Our Literary Lunch Series is held at noon the last Wednesday of each month. We host New England authors with recently-released work in conversation with a literary friend, colleague or critic. Bring your lunch and join us!

Our Book of the Week project is created by Reader’s Advisory staff and is focused on sharing one great book from the library’s collections each week. The book might be fiction or nonfiction, a new title or an older gem from the stacks. You can see a photo of each new book of the week and a list of the books in our library catalog here.

The second annual Portland Public Library Reading Challenge is here! We have selected 24 book prompts and we challenge you to read one book from each category throughout the year. That’s just two books a month – will you accept the challenge?

Linda Aldrich, Portland’s Poet Laureate, hosts a series of poetry readings that feature a range of local voices through varying themes and collaborations of poets.

Looking for help with reading suggestions? Would you love to get a personalized list of ideas based on your own reading interests? Our Reader’s Advisory staff is here to help! We’re ready to put our professional book-matching skills to work.

Calling all writers! Are you looking for someone to critique your work? Interested in meeting other writers? Searching for inspiration and collaboration? Meet up with like-minded locals at Portland Public Library to discuss authors and ideas and listen to and inspire one another!

The Portland Poet Laureate is an honorary position given every 2-3 years to a resident of the Greater Portland area who is both an accomplished poet and an excellent ambassador within the community. Portland’s current poet laureate is Linda Aldrich.

Portland Public Library hosts nationally touring authors at the Spotlight Series.  Authors talk about newly released work followed by audience Q&A and a book signing.  The series is co-hosted by Portland Public Library and sponsored by the Press Hotel and Bangor Savings Bank.

Celebrating the Freedom to Read
As books continue to be challenged, restricted and banned at schools and libraries across the country, we pause to think about censorship and celebrate our freedom to read and openly access information.

Join one of our ongoing book groups at our branches, or let us help your book group with suggestions for what to read, book sets you can borrow, advice on book group strategy, and extra copies to supply you.