The Archive Project

This episode features an event from the 2019 Portland Book Festival called Dangerous Love: Desire & Obsession. The event’s panel includes some of the greatest poets at work today: Diannely Antigua, Jericho Brown, Malcolm Tariq, and was moderated by Erika Stevens. The conversation explores what poetry is, what it can do, and who it is for. Through their writings, these poets engage with our mos...

In this episode of The Archive Project , Malcolm Gladwell joins Literary Arts executive director, Andrew Proctor, for an onstage discussion at the 2019 Portland Book Festival. Gladwell shares his latest book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know , which is a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers—and why they often go wrong. As a writer, Gladwel...

In this episode of The Archive Project , Amor Towles discusses his celebrated second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow , in front of a live audience in Portland, Oregon. In the talk, Towles shares the creative origins of the novel and treats the listener to a lively lesson on Russian history and, in particular, the history of the landmark Metropol Hotel. A Gentleman in Moscow begins in 1922, when Count...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Book Award-winning author of bestselling nonfiction titles Between the World and Me , The Beautiful Struggle , and We Were Eight Years in Power , shares from and discusses his debut novel, The Water Dancer , with fellow writer Renée Watson. The Water Dancer explores the story of Hiram Walker, a gifted young man born into bondage on a plantation in the American South. In...

In this episode, The Atlantic staff writer George Packer discusses his recent biography, Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century . Richard Holbrooke, a diplomat and activist who served under numerous American presidents, has been described as a brilliant, utterly self-absorbed almost-great man who possessed almost inhumane energy and appetites. In this lecture, Packer detail...

This episode of The Archive Project features a conversation recorded live at the Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon between Margaret Atwood, acclaimed novelist, poet, literary critic, and activist, and Omar El Akkad. Atwood visited Portland to celebrate the publication of The Testaments , the sequel to her acclaimed dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale , which was originally published in 1985. T...

This special episode of  The Archive Project  is broken up into three sections, each from events that took place during Lit Crawl Portland on November 8, 2019. 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...

In this episode of The Archive Project , journalist and bestselling author, Susan Orlean, talks about what kinds of topics spark her interest and her process of researching and writing The Library Book . Orlean shares the two kinds of stories that she is drawn to as a writer: Stories of new discoveries, and stories that are hiding in plain sight. The Library Book combines both of these qualities....

In this episode of The Archive Project , novelist Min Jin Lee discusses her writing craft and inspiring personal journey to become a professional writer. With warm humor, Lee honestly opens up about her struggle to succeed—as a Korean-born American immigrant battling a life-threatening chronic illness—within the publishing industry, and details her perseverance in the face of countless rejection l...

This episode of The Archive Project features an onstage conversation from the 2019 Portland Book Festival between Portland-based authors Rene Denfeld and Phillip Margolin, with moderator Amy Stewart. As writers, Denfeld and Margolin each pull from their own personal and professional experiences to craft high-octane thrillers that are as detailed and insightful as they are compelling and bingeable....

In this episode of The Archive Project , we share the late V. S. Naipaul’s 1991 event in Portland, Oregon. Naipaul visited Portland on the occasion of the publication of India: A Million Mutinies Now . The book was the third installment of travelogues about his ancestral India, at a time when the nation was in the midst of a massive transformation. Naipaul, who refers to the book as “an exploratio...

This episode features an event from the 2019 Portland Book Festival called Dangerous Love: Desire & Obsession. The event’s panel includes some of the greatest poets at work today: Diannely Antigua, Jericho Brown, Malcolm Tariq, and was moderated by Erika Stevens. The conversation explores what poetry is, what it can do, and who it is for. Through their writings, these poets engage with our mos...

This episode of The Archive Project features notable funny woman, Elaine May, in a talk from 1997. In it, May explores the art of writing comedy, drawing on her lengthy career as a screenwriter, actor, comedian, director, and playwright. She asks “why are things funny?” and details how to craft comedy out of life’s ordinary moments. Through sharp jokes and personal anecdotes, May’s bright wit shin...

This episode of The Archive Project features acclaimed author Tommy Orange in his appearance at the 2019 Sun Valley Writers’ Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. In this onstage interview with Andrew Proctor, the executive director of Literary Arts, Orange discusses his bestselling debut novel, There There , as well as his personal passions and journey to becoming a writer. Orange’s wondrous and shatt...

This episode of The Archive Project features a panel discussion of modern masterpieces in a classic genre: the intergenerational family epic. In a conversation recorded live at the 2019 Portland Book Festival, authors Karl Marlantes, Elizabeth McCracken, and Daniel José Older—with moderator Maria Russo of the New York Times —discuss how the themes of their latest works, including ancestry and...

In this episode, we feature poet Robert Bly who came to Portland as part of our Poetry Downtown series in 2006. Born in 1926, Bly is considered one of the legends of contemporary poetry.  He is not only the author of more than 30 collections of poems, he has also written many works of nonfiction, and, crucially, he introduced many unknown European and South American poets to a U.S. audience throug...

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...

This episode of The Archive Project , features a panel discussion between authors Casey Cep, Lara Prescott, and moderator Pamela Paul of The New York Times , from the 2019 Portland Book Festival. Cep and Prescott are both New York Times best selling debut authors who have drawn inspiration from famous figures in literary history. Cep’s nonfiction book, Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Tr...

In this episode of The Archive Project , Malcolm Gladwell joins Literary Arts executive director, Andrew Proctor, for an onstage discussion at the 2019 Portland Book Festival. Gladwell shares his latest book, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know , which is a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers—and why they often go wrong. As a writer, Gladwel...

In this episode of The Archive Project , Amor Towles discusses his celebrated second novel, A Gentleman in Moscow , in front of a live audience in Portland, Oregon. In the talk, Towles shares the creative origins of the novel and treats the listener to a lively lesson on Russian history and, in particular, the history of the landmark Metropol Hotel. A Gentleman in Moscow begins in 1922, when Count...

Ta-Nehisi Coates, National Book Award-winning author of bestselling nonfiction titles Between the World and Me , The Beautiful Struggle , and We Were Eight Years in Power , shares from and discusses his debut novel, The Water Dancer , with fellow writer Renée Watson. The Water Dancer explores the story of Hiram Walker, a gifted young man born into bondage on a plantation in the American South. In...

In this episode, The Atlantic staff writer George Packer discusses his recent biography, Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century . Richard Holbrooke, a diplomat and activist who served under numerous American presidents, has been described as a brilliant, utterly self-absorbed almost-great man who possessed almost inhumane energy and appetites. In this lecture, Packer detail...

This episode of The Archive Project features a conversation recorded live at the Keller Auditorium in Portland, Oregon between Margaret Atwood, acclaimed novelist, poet, literary critic, and activist, and Omar El Akkad. Atwood visited Portland to celebrate the publication of The Testaments , the sequel to her acclaimed dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale , which was originally published in 1985. T...

Women who find themselves confined to wild places, trapped in a cell, by circumstance, by lack of means, by animals and men; and haunted by the past and present alike. The short stories in Lauren Groff’s  Florida  are set in a landscape of physical and environmental dangers, where panthers and snakes lie in wait and hurricanes brew; while personal crises of sex, loneliness, and rage thre...

This episode of The Archive Project features a special discussion between contributors to the new anthology,  New Poets of Native Nations,  with Trevino L. Brings Plenty, Laura Da’, Layli Long Soldier, and editor Heid E. Erdrich.  New Poets of Native Nations  gathers poets of diverse ages, styles, languages, and tribal affiliations to present the extraordinary range and power o...