase. Sensory Night November 14.

Website ↗

THUNOV 5

6:30 PM – 7:30 PM

Author TalksReadingsCultural HeritageTalks & Lectures

Kimberly Blaeser with Christopher Diaz

Literary Arts716 SE Grand Avenue

The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome Kimberly Blaeser to celebrate her latest book Red Ants. Blaeser will be joined in conversation by Christopher Diaz.

About the book:

This bold and genre-defying prose debut by the prizewinning poet incorporates social, historical, and supernatural elements to create a collection that is both contemporary and timeless, communal and deeply intimate Kimberly Blaeser’s singular stories center Anishinaabe characters who bring traditional tribal stories into contemporary experiences and break the stereotypes too often used to portray them. Here, we experience an Indigenous America inhabited by fancy dog contests, social protests, tree doctors, monsters, mosquitoes, and facial recognition software, all while blending, in the most exciting ways, the genre elements of magical realism, humor, horror, and speculative literary fiction. At the heart of the collection is the story “Red Ants,” which opens on the rez between a jump rope chant and a test proctor’s smile, where two girls learn how easily a life can be reduced to numbers, and how quickly those numbers can tilt ordinary days into something mythic, unsettling, and deeply human. Blaeser delves into the complexities of kinship and survival, exploring how the smallest moments of cruelty or tenderness can shape generations. For readers of Night of the Living Rez and Crooked Hallelujah speaking to larger issues of race, culture, and history, Red Ants explores alienation, displacement, and loneliness elevated through the precision of language, fierce emotional intelligence, and the haunting sense of place that permeates every page.

The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome Kimberly Blaeser to celebrate her latest book Red Ants. Blaeser will be joined in conversation by Christopher Diaz.

About the book:

This bold and genre-defying prose debut by the prizewinning poet incorporates social, historical, and supernatural elements to create a collection that is both contemporary and timeless, communal and deeply intimate Kimberly Blaeser’s singular stories center Anishinaabe characters who bring traditional tribal stories into contemporary experiences and break the stereotypes too often used to portray them. Here, we experience an Indigenous America inhabited by fancy dog contests, social protests, tree doctors, monsters, mosquitoes, and facial recognition software, all while blending, in the most exciting ways, the genre elements of magical realism, humor, horror, and speculative literary fiction. At the heart of the collection is the story “Red Ants,” which opens on the rez between a jump rope chant and a test proctor’s smile, where two girls learn how easily a life can be reduced to numbers, and how quickly those numbers can tilt ordinary days into something mythic, unsettling, and deeply human. Blaeser delves into the complexities of kinship and survival, exploring how the smallest moments of cruelty or tenderness can shape generations. For readers of Night of the Living Rez and Crooked Hallelujah speaking to larger issues of race, culture, and history, Red Ants explores alienation, displacement, and loneliness elevated through the precision of language, fierce emotional intelligence, and the haunting sense of place that permeates every page.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SATNOV 7

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

Never Say Die: Ke Huy Quan

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall1037 Southwest Broadway

In this stunning and compulsively readable memoir, the Oscar-winning star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ke Huy Quan, tells the story of his journey from Vietnamese refugee to 80s child star to the most inspiring comeback in Hollywood history. Interviewed by OPB’s Dave Miller. Ke Huy Quan’s Hollywood adventure began when he was twelve years old, a mere five years after his family escaped Communist Northern Vietnam and settled down to a relatively peaceful life in L.A.’s Chinatown. After attending an open call audition on a whim, he was unexpectedly swept up in the wild world of filmmaking: learning to swim from Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, receiving trucks full of toys from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for his birthday, meeting Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, and making lifelong friends on the set of The Goonies.

A star of two of the most beloved movies of the ‘80s, there appeared to be no limit to Ke’s rise. But just a few years later, the roles had dried up and it seemed like Hollywood no longer had a place for him. He eventually left acting to work odd jobs behind the scenes for directors like Wong Kar Wai. His confidence was badly shaken, but his love of performing never abated. It wasn’t until decades later, when he was 49 years old, that he stepped back in front of the camera to star in a strange little indie film called Everything Everywhere All at Once, which surprised everyone with its incredible box-office and awards season success. To call Ke’s Oscar-winning performance a triumphant return would be an understatement.

In this moving, inspirational memoir, Ke paints a vivid self-portrait, telling both heart-wrenching and funny stories of his early rise, slow fall from the spotlight, the resilience that kept him going through his darkest times, and his eventual resurrection on one of the biggest stages in Hollywood. Never Say Die is the story of Ke’s extraordinary life, a love letter to the movies and people that shaped him, and a powerful testament to never giving up on your dreams.

In this stunning and compulsively readable memoir, the Oscar-winning star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, and Everything Everywhere All at Once, Ke Huy Quan, tells the story of his journey from Vietnamese refugee to 80s child star to the most inspiring comeback in Hollywood history. Interviewed by OPB’s Dave Miller. Ke Huy Quan’s Hollywood adventure began when he was twelve years old, a mere five years after his family escaped Communist Northern Vietnam and settled down to a relatively peaceful life in L.A.’s Chinatown. After attending an open call audition on a whim, he was unexpectedly swept up in the wild world of filmmaking: learning to swim from Harrison Ford on the set of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, receiving trucks full of toys from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas for his birthday, meeting Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker, and making lifelong friends on the set of The Goonies.

A star of two of the most beloved movies of the ‘80s, there appeared to be no limit to Ke’s rise. But just a few years later, the roles had dried up and it seemed like Hollywood no longer had a place for him. He eventually left acting to work odd jobs behind the scenes for directors like Wong Kar Wai. His confidence was badly shaken, but his love of performing never abated. It wasn’t until decades later, when he was 49 years old, that he stepped back in front of the camera to star in a strange little indie film called Everything Everywhere All at Once, which surprised everyone with its incredible box-office and awards season success. To call Ke’s Oscar-winning performance a triumphant return would be an understatement.

In this moving, inspirational memoir, Ke paints a vivid self-portrait, telling both heart-wrenching and funny stories of his early rise, slow fall from the spotlight, the resilience that kept him going through his darkest times, and his eventual resurrection on one of the biggest stages in Hollywood. Never Say Die is the story of Ke’s extraordinary life, a love letter to the movies and people that shaped him, and a powerful testament to never giving up on your dreams.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SUNNOV 1

5:30 PM – 8:00 PM

LGBTQ+CraftsStorytimesKids & Family

Trans Parent Day with Family Friend + little folx

Always Here BookstoreMap

You've heard of Mother's Day and Father's Day, but the first Sunday of November is Trans Parent Day!

Trans parents take many different shapes and forms – parents of trans kids, one or more trans-identifying parents, and every constellation in between! And to celebrate Trans Parent Day 2026, Always Here Bookstore is partnering with steadfast allies of queer families in Portland and beyond, Family Friend and little folx!

Join us at AHB on November 1st at 5:30pm for an evening of trans joy, community care, and solidarity.

Queer families of all shapes, sizes, and constellations are welcome! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️❤️‍🔥

✂️ Zine folding!

📖 Storytime!

🖍️ Arts and crafts!

📢 More details TBA!

You've heard of Mother's Day and Father's Day, but the first Sunday of November is Trans Parent Day!

Trans parents take many different shapes and forms – parents of trans kids, one or more trans-identifying parents, and every constellation in between! And to celebrate Trans Parent Day 2026, Always Here Bookstore is partnering with steadfast allies of queer families in Portland and beyond, Family Friend and little folx!

Join us at AHB on November 1st at 5:30pm for an evening of trans joy, community care, and solidarity.

Queer families of all shapes, sizes, and constellations are welcome! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️❤️‍🔥

✂️ Zine folding!

📖 Storytime!

🖍️ Arts and crafts!

📢 More details TBA!

Website ↗

THUNOV 5

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

ReadingsAuthor TalksTalks & Lectures

Columbia Writers Series Reading: Ed Park

Clark College - Penguin Union Building 258A-C -Large Conference Room1933 Fort Vancouver Way

Join the Columbia Writers Series for a reading and conversation with the novelist, journalist, and editor Ed Park. Park is the author of the novels Same Bed Different Dreams and Personal Days, and the short story collection An Oral History of Atlantis (2025). He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN Hemingway Award, and other honors, and has won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and Asian Pacific American Award for Literature. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, Harper’s, McSweeney’s, and many other places. He is a founding editor of The Believer and was executive editor at Penguin Press. He teaches creative writing at Princeton.

Website ↗

WEDNOV 4

3:00 PM

CeramicsCraftsWorkshops

Makerspace x pFriem: Handbuilt Mugs

pFriem Milwaukie Tasting Room10722 SE MAIN ST

Tuesday, July 21st: Both Tasting Room locations will be closing at 3pm. Gather at the pFriem Milwaukie Tasting Room for an evening of hand building mugs and beverages. Each attendee will build a mug from scratch and apply glaze, guided by Alison. The ticket price includes one drink, but stick around for dinner from pFriem's delicious kitchen. This is great for a date night or larger group. Cost includes all materials and firing. Mugs ready to be picked up 3 weeks later at Makerspace Sellwood. We use cookies on our site to give you the best experience. To continue using our site, please accept cookies.

Website ↗

SUNNOV 1

12:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Cultural HeritageCraftsHolidays & SeasonalFood & Drink

Dia De Muertos Celebration

the Redd831 SE Salmon St

KBOO IS A PROUD MEDIA SPONSOR OF THIS EVENT Benefiting Immigration Counseling Service, a celebration of honoring our loved ones that have passed and to welcome them back home with their favorite food, music and altars. Specific activities; altar building, sugar skull...

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FRINOV 20

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Author TalksHistory Talks

Napoleon and His Marshals: Victory, Rivalry, Betrayal

First Congregational Church1126 SW Park Avenue

Join acclaimed historian Lord Andrew Roberts for a fascinating look at the men who helped build — and ultimately unravel — Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire. In his new book, Napoleon and His Marshals, Roberts brings to life the extraordinary generals who served at Napoleon’s side, from the courageous Ney and flamboyant Murat to the tenacious Masséna, iron-willed Davout, and meticulous Berthier.

In 1804, Napoleon created the Marshalate, the highest military honor of the French Empire, and over the next decade elevated 26 of his most accomplished generals to the rank. Roberts explores their personalities, ambitions, rivalries, and complex relationships with their emperor, revealing how Napoleon’s leadership both inspired fierce loyalty and fueled destructive competition among his marshals. Ultimately, only two of the 26 would ride beside him at Waterloo.

Drawing on years of scholarship on Napoleon and his era, Roberts offers a dramatic and richly detailed portrait of the men whose military brilliance helped create Napoleon’s extraordinary empire — and whose rivalries helped bring it down.

This event is a co-production with The Chartwell Society of Oregon, a chapter of the International Churchill Society.

Join acclaimed historian Lord Andrew Roberts for a fascinating look at the men who helped build — and ultimately unravel — Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire. In his new book, Napoleon and His Marshals, Roberts brings to life the extraordinary generals who served at Napoleon’s side, from the courageous Ney and flamboyant Murat to the tenacious Masséna, iron-willed Davout, and meticulous Berthier.

In 1804, Napoleon created the Marshalate, the highest military honor of the French Empire, and over the next decade elevated 26 of his most accomplished generals to the rank. Roberts explores their personalities, ambitions, rivalries, and complex relationships with their emperor, revealing how Napoleon’s leadership both inspired fierce loyalty and fueled destructive competition among his marshals. Ultimately, only two of the 26 would ride beside him at Waterloo.

Drawing on years of scholarship on Napoleon and his era, Roberts offers a dramatic and richly detailed portrait of the men whose military brilliance helped create Napoleon’s extraordinary empire — and whose rivalries helped bring it down.

This event is a co-production with The Chartwell Society of Oregon, a chapter of the International Churchill Society.

Website ↗

MONNOV 2

Hours not provided

+6 more

ReadingsAuthor TalksTalks & LecturesStreet Festivals

Portland Book Festival

PortlandMap

Portland Book Festival (formerly “Wordstock”) returns every November with an impressive (and extensive) lineup of local and national authors.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SATNOV 7

10:00 AM – 11:00 PM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

Wildwood: Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall1037 SW Broadway

Wildwood is the first book in the New York Times best-selling fantasy series full of magic, wonder, and danger from Colin Meloy, lead singer of the highly celebrated band the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, the award-winning illustrator of Du Iz Tak and Home. Soon to be a major motion picture from LAIKA, the studio behind Coraline. Look for it on October 23, 2026! Moderated by Andrew Proctor.

About Wildwood:

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where it rains a lot. She has a mother and a father and a baby brother. Ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a flock of crows. And then things get really weird.

You see, on every map of Portland there is a big splotch of green in the center of the city labeled “I.W.” This stands for “Impassable Wilderness.” No one’s ever gone in — or at least returned to tell of it.

And this is where the crows take her brother.

So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness.

A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

WILDWOOD is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, WILDWOOD is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century.

Wildwood is the first book in the New York Times best-selling fantasy series full of magic, wonder, and danger from Colin Meloy, lead singer of the highly celebrated band the Decemberists, and Carson Ellis, the award-winning illustrator of Du Iz Tak and Home. Soon to be a major motion picture from LAIKA, the studio behind Coraline. Look for it on October 23, 2026! Moderated by Andrew Proctor.

About Wildwood:

Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where it rains a lot. She has a mother and a father and a baby brother. Ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a flock of crows. And then things get really weird.

You see, on every map of Portland there is a big splotch of green in the center of the city labeled “I.W.” This stands for “Impassable Wilderness.” No one’s ever gone in — or at least returned to tell of it.

And this is where the crows take her brother.

So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval, a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much bigger as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness.

A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

WILDWOOD is a spellbinding tale full of wonder, danger, and magic that juxtaposes the thrill of a secret world and modern city life. Original and fresh yet steeped in classic fantasy, this is a novel that could have only come from the imagination of Colin Meloy, celebrated for his inventive and fantastic storytelling as the lead singer of the Decemberists. With dozens of intricate and beautiful illustrations by award-winning artist Carson Ellis, WILDWOOD is truly a new classic for the twenty-first century.

Website ↗

FRINOV 6

9:30 AM – 11:30 AM

WorkshopsCrafts

Crafting With Nature Art Workshop

Dandelion Teahouse & ApothecaryDandelion Teahouse & Apothecary, West 7th Street, Vancouver, WA, USA

For First Friday this month, join us to make trinkets and festive autumnal decorations out of materials found in nature! We will provide supplies, all you need to bring is yourself. The donation for class includes participation and supplies! Hope to see you there!

Website ↗

TUENOV 10

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

MILKTEETH by CAITLIN STARLING RELEASE

Parallel Worlds Bookshop2639 Northeast Alberta Street

MILKTEETH by CAITLIN STARLING RELEASE

🦷✨ Join us for the release of MILKTEETH, the newest release from Caitlin Starling.

We're thrilled to welcome Caitlin in conversation with Stephanie Binx for an evening of author discussion, reader Q&A and a book signing.

📚 Books available for purchase and signing at the event.

When: Tues Nov 10 @ 630pm

Website ↗

TUENOV 3

6:30 PM – 8:00 PM

ReadingsAuthor TalksTalks & Lectures

Finding Wonderful: Matt Mikalatos

Literary Arts925 SW Washington St

Join The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for an evening of Hollywood nostalgia and holiday classics!

We’re thrilled to host local author Matt Mikalatos to celebrate his latest, Finding Wonderful: Hopeful Lessons from Jimmy Stewart and It’s a Wonderful Life.

About the book:

It’s a Wonderful Life impacted the lives of many, but no one got more from it than star Jimmy Stewart, who credited the film with giving his life new purpose post-World War II service. Learn the lessons on faith, community, kindness, and more from Stewart and the iconic film with this inspiring gift book.

Beloved star and one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Stewart achieved fame, fortune, and acclaim—but found that none of it guaranteed happiness. Leaving it all behind to serve as a combat pilot in World War II, he returned home changed by loss and searching for meaning. But while filming the perennial Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart learned how to heal and live with gratitude and grace with the help of friends, faith, and purpose. Drawing on his life and words, as well as iconic moments from It’s a Wonderful Life, this book explores how the actor who embodied decency on screen lived it off-screen, too.

Endorsed by the Stewart estate and featuring little-seen photos throughout, Finding Wonderful is a heartfelt series of essays that capture the virtues and values of a man who discovered that the secret to a wonderful life has nothing to do with fame—and everything to do with love, service, and simple goodness.

Join The Literary Arts Bookstore & Cafe for an evening of Hollywood nostalgia and holiday classics!

We’re thrilled to host local author Matt Mikalatos to celebrate his latest, Finding Wonderful: Hopeful Lessons from Jimmy Stewart and It’s a Wonderful Life.

About the book:

It’s a Wonderful Life impacted the lives of many, but no one got more from it than star Jimmy Stewart, who credited the film with giving his life new purpose post-World War II service. Learn the lessons on faith, community, kindness, and more from Stewart and the iconic film with this inspiring gift book.

Beloved star and one of Hollywood’s greatest actors, Stewart achieved fame, fortune, and acclaim—but found that none of it guaranteed happiness. Leaving it all behind to serve as a combat pilot in World War II, he returned home changed by loss and searching for meaning. But while filming the perennial Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Stewart learned how to heal and live with gratitude and grace with the help of friends, faith, and purpose. Drawing on his life and words, as well as iconic moments from It’s a Wonderful Life, this book explores how the actor who embodied decency on screen lived it off-screen, too.

Endorsed by the Stewart estate and featuring little-seen photos throughout, Finding Wonderful is a heartfelt series of essays that capture the virtues and values of a man who discovered that the secret to a wonderful life has nothing to do with fame—and everything to do with love, service, and simple goodness.

Website ↗

WEDNOV 4

7:00 PM

ReadingsAuthor TalksPerforming ArtsTalks & Lectures

Literary Show and Tell with Constellation Reading Series

P.A.L.S Building1452 NE 28th Ave

Oregon Humanities and Constellation Reading Series are teaming up to ask Portland writers the question: What’s the book that made you say, Books are for me?

The idea comes from the Works Cited section of Oregon Humanities magazine, where authors reflect on the foundational texts that shaped their lives. On Wednesday, November 4, we’re bringing that idea to the new PALS (Portland Arts & Literary Society) Building for an evening of literary show-and-tell.

We'll hear from Aleksandr Chernousov, Lydia Kiesling, Tim Lane, Jae Nichelle, Christopher Rose, and Eric Tran about the books that shaped them, and they'll also share passages from their work. Then we’ll open the mic to you.

Join us

Bring the book that started your literary origin story! It could be a children’s book, a comic, a classic—all books count. During our lightning round open mic, you’ll have 60 seconds to share your book and why it matters. If you’d rather just listen, that’s welcome too, just pull up a seat and enjoy the evening.

Up Up Books will be open especially for the event, and the readers’ books will be for sale.

Come celebrate the reading life with us! This event is part of the Portland Book Festival's Cover to Cover series.

Oregon Humanities and Constellation Reading Series are teaming up to ask Portland writers the question: What’s the book that made you say, Books are for me?

The idea comes from the Works Cited section of Oregon Humanities magazine, where authors reflect on the foundational texts that shaped their lives. On Wednesday, November 4, we’re bringing that idea to the new PALS (Portland Arts & Literary Society) Building for an evening of literary show-and-tell.

We'll hear from Aleksandr Chernousov, Lydia Kiesling, Tim Lane, Jae Nichelle, Christopher Rose, and Eric Tran about the books that shaped them, and they'll also share passages from their work. Then we’ll open the mic to you.

Join us

Bring the book that started your literary origin story! It could be a children’s book, a comic, a classic—all books count. During our lightning round open mic, you’ll have 60 seconds to share your book and why it matters. If you’d rather just listen, that’s welcome too, just pull up a seat and enjoy the evening.

Up Up Books will be open especially for the event, and the readers’ books will be for sale.

Come celebrate the reading life with us! This event is part of the Portland Book Festival's Cover to Cover series.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

Villa Coco: Andrew Sean Greer

Portland’5: Newmark Theatre1111 SW Broadway

Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills. Interviewed by Lucy Feldman (TIME).

Limited guaranteed seat tickets with book included available; most of the theatre will be first-come first-served with a PBF GA pass. About Villa Coco:

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boarhunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa’s extensive collection of art and antiques—although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose.

Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco’s great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late. Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we’ve always wanted to be.

Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less, showcases his wit, sophistication, and deep knowledge of focaccia in this tale of a young man who takes an unspecified job with a charismatic elderly Baronessa at her crumbling villa in the Tuscan hills. Interviewed by Lucy Feldman (TIME).

Limited guaranteed seat tickets with book included available; most of the theatre will be first-come first-served with a PBF GA pass. About Villa Coco:

An aspiring archivist determined to begin a “serious” life after an undistinguished undergraduate career takes up residence in the Italian countryside. Here, he becomes the all-purpose assistant to the Baronessa, known to her friends as Coco, a defiantly youthful and naturally flamboyant woman of ninety-two. Amid a chaotic and colorful milieu of gin-swilling princesses, incomprehensible handymen, roaming boarhunters, nuns, and other local wildlife, our young man does his best to catalog the villa’s extensive collection of art and antiques—although he notices that things seem to go missing from right under his nose.

Despite himself, he tumbles into an affair with a married man, complicating his future plans considerably. And when the Baronessa loses someone close to her, he becomes an unwitting accomplice in the acceleration of Coco’s great and final plan: to locate the love of her life and be reunited before it’s too late. Told with the signature wit, charm, and humanity that made Less an international phenomenon, Villa Coco is a dazzling, sun-soaked ode to life itself, a meditation on how seriously we ought to take ourselves, and a bawdy Mediterranean ballad about becoming who we’ve always wanted to be.

Website ↗

SUNNOV 1

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

CraftsWorkshopsKids & FamilyParks & Nature

Science Sunday: Pinecone Bird Feeders

Hillsboro Public Library, Brookwood2850 NE Brookwood Pkwy

Make life a little easier on our Oregon winter birds with some crafty edible artistry for all ages.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Talks & LecturesAuthor Talks

Signals Across Vast Distances: Elizabeth Alexander

Newmark Theatre1111 Southwest Broadway

A call to courage and connection from prize-winning poet and champion of the arts and humanities Elizabeth Alexander. Interviewed by Mitchell S. Jackson. n this deeply personal book, Elizabeth Alexander gives us profound and galvanizing lessons from culture and life to move through challenging times. In close readings of visionary and beloved poets and writers—Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan, among others—Dr. Alexander meditates on how words and values can sustain and inspire, interweaving her voice with revelatory works of art by some of our most extraordinary visual artists, richly reproduced in the book’s pages.

Her stories of connection—as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother of two sons; reflecting at midlife on her younger days as an aspiring dancer; as a poet at President Obama’s inauguration on the dais alongside her father, a civil rights pioneer; urging radical welcome in our families, communities, and country—engage and move us. Her reflections on the public project of acknowledging historical truths, a focus of her leadership at the Mellon Foundation, model courageous action.

Throughout the book, Alexander poses questions, encouraging readers to recognize the abundant resources we carry within or can access: language, history, art, community, family, our bodies, our stories, and love itself. In luminous and powerful prose, Signals Across Vast Distances calls us to imagine possibilities, take courage, and—in Alexander’s closing words—lead with love.

A call to courage and connection from prize-winning poet and champion of the arts and humanities Elizabeth Alexander. Interviewed by Mitchell S. Jackson. n this deeply personal book, Elizabeth Alexander gives us profound and galvanizing lessons from culture and life to move through challenging times. In close readings of visionary and beloved poets and writers—Muriel Rukeyser, Gwendolyn Brooks, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and June Jordan, among others—Dr. Alexander meditates on how words and values can sustain and inspire, interweaving her voice with revelatory works of art by some of our most extraordinary visual artists, richly reproduced in the book’s pages.

Her stories of connection—as a daughter, wife, widow, and mother of two sons; reflecting at midlife on her younger days as an aspiring dancer; as a poet at President Obama’s inauguration on the dais alongside her father, a civil rights pioneer; urging radical welcome in our families, communities, and country—engage and move us. Her reflections on the public project of acknowledging historical truths, a focus of her leadership at the Mellon Foundation, model courageous action.

Throughout the book, Alexander poses questions, encouraging readers to recognize the abundant resources we carry within or can access: language, history, art, community, family, our bodies, our stories, and love itself. In luminous and powerful prose, Signals Across Vast Distances calls us to imagine possibilities, take courage, and—in Alexander’s closing words—lead with love.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

THUNOV 5

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

History TalksAuthor TalksCultural Heritage

The Making of 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed

Reed College — PAB 320 - Music Rehearsal Room & Lecture Hall3203 SE Woodstock Blvd

A talk by Glynnis Fawkes.

How does a cartoonist go about adapting a work of history, specifically Eric H. Cline’s 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed? In this talk Fawkes will describe the process of interpreting Cline’s text in comics, an exercise during which she repeatedly asked herself how she might tell this story visually. Through page compositions and dramatizations in which historical figures (such as Ramses III) speak, she imagined characters for whom we have no record offering commentary and opinions. To guide the narrative, she introduced two new young characters, Pel (of the Sea Peoples) and Shesha, (an Egyptian scribe) who ask the central question of the book: Why after three prosperous centuries did the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age suddenly come to an end?

Glynnis Fawkes is the co-author with Eric H Cline and illustrator of 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press). She is also the author-illustrator of Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre (Little, Brown)and Persephone’s Garden (Secret Acres), among other books, and her comics have appeared on the website of The New Yorker. She has worked as an archaeological illustrator around the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.

Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and Reed's department of Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Free and open to the public.

A talk by Glynnis Fawkes.

How does a cartoonist go about adapting a work of history, specifically Eric H. Cline’s 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed? In this talk Fawkes will describe the process of interpreting Cline’s text in comics, an exercise during which she repeatedly asked herself how she might tell this story visually. Through page compositions and dramatizations in which historical figures (such as Ramses III) speak, she imagined characters for whom we have no record offering commentary and opinions. To guide the narrative, she introduced two new young characters, Pel (of the Sea Peoples) and Shesha, (an Egyptian scribe) who ask the central question of the book: Why after three prosperous centuries did the civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age suddenly come to an end?

Glynnis Fawkes is the co-author with Eric H Cline and illustrator of 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press). She is also the author-illustrator of Charlotte Brontë before Jane Eyre (Little, Brown)and Persephone’s Garden (Secret Acres), among other books, and her comics have appeared on the website of The New Yorker. She has worked as an archaeological illustrator around the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont.

Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and Reed's department of Greek, Latin, and Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Free and open to the public.

Website ↗

SUNNOV 1

2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

WorkshopsCrafts

FABULOUS FELTING with the Bridge!

Emmanuel Presbyterian Church19200 Willamette Drive

Join us on Sunday, November 1st as we will be teaching the basics of Needle Felting! No previous experience necessary. We will have everything you need to create an adorable needle felted piece and colorful felt acorns perfect for holiday decorating!

We list the event as free, but we do kindly ask for a $5 donation to cover materials. However, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please join us at the starting time of 2pm as we will be beginning the class with instruction and there is not time to repeat everything again!

This event is hosted at a church but it is NOT a church event. There will be NO church talk; just a free community-building event that allows us all to take a break in our busy lives to do something that’s good for ourself and our community. We hope you will join us!

Join us on Sunday, November 1st as we will be teaching the basics of Needle Felting! No previous experience necessary. We will have everything you need to create an adorable needle felted piece and colorful felt acorns perfect for holiday decorating!

We list the event as free, but we do kindly ask for a $5 donation to cover materials. However, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please join us at the starting time of 2pm as we will be beginning the class with instruction and there is not time to repeat everything again!

This event is hosted at a church but it is NOT a church event. There will be NO church talk; just a free community-building event that allows us all to take a break in our busy lives to do something that’s good for ourself and our community. We hope you will join us!

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

THUNOV 12

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

RSVP requiredHistory TalksAuthor Talks

Permanent Ink: Why We Still Love Print in the Digital Age

Red Cross Building605 Barnes Street

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text margin_bottom=”0″ css=”.vc_custom_1793313257834{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]We once depended on handwriting for recording information. Then the printing press changed everything. We could record, store, and access information in thousands of copies. Five hundred years later, the digital revolution is transforming things again. Today, we get information from millions of websites in milliseconds with search engines and AI.

Technology has always shaped the way we’ve stayed informed, expressed ourselves, and stayed connected as communities. What lessons do earlier technologies, like print, hold for us today in the age of AI and digital overload? And why, despite the speed and convenience of newer technologies, is print more popular than ever?

At the end of the talk, audiences will get the chance to try printing on a portable press.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Geoffrey Turnovsky is professor of French at the University of Washington. His teaching and research focus on the cultural history of early modern France and Europe, and the history of print, books, authorship, and reading. He is the author of Reading Typographically: Immersed in Print in Early Modern France.

Geoffrey lives in Seattle.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”turquoise” border_width=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1793313188911{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Reservations are now open!

Admission is FREE, but reservations are required due to limited seating.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”RESERVE A SEAT” color=”warning” size=”lg” css=”” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fthehistorictrust.rezdy.com%2F781920%2Fpermanent-ink-why-we-still-love-print-in-the-digital-age%3F_gl%3D1*zutbgg*_gcl_au*MTA5ODE3MTY3MS4xNzkwMjg5MTQzLjY2NDI0MTc5MS4xNzkwMjg5MTQ2LjE3OTAyODkxOTkuODQzMTY1ODM2LjE3OTAyODkxNDYuMTc5MDI4OTE5OQ..*_ga*MTM2NDc5Mzk1NS4xNzczODQ4NTkw*_ga_J7SXS0R0D6*czE3OTAzNTA1OTIkbzEyNSRnMSR0MTc5MDM3NTAyMSRqMzckbDAkaDY0Njc2MjQ1MQ..”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”turquoise” border_width=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1791842995682{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The Historic Trust Fall Speakers Series is Presented by University Village

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text margin_bottom=”0″ css=”.vc_custom_1793313257834{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]We once depended on handwriting for recording information. Then the printing press changed everything. We could record, store, and access information in thousands of copies. Five hundred years later, the digital revolution is transforming things again. Today, we get information from millions of websites in milliseconds with search engines and AI.

Technology has always shaped the way we’ve stayed informed, expressed ourselves, and stayed connected as communities. What lessons do earlier technologies, like print, hold for us today in the age of AI and digital overload? And why, despite the speed and convenience of newer technologies, is print more popular than ever?

At the end of the talk, audiences will get the chance to try printing on a portable press.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Geoffrey Turnovsky is professor of French at the University of Washington. His teaching and research focus on the cultural history of early modern France and Europe, and the history of print, books, authorship, and reading. He is the author of Reading Typographically: Immersed in Print in Early Modern France.

Geoffrey lives in Seattle.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”turquoise” border_width=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1793313188911{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]Reservations are now open!

Admission is FREE, but reservations are required due to limited seating.[/vc_column_text][vc_btn title=”RESERVE A SEAT” color=”warning” size=”lg” css=”” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fthehistorictrust.rezdy.com%2F781920%2Fpermanent-ink-why-we-still-love-print-in-the-digital-age%3F_gl%3D1*zutbgg*_gcl_au*MTA5ODE3MTY3MS4xNzkwMjg5MTQzLjY2NDI0MTc5MS4xNzkwMjg5MTQ2LjE3OTAyODkxOTkuODQzMTY1ODM2LjE3OTAyODkxNDYuMTc5MDI4OTE5OQ..*_ga*MTM2NDc5Mzk1NS4xNzczODQ4NTkw*_ga_J7SXS0R0D6*czE3OTAzNTA1OTIkbzEyNSRnMSR0MTc5MDM3NTAyMSRqMzckbDAkaDY0Njc2MjQ1MQ..”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”10px”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_separator color=”turquoise” border_width=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”.vc_custom_1791842995682{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”]The Historic Trust Fall Speakers Series is Presented by University Village

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Website ↗

THUNOV 5

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Talks & LecturesPoetryAuthor Talks

Brian Doyle Celebration and Book Release

Lake Oswego Public Library706 4th St

Join Mary Miller Doyle and friends for a presentation of Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination by Brian Doyle and Mary Miller Doyle. Drawing from both beloved and previously unpublished Brian Doyle works, this collection of essays, poems and sketches invites readers to notice holiness woven through ordinary, everyday moments.

Mary Miller Doyle and John and Cindy McPhee will read passages from Wonder is a Lovely Place to Be and retired Lake Oswego Public Library director Bill Baars will host. We'll also be serving apple and marionberry pie, Brian's favorite flavors.

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was the author of many books, including the novels Mink River and The Plover; The Grail, his account of a year in a pinot noir vineyard in Oregon; and The Wet Engine, a memoir about his infant son’s heart surgery and the young doctor who saved his life. He edited Portland Magazine at the University of Portland.

This program is supported by the Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library. Participation is free, and no registration is required. Please note, seating is limited due to the size of the space. Seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.A livestream will be available.

Lake Oswego Public Library is located at 706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego. For more information, contact Alicia Yokoyama at 503-534-4228 or [email protected]

(link sends e-mail)

Join Mary Miller Doyle and friends for a presentation of Wonder Is a Lovely Place to Be: 365 Days of Wit, Wisdom, and Irrepressible Imagination by Brian Doyle and Mary Miller Doyle. Drawing from both beloved and previously unpublished Brian Doyle works, this collection of essays, poems and sketches invites readers to notice holiness woven through ordinary, everyday moments.

Mary Miller Doyle and John and Cindy McPhee will read passages from Wonder is a Lovely Place to Be and retired Lake Oswego Public Library director Bill Baars will host. We'll also be serving apple and marionberry pie, Brian's favorite flavors.

Brian Doyle (1956-2017) was the author of many books, including the novels Mink River and The Plover; The Grail, his account of a year in a pinot noir vineyard in Oregon; and The Wet Engine, a memoir about his infant son’s heart surgery and the young doctor who saved his life. He edited Portland Magazine at the University of Portland.

This program is supported by the Friends of the Lake Oswego Public Library. Participation is free, and no registration is required. Please note, seating is limited due to the size of the space. Seats will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.A livestream will be available.

Lake Oswego Public Library is located at 706 Fourth Street, Lake Oswego. For more information, contact Alicia Yokoyama at 503-534-4228 or [email protected]

(link sends e-mail)

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

On Biography: Julia Cooke & Lance Richardson

The Old Church1422 SW 11th Ave

Authors Julia Cooke (Starry and Restless) and Lance Richardson (True Nature) sit down to discuss their new biographies.Both works explore the lives of trailblazing journalists and activists. Moderated by journalist Charley Locke.

About Starry and Restless:

The page-turning story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism.

She hid on a Red Cross boat to reach Omaha Beach on D-Day. She walked the abandoned streets of Hong Kong to take food to her daughter’s father, a prisoner of war. She fought off the advances of overzealous Yugoslavian diplomats, found overlooked details of world history in a dentist’s kitchen in Sarajevo. She traveled alone to Mexico. She traveled alone to Congo. She traveled alone to the American South. She married Hemingway. She married a Chinese poet-playboy-publisher, then married a British war hero. She fell in love with H. G. Wells. She gave birth and raised a child on her own. She landed on the front page of the newspaper. She wrote for the great magazines of her time—Vogue, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar. She wrote a play. She wrote a memoir. She wrote a genre-breaking travel narrative. She wrote bestsellers. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She changed the very way we think about writing and the way journalists craft stories—which sources are viable, which details are important—and the way women move and work in the world.

She was Martha Gellhorn. She was Emily “Mickey” Hahn. She was Rebecca West. Each woman was starry-eyed for success, for adventure, and helped ensure that other starry and restless women could make unforgettable lives for themselves. They fought for their lives and their work. They were praised and criticized for it all.

In language as lively and nimble, in passages as intimate and adventurous, and with conviction as fierce and indefatigable as her subjects’ own, Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless plays out the stories of three women across three decades and five continents. Martha, Mickey, Rebecca—journalists, authors, mothers, lovers, friends. These women didn’t just bear witness to the great changes of the twentieth century; their curiosity, grit, ambition, and stories changed the world.

About True Nature:

The firstbiography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern environmental movement, by award-winning writer Lance Richardson.

“A stunning, formidable achievement by a brilliant biographer. Lance Richardson takes his readers on a wild ride with Peter Matthiessen.” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus

“A fair-minded, grippingly paced, and tremendously readable narrative.” —Pico Iyer, Air Mail

Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014), a towering figure of twentieth-century American letters, achieved so much during his lifetime, in so many different areas, that people have struggled to pin him down. While ambivalent about his WASP privilege—as a teenager he demanded that his name be removed from the New York Social Register—he attended Yale and cut his teeth in postwar Paris, co-founding The Paris Review as he worked undercover for the CIA. But then, after a rebellious stint as a Long Island fisherman, he escaped into a series of wild expeditions: floating through the Amazon to recover a prehistorical fossil; embedding with a tribe in Netherlands New Guinea; swimming with sharks off the coast of Australia. His novels, inspired by his travels, were unclassifiable meditations about Caymanian turtle hunters and frontier outlaws in the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, his nonfiction became legendary: nature books like Wildlife in America—“key parts of the canon of emergent environmental writing,” says Bill McKibben—as well as advocacy journalism supporting Cesar Chavez, Leonard Peltier, and Native American land claims.

Underlying all Matthiessen’s disparate pursuits was the same existential search—to find a cure for “deep restlessness.” This search was most profoundly articulated in The Snow Leopard, his famous account of a 250-mile wildlife survey across the Himalayas. In True Nature, Lance Richardson reconstructs the full scope of a spiritual quest that ultimately led Matthiessen, even as he inflicted great pain on his family, to the highest ranks of Zen. Drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, Richardson depicts Matthiessen’s life with page-turning immediacy, while also illuminating how the writer’s uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism, and labor exploitation—to express, eloquently and presciently, that “in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge.”

Authors Julia Cooke (Starry and Restless) and Lance Richardson (True Nature) sit down to discuss their new biographies.Both works explore the lives of trailblazing journalists and activists. Moderated by journalist Charley Locke.

About Starry and Restless:

The page-turning story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism.

She hid on a Red Cross boat to reach Omaha Beach on D-Day. She walked the abandoned streets of Hong Kong to take food to her daughter’s father, a prisoner of war. She fought off the advances of overzealous Yugoslavian diplomats, found overlooked details of world history in a dentist’s kitchen in Sarajevo. She traveled alone to Mexico. She traveled alone to Congo. She traveled alone to the American South. She married Hemingway. She married a Chinese poet-playboy-publisher, then married a British war hero. She fell in love with H. G. Wells. She gave birth and raised a child on her own. She landed on the front page of the newspaper. She wrote for the great magazines of her time—Vogue, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar. She wrote a play. She wrote a memoir. She wrote a genre-breaking travel narrative. She wrote bestsellers. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She changed the very way we think about writing and the way journalists craft stories—which sources are viable, which details are important—and the way women move and work in the world.

She was Martha Gellhorn. She was Emily “Mickey” Hahn. She was Rebecca West. Each woman was starry-eyed for success, for adventure, and helped ensure that other starry and restless women could make unforgettable lives for themselves. They fought for their lives and their work. They were praised and criticized for it all.

In language as lively and nimble, in passages as intimate and adventurous, and with conviction as fierce and indefatigable as her subjects’ own, Julia Cooke’s Starry and Restless plays out the stories of three women across three decades and five continents. Martha, Mickey, Rebecca—journalists, authors, mothers, lovers, friends. These women didn’t just bear witness to the great changes of the twentieth century; their curiosity, grit, ambition, and stories changed the world.

About True Nature:

The firstbiography of Peter Matthiessen, the novelist, naturalist, and Zen roshi, whose trailblazing work championed Native American rights and helped usher in the modern environmental movement, by award-winning writer Lance Richardson.

“A stunning, formidable achievement by a brilliant biographer. Lance Richardson takes his readers on a wild ride with Peter Matthiessen.” —Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning co-author of American Prometheus

“A fair-minded, grippingly paced, and tremendously readable narrative.” —Pico Iyer, Air Mail

Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014), a towering figure of twentieth-century American letters, achieved so much during his lifetime, in so many different areas, that people have struggled to pin him down. While ambivalent about his WASP privilege—as a teenager he demanded that his name be removed from the New York Social Register—he attended Yale and cut his teeth in postwar Paris, co-founding The Paris Review as he worked undercover for the CIA. But then, after a rebellious stint as a Long Island fisherman, he escaped into a series of wild expeditions: floating through the Amazon to recover a prehistorical fossil; embedding with a tribe in Netherlands New Guinea; swimming with sharks off the coast of Australia. His novels, inspired by his travels, were unclassifiable meditations about Caymanian turtle hunters and frontier outlaws in the Florida Everglades. Meanwhile, his nonfiction became legendary: nature books like Wildlife in America—“key parts of the canon of emergent environmental writing,” says Bill McKibben—as well as advocacy journalism supporting Cesar Chavez, Leonard Peltier, and Native American land claims.

Underlying all Matthiessen’s disparate pursuits was the same existential search—to find a cure for “deep restlessness.” This search was most profoundly articulated in The Snow Leopard, his famous account of a 250-mile wildlife survey across the Himalayas. In True Nature, Lance Richardson reconstructs the full scope of a spiritual quest that ultimately led Matthiessen, even as he inflicted great pain on his family, to the highest ranks of Zen. Drawing on rich primary sources and hundreds of interviews, Richardson depicts Matthiessen’s life with page-turning immediacy, while also illuminating how the writer’s uncanny gifts enabled him to sense connections between ecological decline, racism, and labor exploitation—to express, eloquently and presciently, that “in a damaged human habitat, all problems merge.”

Website ↗

SUNNOV 1

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Drop-inMusicCultural HeritageCraftsHolidays & SeasonalStreet FestivalsPerforming Arts

Gresham Day of The Dead

Futbarrio2919 NW Division Street

Celebrate and learn the history of the Day of the Dead at this free community event.

The event runs from 9:00am - 5:00 pm and will have:

Food carts
Crafts
Live music and performers from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Face painting
Community altar where you can bring pictures of your loved ones who have passed. Printings will be made available on site.

This event is open to everyone.

For more information please email [email protected].

Celebrate and learn the history of the Day of the Dead at this free community event.

The event runs from 9:00am - 5:00 pm and will have:

Food carts
Crafts
Live music and performers from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Face painting
Community altar where you can bring pictures of your loved ones who have passed. Printings will be made available on site.

This event is open to everyone.

For more information please email [email protected].

Website ↗

THUNOV 5

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM

Cultural HeritageWorkshopsCraftsMakersFood & DrinkKids (5-11)Holidays & Seasonal

STEAM Lab: Sugar Skulls

Aloha Community Library17445 SW Farmington Rd, Suite 26A

Create an edible sugar skull, or calavera de azúcar, a confection molded from sugar paste and decorated for the Mexican celebration for the Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos). Learn about the history and significance of sugar skulls while decorating your own pre-made calaverita to keep or honor a loved one!

Quantities are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For children ages 5 and up with adult supervision.

Create an edible sugar skull, or calavera de azúcar, a confection molded from sugar paste and decorated for the Mexican celebration for the Day of the Dead (Día de los muertos). Learn about the history and significance of sugar skulls while decorating your own pre-made calaverita to keep or honor a loved one!

Quantities are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. For children ages 5 and up with adult supervision.

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM

Author TalksTalks & Lectures

Survival: Emiko Jean & T Kira Māhealani Madden

Portland’5: Winningstad Theatre1111 SW Broadway Ave

Novelists Emiko Jean (Before You Were Anne) and T Kira Māhealani Madden (Whidbey) join moderator and author Marisa Siegel for a conversation on their most recent novels and the secrets and lies that chase their protagonists. Told through multiple perspectives, both authors create page-turning stories about webs of violence, and the fragile lies that threaten survival.

About Before You Were Anne:

After a woman is killed and her daughter vanishes, detective Chelsey Calhoun uncovers a legacy of violence and survival that spans from Japan to Seattle in the new novel by the author of The Return of Ellie Black.

A murdered woman. A missing daughter. A truth buried across two continents.

Married, pregnant, and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole, until an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins—questions she’s spent a lifetime afraid to ask.

The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running—from someone, or something.

Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim. But the deeper she delves into Rika’s hidden life, the more she discovers: some secrets are worth killing for. And the most dangerous truths may be the ones closest to home.

Told in three interwoven voices, Before You Were Anne is a gripping suspense novel about the lies that bind families and the sins that echo across generations.

About Whidbey:

A stunning literary achievement and portrait of three women connected through one man in the aftermath of his murder—the explosive and highly anticipated debut novel from beloved and award-winning memoirist, T Kira Madden.

Birdie Chang didn’t know anything about Whidbey Island when she chose it, only that it was about as far away as she could get from her own life. She’s a woman on the run, desperate for an escape from the headlines back home and the look of concern in her girlfriend’s eyes—and from Calvin Boyer, the man who abused her as a child and who’s now resurfaced. On her way, she has an unnerving encounter with a stranger on the ferry who offers her a proposition, a sinister solution, a plan for revenge.

But Birdie isn’t the only girl Calvin harmed back then. There’s also Linzie King, a former reality TV star who recently wrote all about it in her bestselling memoir. Though the two women have never met, their stories intertwine. Once Birdie arrives on Whidbey, she finally cracks the book’s spine, only to find too much she recognizes in its pages. Soon after, on the other side of the country, Calvin’s loving mother, Mary-Beth, receives a shocking phone call from the police: her only son has been murdered.

Calvin’s death sets into motion a series of events that sends each woman on a desperate search for answers. A complex whodunnit told from alternating points of view, Whidbey is searingly perceptive and astonishingly original. Exploring the long reach of violence and our flawed systems of incarceration and rehabilitation, this is a tense and provocative debut that’s sure to incite crucial questions about the pursuit of justice and who has real power over a story: the one who lives it, or the one who tells it?

Novelists Emiko Jean (Before You Were Anne) and T Kira Māhealani Madden (Whidbey) join moderator and author Marisa Siegel for a conversation on their most recent novels and the secrets and lies that chase their protagonists. Told through multiple perspectives, both authors create page-turning stories about webs of violence, and the fragile lies that threaten survival.

About Before You Were Anne:

After a woman is killed and her daughter vanishes, detective Chelsey Calhoun uncovers a legacy of violence and survival that spans from Japan to Seattle in the new novel by the author of The Return of Ellie Black.

A murdered woman. A missing daughter. A truth buried across two continents.

Married, pregnant, and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole, until an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her sixteen-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins—questions she’s spent a lifetime afraid to ask.

The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running—from someone, or something.

Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim. But the deeper she delves into Rika’s hidden life, the more she discovers: some secrets are worth killing for. And the most dangerous truths may be the ones closest to home.

Told in three interwoven voices, Before You Were Anne is a gripping suspense novel about the lies that bind families and the sins that echo across generations.

About Whidbey:

A stunning literary achievement and portrait of three women connected through one man in the aftermath of his murder—the explosive and highly anticipated debut novel from beloved and award-winning memoirist, T Kira Madden.

Birdie Chang didn’t know anything about Whidbey Island when she chose it, only that it was about as far away as she could get from her own life. She’s a woman on the run, desperate for an escape from the headlines back home and the look of concern in her girlfriend’s eyes—and from Calvin Boyer, the man who abused her as a child and who’s now resurfaced. On her way, she has an unnerving encounter with a stranger on the ferry who offers her a proposition, a sinister solution, a plan for revenge.

But Birdie isn’t the only girl Calvin harmed back then. There’s also Linzie King, a former reality TV star who recently wrote all about it in her bestselling memoir. Though the two women have never met, their stories intertwine. Once Birdie arrives on Whidbey, she finally cracks the book’s spine, only to find too much she recognizes in its pages. Soon after, on the other side of the country, Calvin’s loving mother, Mary-Beth, receives a shocking phone call from the police: her only son has been murdered.

Calvin’s death sets into motion a series of events that sends each woman on a desperate search for answers. A complex whodunnit told from alternating points of view, Whidbey is searingly perceptive and astonishingly original. Exploring the long reach of violence and our flawed systems of incarceration and rehabilitation, this is a tense and provocative debut that’s sure to incite crucial questions about the pursuit of justice and who has real power over a story: the one who lives it, or the one who tells it?

Website ↗

SATNOV 7

6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

PoetryAuthor TalksTalks & Lectures

A Thousand Flames: Book Launch and Signing

Up Up Books1452 NE 28th Ave

Celebrate the release of A Thousand Flames, the debut poetry collection by Corey S. Pressman. Corey S. Pressman's debut collection, A Thousand Flames, offers poems of secular devotion in which a bird feeder can stand as the axis mundi and the bees have a god of their own. Across twelve sections, they travel from a Rockland County childhood to a hilltop in the fog, and as far back as the rooftops of Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Each poem asks you to slow down and stay a little longer than expected.

"Corey Pressman is a magical human - magical art, magical writing. His finely made poems are bells of vision and clarity to help us 'stay the same changing.'" - Naomi Shihab Nye

Celebrate the release of A Thousand Flames, the debut poetry collection by Corey S. Pressman. Corey S. Pressman's debut collection, A Thousand Flames, offers poems of secular devotion in which a bird feeder can stand as the axis mundi and the bees have a god of their own. Across twelve sections, they travel from a Rockland County childhood to a hilltop in the fog, and as far back as the rooftops of Neolithic Çatalhöyük. Each poem asks you to slow down and stay a little longer than expected.

"Corey Pressman is a magical human - magical art, magical writing. His finely made poems are bells of vision and clarity to help us 'stay the same changing.'" - Naomi Shihab Nye

🎟️ Tickets ↗

THUNOV 5

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Talks & LecturesAuthor Talks

HWA Oregon: “Why Horror?” Author Panel

Broadway Books1714 NE Broadway

In the “Why Horror?” panel presented by the HWA Oregon chapter, co-hosts Amber and Dan Finnegan of the podcast Dusk to Dawn: Reading Horror and Weird Fiction will sit down with local horror authors Keith Rosson, Danger Slater, Caitlin Starling, and Kelsea Yu to discuss the appeal of horror, how it can be a guiding light through difficult times, and just what it is about bumps in the night that keep us reading page after page.

Website ↗

🎟️ Tickets ↗

SUNNOV 8

3:00 PM – 6:00 PM

WineWorkshopsTalks & LecturesToursCraftsPartiesOutdoors

Hecate's Key Harvest Party

Hecate's Key Estate Vineyard12271 Cook-Underwood Rd, Underwood, WA 98651

Join us for a lovely afternoon of fresh fermented wine, soup, vineyard talks, vine weaving, & storytelling at Hecate's Key Estate Vineyard — AniChe's vineyard down the hill!

Free for Hecate's Key Club members, all others $35 (Family club members can use their points for half off!). Tickets are available at https://anichecellars.com/product/vineyard-tour-august-30th-duplicate and all are welcome.

Website ↗

WEDNOV 4

7:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Registration requiredWorkshopsTalks & LecturesCrafts

Draw Your Story Riso Workshop with Comic Artist Yoko O.K.

Reed College — Library - Visual Resources Center3203 SE Woodstock Blvd

Using a series of writing and drawing prompts, participants will use their personal stories and/or family histories to create the foundation for a collaborative short anthology-style Risograph perzine (personal zine). Registration required (maximum 6-participants).

This workshop is hosted by Portland comics artist Yoko O.K., who is the recipient of a 2026 Ignatz Award for her family history zine Uncoiling: A Japanese American Family’s History.

Website ↗

SATNOV 21

10:00 AM – 9:00 PM

Drop-inMeditationTeaPartiesCrafts

Celebrate 8 Years of Cup of Tea

Cup of Tea10117 SE Sunnyside Rd Ste J

Join a day of sipping and celebrating with tea friends. Special guests from Enthea, Teazen, Ocha, and Aishang will be stopping by throughout the day. Enjoy delicious pastries from Miss Orange and friends, along with crafts, giveaways, and plenty of surprises.

Enjoy a Little Magic with Sarah Blue Cloud tarot and palm readings. Guest Tea Spotlights with Via Tempo, Tea J Tea and Brew and Blossom. End the evening with Charlie Sebastian Short for a Sound Bath Meditation, a peaceful way to close out a day of tea, friendship, and celebration. Space is limited for the Sound Bath.

No admission fee, just an open invitation to spend the day enjoying tea.

Free All-Day Tea Party.

Join a day of sipping and celebrating with tea friends. Special guests from Enthea, Teazen, Ocha, and Aishang will be stopping by throughout the day. Enjoy delicious pastries from Miss Orange and friends, along with crafts, giveaways, and plenty of surprises.

Enjoy a Little Magic with Sarah Blue Cloud tarot and palm readings. Guest Tea Spotlights with Via Tempo, Tea J Tea and Brew and Blossom. End the evening with Charlie Sebastian Short for a Sound Bath Meditation, a peaceful way to close out a day of tea, friendship, and celebration. Space is limited for the Sound Bath.

No admission fee, just an open invitation to spend the day enjoying tea.

Free All-Day Tea Party.

Website ↗

Arts & Media❯Books❯Author Talks

Active

Multi-day events

Multi-day events

Arts & Media BooksAuthor Talks