Getting literary with food

“Just like our mothers urged us to eat everything, we want to urge you to read everything. We want you to be open to the new, the unusual, the writers you’ve never tried before. We want you to be a literary omnivore.”

This is the slogan for this year’s Wordstock, one that will be sure to make you hungry. The festival this year will include a diverse group of authors, with food as the featured genre. They’ll be taking the idea of a “literary omnivore” both metaphorically and literally, and will be asking Portland to do the same.

Tons of authors will be gathered throughout the weekend telling stories, reading their work and talking about the importance of reading and writing. The festival this year will mark the fourth Wordstock since its beginning in 2005.

Among the festival’s sponsors will be Powell’s Books, Target, the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, Columbia Sportswear and many more.

Wordstock is also a nonprofit organization, striving for academic success by improving our K-12 teachers’ writing so that they can, in turn, improve our students’ writing. Not only is the festival and nonprofit for all of us reading junkies, but our children and their educators as well.

Among the authors present will be Pete Dexter, a National Book Award winner with the book Paris Trout, who will also be stopping by Portland State on Monday to participate in a Q-and-A session with students, faculty and community members. The author has written several screenplays and previously worked as a renowned columnist before transitioning to novels. Dexter, whose eighth published novel Spooner was released in September, will be in Neuberger Hall room 407 on Monday, Oct. 12.

Dexter’s new work offers a unique kind of storytelling, and his new book promises an intriguing story. “Spooner is a fascinating book filled with riotous laughs and moments of quiet poignancy. It’s a sweet love story, really, about a wayward boy and the man who became his father, and, eventually, his friend,” raved the Associated Press. The author will, undoubtedly, have an interesting story to tell.

Whether you want to be a K-12 teacher one day, have a strong passion for writing or if you’re simply one of the only other college students such as myself that still enjoy reading recreationally despite being in college, there’s something for everyone at Wordstock.