Portland Book Festival

The 2025 Portland Book Festival, hosted by Literary Arts, was held on November 8 at six partner venues in downtown Portland. The festival’s fourth annual Cover to Cover program was held from November 3 to November 9 in multiple locations throughout the Portland metro area and included programming such as interactive book presentations, literature-inspired comedy shows, and storytelling events. The festival featured writing workshops, pop-up readings at the Portland Art Museum, and author discussions, taking place across ten stages and with over eighty authors, as well as a book fair for poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Participating writers included poets Patricia Smith and Mai Der Vang; fiction writers Katie Kitamura and Karen Rusell; and nonfiction writers Omar El Akkad and Melissa Febos. A pass for the festival day was $18 with advance purchase or $25 on-site. Tickets were distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Most events in the Cover to Cover program were free and open to the public. Visit the website for more information.

Accessibility accommodations for festival events at the Portland Art Museum, Portland’5 theaters, and the Judy children’s theater included public transportation near the venues; elevators in all multilevel event spaces; accessible sidewalks, pathways, and doorways; accessible bathrooms and event spaces; accessible parking; assistive listening devices (with advance request); closed captioning for prerecorded media; and signage in Braille and ASL interpretation (with at least four weeks’ advance request). Writers contacted the Literary Arts public programs department via phone or e-mail for additional accessibility details.