Margin Notes:
a weekend of books & belonging
Two days of readings, hands-on workshops, and unhurried conversation - hosted in and around your favorite little shop on the corner.
A festival the size of a neighborhood.
For nineteen years Foxglove Books has been the corner where Maple Street comes to read. Once a year we throw open the doors, spill onto the sidewalk café next door, and turn the whole block into one long, well-lit reading room. No badges to fight over. No keynote stampede. Just good books and the people who love them.
Intimate readings
Hear new and beloved authors read in a room of forty, not four thousand - close enough to ask a real question.
Hands-on craft
Small-group workshops on poetry, memoir, and the stubborn art of the first sentence. Bring a notebook.
Real signings
Every featured author signs at our front counter. Buy local, get it inscribed, support the shop that hosts it.
The weekend, hour by hour.
Most sessions are first-come, first-seated. Workshops marked with a leaf require a separate sign-up at the counter.
Opening Reading - Mara Okafor
An excerpt from a brand-new manuscript, never read aloud.
The First Sentence
A craft workshop on beginnings. Limited to 18 seats.
Story Hour on the Rug
Picture books and puppets for our youngest readers. Free.
First Books: A Debut Panel
Four new novelists on the year that changed everything.
Poetry & Wine on the Patio
Open readings under the string lights. All welcome to share.
The Poetry Lab - Jonah Reyes-Tan
Generative exercises for poets at any stage. Sign-up required.
Translators in Conversation
Three translators on the impossible, joyful work of carrying a book across languages.
Writing the True Thing
A memoir workshop with Eleanor Hughes. 16 seats.
Closing Keynote - Eleanor Hughes
On borrowed light, second chances, and reading as repair.
Signings & Last Call
Every author at the counter. Coffee's on the house.
Small shop, big weekend.
Café next door
Bottomless drip coffee and pastries from the Maple Street Bakehouse, just steps from the door.
Festival pricing
20% off every featured title all weekend - your pass pays for itself by the second book.
Always a seat
We cap every room on purpose. You'll never be stuck standing in the back.
All local
Indie press tables, neighborhood vendors, and a microphone open to first-time readers.
"It felt less like an event and more like being let into someone's reading life."- Priya M., 2024 festival-goer
Pick your weekend.
Every pass supports the shop and the writers on the bill. Students and neighbors of Maple Street, ask at the counter about our pay-what-you-can seats.
Day Pass
- All readings & panels that day
- 10% off featured titles
- Café drink token
Weekend Pass
- Everything, both days
- Priority workshop sign-up
- 20% off all featured titles
- Tote bag & signed bookplate
Patron Pass
- All weekend access
- Reserved front-row seating
- Friday night author welcome
- Name on the festival wall
On the corner where Maple meets 4th.
Street parking is a gamble on festival weekend - the M-line drops you half a block away. Come early, stay late.
- 📍 Foxglove Books · 412 Maple Street, Riverbend
- 🕘 Festival hours · Sat 10-7, Sun 10-6
- 🚆 Transit · M-line to 4th Street, exit B
- ♿ Access · Step-free entry & seating throughout
Schedule changes and last author drops, nothing else.