Oregon Authors at the Oregon State Fair

Are you an Oregon author? There are more than 1600 authors in the state -- and the Oregon State Fair loves to feature them. The Oregon Authors Table has room for only 12 authors at a time, so a space at the fair is not guaranteed, but we love to see new faces and interesting new literary works. To be considered, send an email to Bill Sullivan at sullivan@efn.org with a sentence about you (which Oregon city do you live in?) and a sentence about each of your books.

Below you'll find a press release describing the 57 authors who will be at the fair in 2025. But first, here are the rules for authors:

The Oregon State Fair has room for 12 authors at a time, at six tables near the entrance to Columbia Hall, between the quilts and the decorated cakes. There is no booth fee or sales fee for authors, but you have to pay for your admission ticket and parking at the fair. If you are selected to attend, you can choose to sign up for as many 2-hour time slots as you want from 10am to 8pm (that is, 10am-12noon, 12-2pm, 2-4pm, 4-6pm, and/or 6-8pm). You can attend all day, or for multiple days, if there is room. However, if you ask for one of the two weekends at the State Fair, you cannot also attend the other Saturday or Sunday.

Authors bring their own books and handle their own sales. If you don’t have a “Square” device for credit card sales, you can borrow mine for the bank’s usual 3% commission. Authors will be provided 4 feet of table space, a nameplate, a nametag, and some publicity.

State Fair admission tickets are about $10 in advance (much less for seniors, usually only $3). Parking is $5. Although the general parking lots are not close to Columbia Hall, the fair offers a golf cart service that can shuttle you and your books. Please note that the fair gives you free table space on the condition that you are courteous to fairgoers and each other. No aggressive selling is allowed; we are there largely to entertain and engage with fairgoers. Books are not allowed if they are pornographic, racially offensive, aggressively religious, or confrontationally political. Spaces are not assigned; so you should arrive five minutes before your shift to see what’s available. There is room to safely store your books under the back tables before your shift, overnight, or between shifts. If you have the last shift of the day it’s OK to leave your books set up for the next morning.

That's it! Hope to see you at the fair!

Best, Bill

Author William L. Sullivan at the State Fair, 2023

62 Oregon Authors to Appear at State Fair in 2025

By William L. Sullivan

Mystery and fantasy will be highlighted this year at the Oregon Authors Table of the State Fair in Salem August 22 to September 1. But with 62 different authors attending, there will be something for everyone to read – literally.

For a sampling, check out these five local authors, all of them new to the fair this year, and all of them with books that have been released recently.

Mollie Hunt of Portland lives in a house full of cats. She also volunteers at an animal shelter. Naturally, her 31 books are mostly cozy novels about cats. The latest in her Crazy Cat Lady Mysteries, “Crafty Cat,” involves a murdered Portland quilter and a stolen feline. "Ghost Cat on the Midway" is a paranormal cat mystery set at a county fair. Hunt will be autographing her books at the Oregon State Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, August 29.

Paty Jager lives on a remote ranch east of Burns, and admits that she wants her husband to buy hay equipment for her birthday. Surprise! Her 60 novels have western themes. Among the newest are a rodeo romance (“Collateral Love”), the story of a Black woman’s daring marriage in the Old West (“Freedom”), and “Crapshoot”, a thriller about a fentanyl drug cartel infiltrating a tribal casino. Jager will be at the fair all day Sunday, August 24 and Monday, August 25.

Robert Liebertz of Gresham spent 30 years handling chaos as a Portland 911 dispatcher, but in his free time he dreamed of being a pirate. After attending pirate festivals for decades, he started writing novels about an accidental pirate – Gerard, an 18th-century English lad who finds himself shipwrecked on an island with a crew of pirates who need an honest leader. “Gerard’s Map,” is the fifth and final book in this adventure series. Liebertz will be at the Oregon Authors Table all day on Sunday, August 31 and Monday, September 1.

Queer fantasy adventure – that’s a new but rapidly growing genre embraced by KD Lumsden, an imaginative dyslexic author who lives on a farm outside Eugene. In the series “The Metalist’s Journey” a young gay man is left for dead by his father on an alien planet, where he has to cope with telepaths, shapeshifters, and a man named Kipp. Could this be an allegory for queerness? The fourth and most recent volume, “Land of Cannibals”, poses the further assessment: If cannibals can shapeshift, no one is safe. Lumsden is scheduled to appear at the State Fair all day on Friday, August 22 and Wednesday, August 27.

Heather Ames of Salem has hitchhiked around Europe, lived in a 6th floor walk-up in Paris, and worked as a bartender in Madrid. During a long career in health care, she saw mangled bodies and carried pepper spray while treating patients in the barrios of Los Angeles. Now she’s bringing adventure home with a series of cozy murder mysteries set in the Willamette Valley. Her latest, “Trick or Truth”, involves a haunted house in Stayton where a psychic is called to discern whodunnit. Ames will be signing her books 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, August 22; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 24; and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, August 29.

The Oregon Authors Table is located in Columbia Hall, between the fair’s quilts and cakes. Unlike those exhibits, however, the authors take turns, so only a dozen authors are on hand at a time. For a complete schedule of the authors and their booksigning times, see the list below, or check https://www.oregonhiking.com/william-l-sullivan/oregon-state-fair .

Friday, August 22

10am-2pm, Linda Caradine (memoir)

10am-4pm, Jean Moule (essays, children’s)

10am-4pm, Tim Ream (novel)

10am-4pm, Jerry Sutherland (Oregon history)

10am-6pm, Heather Ames (mystery)

10am-8pm, Bill Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, Jennifer Chambers (Oregon history)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Lisa Lowell (fantasy)

10am-8pm, KD Lumsden (fantasy)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

10am-8pm, Edwin Wollert (historical fiction)

2-8pm, Ron Tinsley (memoir)

Saturday, August 23

10am-2pm, Angela Hampton (memoir)

10am-2pm, Francesca Varela (novels)

10am-4pm, Maya Bairey (novel)

10am-4pm, Jerry Sutherland (Oregon history)

10am-6pm, Pumpjack Press (fiction)

10am-6pm, Cheryl Wanner (young adult)

10am-8pm, Dan Armstrong (novels)

10am-8pm, David Lewis (Oregon history)

10am-8pm, Susan Maas (young adult)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

10am-8pm, Edwin Wollert (historical fiction)

2-6pm, Georgia Cockerham (mystery)

2-8pm, H. Chris Preuitt (memoir)

4-8pm, Mike Salt (horror)

Sunday, August 24

10am-2pm, Heather Ames (mystery)

10am-2pm, Angela Hampton (cycling memoirs)

10am-4pm, Georgia Cockerham (mystery)

10am-6pm, Sharleen Nelson (novels)

10am-6pm, Kendy Pearson (historical fiction)

10am-8pm, Dan Armstrong (novels)

10am-8pm, Barry Craft (fiction)

10am-8pm, Paty Jager (Western mystery)

10am-8pm, Dan Shryock (cycling memoir)

10am-8pm, George Sorensen (memoir)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

2-8pm, June Reynolds (Oregon history)

4-8pm, Mike Salt (horror)

Monday, August 25

10am-4pm, Valarie Anderson (WWII history)

10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (Oregon history)

10am-8pm, Beauford Averette (fantasy)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Paty Jager (Western mystery)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, George Sorensen (memoir)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

Tuesday, August 26

10am-2pm, Michael Pace (WWII novel)

10am-6pm, Kendy Pearson (historical fiction)

10am-6pm, Cheryl Wanner (young adult)

10am-8pm, Beauford Averette (fantasy)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, Katharine Munson (fantasy)

10am-8pm, Eva Seyler (young adult)

10am-8pm, Dan Shryock (cycling memoir)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

2-8pm, Donna Hues (mystery)

Wednesday, August 27

10am-4pm, Michael Kemp (nonfiction)

10am-6pm, Kendy Pearson (historical fiction)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Kathryn Henderson (children’s)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, KD Lumsden (fantasy)

10am-8pm, Arlene Sachitano (mysteries)

10am-8pm, Audrey Sauble (children's)

10am-8pm, Eva Seyler (young adult)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

Thursday, August 28

10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (Oregon history, novels)

10am-6pm, Guy Maynard (memoir)

10am-6pm, Cheryl Wanner (young adult)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, Curtis Condon (young adult)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, Lisa Lowell (fantasy)

10am-8pm, Donna McFarland (children’s)

10am-8pm, Arlene Sachitano (mysteries)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

4-8pm, Donna Hues (mystery)

Friday, August 29

10am-2pm, Mollie Hunt (mysteries)

10am-4pm, Heather Ames (mysteries)

10am-4pm, Dani Nichols (children’s)

10am-6pm, Guy Maynard (memoirs)

10am-6pm, Donna McFarland (children’s)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, David Lewis (Oregon history)

10am-8pm, Arlene Sachitano (mysteries)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

2-6pm, Rebecca Lexa (natural history)

4-8pm, Katherine Munson (fantasy)

Saturday, August 30

10am-2pm, Dani Nichols (children’s)

10am-8pm, Doug Beisley (children’s)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Ellen & Christopher Huntington (fantasy)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, Lisa Lowell (children’s)

10am-8pm, Katherine Munson (fantasy)

10am-8pm, Arlene Sachitano (mysteries)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

10am-8pm, Kate Hamberger Yakis (memoir)

Sunday, August 31

10am-2pm, Sarah Munro (Timberline Lodge)

10am-2pm, Cheryl Smith (goats, novels)

10am-4pm, Jean Moule (children’s)

10am-4pm, Jerry Sutherland (Oregon history)

10am-6pm, Chelsey Elise Young (Christian)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, Robert Liebertz (novels)

10am-8pm, Arlene Sachitano (mysteries)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

2-8pm, Barbara Hettwer (historical fiction)

2-8pm, Paula Wart (children’s)

4-8pm, Mireya DeYoung (children's)

Monday, September 1

10am-4pm, Joe Blakely (Oregon history, novels)

10am-4pm, Jean Moule (essays, fiction)

10am-4pm, Jerry Sutherland (Oregon history)

10am-6pm, Mireya DeYoung (children’s)

10am-8pm, William Burt (Christian fantasy)

10am-8pm, David Espinoza (sports, memoir)

10am-8pm, Kathryn Henderson (children’s)

10am-8pm, Jason Kilgore (horror, fantasy)

10am-8pm, Julie Kooch (Wallowa memoirs)

10am-8pm, Robert Liebertz (novels)

10am-8pm, William Sullivan (hiking, novels)

10am-8pm, Paula Wart (children’s)

See you at the fair!

Molie Hunt

Paty Jager

Robert Liebertz

KD Lumsden

Heather Ames

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