November 9, 2019: authors, publishers, and content creators across the broad spectrum of publishing will be gathering for the Portland Book Festival (PBF), a one-day extravaganza featuring celebrity authors, raffle giveaways, panels, and writing workshops.

Ooligan Press is proud to exhibit at the festival this year and promote the recently launched Odsburg by Matt Tompkins, along with the upcoming Elephant Speak by Melissa Crandall (in stores March 3, 2020) and our current frontlist. PBF remains a great opportunity for Ooligan to inform local (and not-so-local) publishing professionals about our unique teaching press and how it provides valuable experience to its students.

The more we spread the word about Ooligan, the bigger and better we can grow as a press! As publisher’s assistants, one of our main goals—aside from all the copyright registration and metadata shenanigans—is to promote our program! Ooligan represents a unique opportunity for graduate students to gain real-world experience in the publishing industry as part of their core curriculum, rather than as an internship layered on top of demanding coursework.

Prior to 2018, Portlanders may have heard of the festival under another name—Wordstock. In a 2018 blog post, Amanda Bullock, Director of Public Programs at Literary Arts (the curators of PBF), outlined three major reasons why the festival underwent a name change:

1. “Portland Book Festival” as a title is more inclusive of the wide array of events, panels, and workshops that the festival has to offer. It’s more immediately clear that PBF is a festival—of what?—of books and all things associated with them.
2. Major book festivals often include the location of the festival in the title, as in the case of the Edinburgh Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Including Portland in PBF’s title also increases clarity: Where is this book festival? In Portland!
3. Literary Arts hosts a wide variety of other programs with an Oregonian or Portland-centric focus, such as Portland Arts & Lectures, the Oregon Book Awards, and Oregon Literary Fellowships. PBF aligns with Literary Arts’ programs and provides a more cohesive overall brand.

Prior to the actual festivities getting underway at PBF, Lit Crawl® Portland will take place on November 8, 2019, offering engaging games not unlike those you’d play in a brewpub—except these games are all related to words and publishing. The Telephone Game for Writers and Illustrators, How to Build Your Own Industrial-Strength Crap Detector, Poetry Karaoke, and Choose Your Own Adventure Bingo are just a few of the offerings.

Come support Ooligan at the festival on November 9, 2019!