10:00
Doors Open & Rare Book Breakfast
Fresh scones, small-batch coffee, and first dibs on the festival’s curated estate-sale tables.
Sept 12-13, 2026 • Quill & Candle Bookstore
Our little corner of the world
The Lantern & Page Festival is the one weekend a year when Quill & Candle opens its doors all the way: readings in the poetry alcove, bookbinding over the balcony, signings in the dusty biography aisle, and a Saturday-night market that runs until the streetlights dim.
Founded by a former shipping clerk and a retired librarian who met over a dropped paperback, the festival is a love letter to indie booksellers - cash registers, hand-stamped bookmarks, and all.
“A town without a bookstore is a town that has forgotten how to dream out loud.”
The Weekend At A Glance
All events are hosted inside Quill & Candle unless tagged otherwise.
Fresh scones, small-batch coffee, and first dibs on the festival’s curated estate-sale tables.
Louise Arkwright reads from her new essay collection on the future of tactile books.
Meet six regional printers selling hand-bound chapbooks, broadsides and wood-type posters.
Authors discuss worldbuilding that centers community, exile and belonging.
A communal potluck dinner paired with a rotating open mic. Bring a dish that appears in a book you love.
Guided route through town with readers stationed on porches, stoops and under street-lamps.
A quiet, structured writing hour for anyone who wants to start the day with ink instead of noise.
Distributors, booksellers and two small-press founders on the business of beautiful books.
Picture-book authors read on the lawn. Blankets, juice boxes and a roaming library dog included.
Turn old maps, manuals and receipts into collage poems with Archie K. Glenn.
Signed books, surprise drawings, and one last group reading as the candles burn low.
Sharpen your pencil
Limited to 16 seats each. All materials, paper, tea and existential permission to make a mess are included.
Three pages, no edits, no judgment. A gentle gateway into a daily writing habit.
Blend scene cards and intuition to finish a story in a single sitting.
Bind a 16-page zine by hand with needle, thread and your own pulp fiction.
Cut, paste and reassemble forgotten language into something urgent.
Pick a workshop. We’ll hold your spot and send prep notes by post.
Join us
Questions
Tickets are limited to 220 guests per day. Once we sell out, the lanterns stay closed.
Reserve Your Place