No sooner had I returned from a week-long trip to Edmonds, Washington to attend Write on the Sound than I received an e-mail from a friend telling me about the Wordstock Festival, which was being held in Portland, Oregon on Saturday and Sunday October 9th and 10th, 2010, just a couple of days away.
It wasn’t the best timing, as I was still unpacking from my trip, catching up on my sleep, and going through a week’s worth of mail, but I determined to go if I possibly could.
I had heard about the Wordstock Festival, commonly known as just Wordstock, although the larger Wordstock is a literary art and education organization that has many other programs in addition to the festival.
The festival started in 2005, the year I moved from Washington to Oregon, and I was only vaguely aware of it, living on the opposite end of the state from Portland. With my recent move to Corvallis, I was now much closer and excited about attending it for the first time rather than waiting another full year.
I really wanted to get up and go on Saturday, but my body just wouldn’t cooperate! I managed to make it on Sunday, however, and enjoyed it so much that this year I am definitely planning to go both days.
The 2010 Wordstock was held at the Oregon Convention Center. I had never been there before and didn’t know what to expect, but it was actually easy to find, and the underground parking garage was relatively inexpensive for a full day. Wordstock runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days. Admission is $7 for one day or $10 for both, which is a pretty good price when you see what you get for it.
Wordstock bills itself as “the northwest’s largest book and literary festival.” In its first five years, a total of 80,000 people attended it, and over 1,000 writers were involved in reading, discussing, and teaching at the festival.
Though I found out about it too late to sign up for any of the workshops – and, indeed, after nine workshops at Write on the Sound, I was a little workshopped out anyway– there were 1 hour and 15 minute workshops (at an extra cost) both days, beginning at 9:00, 10:30, noon, 1:30, 3:00, and 4:30 (ending at 5:45).
There were nine stages that ran all day long with readings and panel discussions every hour on the hour beginning at 11 a.m. with the last one being held at 5 p.m. As far as I could tell, these did not repeat, and there were over 200 writers participating, from brand new authors to well-established and very well-known and award-winning ones.
Powell’s Books from Portland had a huge book sales area that featured the books of participating writers, as well as others, and after each reading, there was a book signing time in a nearby area of the exhibition hall for the authors who had just read.
There were also over 100 booths, featuring individual writers, small presses, university presses, literary magazines, writing programs, writing organizations, and just about anyone with some connection to writing or publishing. Many were selling their books or publications, some at special Wordstock prices. Some were giving away small freebies. I made it a priority to visit the Washington State University Press, Oregon State University Press, Crab Creek Review, CALYX, Oregon Poetry Association, Oregon Historical Society, Willamette Writers, Copper Canyon Press, Mountain Writers Series, and the Sitka Center for Arts and Ecology booths.
I came across an acquaintance from the South Coast Writers Conference, James Boyle, selling his Ni’il series of books in his own booth. A Wordstock booth sold souvenirs with the 2010 Wordstock logo: canvas bags (which were sold out when I got to the booth), chino bags, posters, T-shirts, etc. and answered questions for festival attendees.
All attendees were given a festival guide when they entered, but there was so much to see and do that there was hardly time to read it once there. I had perused similar information on line before I came, so I had an idea of whom and what I wanted to see most. Even so, in belatedly reading the extraordinarily comprehensive festival guide, I find I missed a lot of things I would have liked to see that I wasn’t aware of. There were also so many things going on at once, and it was hard to keep track of the time, even though I did try. Just the booths took quite a bit of time to go through, and I wished I’d been able to convince my body to attend on Saturday to have had two days to go through the booths at a more leisurely pace and, of course, to see more authors.
I met one author, Barry Smith, in the parking garage, where he was digging in the back of his car for another belt for his pants, as his belt had just broken, and he was “about to do a reading.” If it seems unusual that he’d be able to find an extra belt in the back of his car, it was because he was on a long road trip around the country, reading his new – and first – book, Only Milo. Barry and I conversed in the elevator going up to the convention center level where Wordstock was taking place. He talked about writing his first book, about the one he’s working on now - which is “completely different” from Only Milo – and he invited me to come hear his reading at 11:00, which I did. I found the selection from Only Milo intriguing, bought a copy, and had Barry sign it. It turns out that this book I’d never heard of before meeting its author in the parking garage had won the Gold Medal in Popular Fiction in the 2010 Independent Publisher Book Awards and is an excellent read!
I was also able to attend a reading by Robin Cody, whom I had taken a workshop from at one of the South Coast Writers Conferences I have attended and whose Voyages of a Summer Sun: Canoeing the Columbia River is one of my favorite books. This time he was reading from his newest book Another Way the River Has: True Tales from the Northwest.
I ended my day with a reading by one of my favorite writers, Robert Michael Pyle, whom I discovered with Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide about 15 years ago. As I have read almost all of his books, it was wonderful to finally see Pyle in person. He read from and discussed his latest book, Mariposa Road: the FIrst Butterfly Big Year.
I left the conference at 6:00 as they were turning out the lights, lugging a Wordstock chino bag and several other tote bags, all filled with books or literary magazines I’d bought at the festival.
Other things to know about Wordstock if you plan to attend are that there are several tables of free used books, and there is food available adjacent to the exhibit area. There are also a number of events at different venues in Portland in the days prior to the festival itself.
The 2011 Wordstock will be held on Saturday, October 8th & Sunday, October 9th at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Be there!!
