Everyone’s A Writer

On Saturday, we spent the day at Wordstock, Portland’s Annual Festival of the Book and the experience reminded me of something important.

On one stage at the Portland Expo Center, Roscoe Orman—”Gordon” from Sesame Street—was reading from his new book, Ricky & Mobo.

On another, Harry Shearer was doing his voices from The Simpsons (Mr. Burns, Smithers and Ned Flanders) at the request of a boy in the audience.

Jane Hamilton spoke about her recent teaching experience casting her pearls before the swine.

On another stage, Laura Weedman, author of A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body (2007, Sasquatch Press) was cracking everybody up, including my husband and my friend, Kelly.

All within a few hours of each other. 🙂

Jason and I spent the better part of the afternoon trading off watching Samantha’s in the Target-sponsored kid’s area, where she played with the guy (or gal) in the Bullseye suit, watched the Mudeye Puppet Company show twice and tossed around giant red and white beach balls.

Willamette Writers and the Oregon Writers Colony had booths at the event. I must have seen at least twenty-five writers I know. I finally got to meet my friend Sage’s fiancé, Jon. And I got to introduce myself to some folks I’d heard about but hadn’t yet met.

But beyond the famous names and giveaways and the overpriced bottles of water, there was a congenial feeling of literary community and that’s something that Portland— selected as one of the top ten most literate cities in the country—has to boast about. What the Wordstock Festival of the Book does every year is make this truth accessible to everyone in 3-D.

And best of all, you can feel like you are a part of the literary community simply by showing up and paying five bucks to get in.

I was reminded that everyone’s writer. There are millions of us out there. Thousands live in the Portland, Oregon area. And the folks who organize Wordstock did a fine job of bringing all of us together.

Bravo, Wordstock! I can’t wait to come back again next year.