LitHop PDX—With three hours, six venues, and more than 50 readers, Portland's first literary pub crawl takes over SE Hawthorne for a night of boozy readings curated by Tin House, San Francisco performance series Sister Spit, and others. Wed Oct 2, various locations on SE Hawthorne between 42nd & 50th, see lithoppdx.com for more details

Fest Opener—When Oprah relaunched her book club in digital form, she chose local author Cheryl Strayed's book Wild as her first selection. Tonight, Strayed joins Ayana Mathis, author of Oprah's second pick, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, for a conversation moderated by Live Wire's Courtenay Hameister. Thurs Oct 3, Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan, 7:30 pm, $25-30 (includes signed copies of both books)

Entertainment for People—A Wordstock-themed edition of the popular variety show, featuring Beth Lisick, Derrick Brown, and Alissa Nutting, plus music from Fogatron. Fri Oct 4, Blue Monk, 3341 SE Belmont, 7 pm, $6, entertainmentforpeople.com

IPRC Text Ball—A Wordstock tradition now in its eighth year, the Independent Publishing Resource Center's annual Text Ball promises a costume contest, a dirty limerick challenge, giant crossword puzzles, and of course, the chance to mingle with like-minded literary folk. This year's theme: Literary Devices! Fri Oct 4, IPRC, 1001 SE Division, 7-11 pm, $20

Wordstock Rocks Songcraft—As part of Wordstock's exploration of songwriting, Jackpot's Larry Crane hosts an evening of performance and discussion with Tanya Donelly, Michael Hearst, Jolie Holland, and Rick Moody. Fri Oct 4, Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan, 8:30 pm, $15-20

Live Wire!—TC Boyle, AM Homes, and others crash Portland's favorite radio show, for a live Wordstock-themed taping. Sat Oct 5, Alberta Rose Theatre, 3000 NE Alberta, 7:30 pm, $20-35, all ages