85. Behind the Scenes of a Book Festival: Creating Community for Writers and Readers with Amanda Bullock

Go behind the scenes of a thriving book festival with Amanda Bullock from podcast sponsor, Literary Arts. She reveals what it takes to create an unforgettable experience for book lovers, novel writers, and readers alike. This episode explores how a major regional literary festival celebrates Pacific Northwest writers while building a vibrant author community.

Discover the unique programming that makes a book festival come alive, from intimate popup readings where local authors and emerging writers share their work inside art galleries, to bustling book fairs featuring regional authors and independent writers. Learn how festival organizers create platforms for both established and debut authors, including launching youth writing anthologies and offering workshops for aspiring novel writers.

Perfect for writers, book readers, festival organizers, and anyone passionate about supporting literary culture and the author community.

Find more on PDX Book Festival here.

Find more on Nicole Meier here.

Transcript

THE WHOLE WRITER EP 85 - Book Festivals with Literary Arts

[00:00:00] Nicole Meier: Hi, listeners. Today's episode is a unique one and in the best of ways. If you've ever been curious about either working for or attending a big book festival, this episode is for you. Literary Arts is a podcast sponsor, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Amanda Bullock about their annual book festival.

[00:00:20] Nicole Meier: While they're supporting the show, what you're about to hear is a genuine deep dive into book festivals from behind the scenes operations to what makes these literary gatherings so magical for both industry folks and book lovers alike. So with that said, let me introduce my guest. Amanda Bullock is the Senior artistic director at Literary Arts, a nonprofit literary center in Portland, Oregon.

[00:00:46] Nicole Meier: She curates and directs the annual Portland Book Festival as well as Portland Arts and Lectures and various large venue, special events and co-hosts and overseas production for the Archive Project Radio Show Broadcast Weekly on statewide NPR affiliate, OPB and podcast. Prior to joining Literary Arts in 2015, she was director of Public Programming at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, a nonprofit social enterprise in New York City, where she curated, publicized, and produced 200 plus events annually.

[00:01:21] Nicole Meier: She is the co-founder of Moby Dick Marathon, NYC, and has worked as a bookseller and in book production. Let's jump right into our conversation.

[00:01:38] Nicole Meier: Welcome to the whole writer, a place where we talk about what it means to show up as a writer, not just a better writer or a more productive writer, or a published writer, but a whole one. Someone who's grounded in their voice, in their community, in their creative path, even when the world tells them to hustle, compare, or conform.

[00:01:59] Nicole Meier: I'm Nicole Meier, a multi published author and book coach who believes that nurturing the person behind the page is just as important as refining the words on it. Each week we'll explore the terrain of riding life with honesty, warmth, and practical wisdom, creating space for you to write from a place of wholeness rather than depletion.

[00:02:19] Nicole Meier: Whether you're drafting your first manuscript or publishing your fifth book, you'll find conversation and companionship for the journey here. So settle in, bring your questions and your curiosity, and let's discover what it means to write and live with authenticity and purpose. Hello listeners, welcome on in.

[00:02:41] Nicole Meier: I am really excited because this is a bit of a fan girl moment for me, both as a writer and a reader. I am a fan of book festivals and author events, and I'm especially a fan of there where I am in which is a Pacific Northwest. So today I'm talking with Amanda Bullock from Literary Arts to talk about the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

[00:03:02] Nicole Meier: Welcome Amanda. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, this is really fun for me. I wanna geek out on all things book festivals, because I think a lot of readers listening, that's kind of our secret dream, is to work for a book festival or work for a conference because you get to see all the behind the scenes.

[00:03:21] Nicole Meier: You get to think about bringing authors together and bringing all of the writers and readers who love everything books together. So that's very exciting. 

[00:03:29] Amanda Bullock: It is. Although if you love book festivals, don't work at one 'cause then you don't get to attend. You have to work the whole time. Oh my God. Which is good.

[00:03:37] Amanda Bullock: There's, it's good, but just as a fair warning, the grass is not always greener. Yeah. 

[00:03:42] Nicole Meier: Well that makes a lot of sense. Okay, so let's back up and start easy. I wanna start by getting to know a little bit about you. So could you share with our listeners how did you find your way to literary arts? And you're a senior artistic director, so I'd love to hear about that and what drew you to working in the literary community?

[00:04:01] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, thank you. So I moved to Oregon in January, 2015 for this job at Literary Arts. I was in New York and doing events at Housing Works Bookstore, which is a nonprofit social enterprise. I was doing over 200 events a year. Holy cow. Yeah, it was a lot. It was fun though. The store is in soho. It's in a great location and it's a pretty big space.

[00:04:28] Amanda Bullock: So we were able to do some really cool things, and it was also part of this nonprofit organization, so it was always for a good cause. I was looking to do something bigger that was maybe not like every night like that job and saw an organization I had at the time never heard of in Portland, was relaunching a book festival and looking for someone to manage that.

[00:04:51] Amanda Bullock: And so I came out here for the first year that literary arts was doing the festival. So I have been with the festival since it's been a program of literary arts. This will be my 11th Portland book festival, which is. Credible. I mean in there some weird years in the middle there with the format and everything.

[00:05:11] Amanda Bullock: Exactly. So, yeah, and before I was doing events at the bookstore. I worked in some bookstores and did copy editing, and I worked in book publishing right after college in print production actually. So I came to nonprofits through books, and I worked at this nonprofit that had a bookstore, but was not a literary focused nonprofit, like a healthcare and human services nonprofit, and found my way here that way.

[00:05:38] Nicole Meier: Okay. I love knowing that background on you because you've worn many hats, but it's been around your love of books. It's been around different sides of publishing, and again, I would say anyone listening who would be dying to get into the industry, it's so fun to hear how people come. To their landing spot.

[00:05:55] Nicole Meier: You know, you kind of take this path of being around books and being, working for publishers and like you said, the bookstore, nonprofits, but this feels almost, not to put words in your mouth, but it feels like a nice coming together of all of your skillsets and your passions. Yeah, 

[00:06:10] Amanda Bullock: yeah. When I first started in publishing, I thought I only cared about the books, and it turns out I care more about the people, and that's both the authors and readers and a lot of.

[00:06:23] Amanda Bullock: Jobs and publishing end up really disconnected from readers in particular. And so I like doing in-person events because you are bringing those communities together and you're able to celebrate and create connections. And so yeah, it turns out, it turns out I actually like working with authors. So that was the big shift.

[00:06:43] Nicole Meier: That makes me so happy is that you said that you realize you care about the people, and that's something that I'm coming at it from a writer standpoint where so many writers are feeling isolated these days and we're all working in a bubble and everyone's craving that community and you get to just bring that community together more.

[00:07:02] Nicole Meier: So I can see how that would be so appealing. 

[00:07:04] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, it's one of my favorite parts of the job. Both, like I said, both on the audience and the artist side. At the bookstore in New York, we had that was really steady and we had a lot of people who, writers who were in the community who would show up for a lot of events and support other people, and then they would have their project come out.

[00:07:21] Amanda Bullock: And it's really nice to be able to, as someone who's not a writer myself, it's really important to me to be able to provide that platform and spotlight those things. Introduce people to things that they didn't know that they wanted or that are new to them. And also put people in touch with folks they really admire and stories that they wanna hear the behind the scenes about and things like that.

[00:07:45] Nicole Meier: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Okay, so you're giving me my perfect segue because I'm dying to talk about the Portland Book Festival. So for listeners who are new to the Portland Book Festival, can you share what it's all about? 

[00:07:58] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, so Portland Book Festival is a one day, although it's actually kind of a week, but is a one day celebration of books and storytelling.

[00:08:08] Amanda Bullock: We are actually a relatively small festival. We're about 80 main stage authors and 140 presenters in total, and they appear in conversations. So it's always at least an author and an interviewer. Often two authors whose books have something in common and an interviewer. Then we also, one of our main venues is the Portland Art Museum.

[00:08:30] Amanda Bullock: So something that I think makes us stand out as a festival is that we do what we call pop-up reading, where we invite writers to share their work in the art galleries at the museum. And we pair the written work thematically with the visual art in the museum. And those are really fun in a really nice addition to the festival day.

[00:08:50] Amanda Bullock: We also have a book fair and we really love to celebrate our Pacific Northwest writers. There's so many amazing writers in this region, and we always launch the high school anthology from our writers in the schools program, so we our youth writers as well. There's workshops as part of the festival, big book, fair Food Trucks.

[00:09:13] Amanda Bullock: This year we're gonna have flash tattoos, which is very Portland. It is very Portland. Yeah. So, yeah, it's really great. It's a very dense event. Like to me, the word festival suggests that there's multiple things happening at the same time, and you do have to make some hard choices, I think. But we really try to offer something for every kind of reader.

[00:09:33] Amanda Bullock: We have events for everything from picture book up to. I always joke at the opposite of picture books is what I lovingly and love to read called dad books, which is like big history books. Um, so yeah, we really try to have something for everybody and 

[00:09:49] Nicole Meier: you really do. And I wanna break that down for a second because I am just imagining I'd heard about this a few years ago, but I didn't see this part of it.

[00:09:57] Nicole Meier: I'm imagining the local writers who get to come into the art museum. There are visuals going on. There's also the regular exhibits that are happening and there are people who get to stand up and read from their work. You are giving people a platform who've never had a platform before. 

[00:10:14] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. It's really cool and we really try to be, you know, we're limited to what art is available, but we really are really thoughtful.

[00:10:21] Amanda Bullock: My colleague Jenna, is doing the popup programming this year. 

[00:10:24] Nicole Meier: Oh, I know Jenna. 

[00:10:25] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. Yeah, she just did all the pairings I think on Friday. So. It's really fun to see the thematic connections across the different mediums, and I think it's really fun for the writers too. And then our hope is both that maybe someone you're a big fan of is doing the popups and you go seek that out, but because festival admission includes admission to the museum, we're also hoping people are just wandering around and stumble on something that they weren't expecting.

[00:10:52] Amanda Bullock: And so I think it can be a really lovely part of the day. 

[00:10:55] Nicole Meier: Really cool. I mean, you really are inspiring and empowering. Not to be too cliche about it, but that's what you're doing. That's the goal. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's very exciting to me. So before we talk about some of the big names that will be there, because I know there will be.

[00:11:09] Nicole Meier: Mm-hmm. I wanna talk about something you've mentioned previously. You talked about that each of the showcases, authors that speak to a moment in history. So could you kind of talk a little bit more about that? Maybe like what themes or voices you're specifically drawn to when you curate these lineups, how you see them reflecting our current cultural moment, if you can.

[00:11:29] Nicole Meier: That's kind of a big question. 

[00:11:31] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, it's that big question. The festival features books, it's, the official window I think is 14 months, but because we're in November, it's mostly books that came out the current year. So it's all, and one reason for that is. Like I said, there are so many talented writers here.

[00:11:49] Amanda Bullock: If we didn't put some limits on ourselves, it would be very easy to just feature the same people over and over and over again. And so that challenges us to find new things and to find new voices. But because of that restriction too, they are really current books. And it always amazes me when certain things bubble up, like in the publishing cycle, because most of the books coming out this year were written three to five years ago or more, or 10 years ago.

[00:12:15] Amanda Bullock: But yet you do see some trends and different things start to emerge, which is really fun on the pairing side, and especially when things start speaking to things that feel really current. And you're like, but they, how did they know? Like this is what we would be worried about. 

[00:12:30] Nicole Meier: Right. How did they know about AI and 

[00:12:32] Amanda Bullock: politics and all kinds of things?

[00:12:34] Amanda Bullock: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah, so I mean, because some stories are kind of evergreen, I guess, but. I guess some of the things this year I don't think are that surprising. I do think it's impossible to write a novel set now or in the near future and not acknowledge climate crisis, and so I feel like climate fiction is almost obsolete as a genre because every single book is gonna have to be climate fiction.

[00:13:01] Amanda Bullock: If you're gonna be realistic about what people are worried about and like what the world that people are. Grappling with in our current moment. At this point, it's not even a future thing. So I think that does show up in a lot of books. I do think that Sisters and Female Friendship are really big right now.

[00:13:20] Amanda Bullock: Okay. Which is fun as a reader too. I'm reading The Wilderness by Angela Floy, which just came out. She'll be at the festival and that's about a group of friends, and that's been a real pleasure to reach. She'll be talking to Renee Watson and I think that'll be a really good conversation. So that's on my mind.

[00:13:34] Amanda Bullock: Also what I'm reading right now. 

[00:13:36] Nicole Meier: I definitely wanna read that. I've seen it and I knew she was coming, so that looks like a good one. 

[00:13:41] Amanda Bullock: I loved the Turner House and have been waiting for this book and have been so, she was one of the first people I reached out to this year because I just am such a fan of her work, so I'm so excited that she's coming.

[00:13:52] Amanda Bullock: And yeah, like you said, I mean people in the current political landscape, I think some people are engaging with it really directly with books like Joe Lepore's new book, which is about the constitution. And some people are really looking for escape and looking for ways to imagine like new and different worlds.

[00:14:10] Amanda Bullock: And so we see that show up too. We're so like downstream 'cause we're a book festival so we can only celebrate books that came out. And so it's interesting to be in that position. 

[00:14:21] Nicole Meier: It's so interesting on my side 'cause I do a lot of developmental editing. I still see people who are. Just getting into the climate fiction genre and agents are looking for that right now.

[00:14:33] Nicole Meier: Yeah. I don't see as much political because people, you're right. Are feeling burnt out. I see a ton of escapism, whether it's romantic or straight fantasy. I see a lot of that. 

[00:14:45] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, it's getting dark, like I feel like every, it is getting darker, but there's, with the climate stuff, there's a novel in the festival that I really loved called The Bog Queen by Anna North.

[00:14:56] Amanda Bullock: I think it's coming out in October, and that is about a young, I think their title of her job is a forensic anthropologist, and they find this bog body and she is trying to figure out who it is. And then the other side of the story is the person whose body it was. Then there are small parts of the book narrated by the bog.

[00:15:16] Nicole Meier: Oh, and 

[00:15:16] Amanda Bullock: yeah, love that. Give it to me. Um, um, but even though the main narrative of the book is like about these women's lives, there's also this group that is concerned about what they're doing with the bog because they're trying to like rewild it. So there is the, that's what I mean by like this book is set in the present day.

[00:15:36] Amanda Bullock: You don't have to set something 20 years in the future to be climate fiction, so Totally. That's kind of an example of a book that I probably wouldn't call Cly Fi, but is grappling with some of these questions. Yeah. Or John Raymond's book, God and Sex, which is about, yeah, those two things. But there's a big scene with a forest fire, and so it's also bringing these things in because.

[00:15:57] Amanda Bullock: You can't write realistic characters without them confronting that in some way. 

[00:16:01] Nicole Meier: Yeah. Such a good point. I just finished Wild, dark Shore. Have you read that? I haven't. I've heard such good things though. So good. Yeah. Okay, so now that we've sort of said, we kind of went on a tangent about climate success.

[00:16:13] Nicole Meier: Yeah. We could talk about it. I wanna hear more about the pairings. You mentioned it very briefly, but this is kind of fascinating to me. So you have authors like Rebecca Yaros with Lainey Taylor, and Stacey Abrams with Dave Miller. So what do you hope audiences will discover from these pairings? Can you talk a little bit more about your inspiration for the pairings?

[00:16:34] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. Yeah. Well those two, Rebecca actually asked to talk to Laney, which I thought was really amazing. Cool. And so that's always really great, especially for an interview when you know that two people are fans of each other's work. And I think Laney's work has a lot in common with Rebecca's. And I think that that'll be a really, and Laney's a great interviewer.

[00:16:53] Amanda Bullock: So I think that that'll be a really great conversation. And Dave Miller interviewed Andrew Child for us last year, which is how we found out. He's like a Thriller fan, and Stacey Abrams is here for her. Thriller series. She also writes romance books and I think these have some romantic elements, but Yeah.

[00:17:09] Amanda Bullock: But for her thriller series. And so I also think that we'll see kind of a different side of Dave Miller, who, for those who don't know, host the A daily show called Think Out Loud on Oregon Public Broadcasting, which is a pretty. Newsy talkie show. I don't know that you would predict that. He's a fan of those kinds of books, and so I think's a great, he's a great interviewer.

[00:17:28] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, he's such a good interviewer. So I think that that'll be a really amazing conversation. And then for the events that are like two authors with a moderator, again, I really look for some thematic connection in the books, and sometimes that's really obvious. Sometimes it's really. Just, it's like, yes, these are both mysteries and like sometimes that is the best way to put two books together, but a lot of times I'm looking for something that might be a little less obvious, like that you might not know just from reading the cover copy and something that interests me.

[00:18:02] Amanda Bullock: I always assume, like if it's interesting to me, it's probably interesting to somebody else, although I'm very aware it's not the Amanda Festival and that there are things in there that are definitely outside of my normal wheelhouse in a great way. Yeah. But one event I think that maybe illustrates that is we've paired two writers.

[00:18:19] Amanda Bullock: I really love Patricia Lockwood is paired with Katie Mira. And those books are super different in a lot of ways, but the kind of connecting, like the one word name for the panel is disorientation, because they're both these narrators thought in different ways are very disoriented, very off kilter.

[00:18:39] Amanda Bullock: There's like something off, they're having trouble sort of. Understanding, 

[00:18:44] Nicole Meier: navigating. Yeah. 

[00:18:45] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, totally. And so even though the context of that disorientation is really different, it's like, how did you come to this? And so that's the pairing that I'm really excited about. 

[00:18:55] Nicole Meier: Yeah. That's brilliant. 

[00:18:56] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. Thank you.

[00:18:58] Amanda Bullock: They're both brilliant in overlapping, but different ways. We also have Kristen Anette paired with Jess Walter. Oh yeah. Yeah. Their books have a lot in common, but I also am like, I just think they would be fun. I would love to hear them talk to each other. So this is just gonna be a great conversation.

[00:19:15] Nicole Meier: Very cool. I met Jess Walter and he came to speak in Bend a few years ago, way, uh, before the pandemic, but you have such a great lineup and you have over 80 authors. On top of workshops and readings and book fair all happening in one day. I mean, this is so rich and I can see how people would make very hard choices of what am I attending and what do I have to miss out on?

[00:19:38] Nicole Meier: But how do you sort of balance the showcasing of everybody? I know that you said you like to do these fun pairings, but is there any other philosophy in what you guys bring forth? 

[00:19:50] Amanda Bullock: I try to, when I can, I pair people who I think will have a good conversation. But you also think about are there opportunities for kinda one person's fame to help bring readers to the person that they're talking to in some situations.

[00:20:04] Amanda Bullock: And so we don't have as much this year, but I really like cross genre pairings for that reason. It might just be that. Someone is a super well known poet and like a mega famous poet, but if you don't read poetry, then by pairing that poet with a novelist, it might bring you into that. So that can be really cool and really enjoy doing that.

[00:20:24] Amanda Bullock: I think by pairing things, by theme, it can also bring people in because they have some, they're like, oh, well I'm interested in mystery. I don't know these mystery writers, but like I am interested in mysteries, and so they might be able to come in that way. So we try to provide just kind of as many. Ways into the work and the events and ways for people to discover new things as we can.

[00:20:47] Nicole Meier: Yeah, and I love that you said bring people in who have different interests, because unlike, I'm just gonna say this from my perspective, maybe this isn't true for all people, but unlike music festivals where people think everyone enjoys music, so everyone should attend, I think book festivals or the idea of them can feel intimidating to someone who's not a big reader and they're not sure if they belong or if they should go.

[00:21:09] Nicole Meier: You're talking about bringing people in based on interest, not just on how many books did you read, how many authors are you familiar with? 

[00:21:15] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. 

[00:21:15] Nicole Meier: And I really love that. Yeah. 

[00:21:17] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. I think that book festivals are for everybody. There is a book about, I mean, they might not all be in the same festival, but like there's a book about everything.

[00:21:26] Amanda Bullock: So whatever you're into, there's a book about it somewhere, and there's probably something in the festival that aligns with your interests, attending festivals. It's really. Great to pick a couple things that are super important to you that you really wanna make sure you don't miss, but also just be really open to finding new things because the kind of risk is so low.

[00:21:48] Amanda Bullock: You're already there. It's included in your path. You can go check something out that might be too unfamiliar to you, where you wouldn't necessarily go to that event as a standalone thing, but like as part of a festival, you might go try it. It's like a music festival, like there might be a band you wouldn't go.

[00:22:03] Amanda Bullock: To their concert. 'cause you don't know them well enough, but it's a chance to discover new things. Yeah. And meet other readers too. I think this thing with in-person events, so much of it is being able to connect with the other people who are there and being a part of that community is really one of the most pleasurable parts as an attendee.

[00:22:20] Nicole Meier: Yeah. And that's how you grow your community of creative people. I love that. 

[00:22:24] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. Because reading and writing are often very, very solitary things and so. This is a rare chance to be part of that community physically. 

[00:22:33] Nicole Meier: Yes. And share conversations with people you would never have conversations with because of geographic distance or time and place, whatever it is.

[00:22:41] Nicole Meier: Mm-hmm. Yeah. That just makes me so happy to envision all these people getting together and talking about books they love. 

[00:22:48] Amanda Bullock: It's a very busy day for me and for everybody, but there's always a moment, or hopefully there's always a moment still at the festival. That's sort of like we're through the morning rush, the middle of the day is this sort of funny, like eye of the storm time before things start closing down again.

[00:23:05] Amanda Bullock: And hopefully I'll have this again this year where there's a moment like standing on the park blocks where you're like, oh yeah, I'm like making myself like emotional, ugh. Like we made this, like we built this and yeah. And it means something and it's important and, but also it's fun. People are having a great time.

[00:23:23] Amanda Bullock: Like look at these people who are so happy that they got this signed book or they're like excited about this event. You see people see their friends and yeah, it's great. It's a good vibe. 

[00:23:33] Nicole Meier: I'm so getting that energy right through the zoom, like I can understand it. I picture it. It is. I mean, not to be cheesy, but it's a literary love fest for sure.

[00:23:43] Nicole Meier: Yeah. Okay. So Portland Book Festival is part of literary arts. Yes. Which has this incredible lecture series. I mean, I know about it because I've been living in the Pacific Northwest for 20 years and you guys have writers in the school programs. So my final question to you is, how does the Portland Book Festival fit into that larger mission?

[00:24:03] Nicole Meier: How do you see it serving both the local literary community and also as we're talking today to visitors from outside Portland? 

[00:24:10] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. Everything that we do at literary arts, we really try to be mutually reinforcing. We try to bring all our programs together and you'll see. The other main programs of literary arts show up at the festival, like I mentioned before, we do the writers in the schools anthology launch where we launch a book that features student work from the 20 24 25 school year.

[00:24:36] Amanda Bullock: And those students read at the festival and their festival authors like they have badges, they have green room access. 

[00:24:42] Nicole Meier: Incredible. They do a 

[00:24:43] Amanda Bullock: signing after. It's really great. Don't miss it. If you get a chance to swing by there. It's a really cool event. We have workshops for kids too. That's part of the youth program's purview.

[00:24:55] Amanda Bullock: We also feature some of the actual writers who are in the schools. The working artists are moderating some events and participate in different ways, and then you'll also see our Oregon book awards and fellowship programming show up that way as well. So there's definitely Oregon Book Award winners and finalists who are writers in the program and who are moderators.

[00:25:13] Amanda Bullock: Who are kind of appearing throughout and then teaching workshops for adults as well as part of the book festival program. I mentioned that the festival is like kind of a week long. We do this program called Cover to cover that this year runs November 1st to ninth, so it's the Saturday before the festival, till the Sunday after.

[00:25:31] Amanda Bullock: And there are events all over Portland and beyond actually kind of the Portland metro area that are not. Being hosted by literary arts. They're being hosted by partners but are like part of this calendar that is connected to the festival. And so that's also a way to discover a lot of those kinds of local writers and different folks who are doing some really fun stuff.

[00:25:50] Amanda Bullock: And then our kind of newest program is our retail arm. We opened a bookstore last year, and so the bookstore will be one of the festival bookstores selling for one of the stages at the festival, so you'll see us there as well. 

[00:26:04] Nicole Meier: Super cool. This is why this excites me that you're sharing so much about all the different things that people can either participate in or observe or buy tickets to or just support, because when you are a reader or a writer or somewhere in between.

[00:26:18] Nicole Meier: You sort of get limited to what the possibilities are, but when you attend events like these, whether it's a lecture series or a festival, or supporting the kids writing in school, you realize, oh, wait a minute. There are so many more opportunities than I remembered, and how can I get involved? Yeah, I mean, how could people not be inspired?

[00:26:37] Amanda Bullock: I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. This is making me excited. 

[00:26:42] Nicole Meier: I'm your hype person. 

[00:26:44] Amanda Bullock: Yeah, I like it. We also have, I'll mention too, I think for a lot of your listeners would be into this. We have the Friday evening before the festival on the seventh, we have readers night. Which is a preview night for the book Fair.

[00:26:59] Amanda Bullock: And we'll have some other fun stuff for that. And so there'll be drink samples and the tattoos will be set up so you'll get an early chance to get a tattoo. And they are real tattoos. Oh, they're real. I thought they were 

[00:27:10] Nicole Meier: temporary. Oh, okay. No, they're real tattoos. Okay, so that's a commitment. Get your favorite book on there.

[00:27:15] Nicole Meier: Yeah. 

[00:27:16] Amanda Bullock: And I think that that'll be a really, 'cause the festival is really busy and it can be pretty crowded. And this is fewer people and it can be a really nice time too. Shop the book fair early and make sure you get what you want. But also, more importantly, I think to connect with the other readers in the area and have a nice evening out before kind of the busy festival day.

[00:27:35] Amanda Bullock: So. This is the fourth year I think we've done that. So it's a relatively new part of the festival and has been a really, I think, lovely addition and also a way to turn it into a two day festival. 

[00:27:46] Nicole Meier: Yeah. Very cool. Okay. Now that we've got everyone excited, I would love for you to share where people can find you, where can they find tickets more about the festival, because this has been a great conversation.

[00:27:58] Nicole Meier: Thank you so much. Well, 

[00:27:59] Amanda Bullock: thank you. Yeah, and happy to share. Um, please go to PDX book fest.org. You can buy your passes there, the author lineup's up there, the schedule will be up there, FAQ, all that information. You do need a pass, which is $18 in advance for adults 17 and under are free, or anyone with high school id.

[00:28:22] Amanda Bullock: We also offer Arts for all tickets and a couple other discount tickets. So check that out. You do wanna get your pass in advance though, because they go up to 25 day of the festival. So plan ahead and nab that. There are a limited number of events that have the opportunity for a guaranteed seat with a Bookas ticket, and so Stacey Abrams event, you can get a Bookas ticket for a seat up front, and then I think it's just $5 to add on a seat for that.

[00:28:48] Amanda Bullock: Then we have five events at the Newmar Theater that we have a limited number of book is ticket for a Guaranteed Seat. So that means you know you're gonna have a seat, don't have to line up 45 minutes early and you get a book on your way in. So it's a great way to make sure, like if one of those events or to couple of those events or ones you really want to go to.

[00:29:06] Amanda Bullock: Those are Emma Donahue, the author of Room with the new book, the Paris Express. Oh, Nicola. Yeah. Nicholas Boggs has this amazing new biography of James Baldwin, so he'll be there. Angela Florna, who I mentioned for the wilderness. Jill Lepore, whose new book is about the Constitution and. Susan Arlene, whose new memoir Joy Ride, recounts her life and she actually started her career at the Willamette Week.

[00:29:31] Amanda Bullock: So she, this is Oh, she did? Mm-hmm. So this is a homecoming for Susan. 

[00:29:35] Nicole Meier: I've heard her speak before too. Great. 

[00:29:38] Amanda Bullock: Yeah. So you have these options to like, make sure, you know you're gonna be able to go one of those, but then there are eight other stages that have events going on all day. And your $18 pass gets you into anything first come first serve at the rest of the festival.

[00:29:54] Amanda Bullock: Incredible. Yeah. Oh, the pass comes with a $5 voucher that you can spend at the festival that day. So it means you get $5 off anything one time at the book fair, or any of the festival bookstores too. So if you spend your voucher, it's like it's 13 bucks. 

[00:30:10] Nicole Meier: Incredible. Thank you so much, Amanda. This has been so much fun for me.

[00:30:14] Nicole Meier: I could talk about the festival for hours with you, but I know that listeners, if whether you live in Oregon or elsewhere, I'd really encourage you. Portland is so much fun to visit. There's so much to be seen in terms of art and books and just creativity, especially this event. So I'd really encourage you if you're thinking about coming to Portland.

[00:30:35] Nicole Meier: This is gonna be your weekend. Thank you so much, Amanda. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. This was really great. Of course. Okay, everybody, until next week, we'll see you on the whole writer.

[00:30:50] Nicole Meier: If you want to check out my coaching programs for fiction writers, visit nicole meier.com. That's M-E-I-E-R. And if you like this episode, I'd love you to take a minute to leave a rating and review for this podcast. This will help more writers like you to discover the show and to get going on their writing journey.

[00:31:10] Nicole Meier: Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, happy writing everyone.