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Nobody Broke Your Heart by Jamie Fisher
Journalist Jamie Fisher has penned what appears to be the definitive biography of late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, based on its scope (560 pages), access (interviews with friends and family, including Jackpot! Recording Studio owner Larry Crane) and ambition (revealing the real Smith, in all his complexity). The book came out last week, and the author will be in conversation with novelist Lydia Kiesling at Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave., at 6:30 pm Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Everything New Again by Renée Watson
Renée Watson, Jefferson High School graduate turned 2026 Newbery Medal winner, has a new YA romance novel out Oct. 13. Everything New Again tells the story of a teenager named Bliss, growing up working in her family’s funeral home in small-town Oregon. She falls for a boy visiting from Portland over winter break.
Rock* by Chuck Klosterman
Chuck Klosterman’s new novel Rock* has the most delightfully Chuck Klosterman-style thought-experiment premise: What if the Velvet Underground was the biggest group in the history of popular music, and bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin were but footnotes? History is flipped on its head in this fictional universe, with sentences like “the disappointment of Sgt. Pepper pushed the Beatles into an increasingly morose mindset.” It’ll be brainy, absurd fun for anyone who is into classic rock. Rock* publishes Sept. 22 and Klosterman appears at Powell’s City of Books, 1005 W Burnside St., at 7 pm Tuesday, Sept. 29.
A Court of Splintered Harmony
For readers who are so excited for the sixth installment of Sarah J. Maas’ fairy porn that they need to stay up until midnight on a Monday, there is a place. Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, holds an after-hours celebration for the latest ACOTAR book (that’s A Court of Thorns and Roses for the romantasy ignorant) at 9 pm on Monday, Oct. 26, in preparation for the midnight publication on the 27th.
Portland Book Festival
Buy tickets now, ask questions later. Literary Arts hasn’t released the schedule of authors and readings yet, but the Portland Book Festival sold out for the first time ever last fall, so it’s best not to risk missing what has become our city’s most exciting book event of the year. For 2026, the fest expanded to a week’s worth of events throughout the city, running Nov. 2–8, though the main event is still a jam-packed run of author events at a cluster of venues downtown—the Portland Art Museum, the Old Church, the Judy and others—Saturday, Nov. 7.
See the rest of the 2026 Fall Arts Guide here!
