Portland has long had a reputation as a city with a keen appetite for books, authors and literary culture. Now, a new event called Portland Book Week intends to join in celebrating that bibliophile passion.
The first annual Portland Book Week, happening June 10-16, will showcase more than 50 independent bookstores across the Portland-Vancouver metro area.
“The goal of Portland Book Week is to showcase the vibrancy of our independent bookstore community, foster connections between literary-minded people across the city, and to geek out about books together,” Bry Hoeg, one of the event organizers, said in a statement. Hoeg is store manager at Powell’s City of Books, in downtown Portland.
The Portland Book Week schedule includes a bookstore crawl, raffles, giveaways, discounts, exclusive merchandise and Portland Book Week Bingo, which will offers winners bookstore gift cards, event tickets and merchandise.
In addition, the 18th annual Rose City Book & Paper Fair, June 14-15 at the Lloyd Doubletree in Portland, is happening during Portland Book Week, and will feature more than 60 additional vendors.
Also on tap for Portland Book Week are literary events at bookstores around the region. Among those scheduled:
Melissa Febos, Kimberly King Parsons, Jules Ohman, and Caitlin Delohery will have a reading at 7 p.m., Monday, June 10, at Bishop & Wilde, in Northwest Portland; Rene Denfeld and Liz Scott will discuss their new books at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 13, at Annie Bloom’s Books, in Southwest Portland; Backfence PDX will offer a show built around the theme, “Mistakes Were Made,” which will include storytelling, humor and music, at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Powell’s City of Books.
Bookstore participating in Portland Book Week include, Arches Bookhouse, Revolutions Bookshop, and Two Rivers Bookstore & Weird Sisters Yarn, in North Portland; Always Here Bookstore, Broadway Books, Cosmic Monkey Comic, Crooked House Books & Paper, Floating World Comics, Green Bean Books, Honeyed Words, Lost Avenue Books, Melville Books, Monograph Bookwerks, Parallel Worlds Bookshop, Rose City Book & Paper Fair, Rose City Book Pub, and Rose City Reads, in Northeast Portland; Bishop & Wilde, Daedalus Books, Grand Gesture Books, and Passages Bookshop, in Northwest Portland; Powell’s City of Books, in downtown Portland; Annie Bloom’s Books, and Chaparral Books, in Southwest Portland; Backstory Books and Yarn, Bearlyreadbooks, Belmont Books, Bingo Used Books, Books with Pictures, Dark Star Magick, David Morrison Books, Future Dreams, Powell’s Books Hawthorne, Third Eye Books, Wallace Books, and Word Virus Books, in Southeast Portland.
Bookstores beyond the Rose City are also joining in celebrating Portland Book Week, including Jan’s, and Powell’s Books Cedar Hills, in Beaverton; Laurie’s Books, Maggie Mae’s Bookshop, Spoke & Word Books, and White Rabbit Books & Gifts, in Oregon City, Milwaukie and Gresham; Autumn Leaf Books, Birdhouse Books, Bookish, Flirting With Fiction, Literary Leftovers, The Romance Era Bookshop, Vintage Books, and White Oak Books, in Vancouver and Southwest Washington.
