Arts & Media❯Books❯Author Talks

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Join the Portland release of I Believe in Everything: A Memoir of Illness, Motherhood and Magic. Jen Dary will give a reading from her debut memoir before local Portland artist Lisa Congdon facilitates a conversation and and audience Q&A. Jen will sign books as well.

Books and drinks will be available for purchase. This event is for ages 21+.

Bring a friend or a book club, or come alone, ready to make some new friends. Whether you've known Jen for years or stumbled upon this event by accident, you are welcome.

Tickets cost $10. $5 of every ticket will be donated to the American Brain Tumor Association.

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:

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.

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.

Join us as we are celebrating the 4th book in Chen's Kangraoo series, Kangaroo Forth Curtis will be in conversation with local SF author Jessie Kwak

Conversation, Q&A, followed by book signing

When: November 18th. 630-8pm

Bios:

Once a Silicon Valley software engineer, Curtis C. Chen (陳致宇) now writes stories near Portland, Oregon. He's the award-winning author of the bestselling KANGAROO series of funny science fiction spy thrillers and has written for the Realm original podcasts Echo Park, Ninth Step Murders, and Machina. Curtis' shorter works have appeared in Playboy Magazine; the ENNIE Award-winning Kobold Guide to Roleplaying; The Year's Best Fantasy, Volume 2; Aliens vs. Predators: Ultimate Prey; and elsewhere. His homebrew cat feeding robot was displayed in the "Worlds Beyond Here" exhibit at Seattle's Wing Luke Museum. Visit him online: https://CurtisCChen.com

Jessie Kwak is an author, storyteller, and business book ghostwriter living in Portland, Oregon. When she’s not writing, she can be found sewing, mountain biking, and exploring the Pacific Northwest (and beyond). She is the author of thriller novels, two series of space scoundrel sci-fi crime novels, and a handful of productivity books including From Chaos to Creativity and From Big Idea to Book. You can learn more about her at www.jessiekwak.com.

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.

Join us at Northwest Library on Pettygrove for an evening of poetry. Every month co-hosts Sherri Levine and Dale Champlin will bring you two or three featured poets, followed by an ever-popular open mic. Readers include celebrated poets as well as poets from the Portland poetry community and the library vicinity. Held on the fourth Wednesday of the month all year round!

Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari (Labor: One Woman’s Work) and fiction writer Danny Ramadan (Crooked Teeth) pivot from their usual work to author their own stories in their recently published memoirs. Both authors share powerfully nuanced accounts of resilience and autonomy, whether working to expand women’s access to healthcare in Afsari’s memoir, or navigating the brutal reality of being queer under oppressive regimes in Ramadan’s work. Moderated by journalist Claudia Meza.

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.

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]

Four writers approach the dark from different directions. Anthony DiPietro’s poems trace gay love, sex, and desire’s strange repetitions. Amy Baskin gives Lilith—the first woman, cast as demon—a fierce voice. Summer Stewart’s poems and essays examine the scripts written onto...

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.

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.

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

We are delighted to welcome Gavin Van Horn, editor of the new anthology Sensoria: Attending to the Wonder and Vitality of Nature to Broadway Books. He will be joined by poet Brittney Corrigan, one of the contributors to the anthology.

A stunning gathering of creative nonfiction, research, and poetry, Sensoria transports readers into compelling stories and ethical reflections that stretch the limits of the moral imagination, calling attention to the wondrous ways in which humans and other-than-human beings experience and perceive the world. By exploring the sensorium among all forms of life endowed with different kinds of consciousness and communicative abilities, this volume highlights ecologically and socially diverse ways of touching the world with mind, and touching mind with the world.

Join us for the Portland launch of Any Time But This Time (Mad Creek Books), the debut story collection from LA filmmaker and author Adam Peterson, in conversation with Portland poet, novelist, and painter Zachary Schomburg.

The human condition is dire. We knew that. But it's also always been that way–we've always craved to be sometime else, from the first human woman (Denise, stuck with neanderthals) to the final man (Keith, losing all his language but the name of his girl–that, he'll save). In between, Peterson introduces himself as a shapeshifter, voicing a semi-delinquent and moderately depressed teenage Jesus in "Jesus Does a Hero;" a convincingly polyamorous prairie romance; 1983's fiber optic saleswoman to the local government of Shanghai, Barbara Roach; and a hormonal crop of teenagers sent to fight "the Schmoopys" once their orbit arrives and their hair has gone gray.

As they'll tell you, the findings are fairly straightforward. In all of human history, we have only been one thing: lonely. Well, two things. We've been horny, too.

Unrelenting, bold, and cynical in the way that only a child of Nebraska-gone-Hollywood could write, Any Time But This Time gifts us 300,000 years of humans destined to be alone, willing to give it all up for connection.

"As history tends to shave off the weird bumps and ridges of our past, it's exhilarating and unsteadying to read a collection that ambitiously seeks to provide a kind of bizarro reimagining of our world. Any Time But This Time is odd and hilarious and yet so tenderly human, so unafraid of cataloging all the strange desires and cruelties and moments of true connection that have somehow gotten us to this moment in time, and then it rockets beyond that to imagine an even stranger future. This is wildness of the highest order, unforgettable and highly original."
—Kevin Wilson, author of Now Is Not The Time To Panic

"The stories in Adam Peterson's Any Time But This Time are funny, but, like, really, really funny, but like, the kind of funny that make you laugh and laugh and then make you question your own soul, or whether you even have a soul, because Adam Peterson has slyly tricked you into laughing at some of the worst possible things, the most terrible of people, the most dire of situations. He has made you laugh the kind of laughter that keeps you honest, makes you see the world as it really is. This is a fabulous, unrelenting collection of stories, full of gorgeous, punchy, compulsively readable prose. Do yourself a favor: pick it up, take it home, and start reading."
—Manuel Gonzales, author of The Miniature Wife and other stories

"Deeply entertaining, the stories in this collection crackle with the spark of imagination, invention, and compassion. Peterson writes with a satisfying blend of humor and pathos, fearless in both wit and empathy. For lovers of George Saunders and Haruki Murakami, with a dash of Aimee Bender, this collection also feels somehow entirely fresh."
—Aja Gabel, author of Lightbreakers

"Each story in this collection is a window into unseen moments of history, and deftly conveys the "incomprehensible beauty, all too comprehensible horror" of the human experience. Peterson's voice carries an almost prophetic weight, masterfully balancing the lyrical, existential, heartbreaking, and humorous with a skill and style akin to writers like George Saunders and Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. From the first cave woman to identify as human, to the unraveling of language as our species dies off, I was enraptured by this book, and felt genuinely changed after reading it. Uniquely funny, profoundly moving, and innovatively written, Any Time But This Time is a rare and exciting feat of literature."
—Erin Slaughter, author of A Manual for How to Love Us and The Dead Dad Diaries

Adam Peterson is a writer and filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He's the author of the prose poetry collections My Untimely Death, The Flasher, and [SPOILER ALERT] (with Laura Eve Engel). His short fiction has appeared in Epoch, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and a mess of other places. His films have played at HollyShorts, Fantasia Fest, and Just for Laughs, among many other festivals.

Zachary Schomburg has written books of poems like Wool Moon (Black Ocean, 2026)and a novel, Mammother (Featherproof, 2017). And he's a painter too. In fact, he once painted a painting owned by Adam Peterson. He lives in Portland with B and Y.

Live Wire teams up with the Portland Art Museum during First Thursday and the Portland Book Festival. From 4:30 to 6 p.m., complimentary pop-up performances roam the museum galleries, no ticket needed. At 7 p.m., host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello lead a seated, ticketed taping with poet and rapper Dessa, children’s author Mac Barnett, Pulitzer Prize finalist Ed Park, and Portland comedian Mx. Dahlia Belle. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.. Portland Book Festival passholders get 10% off.

BOLD is thrilled to host a reading with Adam Oyster-Sands, author of We're doing pretty good if we can just get out alive, in conversation with Scott Cannon of Friendly Monster Press.

Adam's first poetry chapbook, don’t call us punk because we hate that, was then released in 2024 through Steel Toe Books. Over the years, a number of Adam’s poems have been published in various literary journals and collections, including Picture Frame Press, The Dewdrop, and Cathexis Northwest Press. We’re doing pretty good if we can just get out alive is his first full-length poetry book. Vibrating with the reverence and spirit of the Pacific Northwest, this collection of poems is a raw, lyrical eulogy for fated beloveds, sublime landscapes, and ephemeral wonders that spans the vastness of time and place. Oyster-Sands showcases a true talent for imbuing the smallest human details with authenticity and layered meanings. Each poem maps the human heart in relation to the larger human heart everyone shares, with all its internal conflicts, with precision and grace.

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]

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Join us the night before the full Portland Book Festival begins as authors Michelle St. Romain, Tara Badstubner, and Liz Collins discuss their recently released novels and the remarkable animals who play starring roles in their work. The evening will include interesting discussion, Q&A, and music by Free the Internet, a Portland area band. Animal-themed trivia will be sprinkled throughout the evening, with great prizes available, including copies of the books and other swag.

Broadway Books is thrilled to celebrate Wandering Aengus Press with editor-in-chief Jill McCabe Johnson, and authors Chrys Buckley, John Fadely, Veronica Kornberg, and A. Molotkov.

Wandering Aengus Press and its imprint, Trail to Table Press, are dedicated to publishing works to enrich lives and make the world a better place, because why not do as much good as we can in the world with what little time we have? Established in 2017, they publish literary works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Publishing between two to six books a year, they work closely with each author to create books they can feel proud of and readers will love, be inspired by, and treasure. Their editors generously donate their time and expertise, and every book is a work borne of love and dedication. Wandering Aengus is named after the title of a poem by Yeats. Aengus is the Celtic god of love and poetic inspiration, as well as the treasured cat of press founder Jill McCabe Johnson.

Farm Fresh Cabaret and mischief with Derek Eisel, aka Beto Renaud. Eisel sings the good news from Lopez Island with songs of Lesbian Potlucks and Husbands Who Fix Tractors, and performs from his book A Little Spanish by Beto Renaud, a fable about a five inch tall gay troll who migrates to a family farm in Mexico. This performance is in conjunction with the Portland Book Festival’s Cover to Cover Program.

The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome Amanda Uhle to celebrate her memoir, Destroy This House.

About the book:

For fans of The Glass Castle and The Liars’ Club, a tender, heartbreaking, and hilarious memoir written with “unwavering affection” (ELLE) chronicling the challenges of growing up with a desperately scheming father, a mother plagued by an acute hoarding disorder, and parenting parents while seeking independence.

The Long family’s love was fierce, their lifestyle bizarre, and their deceptions countless. Once her parents were gone, Amanda Uhle realized she was closer to them than anyone else, yet she found herself utterly confounded by the lives they had led.

Amanda’s striving fashion designer mother and her charismatic wheeler-dealer father wove a complex life together that spanned ten different homes across five states over forty perplexing years. Throughout her childhood, as her mother’s hoarding disorder flourished and her father’s schemes crumbled, contradictions abounded. They bartered for dental surgery and drove their massive Lincoln Town Car to the food bank. When financial ruin struck, they abandoned their repossessed mansion for humble parish housing, and Amanda’s father became a preacher. They swung between being filthy rich and dirt poor, devious and virtuous, lonely and loved, fake and real.

In this “iconic, only-in-America fable of desperate Midwestern dreamers” (Dave Eggers, bestselling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), Amanda sets out to document her parents’ unbelievable exploits and her own hard-won escape into independence. With humor and tenderness, Uhle has crafted a heartfelt and utterly unique memoir, capturing the raucousness, pain, joy, and ultimately, the boundless love that exists between all parents and children.

The Literary Arts Bookstore is pleased to welcome author Rebecca Handler to celebrate her new novel, In the Round. Handler will be joined in conversation by Selina Fillinger.

About the book:

Have you ever been dead certain that you’re being observed, that maybe your very existence is predicated on how others see you? A few minutes after she’s become convinced she’s the victim of a home invasion, In the Round’s brilliant and intimate narrator plunges us into a feminist Kafkaesque literary mystery that unfolds over the course of one weird—and dare we say, dramatic—night in San Francisco. Nothing is missing from her family’s home, but everything feels wrong. So begins a sleepless night of questioning, and a novel packed with the kind of astonishing twists that leave readers wondering: Is all the world a stage, after all? Over the course of the evening, theatrical elements creep in: a cast list, a prop list, an intermission.

At once an avant-garde thriller, a meditation on motherhood and mortality, a full-throated endorsement of gut-level intuition, and a tribute to the rapture of live theater in a post-pandemic world, In the Round is a lively, inventive, and completely singular story.

THE FESTIVAL FROM THE CITY THAT LOVES TO READ This November marks the return of Literary Arts’ Portland Book Festival (PBF), the largest celebration of books and storytelling in the Pacific Northwest. The festival’s largest gathering takes place Saturday November 7 with more than 100 local, regional, and nationally acclaimed authors gathering for Portland Book Festival in the South Park Blocks. NE

Singer, rapper, and author Dessa will join the Oregon Symphony for an evening of soaring ballads, writerly pop songs, and rap anthems. The concert will also include a series of new monologues, crafted in Dessa’s signature style—true stories told with intellectual rigor, tenderness, candor, and wit. Don’t miss this landmark performance, presented in collaboration with Literary Arts as an extension of the Portland Book Festival.

Sarah Hicks, Conductor

Dessa, Vocals

Oregon Symphony

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.

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 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 us for a reading and celebration of Paul Maziar’s Junebug. The evening with feature musical guests Kelli Schaefer and Drew Grow.

When asked for eight words to describe Junebug, Maziar channeled Agent Cooper: “Everyday, once a day, give yourself a present.” But did he mean the present? Either way, Junebug is a gift.

Junebug situates Paul Maziar’s latest acts of listening and attending, transmission and transcription. He’s built a modular space suggestive of both the theatre and the gallery, performance and (inter)play. The aphoristic title sequence hones sharp accessibilities — we find words available to us, for our limbs and limbics to hold, hurrumph, to slap our knees and share. A mysterious dramatis personae pervades Junebug’s expanse across the mental maps Maziar graphs as he organizes streets of words and questions what their design might reference. We encounter, among others, Toulouse-Lautrec, Agnes Martin, Eva Hesse, Jack Whitten, Colette, Robert Walser. Who are all these characters in Maziar’s parade? Maybe there’s some insight in the final serial sequence, “Hives,” which states that “The real thing is inside of what everything appears as.” The real in Junebug asks us to admire the distance between the surface and the subject. We already have the right tools.

Charles North: From short poems to prose poems to the wonderful fragments collected in its title poem, Paul Maziar’s writing revels in imaginative discontinuity. Junebug is smart, witty, surprising—and inspiring—throughout.

Merrill Gilfillan: These works step up in the name of Poetry and its heartwood, its ever-salvational “What’s on the river today?”

Tetra Balestri: Maziar manages to resurrect a conversation started sometime in the early to mid-20th century that cuts through the present-day pandemonium with polish and swagger. Junebug is a pair of pants worth trying on.

Simone Kearney: Reading Paul Maziar’s Junebug, I feel the tightrope walker’s high-wire balance between the forces of levity and gravity, the contexts of interior and exterior, the concocted and the perceived, thought and overheard speech. These poems make me wonder how it is that we move through the world, which is also a moving-through language.

I’m reminded that language bears a strange mystery. It’s always received and always being made at the same time; it’s a material we inherit and get to play with. In Maziar’s work, overheard phrases and sayings arrive solidified, brick-like things. The language resembles the fragments of familiar tunes — an echo, or memory of one — appearing as the freshest, strangest thing newly imagined.

I feel the intimacy and elusiveness of unspoken thought in the poems: words not yet uttered, still inside the mind. This makes me feel the dynamics of inside and outside that are part of the human drama. Am I looking at something the poet is looking at, or am I inside his head? Maziar lets us inhabit uncertainty. This is living language just being breathed, catapulted from lips, cemented into freshly-thought speech.

Junebug lets me delight in the way language can tend to trip over itself: “I’d rather stimulate than simulate”; “a certain vigor (or vinegar?).” Decontextualized, speech is absurd, funny, strangely moving: “I’m not going anywhere until I see a horse.”

What emerges is a tour de force composed of song, slogan, slip of the tongue, reverie, note, advertisement, fragment, nonsense, musing, hiccup, rupture, tidbit, epiphany. “The only faith he had was in the confusion of his experiences,” Maziar writes, suggesting that one thing we can do amid such confusion is continue to place words onto the page — in relation to ourselves, to others, to images, and to other words. And those words keep coming to meet us: flat, full, flowing, tired, zippy, and ready for more.

Kelli Schaefer's latest record, Even Still, could be the soundtrack to a modern gothic, a playlist for a trudge through a muddy forest or the accompaniment to a subconscious mantra. She demonstrates deftness in refusing to confine herself to a single genre. Schaefer excavates her past while planting herself deeper into the avant-garde, offering a fresh take on the age-old singer-songwriter trope, delivering haunting melodies over swirling woodwinds, piano, classical guitar, and upright bass.

The Pacific Northest's beloved troubadour, musician/artist Drew Grow (Slang, Modern Kin, Pastor's Wives) is back with new songs and a new stripped down method. Spotted playing solo shows around Portland this summer, he is out on his own, debuting new music and packing a wall of little guitar amps. It's new digs for the artist. Drew's solo approach, raw and exposed, is even more striking than the bands of his past. His powerful voice still ringing through as ever, magnetic and arching over the solo guitar and twisted old amps. The sound is momentous and vulnerable, seeming to come from a deeper place. What have you brought us?

A $10 ticket supports our musical guests, Kelli Schaefer and Drew Grow.

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.

Celebrate Día de los Muertos at M&M Marketplace with two days of culture, music, food, and family fun. Join us on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1 from 2 PM to 7 PM for a free community celebration in Hillsboro.

Enjoy live music, traditional altars, Calenda, Calaveritas Literarias, a Concurso de Catrinas, food, shopping, and family entertainment. Bring your family and friends as we come together to honor loved ones and celebrate Día de los Muertos traditions.

Dates: Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1
Time: 2 PM to 7 PM
Location: M&M Marketplace, 346 SW Walnut St., Hillsboro, OR 97123
Admission: Free

¡Acompáñanos con toda la familia para celebrar nuestras tradiciones, recordar a nuestros seres queridos y disfrutar un fin de semana especial en comunidad!

Author of It Starts With Anger James Spooner will be visiting campus on Nov 9th as our special author visit for Fall's MRC Book Club gathering. Spooner will be giving a talk on the intersections of punk, race and creative art practice, with time for Q&A.

Reed Librarians picked this coming-of-age graphic memoir that explores race, identity, and rebellion because of how Spooner traces how their reactionary anger evolved into a creative force. Confronted with systemic racism, microaggressions, and Nazi extremism within punk spaces, Spooner follows the founding of the Afro-Punk movement all the way to their leaving of the space due to all the ways it fell short as a scene that was ironically both liberating and alienating for the Black people drawn to it.

Their zine-inspired work includes photos, illustrations, and cartoon panels with traditional narrative in a unique package that examines the tension between the conflation of underground culture and mainstream success.

All are welcome to this event. Open to the community. Free for all.

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We encourage Reed students, staff and faculty to sign up for the MRC Book Club to score a copy of Spooner's autobio. Sign up for your free copy here.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

1. 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.

2. Alchemised by Senlinyu Signed Edition (Out Now)

3. 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.

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.

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.

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (2026) Directed by Sasha Waters Freyer. 1hr 31min. Not Rated.

If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Best-selling poet and Pulitzer Prize-winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, queer and out but intensely private—Oliver’s poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites. She was America’s unlikely, contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly fifty years in order to open herself—and us, her readers—to the known and unknowable world. Sasha Waters’ beguiling portrait features poems read by Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Jesse Welles, and Oprah Winfrey.

This film is featured as part of Portland Book Festival’s Cover to Cover.

We do not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, and films exhibited don’t necessarily reflect the views of PAM CUT or the Portland Art Museum. In addition to the synopses, trailers, and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on sites like Common Sense Media, IMDb, and DoesTheDogDie.com.

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.

Started in 1999 and organized by writer Willa Schneberg, this annual event features readings by prominent Oregon Jewish poets and writers. The writers in the 2026 program span a range of genres, including fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and essays. Each author will share selections from their work.

Authors and acclaimed chefs Molly Irani(Service Ready: A Story of Love, Restaurants, and the Power of Hospitality) and Meherwan Irani(No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World) sit down with renowned chefs and coauthors Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico (Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig) to discuss their recent publications and experiences building community through food. Joined by moderator and fellow chef, Farideh Sadeghin (The Hot Dog Cookbook and Cheesy), both pairs move beyond their recipes to share the cultures, upbringings, and people that inspired their successful businesses.

Molly Irani, the visionary cofounder of the James Beard Award–winning restaurant Chai Pani, shares her passion for hospitality and story of building a thriving business that puts people first.

Growing up with parents who owned a restaurant, Molly understood the power of service but also had a keen understanding of the industry’s challenges. When her husband Meherwan wanted to open a restaurant that would serve the Indian street food of his childhood, Molly thought he was nuts. And yet, the couple turned this unlikely dream into a vibrant reality. Chai Pani would eventually win the James Beard Award for Most Outstanding Restaurant in America, and be named one of 50 Favorite Restaurants in America by The New York Times, and one of Southern Living’s 20 Friendliest Places in the South.

In Service Ready, Molly takes readers on their inspiring journey to the heights of culinary and professional success. While she and her husband learned their way into running a restaurant, Molly created a groundbreaking work culture with industry-leading retention rates. They have fostered a loyal team and legions of fans, and have since launched multiple Chai Pani locations, the fast-growing spin-off, Botiwalla, and the popular spice business, Spicewalla.

Molly shares the ten core principles that have shaped their path, offering essential lessons for any industry. She opens up about the challenges and rewards of being business partners with your life partner and shares how she and Meherwan learned to merge their strengths in order to thrive. Her story celebrates the power of female leadership in a traditionally male-dominated field and is a testament to the essential impact these strengths bring to businesses. As she reflects on navigating a recession, a global pandemic, and the devastating floods in Asheville, she explores resilience, innovation, and how to create a strong culture in any workplace.

People of the earth! James Beard Award–winning chef Meherwan Irani is here to tell you that Indian street food is the best food on the planet—and that with more than 100 of his recipes you can have it at home any time you want.

“If you love Indian food, Irani decodes the entire canon for the home cook without oversimplifying or diluting the most delicious of global cuisines.”—Andrew Zimmern

Entering Meherwan Irani’s restaurants feels like walking into a party—and opening his cookbook is no different. With warmth, affection, and a bit of swagger, Irani makes a compelling, delicious case for adding Indian food to your weekly rotation, providing you with clear instruction on how to build layers of flavor and texture, putting beloved favorites like bhel puri, vada pav, kathi rolls, and more within your grasp.

In the No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World, Irani takes you through the depths of this (liberally defined) subgenre of Indian cuisine that’s filled with delicious snacks, flavorful sandwiches, and curries and chutneys galore. He covers classics like pakoras and chaats as well as stews from roadside cantinas and Chinese-Indian stir fries. Through more than 100 recipes, Irani shares his tips for making street food with minimal time and effort, like sweet, bright, and crunchy Corn Bhel and a Mumbai Toastie, which provides one of the best uses you’ll get out of white sandwich bread. From Dhansak, the triple lentil stew his mom used to make, to the golden-crisp Dosa that’s now found itself in the lexicon of street food, these recipes are rooted in childhood memories, travels through India, and deeply conducted research on the cultures that have contributed to Indian cuisine. Essays throughout dig into areas of Indian cuisine that Irani loves to talk about, like why naan isn’t eaten with every single Indian dish and why chai should be made with substandard tea leaves.

With more than 100 recipes for sandwiches, chaats, fried goodies, and more, you’ll quickly see why this is the No. 1 Best Indian Cookbook in the World.

“The future of American food is found at Nixta, where Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi combine Mexican, Persian, and American flavors to create one of the country’s most essential restaurants.”—Brian McGinn, director and executive producer of Chef’s Table

Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico are proud hyphenated Americans: Iranian and Mexican, respectively. It’s their superpower and what they’ve built their award-winning restaurant Nixta Taqueria on. Pulling from their rich culinary heritages, they’ve done what first-genners do best—created delightful twists on Mexican, Iranian, and American classics. In Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig, they sling tacos and tostadas, alongside platters of golden, fluffy rice; rich stewed meats; and so, so, so many herbs.

Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig takes you through recipes from Edgar’s childhood in Visalia, California, with family dishes like Tortas de Milanesa de Pollo and Chicharrones en Salsa Verde. Then it’s Sara’s turn, sharing recipes from the Ozarks in Arkansas and family trips to Iran for Maman’s Fish with Kuku Sabzi and Ash Reshteh. Lastly, they bring it all together, showing the full-force beauty and surprising connection between the two cuisines with recipes like Smashburgers Al Pastor and Saffron Tres Leches.

More recipes include:

• Nixta Taqueria’s legendary Duck Carnitas Tacos
• Barbacoa Empanadas
• Fesenjoon
• Beet “Tartare” Tostada
• And their famous cross-cultural recipe for rice pudding, Sholeh Zard

With over 100 recipes and stunning photography, Nixta Taqueria Presents: From Tacos to Tahdig is a celebration of where Edgar and Sara have come from and where they are now. Come along for the ride!

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.

Julián Delgado Lopera reads from his new novel Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You at Portland Art Museum in the Northwest Art gallery (Level 4, Room 402), paired with V. Maldonado, Sala Roja. Presented by the National Book Foundation.

FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

From the award-winning author of Fiebre Tropical, an electric, highly anticipated novel set in Colombia’s underground queer scene.

It is a known fact that the queens who refuse their destiny are haunted. Rejection turns itself inward, a bullet to the heart of said queen, and unleashes, per Travesti Lore, a river of curses.

Cloistered in a dreary Bogotá apartment, Ignacio’s light has dimmed, leaving his teenage daughter, Valentina, to raise herself in the wake of her mother Alma’s death. Lonely and love-starved, Valentina aches to discover the details of her mother’s drowning, and for her father to snap out of his depression. But Ignacio can’t. He spends listless afternoons smoking cigarettes in long blonde wigs, telenovelas humming in the background, haunted not only by matrimonial guilt, but by memories of a young man he once loved and betrayed.

From Ignacio’s tragic past emerges the luminous queen of Bogotá’s queer underground, Mamadora Eléctrica, the wise travesti who he first met under the silvery lights of Club Aquario when he was just a shy country boy. With Alma gone, Mamadora steps in as a mother figure to Valentina the way she once did for the girl’s father. But as an expert in Travesti Lore, she fears the worst: that Ignacio’s self-destruction may have unleashed a curse on them all.

From “a writer who is grinding their own colors” (Dwight Garner, New York Times), Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You is a profound and richly imagined story about coming undone.

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.

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.

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.

November 15, 2026

Family Series

Alice McLerran’s classic children’s book The Mountain that Loved a Bird tells a heartwarming story of unlikely friendship between a barren mountain and a visiting bird named Joy. Experience Portland-based composer Caroline Shaw’s musical interpretation of the story as the book is narrated live in this celebration of friendship that teaches us the transformative power of kindness and care.

• Su-Han Yang Harold & Arlene Schnitzer Associate Conductor
• Pam Mahon Narrator
• Dance West Jason Davis, Artistic & Technical Director
• Pacific Youth Choir Chris Maunu, Artistic Director; Amber Schroeder, Associate Conductor
• Oregon Symphony

This concert is part of the Family Series, and is eligible for the Choose Your Own Series (Portland only).

This concert is part of the 2026/27 Sounds Like Portland festival.