Following her future husband, Sara Guest moved from Chicago to Portland in 2004. She had been raising the national consciousness around reading as a producer for Oprah’s Book Club and was delighted to learn about Literary Arts almost as soon as she arrived in Portland.
Sara lives her passion for literature, so when she bumped into Literary Arts’ Box Office Manager at a bus stop, she quickly found ways to get involved. Sara has volunteered at Portland Arts & Lectures events for so long that whether she was in the ticket booth or helping out in the lobby, people knew they would see her at the Schnitz.
In addition to attending lectures, writing workshops, dinners, council meetings, and partnering with Literary Arts as a former staffer at Write Around Portland, Sara has participated in and guided a variety of Delve Seminars since 2006. She prefers Delves with meaty readings – books that take forever and feel like a worthy marathon.
At the 2018 Portland Book Festival, Sara was able to create a schedule that featured Indigenous voices in every time slot during the day. She was impressed that the Festival wasn’t just curated content, but intentionally created access points that allowed attendees to hear from writers of many identities and vantage points. Sara is proud to support an organization that engages the community in so many different, meaningful ways.
“Literary Arts maps to who I am as a person in the world, and I love the idea of creating experiences for readers and writers that support the whole house of rooms that is the literary experience.”
