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Amelia Templeton, Eder Campuzano, and Eli Saslow participated in a panel discussion at the Portland Book Festival 2021. (Suzette Smith)

The group discussions, readings and conversations of the Portland Book Festival took place under the textbook-perfect Portland sky-cloudy but dry, brisk but warm. Following last year's completely virtual festival, this year's hesitation and careful consideration.

PBF promises to keep the population below 75%, and this day is easy to unfold. Attendees in previous years will remember the veritable soup readers were expecting-exciting, if overwhelming. The team on the day was very short, except for the Gastro Obscura vending machine team.

The following is a summary of the rest of the day:

Associated with the Gastro Obscura vending machine, two musicians use the weak current generated by vegetables and fruits to play music. (Suzette Smith)

Hosted by Geoff Norcross of the Oregon Public Broadcasting Corporation, the pandemic group’s voice introduced Oregon’s Edel Campsano, Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Emilia Templeton, and the Washington Post’s Elisaslow, Discuss topics surrounding Saslow’s recently published non-fiction collection of the same name.

Saslow did not read his work. Instead, Norcross asked three local reporters, all of whom actively reported on the COVID health crisis. This is a wonderful discussion: lively and thoughtful, it is the purpose of participating in the group discussion.

The audience learned that Templeton is difficult to report during a pandemic, because it is often necessary to report the same story over and over again. "The reporter wants to tell a new story," she said. During that time, some of her work required her to brainstorm: "How can I continue to return to the really important stories, even if they are repeated?"

Campuzano reports on education for The Oregonian. He found that during a pandemic, he would usually wait to interview parents and students after school. He got a broader subject survey via Google Forms. On the form, he left a checkbox for parents who don’t want to have a follow-up conversation: “If you want me to understand what you’re going through, please check this box,” he said, but he estimated that among 500 interviewees Among those, only 50 chose this option.

"People call me back at an unprecedented rate," Norcross agreed.

Templeton said she felt that she had indeed missed opportunities in areas such as ivermectin coverage. "Laughing at people who take equine medicine" is not the best way, she said. "Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, and it works very well as an antiparasitic drug. But COVID is not a parasite. We missed the opportunity to educate people."

Although the group was inspiring for listeners interested in the details of the local report, it reached a surprising consensus after discussing the misinformation.

During the group question and answer session, an audience member asked whether the reporter should get permission. This question was raised after a frustrating conversation about the speed and truthfulness of misinformation. The audience members wanted to know whether controlling who can call themselves reporters would help resolve this situation.

Everyone seems to agree, maybe it will. No one in the group is responsible for asking reporters — whose job is to challenge the power of all levels of society — to those who issue such certificates. The shocking thing is that no one asks: Who issues the license?

Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mogani and poet Emily Kendall Frey (Suzette Smith)

In the second panel discussion we participated in, we found another fascinating dialogue-Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani and poet Emily Kendal Frey ), the latter won the Oregon Book Award for "Arrow of Sorrow" in 2015, and its collection Lovability was published by Fonograf in July this year.

Frey's patience and humor are not always what the poet expects. When they finished reading, the phone rang, and they smiled and closed the book. "Yes," they said. Then: "I hope that is my mother's phone number."

The dialogue between Mojgani and Frey does not have too many structural constraints. The two friends kept talking about poetry until Frey felt that they could use a poem to answer questions, and this often happened—a lovely method.

Frey recounted some frustration, because many of their poems still focus on childhood. "When I started writing poems, I thought I would write a lot of poems about looking out of the window or the sea," they said with a wry smile. "But no, you have no choice."

Mojgani said that when Frey was working on one of Loveability's longer works, they posted some of it on Instagram. Mojgani captured the poem on the screen and still keeps it on his phone. We want to know if he will sell them as irreplaceable tokens.

The production line of the vending machine started before it opened. (Suzette Smith)

The most popular attraction of the festival is undoubtedly the Gastro Obscura vending machine-this machine can dispense strange delicacies, such as Akabanga, which is a Rwandan condiment that is very spicy and needs to be served with a straw.

Promote the recently published Gastro Obscura: Food Adventurer’s Guide, a food Atlas Obscura co-authored by local writer Cecily Wong. This colorful machine drew a line even before it started serving, at 2pm in the museum’s sculpture garden inside. A few minutes after it was put into operation, the team stretched around the block and the museum. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, someone in front called to the end of the line and told them to give up. There are too many people, not everyone has the opportunity to buy canned steamed buns or pickled watermelon rinds. It is true that this machine stopped vending at 5 pm-very strict. By then, it was dark, and the locals hurried home-or went to campfires, dinners, and musical performances.

There is still a chance to hear some conversations, even if you can't see them with your own eyes. The 2021 Portland Book Festival panel was recorded by OPB for the literary and artistic archive project. A number has already been uploaded and more will be added in the coming days.

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