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Literary Arts has announced the 2018 author lineup for the Portland Book Festival, formerly known as Wordstock.
The festival will feature many Pacific Northwest authors such as Rachel Kushner, H.W. Brands, and Anis Mojgani—with celebrity-cum-authors such as Abbi Jacobson of Broad City fame and actor Tom Hanks boosting the star wattage.
The Portland Book Festival is the largest literary gathering in Oregon, according to Literary Arts, with over 10,000 attendees last year. The festival takes place in venues around Portland and has done so annually in a one- or two-day format since 2005. It includes author readings, panel discussions, writing workshops, book signings, and more.
In the fiction category, perennial New York Times bestseller Lauren Groff will be present with her recently released short story collection Florida. National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novelist Jonathan Lethem will attend with his forthcoming novel The Feral Detective, as will Portland novelist Patrick deWitt, whose latest is French Exit.
Most famously—if not necessarily the most compelling from a literary perspective—is Hanks, whose first collection of short stories, Uncommon Type, came out last October.
Non-fiction authors will include Portland-born author and historian Brands, while Jacobson, co-creator of Broad City, will be present with her new essay collection I Might Regret This. Celebrity chef Edward Lee, featured in the PBS series Mind of a Chef, will present his newest nonfiction work Buttermilk Graffiti, which is not a cookbook. Heart Berries author Terese Marie Mailhot will also attend.
In poetry, attendees will include legendary poet Eileen Myles, as well as Justin Phillip Reed and Portland poet Stacey Tran. Young Adult and children's book authors will include Karen Rivers, Elizabeth Acevedo and N.H. Senzai. New York Times bestseller Kendare Blake will attend with her new novel, Two Dark Reigns.
In addition to the author lineup, Literary Arts, which has run the festival for the last four years, also announced the change of name. Executive Director Andrew Proctor noted that the goal under the control of Literary Arts has been to make the festival more involved in and representative of the community of Portland. Nearly half the authors this year are from the Pacific Northwest.
"We wanted a name that reflects the civic nature of the festival," says Proctor.
The Portland Book Festival will take place Saturday, November 10. A full list of authors can be found at literary-arts.org.