Portland Book Festival features authors and Artists on Saturday

While Literary Arts and its partners have spent the week rolling out readings, concerts, and cultural conversations across Oregon, Saturday marks the true gauntlet run of the Portland Book Festival.

When the Literary Crowd Hits the Ground Running

Theaters, galleries, and independent bookstores throughout the city are set to host authors, poets, musicians, and a Hollywood A-lister on Saturday, November 7, sharing perspectives on life’s biggest questions. General admission passes for the fair's main events sold out back in July, but visitors without a pass can still attend a full schedule of free and separately ticketed events.

The day kicks off at 10:00 AM at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Alongside Literary Arts director Andrew Proctor, Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy will converse about Wildwood—their acclaimed new stop-animation movie adaptation by Laika and the 2011 modern fantasy novel set in Portland. Attendees can even sample the atmosphere with Imaginary Authors’ new Wildwood-inspired fragrance, capturing the scent of the Impassable Wilderness. The event requires a festival pass plus a $5 ticket, though the book-inclusive option is already sold out.

Curated Pairings at the Portland Art Museum

Organizers have leaned heavily into visual matchmaking this year, pairing visiting authors directly with related artworks inside the Portland Art Museum’s permanent collection to give audiences a fresh way to appreciate both mediums. Julia Wertz reads from her graphic memoir Bury Me Already (It’s Nice Down Here): Comics on Pregnancy and Parenthood at 11:00 AM inside the Prints and Drawings gallery on Level 0. Wertz is curatorially paired with Mary Kay Nitchie’s 1989 lithograph Jump.

Minutes later, at 11:15 AM in the American Art gallery on Level 2, local playwright and actor Anthony Hudson reads his script for “Girl With a Cigarette,” featured in his debut collection Lamp Back: Plays and Other Grievances. Rooted in a 2018 event, the work features Hudson’s former drag alter ego, Carla Rossi, dressed as the subject of Moses Soyer’s painting Girl With a Cigarette while delivering a lecture about the artwork. Hudson won’t be in drag this time around, but he hints that Rossi’s voice just might slip through.

Down on Level 0 at 11:30 AM, Lisa Hanawalt—creator of the animated series Tuca & Bertie and production designer for BoJack Horseman—reads from her new memoir, I Can’t Stop Thinking About Horses and Sex. Hanawalt’s session is paired with Lorinda Riding Venus and Karen Tossavainen’s 1994 photoetching Roy Riding Mars.

High-Profile Memoirists and Cookbook Authors Take the Stage

At noon, Ke Huy Quan takes the stage at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. Recognized for his childhood roles in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, alongside his long-overdue acting return in the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All at Once, Quan will discuss his new autobiography, Never Say Die: A Memoir, with OPB’s Dave Miller. Tickets run with a pass plus $5, or $45 including the book.

Later in the afternoon, the programming shifts across local venues and artistic styles:

12:30 PM: Collage artist Kevin Sampsell reads from his surrealist novel Baby in the Night at the Portland Art Museum’s Northwest Art gallery, paired curatorially with Akio Takamori’s 1996 lithograph Night.
1:30 PM: Hanawalt and Wertz return for a joint discussion on graphic novels, moderated by comic writer and journalist Shay Mirk at the Whitsell Auditorium.
2:00 PM: Danny Ramadan reads from Crooked Teeth: A Queer Syrian Refugee Memoir in the Northwest Art gallery, paired with Mary Ann Peters’s large-scale 2017 painting Slipstream (by the light of the moon).
3:15 PM: Alexis Nikole Nelson, the outdoors influencer and chef widely known as Black Forager, discusses her debut cookbook and foraging guide, Happy Snacking, Don’t Die!: Foraging and Vegan Recipes With Black Forager, alongside OPB’s Crystal Ligori at the Newmark Theatre.

Expanded Events Beyond the Main Fairgrounds

For visitors looking to catch festival-adjacent culture outside Saturday’s ticketed framework, several events fill out the week. Book Bar, the festival-timed pop-up operating at 723 SW Salmon St near the South Park Blocks, hosted musical theater karaoke on Thursday evening. On Friday, November 6 at 2:00 PM, the NE Fremont Rose City Book Pub hosts Lopez Island singer-songwriter and farmer Derek Eisel, performing as Beto Renaud under the title Songs of Lesbian Potlucks and Husbands Who Fix Tractors.

The weekend wraps up on Sunday, November 8, with a documentary screening and a pop-up culinary collaboration. Sasha Waters’s film Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World screens at PAM’s Whitsell Auditorium from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, featuring appearances by Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, and Oprah Winfrey reflecting on the late poet’s work. Tickets are $15, with member discounts and museum-inclusive tiers available. Simultaneously, the Thai restaurant OK Chicken & Kaho Soi on SE Division hosts Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico of Austin’s Nixta Taqueria for a special one-night dinner service.

Full schedules, venue maps, and remaining ticket availability are detailed on the official Portland Book Festival website.