Wordstock in Review

It is hard to leave Wordstock. When I do, I always leave hungry. I feel the pull of one more booth I should have visited, one more reading I should have attended, one more book sale I should have browsed. But I think it is good to leave when I’m wanting more. That way, my appetite sharpens for next year’s event.

Wordstock is Portland’s annual weekend festival for readers, writers, teachers, and publishers of all stripes. It offers workshops to writers and teachers, and for readers there are special, exclusive readings (for example, this year had a special event with Sherman Alexie). Then there is the book show, featuring readings on several stages and a wide variety of booths selling everything from graphic novels to bookmarks to editing, design, and indexing services.

I visited Wordstock both Saturday and Sunday and, as always, enjoyed it. As I relate my experience, I’m going to have a lot of links. I hope they help you explore Wordstock’s and Portland’s literary scene in your own way.

Saturday was almost a grad school reunion. Before I even entered the exhibit hall, I started meeting fellow graduates and instructors from the Masters in Writing: Book Publishing program. Most of the day I spent catching up with them. Funny—I was even stopped from the magnetic tug of the Ooligan Press booth so that I could meet with friends from Ink & Paper Group, Quaker Abbey Press, and Indigo Editing. We discussed, among other things, the difficulty of finding publishing work. Portland is a lovely literary city, and the Publishing program at Portland State is, well, you know how I love it. But there is a sense of accumulation; we are all having to find our individual places in the industry (or out of it) in Portland (or elsewhere).

At the Ooligan Press booth, I was delighted to see their three new books: new nonfiction title Cataclysms on the Columbia and poetry collections Killing George Washington and Dot-to-Dot, Oregon. I remember attending the meetings to vote on acquisition and cover design of both poetry books; it is a thrill to see them complete and for sale. Cataclysms is the second in Ooligan’s Open Book series; right away I noticed the Environmental Audit page in the front of the book.

Nearby were two more friends: All Publications and C3 Publications. I was so happy to catch up with the owners of both businesses; again, I know them from my publishing education.

At four o’clock, I went to hear winners of this year’s Sledgehammer Writing Contest read their stories. This year the contest ran in Seattle as well as Portland. The winner and runners-up wrote wonderful stories. I appreciated the winning story, In Passing, for its use of detail and dialogue to create atmosphere. It was a quiet piece, but a strong one. (You can read it here.)

That was about it for Saturday. I spent the rest of my time wandering around, passing by or being pulled to various booths. The American Society for Indexing booth is always a treat. (Indexers are unsung heroes and heroines in the world of books. If you ever have a chance to meet one, do!) Also, I visited the table for Wondermark and awkwardly told the author how much I and a friend admire his work (especially the piranhamoose).

On Sunday my chief aim was to attend the reading for Killing George Washington and Dot-to-Dot, Oregon, the new Ooligan titles I mentioned above. The reading was excellent. I had arrived early, however, so before the poetry reading I sat in on a reading from some of the Oregon Book Awards finalists. I heard nonfiction passages from Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge 1867-1957, Wild Things: Adventures of a Grassroots Environmentalist, and Convictions: A Prosecutor’s Battles Against Mafia Killers, Drug Kingpins, and Enron Thieves. (See all finalists here.) The former sounded dull at first, but I became drawn in by the descriptions of the difficulty of photographing Oregon’s wild places in the early years of photography. The second book used the word enthuse twice in the same chapter, and I cringed. (I’m sure it’s a worthy book, but misuse of words gets to me.) The third book sounded amazing. We will have to wait until October 26 to meet the award winners.

Apart from those readings, I made one stop to visit a friend at Letterary Press. Then I took my leave of Wordstock, satisfied and hungry at the same time.