After 15 years at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale, a gathering of writers, artists, performers, filmmakers and fans of the bizarro fiction genre will move to Astoria.

the 16th annual BizarroCon will be hosted by a handful of downtown locations in the second week of November, including Fort George Brewery, Galactix, Salty Siren Books and the Columbian Theater.

The gathering emerged as an offshoot of horror conventions and was first organized in 2008 at the behest of the Portland bizarro publishing house Eraserhead Press, whose name was inspired by film director David Lynch’s 1977 bizarro debut.

BizarroCon’s shift to the North Coast comes after the original organizers took a hiatus. Astoria residents Kirsten and Cameron Pierce volunteered to take over and bring the event to their town.

“This might just be a one-off, but if it’s really successful, maybe we will continue,” said Kirsten Pierce, who writes in the genre under the name Kirsten Alene.

“Obviously this community, Astoria, is full of writers and creative folks, and we have a ton of local people attending the convention this year, and it’s going to be really fun.”

The gathering comes after the mid-October debut of the Creative Writing Festival, organized by the Astoria-based Writer’s Guild, expanding Astoria’s literary footprint by another step.

The event expects to see local guests and others from as far as New York, Illinois and Texas.

Defined as “the literature of the weird,” where the adjective applies to characters, plot, setting or premise, Pierce said Bizarro fiction “is somewhere between horror and science fiction and focuses on the most possible weird-for-the-sake-of-weird writing.”

Speaking for Fantasy Magazine, Eraserhead Press’s Rose O’Keefe described their books as “quirky, campy, freaky, funny, lewd, rude, and just out there.”

Pierce, who also pens newsletters for Fort George, has written bizarro titles that include “Love in the Time of Dinosaurs,” “Unicorn Battle Squad” and “Japan Conquers the Galaxy.”

In the world of film, she added, “It’s the Cult section of the video store.”

The convention launches Thursday with an opening ceremony at Dead Man’s Isle. The ensuing two days are filled with readings, writing workshops and roundtable panel discussions, as well as the meeting of the Bizarro Writer’s Association about the future of the genre.

The Wonderland Book Awards ceremony, which closes out Saturday’s agenda, will be followed by “The Ultimate Bizarro Showdown,” a reading performance competition.

The convention has sold out, but there are two public events on the agenda for all to get a taste of Bizarro. The reading on Saturday, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Salty Siren Books, is free and open to the public and will feature over a dozen authors reading from their work.

On Sunday at 11 a.m., author John Skipp will cap off the weekend with a presentation of the dark comedy feature film “The Great Divide” in a screening at the Columbian Theater.

BizarroCon

Registration for the convention, which includes four days of workshops and gatherings around Astoria, is now closed.

Free and open to the public are a 1 p.m. Saturday reading at Salty Siren Books and 11 a.m. Sunday screening of the movie “The Great Divide” at the Columbian Theater.

For a full list of events, see www.bizarrocon.com