Our programming is designed to cultivate rich relationships between readers, authors, and the arts across Central Oregon. We offer year‑round programming, with a primary focus on what we call “Gatherings”: themed clusters of programs that unfold over a weekend or several days and invite deeper engagement with visiting authors and our local creative community. We host approximately four Gatherings per year or roughly one per quarter. We also organize book drives and book giveaways to local students.
At these Gatherings, we offer meaningful, varied opportunities for connection with visiting authors, other readers and writers, and the arts in general. These opportunities can include: Workshops, school visits, author panels and presentations, children’s storytimes, community StorySLAMs, themed Author Dinners, author receptions and showcases, and more!
About Our Programming
For Attendees
For attendees, our aim is to give multiple ways to engage – with authors, literature, their own creativity, and other readers and artists. Through workshops, conversations, and shared experiences, we invite you to move beyond simply attending an event into participating in a vibrant and dynamic literary community. Gatherings are a chance to learn, make, reflect, and connect—whether you’re discovering a new favorite author, trying a creative practice for the first time, or finding your people among other book‑loving locals.
Click the links below to learn more about upcoming programming or purchase tickets.
For authors, each Gathering is intentionally shaped as part author event, part retreat, and part vacation in beautiful Central Oregon. We want you to have time and space to engage with fans and readers, but also to step into nature, enjoy the surrounding landscapes, and connect with other writers in a more relaxed, generative environment. We build in ample free time throughout your visit and, by subsidizing travel and lodging whenever possible, we aim to make it easy—and enjoyable—for authors to say yes to Sisters Festival of Books.
To learn more about author submissions, click here.
For Authors
Upcoming Gatherings
Friday, Sep 11th - Sunday, Sep 13th
Our Voices of Central Oregon Gathering celebrates the writers who call this place home. Through fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and hybrid work, local authors explore the landscapes, communities, and questions that define life in Central Oregon. This themed gathering highlights the region’s diverse perspectives and invites readers to connect more deeply with the stories emerging from their own backyard.
Voices of Central Oregon
Under western skies
Monday, Oct 19th - Sunday, Oct 25th
Under Western Skies brings together fiction, nonfiction, and poetry rooted in the landscapes and communities of the broader American West. This Gathering highlights work where place is central—high desert towns, mountain ranges, river valleys, and wide‑open horizons. Submissions should explore how Western environments shape identity, history, and imagination, inviting readers into stories deeply rooted in place, where the landscape often serves as a character itself and the story is inseparable from the land.