Join us in our third installment of this special episode where we spend the day at the 2025 Portland Book Festival. Saturday, November 8, in downtown Portland. Our Virgil is once again editor and producer Matthew Workman, who is taking a turn at the microphone as he searches for festival authors to get their book recommendations. It’s an exclusive, rare! Behind-the-scenes look at the festival, plus a great source for your to-read list and hopefully some gifting inspiration for the readers in your own life.

We once again asked some of our featured festival authors to recommend books by other authors in the festival. We have a bit of a National Book Awards theme happening here too:

We will hear recommendations from:

Patricia Smith, author of The Intentions of Thunder, winner of the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry

Jason De Leon, author of Soliders and Kings, winner of the 2024 National Book Award in Nonfiction

Karren Russell, author of The Antidote, finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Fiction

Megha Majumdar, author of A Guardian and a Thief, finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Fiction

Omar El Akkad, author of One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, winner of the 2025 National Book Award in Nonfiction

Renée Watson, author of All the Blue in the Sky

Ruth Dickey, poet and executive director of the National Book Foundation

Kristen Arnett, novelist and author of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One

A quick note to listeners: Portions of this episode contain mature themes that may not be suitable for all audiences.