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Viet Thanh Nguyen and Michael Lewis to headline 2023 Portland Book Festival

The Nov. 4 festival, presented by Literary Arts, is slated to feature events with more than 100 Oregon and national authors.

September 13, 2023

Amy Leona Havin

Culture, Language Arts

*Portland Book Festival will take place in downtown Portland on November 4, 2023.*

Literary Arts revealed its lineup Tuesday night for this year’s Portland Book Festival, to be held Nov. 4 at the downtown Park Blocks, Portland Art Museum, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, and other venues across the city. After last year’s first full in-person festival since the beginning of the pandemic, this year is set to be bigger than ever, with more than 100 authors in attendance and the return of Cover to Cover, a week-long series of free neighborhood literary events.

The lineup of authors and presenters includes Vietnamese-American professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, bestselling investigative nonfiction author Michael Lewis, current Poet Laureate of Oregon Anis Mojgani, The Librarianist author Patrick deWitt, Wolfish author Erica Berry, Mobility author Lydia Kiesling, Emergency author Kathleen Alcott, American literary critic and founder of Freeman’s John Freeman, and many others.

*Vietnamese-American professor and novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen will be a featured author at this year’s Portland Book Festival.*

Founded in 2005 as Wordstock, Portland Book Festival is brought to life in 2023 with the help of dozens of sponsors including Columbia Sportswear, OPB, TinHouse Press, and more, and book partners Annie Bloom’s Books, Broadway Books, Green Bean Books, and Powell’s Books—all hoping that the continual presence of the Portland Book Festival in downtown will help revitalize the area. Additional events for this year’s attendees include the Friday Night Book Market, where attendees can get early access to book shopping for an additional $15 cost; writing workshops for youth and adults; pop-up events in the Portland Art Museum; and a variety of local food trucks.

General Admission to attend the festival starts at $15 in advance and $25 at the door, with $5 Arts for All tickets available. Children 17 and under, those with a valid high school ID, veterans, and active military receive free admission. Other pass options and tickets to Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall events are available online, as well as a look at this year’s full Portland Book Festival lineup of authors and presenters. Visit the Portland Book Festival website, and stay tuned for the announcement of the official schedule.

Amy Leona Havin

Amy Leona Havin is a writer, choreographer, and filmmaker based in Portland, Oregon. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, and is the Artistic Director of Portland-based multi-media dance company The Holding Project. Her works can be read in Humana Obscura, San Diego Poetry Annual, The Dust Magazine, The Chronicle, Mountain Bluebird Magazine, and others, and she has been shortlisted for the Bridport International Writing Competition Prize in Poetry. Havin’s artistic process is rooted in classical and somatic movement practices, non-fiction writing, and honoring the landscape of the natural world.