Apply to be a featured Author
Thank you for your interest in participating in Sisters Festival of Books. Before submitting, please take a moment to review the info below about our programming and what to expect from Sisters Festival of Books.
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, with each gathering featuring between 5-10 visiting authors. 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!
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.
For Authors
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, connect with other writers and maybe even get some writring done 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.
Upcoming Gatherings
Voices of Central Oregon
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.
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.
Things to note:
All traveling authors have access to 1-3 nights of free lodging and a $.75/mile travel reimbursement up to $350. Depending on our budget, we may be able to provide travel stipends above and beyond that amount.
We accept submissions on a rolling basis and space is limited - we encourage you to submit as early as possible!
Books (hardcover or paper) must have released within the 12 months prior to the Gathering you are submitting for.
We appreciate all submissions but are unable to reply to each individually. We do not recommend holding calendar space if you have not heard back from us within 6 weeks of submitting. We do retain all submissions and may reach out for a future Gathering that might be a better fit!
If you are selected:
We will reach out to the email provided in the submission form to confirm approval and discuss event details
We hope you will take full advantage of you Sisters getaway. Bring friends and family! Drop in to other festival events, network with other authors and publishers, and take advantage of the world class hiking trails and scenery that Sisters Country has to offer!
Here’s what past authors have to say about attending Sisters Festival of Books
“Sisters Festival of Books is a wonderful and welcoming event. If you are fortunate enough to get an invite this is one you want to take. I cannot recommend it enough.”
- Theodore C. Van Alst, author of The El and editor of Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology
“I love this festival and the discussions, community building, and thought provocation it cultivates.”
- Chris Vega, author of Vega and publisher at Blue Cactus Press
“I felt so taken care of as an author, and the whole festival was joyful, diverse, thought-provoking, and a lot of fun.”
- Gigi Little, author of Who Killed One the Gun
2025 Featured Authors
