All those books. All those authors. If you don't read much, you might dismiss Wordstock as the wrong scene for you.
And you would miss out, says Andrew Proctor, executive director of Literary Arts, the Portland nonprofit that's been running the festival since 2015.
Wordstock, a one-day festival on Nov. 11 featuring more than 100 authors on eight stages, naturally draws bookworms out of the woodwork. "But it's actually for the sort of people who read two to three books a year," Proctor says. "What they get out of it is a chance to discover new books and writers they don't know, to see some of the greatest writers alive today - both in the same day - and to also enjoy a sense of community. ... You don't have to be part of the literati for this to be relevant."
Related: Wordstock 2017: Here's a sneak peek at some of the featured authors
Amanda Bullock, who as Literary Arts' director of public programs oversees Wordstock, says the goal is to make the festival "really accessible."
"We do want it to be a festival for everybody," she says. "It's important for people to be able to find themselves in books, and also for people to be able to read about lives that are very different from theirs, to have the opportunity to hear stories set in a world that you've never seen and know nothing about."
To that end, she curates the author lineup carefully. Half the writers represent the Pacific Northwest; the other half come from throughout the U.S. Some writers are big names; others are starting their literary careers. More than 60 percent are women, and 20 to 25 percent are people of color, statistics that have held steady for three years. "These are all very conscious decisions that flow out of organizational values," Proctor said.
The public's response has vindicated those decisions. Last year's Wordstock attendance was just over 7,000, and Proctor says tickets for this year are selling "two to three times ahead of where they were last year." Attendance in 2015, the first year Literary Arts ran the festival, was 8,500.
Still debating whether to buy a ticket? Here are seven things you need to know about Wordstock:
1. Wordstock encompasses the South Park Blocks, with the Portland Art Museum as home base and with additional events at The Old Church, Oregon Historical Society, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and Brunish and Winningstad theatres. "We thought it was important ... to be in the middle of town and also to celebrate other public art spaces," Proctor says.
2. Wordstock is family-friendly. This year, one stage is dedicated to picture books, another to middle grade books and a third to young adult books. "You could spend all day making your own mini-YA festival if you wanted to," Bullock says.
3. You may see your neighbor's name at the festival. "Many of the stages have individual names on them," Proctor says. "Those are individual community members who believe in funding the festival ... people here who have the resources want to make sure that this asset's available to as many different kinds of people as possible." Also funding Wordstock this year are Bank of America, Meyer Memorial Trust, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation.
4. You may also see your favorite author chatting onstage with a journalist from The New York Times. "They have a lot of subscribers in Portland, so they want to connect locally with those subscribers," Proctor says. In addition, "any time you put a professional journalist onstage, you're upping the quality of that conversation." In fact, all the onstage author appearances consist of "people in conversation," Bullock says, whether in an interview or a panel discussion. Authors will also do pop-up readings in the Portland Art Museum's galleries.
5. The festival isn't just about discussing books. It's also about buying books - more than 70 percent of attendees buy at least one, Bullock says. Festivalgoers will find book-buying easier this year with satellite stores from Broadway Books, Green Bean Books and Powell's at half of the stages.
6. The festival is wide-ranging, with no theme other than good books published within the last 18 months. "We try to provide signals for people and clues to what they might be interested in by theming the individual panels," Bullock says. "If you go to an event and you're not into it, there's something else happening next door that you can check out. Multnomah County Library's there with 'librarians of the book fair' who are literally there to help you figure out what to read."
7. If you're new to Wordstock, check out Literary Arts' radio program and podcast The Archive Project, currently featuring events from last year's festival. Proctor calls it "a great way to hear the great and exciting conversations that happened and understand them, hear how they're not narrow or super literary or only for writers."
***
Wordstock 2017
When: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 11
Where: South Park Blocks
Tickets: $15 (includes $5 book voucher), free for ages 17 and younger, free for veterans and active-duty military personnel; literary-arts.org or 503-227-2583