Join Emily Arrow for a storytime singalong to open the children's stage! Emily will be hosting the children's stage all day long. Wordstock admission is FREE for attendees 17 years of age and younger.
Join Portland Early Learning Project for a fun Spanish language storytime! Wordstock admission is FREE for attendees 17 and under.
In Rene Denfeld’s The Child Finder, private investigator Naomi’s search for a lost child reveals her own buried loss. The past likewise haunts Edgar inVictor Lodato’s Edgar and Lucy, a story of family love and betrayal. And in Amy Stewart’s Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions, Under Sheriff Constance Kopp’s personal mission to defend women unfairly prosecuted for “moral depravity” is put to the test when her own sister is arrested. With moderator Zach Dundas, editor of Portland Monthly and author of The Great Detective.
Boo is new. And even if the other kids are welcoming, it can be scary being new, especially for a shy ghost who can’t play any of their games. (“You tagged me? Oh, sorry. I couldn’t feel it.”) Can Boo find a way to fit in and make friends with the rest of the group? From the creator of Rex Wrecks It! comes a funny story about feeling invisible — and finding a way to be seen and appreciated for who you are.
Poetry, as a form, can exploit and explode literary boundaries; and these poets explore borders of all kinds in their work. With moderator Sarah Bowlin. Presented in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.
There’s a dark side to every New York fairy tale, especially when the complicated lives of artists are at the center. Stories of desire and destruction, of ambition and aspiration, of creativity and commerce.
In Tom Perrotta’s novels, manners collide with modern values, and traditional order falls prey to surging emotions, hormones, and old-fashioned irony. The author of Election, Little Children, and The Leftovers has a new novel, Mrs. Fletcher, sending up a middle-aged mom’s sexual awakening. Join us for an hour with an accomplished observer of modern life and morals. With OPB’s April Baer.
Daniel Handler, the author (as Lemony Snicket) of A Series of Unfortunate Events and All The Wrong Questions, and many other books for children, including the new The Bad Mood and the Stick, has also written, under his own name, his first play, Imaginary Comforts, or The Story of the Ghost of the Dead Rabbit, produced this fall at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, as well as six novels for adults. Handler will talk with Gilbert Cruz of the The New York Times about how storytelling illuminates every stage of our lives.
The story continues in these three sequels! In The Speaker, Traci Chee continues the Sea of Ink and Gold series as Sefia and Archer continue to fight the Guard and attempt to unravel the mysteries of the Book.
Three new graphic memoirs and novels explore love, loss, and loneliness in the stories of three women. With moderator Kelly Sue DeConnick (Pretty Deadly, Bitch Planet).
Frog is bored. He can’t find ANYTHING to do—even when his animal friends make good suggestions, like sleeping all day, licking between his toes, or hopping around and then staring off into space. Will he find a fun and exciting way to spend his day? Featuring the beloved characters from I Don’t Want to Be a Frog and I Don’t Want to Be Big, this new story is sure to bring a smile to every kid who’s ever said “There’s nothing to do!”
When a little girl gets a new puppy, they have a lot to learn about each other. The new friends can be shy, messy, and sometimes get into trouble. They get lost, but they always get found. Their friendship may be a lot of work—but at the end of the day, they love each other!
An event all-times all-places show for all ages, offering a glimpse behind the scenes in the life of a children's book author. Four award-winning children's book authors in conversation about children's literature, writing and illustrating children's books.
Food that tells a story, and in this event all-times all-places show we explore stories about food with chefs turned writers and writers turned chefs. With moderator Penelope Bass of Imbibe magazine.
Unflinchingly honest memoirs about mothers, money, anxiety, and dealing with the place you come from. With moderator Wendy Willis (A Long Late Pledge).
Characters on the edge of sanity and running from their past—to North Dakota, Italy, and Mars. With moderator Leni Zumas (The Listeners, forthcoming Red Clocks).
David Grann, New Yorker staff writer and author of The Lost City of Z, discusses his new book, the bestseller Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, a twisting, haunting true-life murder mystery about one of the most monstrous crimes in American history.
Teenagers trying to figure out who they are, all while dealing with complicated families, bullies, first loves, and first heartbreaks. Moderated by Alicia Tate of Multnomah County Library.
Marielle the mouse has worked her dressmaking magic for nine days and nine nights to create nine beautiful dresses for Madame Sooree’s nine daughters. Finished at last, Marielle goes to bed, but when she wakes up, the dresses are gone!
“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”
Our Wordstock edition features conversations with two writers of devastating wit and crack precision: poets, pranksters, and friends Morgan Parker (There Are More Beautiful Things than Beyoncé) and Tommy Pico (Nature Poem). “Creators Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor (It Devours! A Welcome to Night Vale Novel) are our guests. With OPB’s April Baer and OPB’s Aaron Scott.
Neanderthal siblings Lucy and Andy are back to their paleo pranks. This time, they have to put up with more than just each other—the cave is feeling awfully cramped since the humans moved in. They’re in the Ice Age, and legroom comes at a real premium!
The American dream is taken to task in three new works of fiction about people trying to be good but often becoming misdirected or confused, despite best intentions. With moderator Cari Luna (The Revolution of Every Day).
When a woeful mouse is swallowed by a wolf, he quickly learns he is not alone: a duck has already set up digs, and, boy, has that duck got it figured out! Turns out it’s pretty nice in there, with delicious food and elegant table settings, courtesy of the wolf’s unchecked gluttony. And there’s something even better: no more fear of being eaten by a wolf! In fact, life is pretty good, until a hunter shows up...
An Arab American man tries to cross from Turkey to Syria in order join the revolutionaries in Dark at the Crossing, by Marine veteran and journalist Elliot Ackerman.
A conversation from the front lines of gender and tech culture featuring Doree Shafrir, Senior Tech Editor at BuzzFeed News and author of the novel Startup, and Ellen Ullman, who worked as a programmer at the beginning of the digital revolution and is the author four books, most recently of the memoir Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology. With moderator Jazmine Hughes of the New York Times Magazine.
Du iz tak? What is that? As a tiny shoot unfurls, two damselflies peer at it in wonder. When the plant grows taller and sprouts leaves, some young beetles arrive to gander, and soon—with the help of a pill bug named Icky—they wrangle a ladder and build a tree fort. But this is the wild world, after all, and something horrible is waiting to swoop down—booby voobeck!—only to be carried off in turn.
Darkly comic tales of suspicion, loneliness, and obsession, of characters pushed to the extreme—often by the unraveling in their own minds. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides discusses his new—and first—story collection, Fresh Complaint, with Danzy Senna, author of New People, a novel of race, class, and manners in New York City in the late 1990s. Moderated by Julie Buntin (Marlena).
In other worlds—a dystopian future, the empire of Feng Lu, a colonized Earth—our heroes must confront darkness and danger as they fight against evil empires and their own destinies. Moderated by Amber Keyser (Pointe Claw).
Poetry of the natural world, the unknown universe; of love and the undoing of love; of identity and history. With moderator Natalie Garyet of Tavern Books.
Graphic novels about being the new kid. Summer's over and it's time for Sunny Lewin to enter the strange and unfriendly hallways of... middle school. When her Gramps calls her from Florida to ask how she’s doing, she always tells him she’s fine. But the truth? Sunny is NOT having the best time.
Award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe’s vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat’s own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn’t always have to be neat or clean–and definitely not inside the lines–to be beautiful.
High school students from Portland Public Schools read from their work featured in the 2016/17 Writers in the Schools anthology, Galaxies on the Ground. Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival admission is FREE for attendees 17 and younger and/or with valid high school ID.
One day, a grandmother shouts, “LEAVE ME ALONE!” and leaves her tiny home and her very big family to journey to the moon and beyond to find peace and quiet to finish her knitting. Along the way, she encounters ravenous bears, obnoxious goats, and even hordes of aliens! But nothing stops grandma from accomplishing her goal—knitting sweaters for her many grandchildren to keep them warm and toasty for the coming winter.
Katie Kitamura’s newest work reads like Daphne DuMaurier for the 21stcentury. Hannah Tinti tells about crafting the dark family history that became her lest book, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley. Pop critic Chuck Klosterman (But What If We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman X), who decides and recodes everything from Taylor Swift to Kobe Bryant, Stephen Malkmus to Lou Reed.
Three poets discuss their new books, exploring love and violence, anger and desire, vulnerability and pain, grief and mortality, justice and blackness, and more.
Lemonade Liberty Witt’s mama always told her: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But Lem can’t possibly make lemonade out of her new life in Willow Creek, California—the Bigfoot Capital of the World—where she’s forced to live with a grandfather she’s never met after her mother passes away.
Two best-selling authors discuss their new books, psychological mysteries where children go missing and painful truths are revealed in crisis, exploring the spaces between childhood innocence and the hard realities of adulthood.
Pretend boyfriends, arranged marriages, getting photographed by the paparazzi? These YA novels are not your typical love stories. Moderated by Brendan Kiely (The Last True Love Story).
Three writers on how they came of age and found their voice as an artist. With moderator Rob Spillman (All Tomorrow’s Parties, Tin House).
First comes love—young love on the run, the girl next door, an unlikely husband—then comes the secrets. With moderator Pauls Toutonghi (Dog Gone).
A whimsical story about ghost care, Rebecca Green’s debut picture book is a perfect combination of offbeat humor, quirky and sweet illustrations, and the timeless theme of friendship.
The protagonists of these novels are women who find themselves at a crossroads, questioning who they are as they realize the precariousness of the lives they have built for themselves. Moderated by Steph Opitz.
It is an ordinary Tuesday morning in April when bored, lonely Charlie Fisher witnesses something incredible. Right before his eyes, in a busy square in Marseille, a group of pickpockets pulls off an amazing robbery. As the young bandits appear to melt into the crowd, Charlie realizes with a start that he himself was one of their marks.
Three writers explore our tendency to see the man in animal, and the animal in man.
These three writers stretch the boundaries of genre to create new and exciting forms of literature, and the results are surprising and often hilarious. Moderated by Robin Romm (editor of The Double Bind: Women on Ambition).
In contemporary Portland, a group of misfits must work together to stop Internet demons from spreading virally into the real world. In 2049, the child-rebel Joan of Arc fights for humankind on an Earth ravaged by climate change. In 2074, the second American Civil War breaks out over fossil fuels in a United States decimated by flooding and terrorism.
These three characters deal with first loves, overbearing adults, heartbreak, yearning to escape where you come from, and the complications of money and class as they search for who they are.
How do we create art from our own wounds and wonders? In their poetry, memoirs, and essays, these three writers reckon with personal trauma and healing. Kaveh Akbar’s appearance is in partnership with the Poetry Foundation.