Two contemporary felted creations from Holman Wang celebrating Dad’s and Mom's many jobs from the co-creator of Cozy Classics. Being a dad or a mom is eleven jobs in one! These unique picture books for very young readers celebrate the…

As the sun set on the shortest day of the year, early people would gather to prepare for the long night ahead. They built fires and lit candles. They played music, bringing their own light to the darkness, while wondering…

Graham Annable, author and illustrator of Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths; Mina Javaherbin, author of My Grandma & Me; and Lena Podesta, illustrator of Baby Dragon, Baby Dragon!; discuss making picture books with moderator Heidi Schulz, author of Giraffes…

This charming, energetic story shows the power of friendship through the teamwork of a lovably mismatched pair. Confident Frannie convinces cautious Pepper to give skateboarding a try, but Pepper’s attempts are not all smooth sailing. Luckily, she has a supportive…

Andrew Proctor, executive director of Literary Arts, in conversation with Malcolm Gladwell about his latest, best-selling book,Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know. About the book: Talking to Strangers is a classically Gladwellian intellectual adventure,…

The characters in these three poetry collections confront different kinds of displacement: from the body, from home, from time. In Oculus, Sally Wen Mao explores exile not just as a matter of distance and displacement, but as a migration through…

Two weeks before the 70th Annual National Book Awards, join the National Book Foundation at the Portland Book Festival for the final preview event featuring 2019 Awards Finalists and Longlisters Laurie Halse Anderson (SHOUT, Young People’s Literature), Kali Fajardo-Anstine (Sabrina…

Three stories about the struggle to figure out who you are; well, to start to sort of figure it out, at least. Michelle Ruiz Keil’s All of Us with Wings features Xochi, seventeen and alone in San Francisco, having run away…

Five of the most exciting middle grade graphic novelists all on one stage! Featuring Gale Galligan (The Baby-sitters Club: Boy-crazy Stacy), Jennifer L. Holm (Sunny Rolls the Dice), Molly Knox Ostertag (The Midwinter Witch), Aron Nels Steinke (Mr. Wolf’s Class:…

It's someone's birthday. Feliz Cumpleaños! A farm maiden enlists the help of her farm friends to build a piñata for a special celebration. Borrowing the style of "The House that Jack Built," the story unfolds as each part of the piñata is gathered -…

The heroines of these two thrillers must navigate treacherous territory in their search for the truth. Rene Denfeld’s The Butterfly Girl finds Naomi, introduced in The Child Finder, searching for her missing sister in Portland, where young, homeless girls have…

Have you been curious about reading romance (we could all use a guaranteed happily ever after sometimes)? These books are the perfect smart & sexy introductions to the genre. Long-time romance reader? Hear from the authors of two of the…

Like a flower in a field . . . Like a cloud in the sky . . . So am I. Just as a pebble is part of a mountain, just as a wave is part of the sea, so,…

You sometimes read a book where the setting is such an indelible part of the story that it seems like a character unto itself. A discussion of writing place with T Kira Madden, author of the memoir Long Live the…

A performance from Northwest Children's Theater's upcoming production of Matilda! Attendees 17 years of age and younger and/or with valid high school ID enjoy free admission. Advance Portland Book Festival passes available now.

A dauntless lass and a hyperactive dragon learn to keep pace with each other as they forge a friendship. Baby Dragon loves to swoop and soar through the kingdom, which can cause quite a stir. But one little girl is…

Two authors—both with Portland connections!—discuss making books for children and the importance of raising a reader with Pamela Paul and Maria Russo of the New York Times and authors of the new book How to Raise a Reader. Carson Ellis…

In this big universe full of many moons, I have traveled and seen many wonders, but I have never loved anything or anyone the way I love my grandma. While Mina is growing up in Iran, the center of her…

New perspectives on the stories and characters that have shaped and are still definiing the American West. Jake Skeets’s debut poetry collection, Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers, is an unflinching portrait of the actual West, and a fierce…

First love is often downright Shakespearean, as the love-lorn characters in these three books discover. From falling for your sworn enemy, to being torn apart, contending with tradition, love triangles, and more. From Faith Erin Hicks, Comics Will Break Your Heart…

A conversation with Mindy Nettiffee (Open Your Mouth Like a Bell) and the online phenomenon the Astro Poets (@poetastrologers), Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky, who have written the first great astrology primer of the 21st century. Full of insight, advice…

Three memoirs about coming of age as a writer that question how to be in your body in the world—and in your own mind; the repercussions of physical and psychological trauma; the impact of the place you came from on…

An aged Alligator  artistically squeezes  Accordion solos  in time with sea breezes Amble through the ABCs—from alligator to zither—with this animal alphabet and musical revue. As you follow along in rhyming time, you’ll encounter drumming dragonflies, fluting fishes, orchestral owls,…

Dave Miller, host of OPB's "Think Out Loud," interviews Ambassador Susan Rice about her memoir, Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For. In Tough Love, Susan Rice reflects on a dynamic career on the frontlines of American national security…

An intimate, wide-ranging conversation between Anna Badkhen and Barry Lopez about writing, and the role the write plays as a global citizen. Anna Badkhen’s immersive investigations of the world’s inequities have yielded six books of literary nonfiction, most recently Fisherman’s…

Three new poetry collections that confront our modern times by looking at once to the past and to the future, of the world, nation, and the self. A rejection of imposed identity and reclamation of self; imagining a heartbreaking, terrifying…

For every parent tired of telling their kids to PLEASE JUST GET ALONG, this hilarious and imaginative new picture book–from the beloved creators of Babymouse, Matthew Holm and Jennifer L. Holm–is here to help. Sort of. Meet the Evil Princess…

You might know them for their novels, but these writers have super-secret identities: they also write comics! Kelly Sue DeConnick, writer of Captain Marvel as well as the comics Pretty Deadly and Bitch Planet, leads a discussion with Gabby Rivera,…

Just Like Beverly follow the life of beloved children’s author Beverly Cleary from her early years in Oregon to her career as a successful writer who wrote stories, including the wildly popular Ramona and Henry Huggins series, for kids just…

Three books that create complex, irresistible portraits of their settings: Florida; Denver; a hair salon. In Kristen Arnett’s novel Mostly Dead Things, the humidity, insects, and downright weirdness of Florida pervade a story of dysfunctional families, art, death, and life.…

From Box Trolls director Graham Annable comes Peter & Ernesto: The Lost Sloths, the immensely charming sequel to his brilliant debut graphic novel about the endearing friendship between two sloths. Peter and Ernesto loved their tree. Then a hurricane came and blew it…

Two heartwarming, joyful contemporary YA novels about that last chance: the last night, the last summer. In Pumpkinheads, written by Rainbow Rowell and illustrated by Faith Erin Hicks, Deja and Josiah are seasonal best friends, working together at a Nebraskan…

Catherine Lazar Odell, author and illustrator of Pepper & Frannie; Holman Wang, author and artist of Great Job, Dad! and Great Job, Mom!; and Toni Yuly, author and illustrator of The Whole Wide World and Me, discuss making picture books…

Asiya's hijab is like the ocean and the sky, no line between them, saying hello with a loud wave. It’s Faizah’s first day of school, and her older sister Asiya’s first day of hijab – made of a beautiful blue…

Three books that find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Award-winning poet Michael Dickman’s new collection, Days & Days, is an exhilarating and far-ranging mediation on days and how we live in them in the twenty-first century. Pulitzer finalist Karen Russell’s…

Three books that, through various genres and forms, explore identity and division in contemporary America—and, somehow, find hope. Steph Cha’s Your House Will Pay is set in Los Angeles, where a shocking crime forces two families, connected by past violence,…

Dave Miller, host of OPB’s Think Out Loud, interviews Tim O’Brien, author of the new memoir Dad’s Maybe Book, the National Book Award–winning novel Going After Cacciato, Pulitzer finalist The Things They Carried. In Dad’s Maybe Book, best-selling author Tim O’Brien…

In Ryan Chapman’s Riots I Have Known, an unnamed Sri Lankan inmate barricades himself inside the prison computer lab while a riot rages outside, incited by a poem published in the prison literary journal that he edits. As he awaits…

Una conversación bilingüe (español/inglés) con Daniel José Older, autor de El libro de los santos perdidos, el cifrado Shadowshaper, Bone Street Rumba y Star Wars Last Shot. Older está conversando con Eduardo Arizaga de la Multnomah County Library. A bilingual…

Furious floods, looming landslides, terrifying tornadoes, ferocious forest fires! Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something? As “snowpocalypse” descends once again, one temperamental weatherman is determined to set the record straight on the myths and misconceptions surrounding the elements.…

Each year, Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program publishes an anthology of exemplary student work. To Break the Stillness showcases poetry, prose, drama, and comics written by 80 high school students from Portland’s public high schools in 2018–19. Being published is thrilling for…

Young women find themselves in precarious situations, and must decide whether or not to take the risk to step up to the fight—whether against an active shooter, a corrupt regime, or the high school principal—in these three novels. In April…

A discussion of the importance of writing and reading poetry and the role of a poet laureate with three poets laureate. A conversation between Tina Chang, poet laureate of Brooklyn and author of the new collection Hybrida; Paisley Rekdal, poet…