Join Emily Arrow for a storytime singalong to open the children's stage! Emily will be hosting the children's stage all morning. Portland Book Festival admission is FREE for attendees 17 years of age and younger.

Cale Atkinson, author and illustrator of Sir Simon: Super Scarer; Tracy Subisak, illustrator of Grizzly Boy; and Laura Veirs, writer of Libba; discuss making picture books with moderator Annie Lewis of Multnomah County Library. Attendees 17 years of age and…

When little Etta the Elephant goes to her Aunt Ellen's house, she takes a journey through bicycle-filled Cycle City, a town filled with bikes of all kinds! At the end of the day, a special surprise awaits Etta—the most amazing…

As Mae's first day of school approaches she decides she IS. NOT. GOING. School is scary! What if the other kids don't like her? Or what if she's the only one who doesn't know how to write? Or what if she misses her…

Hedgehog is hogging the hedge and won’t let the other animals live there. In this humorous political allegory, he learns that it’s not a winning strategy. Winter is coming, and the animals need homes. The worms move in with the…

Parul Sehgal, book critic at the New York Times, interviews Tom Hanks about his bestselling short story collection Uncommon Type: Some Stories. About the book: A small-town newspaper columnist with old-fashioned views of the modern world. A World War II…

In Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink, of Welcome to Night Vale, a truck driver searches across America for the wife she had long assumed was dead, and encounters not-quite-human serial murders, towns literally lost in time, and a conspiracy…

Often, the setting of the book can be as much a character as the people in it. In these three books, three very different cities—Bogota under Escobar’s reign, contemporary New York City, and Weimar-era Berlin—set the scene and help define…

OPB’s April Baer, host of State of Wonder, interviews Tommy Orange about his best-selling debut novel, There There. Tommy Orange’s “groundbreaking, extraordinary” (The New York Times) There There is the “brilliant, propulsive” (People Magazine) story of twelve unforgettable characters, Urban Indians living…

A young Afro-Latina refuses to be silent in the face of a world that may not want to hear her in Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X, finalist for the National Book Award. Two students at an elite prep school question…

Kate Berube, author and illustrator of Mae’s First Day of School; Allison Farrell, author and illustrator of Cycle City; and LeUyen Pham, illustrator of The Princess in Black and the Science Fair Scare discuss making picture books with moderator Heidi…

Penguins aren’t the only animals with problems. . . . A second hilarious collaboration from picture-book superstars Lane Smith and Jory John!Can you guess what’s making this giraffe self-conscious? Could it be . . . HIS ENORMOUS NECK?? Yes, it’s…

The complications of family—the ones we are born into and the ones we make ourselves—and of faith of all kinds preoccupy these three poets. Anis Mojgani’s latest collection, In the Pockets of Small Gods, explores what we do with grief…

A super-secret operative saves the world from a diabolical threat through her ability to brandish just the right book at just the right time in this delightfully silly superhero tale illustrated by Eisner Award-winner and Caldecott Honoree Vera Brosgol.  When an…

From New York Times bestselling historian H. W. Brands comes the riveting story of how America’s second generation of political giants–Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun–battled to complete the unfinished work of the Founding Fathers and decide the shape of our…

Join Portland Early Learning Project for a fun Spanish language storytime! ¡Únete al Portland Early Learning Project para disfrutar de una hora de cuentos en español! Attendees 17 years of age and younger and/or with valid high school ID enjoy free admission.…

Ashlyn Anstee, author and illustrator of Hedgehog!; Vera Brosgol, illustrator of Lyric McKerrigan, Secret Librarian; and Jory John, author of Giraffe Problems and All Right, Already! discuss making picture books with moderator Natasha Forrester Campbell of Multnomah County Library. Attendees…

One morning Theo decides he is no longer human. "I'm a GRIZZLY! I'm WILD AND FREE!" But being a grizzly boy isn't easy if you still have to go to school.  A fun, endearing, and sweet picture book, Grizzly Boy will have…

Sometimes, you find yourself literally running away from your problems—but they always find you. In Patrick deWitt’s darkly comic French Exit, a wealthy widow and her adult son flee New York for Paris in the wake of scandal and financial…

A delightful, funny story of friendship, ghost chores, a spooky house and a professional haunter. Meet Sir Simon, Super Scarer. He’s a professional ghost who has been transferred to his first house. And just in time! He was getting tired…

A special discussion featuring contributors to the new anthology New Poets of Native Nations, with Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Laura Da’, Layli Long Soldier, and editor Heid E. Erdrich. New Poets of Native Nations gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages,…

Three very different stories, each with a central commentary on race in the present moment here in the United States. Luis Alberto Urrea’s novel The House of Broken Angels, the story of one family coming together for one huge, celebratory,…

Stories of hope against all odds, of finding love in the ruins, of making it to the other side and fighting for what you believe in. Atia Abawi’s A Land of Permanent Goodbyes is a powerful novel of refugees escaping…

Performance from the Northwest Children's Theater featuring the upcoming production, Mary Poppins. Attendees 17 years of age and younger and/or with valid high school ID enjoy free admission. Advance 2018 Portland Book Festival passes available now.

Lindy West, New York Times contributing Op-Ed writer, interviews Abbi Jacobson, co-creator and star of the hit series Broad City and author of I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff, a hilarious and poignant collection about love,…

True stories of amazing women! Amy Stewart’s Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit continues the fictionalized adventures of Constance Kopp, based on the real-world first female deputy sheriff in New Jersey who gained notoriety nationwide for her exploits. Stewart will be…

Artist Eric Wert discusses his work, collected in Still Life, with critic Shawn Vandor. Moderated by Katie Burke. Advance 2018 Portland Book Festival passes available now.

It’s mayhem at the science fair! A squishy goo monster is a challenge for the Princess in Black — but luckily some science-loving princesses are on hand to help. Princess Magnolia is excited. Excited and nervous. She’s going to the…

This lyrical, loving picture book from popular singer-songwriter Laura Veirs and debut illustrator Tatyana Fazlalizadeh tells the story of the determined, gifted, daring Elizabeth Cotten—one of the most celebrated American folk musicians of all time. Elizabeth Cotten was only a…

Three books—a novel, a graphic memoir, and a poetry collection—that grapple with questions of who to love, national identity, class divides, loneliness in an unknown place. In the 1920s, a young refugee from the Soviet Union finds herself embroiled in…

Elizabeth Rush, author of Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, which examines ways the coastline of the United States is being irrevocably transformed by a warming, rising sea, interviewed by Omar El Akkad, journalist and author of American War.…

Vashti Harrison will present Little Dreamers: Visionary Women in History, followed by a discussion with Amy Fellows of Multnomah County Library. From the New York Times bestselling author of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History comes the highly anticipated follow-up, a beautifully…

Three of our most exciting contemporary poets discuss their new collections, which experiment with language and form as they critique the status quo and the social order. A Portrait of the Self as Nation: New and Selected Poems presents three…

Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, interviews chef Edward Lee about his new book, Buttermilk Graffiti: A Chef’s Journey to Discover America’s New Melting-Pot Cuisine. American food is the story of mash-ups. Immigrants arrive, cultures collide, and…

Science fiction, fantasy, myth, and history collide in these YA novels that ask us to consider who is telling the story, and the power that gives. In a distant star system, Amani is violently kidnapped from her small village and…

Two story collections that create new, all-too-possible futures in order to illuminate truths about our present. By placing ordinary characters in extraordinary situations, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah debut collection Friday Black reveals the violence, injustice, and painful absurdities of life in…

From an island in the Pacific Northwest, to the California suburbs of the 1980s, to a Nevada sheep ranch, stories real and imagined about finding your place in the world after immense loss. In her New York Times bestselling debut…

Derek Black grew up at the epicenter of white nationalism. When he encountered diverse perspectives and beliefs at college, he started to question the science, history, and prejudices behind his worldview and confront the damage he had done. From Eli…

Mac Barnett presents his new series, Mac B. Kid Spy, in conversation with Heidi Schulz. From the esteemed New York Times bestselling and multi-award-winning author Mac Barnett comes a thrilling, hilarious fully-illustrated new spy adventure series! Before Mac Barnett was an author,…

A look at the profound personal transformation and at the cultural conception of pregnancy and motherhood, with Angela Garbes, author of the nonfiction book Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey Through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy, and Alicia Jo…

Each year, Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program publishes an anthology of exemplary student work. Change Cannot Be Tamed showcases poetry, prose, drama, and comics written by 80 high school students from Portland’s public high schools in 2017-18. Being published is…

Two writers for young people whose new novels feature stories of the civil war in Syria and the people displaced by it. Journalist and author Atia Abawi discusses her young adult novel A Land of Permanent Goodbyes with N. H.…