FictionWw
Wren Okafor
Saturday keynote
Booker-shortlisted author of Salt & Story, a tidal novel about three generations of women who keep a lighthouse and a grudge. Her first Maine appearance in nine years.
Foxglove Books presents · Third annual
The Marginalia Festival: a weekend written in the margins.
Three days of readings, arguments, signings, and one very crowded poetry loft. Forty-two authors descend on a 137-year-old former cannery on the Portland waterfront, and the espresso machine never sleeps.
With our friends at
- Casco Bay Poetry Collective
- Tandem Coffee Roasters
- Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance
- WMPG 90.9 FM
- Print: A Bookstore
Program
Three days, four rooms, zero dull panels.
Every event is included with a pass for that day. Seats are first-come; doors open 20 minutes before each session.
Doors, badges & browsing hour
Live jazz trio in the fiction stacks; first 100 guests get a letterpress bookmark
Opening remarks: The State of the Shelf
June Park, owner of Foxglove Books
Candlelight reading: North of Everything
Tomas Lindqvist, introduced by Cleo Fontaine
Late shift: blind-date books & natural wine
Staff picks wrapped in brown paper; you buy what you unwrap
Coffee & first chapters
Four debut novelists read their opening pages; you vote with coffee beans
Panel: Small Town, Big Crime
Iris Nakamura, Marsh Delgado & Fern Whitley, mod. by Ben Achebe-Hall
Workshop: The Third Language
Cleo Fontaine · bring a paragraph you love in any language
Poetry open mic: Five Minutes, No Mercy
Hosted by the Casco Bay Poetry Collective
Keynote: Wren Okafor reads Salt & Story
Followed by a signing line that we promise moves quickly
Brunch session: The Cannery Letters
Marsh Delgado · lobster rolls from the Bite Into Maine truck outside
Kids' hour: stories & wild rumpus
Picture-book readings, crayons everywhere, parents welcome to wander
Closing conversation: "Why Bother?"
Wren Okafor & Ben Achebe-Hall on reading in a distracted age
Last call: signed-stock sale & goodbyes
Every signed book 15% off; hugs free at the register
The shop & the city
A bookstore in an old cannery, two blocks from the working waterfront.
Foxglove Books has anchored Commercial Street since 1989: 11,000 titles, a poetry loft up a creaky staircase, a wine bar where the canning line used to run, and a shop cat named Chapter who attends every reading whether invited or not.
During the festival the whole building turns over to the program: four stages, a pop-up signing tent on the cobblestones, and our neighbors at Tandem pulling shots until the last reader goes home.
- 📍214 Commercial Street, Portland, Maine. Ten minutes on foot from the Old Port garages and the Casco Bay Lines terminal.
- ♿Fully accessible. Elevator to the loft, reserved seating at every session, and ASL interpretation at all headline events.
- 🐈Chapter the cat will be present, opinionated, and available for supervised petting near the register.
❝Marginalia is what happens when you cram every writer you love into a building that smells like paper and espresso, and then lock the doors against the weather. I left with nine books and three friends.
Sasha Bellweather · attendee, 2025 · Brunswick, ME
Tickets
Passes priced like an indie, not an arena.
Every pass includes all sessions for its days, plus 10% off the till all weekend. Kids under 12 are always free with an adult.
Day Pass
Pick your day, see it all.
$35
per person, per day
- All sessions & signings that day
- 10% off every book in the shop
- Letterpress festival bookmark
- Access to the signing tent
Most loved
Weekend Pass
All three days, every room.
$85
per person, Fri through Sun
- Everything in the Day Pass, all weekend
- Priority seating at both keynotes
- Friday late-shift wine bar entry
- Tote bag designed by a local printmaker
- $10 voucher for the signed-stock sale
Patron Pass
Keep the lights on, get spoiled.
$150
per person · only 60 available
- Everything in the Weekend Pass
- Saturday patrons' dinner with two authors
- Signed first edition of Salt & Story
- Your name on the festival bookplate wall
Can't swing a ticket right now? We hold 50 pay-what-you-can passes for every festival. Email hello@foxglovebooks.me, no questions asked.
Practical matters
Questions we get every October
Do I need to book individual sessions?+
No. Your pass covers every session on its days, first-come first-seated. The Loft holds 140 people and the keynotes do fill, so arrive 20 minutes early for those. Everything else, just wander in.
Where should I park or stay?+
The Fore Street and Custom House garages are both a ten-minute walk. For rooms, our partner rate at the Longfellow Hotel includes a festival bookmark on your pillow; mention "Marginalia" when booking. Half the fun is staying near the Old Port and walking everywhere.
Will books be for sale, and will authors sign them?+
Emphatically yes. Every featured title is stocked deep, every author signs after their session in the cobblestone tent, and your pass takes 10% off everything in the shop all weekend. Books bought elsewhere are welcome in signing lines too; we are not monsters.
Is the festival kid-friendly?+
Sunday's kids' hour is built for them, the Annex has a reading corner all weekend, and children under 12 attend free with an adult. The Friday late shift at the wine bar is 21+, which is exactly how the wine bar prefers it.
What happens if it rains? It is Maine in October.+
It will probably rain, and it will not matter. Every stage is indoors; only the signing tent is outside, and it is a very good tent. Honestly, the shop is at its best when the windows are streaked and the radiators are clanking.