Literary Arts announced the full 2026 Portland Book Festival lineup on Wednesday, Sept. 16, headlined by Colin Meloy, Carson Ellis and Oscar-winning actor Ke Huy Quan.

The festival, which sold out for the first time in 2025 with 8,000 attendees at the South Park Blocks, expands this year from a single day to a weeklong run, Nov. 2–8, according to Oregon ArtsWatch.

The main event remains Saturday, Nov. 7, with author appearances, panels, workshops and a book fair at venues near the South Park Blocks.

More than 100 writers and presenters are scheduled to appear, and more than 3,000 festival passes had already sold before the lineup dropped.

Tickets moved fast. Events at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and reserved seating at the Newmark went on sale at 7 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 17. General admission passes cost $20 in advance.

Arts for All passes are $5 for SNAP/Oregon Trail Card holders. Veterans, active military and youth 17 and younger with a high school ID get in free.

Headliners with Portland ties

Meloy, frontman of The Decemberists and author of the middle-grade fantasy novel Wildwood, will appear alongside his wife, illustrator Carson Ellis. Amanda Bullock, Literary Arts senior artistic director, said the top names gave the festival a bit of an "Oregon film theme" this year.

Laika Studios' stop-motion adaptation of Wildwood, directed by Travis Knight, is set for U.S. release Oct. 23, and Variety reported that producer Sam Wilson called the film "a love letter to Portland."

A flock of 30 painted crow statues tied to the film has been scattered around Portland's west side as a fundraiser for Doernbecher Children's Hospital.

Ke Huy Quan, who starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies before winning the 2023 Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All at Once, will discuss his memoir Never Say Die. Grand Central Publishing released the book Sept. 15. It traces his path from Vietnamese refugee to child star to Hollywood comeback.

Oregon writers and food names

The lineup features a deep bench of Oregon authors: Patrick deWitt, Willie Vlautin, Liz Prato, Alex Behr and Kevin Sampsell in fiction; Renée Watson, a Jefferson High School graduate and 2026 Newbery Medal winner, in children's and young-adult literature; and memoirists including Alicia Jo Rabins and Paul Susi.

Food fans get their own draw. Cookbook authors Sara Mardanbigi and Edgar Rico of Nixta Taqueria, Alexis Nikole Nelson and chef Natasha Pickowicz are among the culinary presenters.

The Literary Arts Writers in the Schools student anthology, A Small Piece of Night, will also launch at the festival on Nov. 7.

New sponsor, new scale

The Eberwein family is the festival's presenting sponsor for 2026, replacing the bank sponsors that had backed the event for nearly a decade. Bart Eberwein, a Literary Arts board member, told Willamette Week on Sept. 15 that "it feels like something our family could do to help with making Portland the cool place that we love."

Bullock summed up the lineup in three words: "All killer, no filler."

The full author list is at literary-arts.org, and tickets are available through Afton Tickets. The lineup is still evolving, with additional authors expected before November.