The Archive Project

Lindy West interviews Abbi Jacobson, about her life, career, and new book I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff,  a hilarious and poignant collection about love, loss, work, comedy, and figuring out who you really are when you thought you already knew. When Abbi Jacobson announced to friends and acquaintances that she planned to drive across the country...

This special episode of  The Archive Project  is broken up into three sections, each corresponding to a single event during Lit Crawl Portland 2018. Lit Crawl is an eclectic mix of literary events staged in nontraditional locations. From poetry readings in bars to literary trivia and karaoke in hotel lobbies, Lit Crawl seeks to unite readers and writers in a single night jam-packed with...

This conversation between chef Edward Lee and Sam Sifton, food editor for the New York Times , was from the Portland Book Festival in 2018. The Portland Book Festival 2019 schedule has just been announced! The Festival will take place on November 9 in downtown Portland. For more information about the author line up, schedule, and tickets visit:  literary-arts.org American food...

This humorous and personal conversation between renowned actor Tom Hanks and Parul Sehgal, book critic for the New York Times , was from the Portland Book Festival in 2018.  The Portland Book Festival 2019 line up has just been announced . The Festival will take place on November 9 in downtown Portland. For more information about the author line up, schedule, and tickets visit: literary-arts....

What is my story, and what is not my story? Jacqueline Woodson, acclaimed author of more than two dozen award-winning books for children and young adults, broaches this question in her 2019 lecture in Portland, Oregon. A highly personable and conversational Woodson discusses how her passion for writing began and grew from a young age. Through recollections from her own life and stories from her fa...

In this episode, we hear one of Oregon’s most celebrated authors, Barry Lopez, discuss his latest book of nonfiction called Horizon with Andrew Proctor, Executive Director of Literary Arts. The two discuss the themes behind his book, including the environmental crisis at hand. Pulling from 30 years of lived experience, Horizon defies category. It is not merely travel, science, or nature writing. I...

In this episode of The Archive Project , we celebrate Portland’s creative youth during the seventh annual Verselandia! poetry slam. This city-wide event features students from Parkrose, Roosevelt, Metropolitan Learning Center, Benson, Lincoln, Gresham, Sam Barlow, Franklin, Madison, Wilson, Jefferson, Grant, and Cleveland high schools competing for poetic glory. Verselandia! is the Grand Slam for...

In this episode, we honor two-time United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner W.S. Merwin. In November of 2008, Merwin joined Literary Arts downtown in the Newmark Theatre for an intimate Q&A session, followed by a reading from his 2005 National Book Award-winning collection, Migration . The collection features a combination of new poems and selected favorites from the course of his...

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan joins us in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for a lecture on the journey to her New York Times best seller Manhattan Beach . In her own words, Egan takes us through her research process for the novel—from the initial spark of intrigue and inspiration, through the many stories she uncovered along the way, and finally to the relationship...

Toni Morrison begins her lecture by saying she wants to discuss two of her books in particular— Beloved (1987) and Jazz (still forthcoming at the time)—and the progression of her writing. She considers the impact of history on both novels. In discussing Beloved , Morrison touches on the pornography of writing about violence as a voyeur and how she worked to keep the focus on the characters themsel...

In this episode of The Archive Project , American Book Award winning poet Martín Espada discusses his then most poetry collection, A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen . In this, his sixth collection, Espada has created a poetic mural. There are conquerors, slaves, and rebels from Caribbean history; the “Mayan astronomer” calmly smoking a cigarette in the middle of a New York tenement...

In this rare, vintage recording from the Literary Arts archive, world-renowned author, poet, and essayist John Updike reads from various poems as well as an essay at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in the fall of 1988. Updike reads from his essay, “Getting the Words Out,” which meditates on his lifelong struggle with stuttering, as well as the nature of speech and communication. With sparkling,...

Civil rights leader DeRay Mckesson engages the Portland community in a timely conversation on culture, social justice, and politics. Drawing from his own experiences as an organizer, educator, and public official, Mckesson explores the issues of the day and discusses the subtle structures and inherent biases that impact our communities. The conversation examines the core themes of Mckesson’s upcom...

In this episode, Harvard professor, staff writer at The New Yorker , and  New York Times  bestselling author Jill Lepore discusses her newest work,  These Truths: A History of the United States . Cited as the most ambitious one-volume American history in decades, Lepore offers a magisterial account of the origins and rise of a divided nation, an urgently needed reckoning w...

Portland-based journalists and researchers, David Wolman and Julian Smith, discuss their new nonfiction book Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, the World’s Greatest Rodeo, and a Hidden History of the American West . Aloha Rodeo brings to light the story of how, in 1908, three of Hawaii’s most revered paniolo (cowboys) journeyed 4,000 miles to Wyoming to compete in the world’s greatest rodeo, Che...

Three contemporary poets—Shayla Lawson, Stephanie Adams-Santos, and Jane Wong—share their poetry and discuss their work and inspirations. In 2018, Literary Arts hosted a free reading series called Poets on Broadway, in collaboration with Portland’5 Centers for the Arts, in the Antoinette Hatfield Hall in downtown Portland. This episode features recordings from those events, with Lawson sharing sel...

Deadly Magic: Vengeance, Justice, and Destiny – a discussion on fantasy writing and craft from the 2018 Portland Book Festival. Secrets, magic, and extraordinary powers run through two fantastical YA series. Marissa Meyer, author of the Lunar Chronicles, presents a new world in the  Renegades  series. Book two,  Archenemies , finds Nova, our heroine, confronted with the possible destruction of Gat...

Israeli writer Amos Oz discusses Israeli Literature, Hebrew as a spoken and written language, the influence of the Holocaust on literature, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. I love Israel, even at times that I don’t like it. In fact, I love Israel even at times that I cannot stand it. And Israel, as I’m sure you know, ladies and gentlemen, Israel is neither a country, nor a nation. Actually, i...

What is my story, and what is not my story? Jacqueline Woodson, acclaimed author of more than two dozen award-winning books for children and young adults, broaches this question in her 2019 lecture in Portland, Oregon. A highly personable and conversational Woodson discusses how her passion for writing began and grew from a young age. Through recollections from her own life and stories from her fa...

In this episode of The Archive Project, former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore discusses the past, present, and future state of the world in the context of climate change. He supports his argument for the need for societal and policy change with extensive scientific research and discusses the merits of various alternative energy resources. He focuses the latter half of his lectur...

Jesmyn Ward is the author of the National Book Award-winning novels  Sing, Unburied, Sing  and  Salvage the Bones,  and the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning memoir  Men We Reaped . Ward is in conversation with Mitchell S. Jackson, Whiting Award-winner, native Portlander, and author of the novel  The Residue Years  and nonfiction book  Survival Math  (forthcoming 2019). Both Ward and Jack...

In March 2019, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie joined thousands of book-lovers for the culminating lecture of the Multnomah County Library’s Everybody Reads program. Starting in January, readers across the county took part in reading and discussing Adichie’s novel Americanah and her book-length essay We Should All Be Feminists . In this episode, Adichie discusses her journey as a writer—from her earliest...

In this episode of The Archive Project , we celebrate Portland’s creative youth during the seventh annual Verselandia! poetry slam. This city-wide event features students from Parkrose, Roosevelt, Metropolitan Learning Center, Benson, Lincoln, Gresham, Sam Barlow, Franklin, Madison, Wilson, Jefferson, Grant, and Cleveland high schools competing for poetic glory. Verselandia! is the Grand Slam for...

In this episode, we honor two-time United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winner W.S. Merwin. In November of 2008, Merwin joined Literary Arts downtown in the Newmark Theatre for an intimate Q&A session, followed by a reading from his 2005 National Book Award-winning collection, Migration . The collection features a combination of new poems and selected favorites from the course of his...

In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan joins us in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for a lecture on the journey to her New York Times best seller Manhattan Beach . In her own words, Egan takes us through her research process for the novel—from the initial spark of intrigue and inspiration, through the many stories she uncovered along the way, and finally to the relationship...