The real appeal is hearing from people who’ve spent years thinking deeply about something – whether that’s the housing crisis in Bend, the history of Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels, the geology of rockhounding in the Pacific Northwest, or what it’s like to work as a wildland firefighter. It’s a chance to learn directly from someone who’s immersed themselves in a subject, often for deeply personal reasons.
Friday night, September 12, kicks off with a moth-style StorySLAM, a community storytelling event where ten people take the stage to tell a five-minute, unscripted, true story on the theme “Under the Surface.” The evening will also include story sharing from visiting authors as well as poetry. Throughout Saturday and Sunday, the schedule is packed with author readings and discussions. Topics range widely, from memoir to historical fiction, poetry to science. You’ll get to hear from many authors who are visiting from around the Western U.S., but there’s also strong representation from Central Oregon itself. Saturday afternoon will include a keynote address with authors Ted Van Alst. Jr and Daniel Wildon titled, “Discussing A Hole in the Sky and The El: A Conversation on Survival, Identity, and Storytelling,” which will be free and open to the public. On Saturday evening, we will be hosting a seven course author dinner with each course themed around one of the books being featured. Sunday morning will include a fiction author panel as well as the Local Author Extravaganza which spotlights work coming directly from the Central Oregon community.
Additionally, four workshops will take place throughout the weekend with topics including gender exploration through creativity, publishing 101, self care for creatives and spiritual justice for community action. Workshops are open to all and offered at a sliding scale, these are excellent opportunities to explore and set aside time for intentional practice.
With a wide array of programmatic offerings and diverse representation of authors and genres, the Sisters Festival of Books offers attendees the opportunity to learn, exercise their creative voice and build a more connected community through the literary arts! Additionally, the festival’s nonprofit funds programming throughout the year such as book clubs, author visits to local public schools and grants to school libraries and scholarships to high school graduates. When you support Sisters Festival of Books through showing up at one of our events or helping to spread the word, you are also supporting ongoing literary arts programming for youth and adults year round.
For a full weekend schedule and ticket information visit www.sistersfob.org.