In partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Literary Arts is building a retrospective of some of the most engaging talks from the world’s best writers over the first 40 years of Portland Arts & Lectures in Portland.
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In this urgent presentation, strategist and democracy defender Scot Nakagawa, co-founder of the 22nd Century Initiative, makes the case that artistic freedom is not a cultural amenity but democratic infrastructure. It is the most sensitive indicator we have of the health of a free society. Drawing on the historical record from Nazi Germany to contemporary Hungary, and on the latest research on nonviolent civil resistance, Nakagawa argues that the assault on arts funding, public media, and free expression we are witnessing right now is not a culture war. It is an infrastructure attack. And arti
Each year, Portland youth spend months writing and competing in poetry slam competitions on high school campuses across the city. Each April, about 20 finalists compete for the title of city-wide Portland slam champ at Verselandia!, in front of an audience of nearly 1,000. The 2026 Verselandia! competition returns to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday, April 30 at 7 pm. For more information and tickets visit our website literary-arts.org. On this episode, we go backstage at Verselandia! 2025 to talk to student poets as they wait to take the stage at the Schnitz, and then hear them p
Every year, the Multnomah County Library chooses one book they hope the whole city will read. Between January and April, the Library, and their partner organizations, host events based around the themes of the book, and they distribute thousands of free copies—thanks to the Library Foundation—to readers of all ages from across the county. At Literary Arts, our role is to bring the author to town for a talk in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The 2025 Everybody Reads book was the memoir Solito by Javier Zamora. Written from the perspective of his nine-year-old self, Solito is a gripping and b
In the words of the Los Angeles Times, “A new book by (Patrick Radden) Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you’ll be turning pages for hours.” Keefe is an award-winning investigative journalist, a staff writer at the New Yorker, the creator of a popular podcast, and the author of six books, including the bestsellers Rogues, Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing. “When I go out looking for a good story,” says Keefe, “I almost never find one. Instead, the really good ones tend to fall in my lap.” Say Nothing was prompted by reading an obituary. A wild-seeming rumor about the 90’s heavy m
In this episode we feature one of the giants of story telling and of long form journalism, Tracy Kidder. Kidder passed away at the age of 80 in March 2026, and so we are sharing this recording from 2011 as a way for us to celebrate his life and work, and all that he has given to readers. Spanning over 50 years, Kidder’s career began at the Iowa Writers Workshop where he enrolled in 1974 after military service in the Vietnam war. He began with aspirations to be a novelist but soon found that he had talent for seeing the through line of the lives of the people all around him. And so for his enti
This week we are bringing you a conversation that Literary Arts hosted in October 2025 with historian and political philosopher Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, who spoke about his book On Freedom with Literary Arts executive director – and co-host of this show – Andrew Proctor. Timothy Snyder is the author of several books including Bloodlands and The Road To Freedom, as well as numerous articles and a popular Substack. He is a scholar of Eastern European history who Anne Applebaum has called, “one of our most original and perceptive thinkers.” He currently serves Chair in Modern Europea
Colm Tóibín is the author of eleven novels, three short story collections and several works of nonfiction. He has written countless articles, plays, an opera libretto and a collection of poetry, and been a finalist for the Booker Prize multiple times He is perhaps best known for his novel Brooklyn, which was made into a movie that was nominated for three Oscars. Set in the middle of the 20th century, Brooklyn is about Eilis Lacey who leaves her small town in Ireland for New York. After building a life there, she is drawn back home and has to choose where she wants to forge her future. Tóibín o
In this episode, we feature the beloved Irish novelist Emma Donoghue, in conversation with OPB’s Crystal Ligori, from the 2025 Portland Book Festival. Emma Donoghue has extraordinary range, writing for the screen, and the stage, as well as authoring many acclaimed novels. Her international bestseller Room was a New York Times Best Book of 2010 and a finalist for the Man Booker, Commonwealth, and Orange Prizes, and it is what brought her fame and readers all over the world. She joined us on stage to discuss The Paris Express, a novel based on an 1895 disaster at the Paris Montparnasse train sta
Jill Lepore is a Harvard professor and contributing writer to the New Yorker. Her books include The Secret History of Wonder Woman, New York Burning, These Truths: A History of the United States, and her latest, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution – and instant New York Times bestseller. This year is the semi-quincentennial of the United States of America and, as Lepore points out, also the anniversary of constitutionalism. There’s no better guide through American history than Jill Lepore, and it is a delight to spend an hour in civics class led by someone who readily references
If you like Heated Rivalry – if you don’t, you’re the only one, but anyway – if you like Heated Rivalry and want more queer romance but wish it had more wine, we’ve got the books for you. This week’s conversation is features queer romance at the 2025 Portland Book Festival, with authors Jasmine Guillory, Adib Khorram, and moderator Anita Kelly. Jasmine Guillory is the New York Times bestselling author of Drunk on Love, The Wedding Date, and The Proposal. A frequent contributor to The Today Show, she was at the festival for her first queer romance, Flirting Lessons. Adib Khorram is the author o
In this episode of The Archive Project, we feature a discussion on late writer Ursula K. Le Guin’s legacy of pacifism and environmentalism. Our moderator is Theo Downes-Le Guin, Ursula’s son and literary executor. Theo is in conversation with Oregon-based writers Juhea Kim, author of the novel Beasts of a Little Land, a finalist for the 2022 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Michelle Ruiz Keil, author most recently of the young adult novel Summer in the City of Roses, which was a finalist for the inaugural Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction. In her speech at the 2014 National Book Awards, acce
Stacey Abrams is probably best-known as a politician and political organizer; she the first Black woman in U.S. history to become the gubernatorial nominee of a major political party. Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations and for-profit companies, with a longstanding focus on voter registration and voters’ rights. What you might not know is that Abrams has published 17 books in the last 25 years, including thrillers, romance novels, children’s books, memoir, and more. She started writing novels while in law school, and her new book is the thriller “Coded Justice,” which is about
This episode, we bring you Marjane Satrapi. She gave this talk on April 7, 2008, just about one year after the film adaptation of her comic Persepolis had been featured at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature. Sastrapi’s death was announced on June 4, 2026. President Emmanual Macron of France said in the announcement, “Her passing marks the loss of a leading figure in French culture and a freedom-loving artist whose work carried a universal message and earned her immense international acclaim.” Satrapi was an Iranian born French author and f
We’re taking it back to the 2025 Portland Book Festival this weekend, with poets m. mick powell and Taylor Byas, and moderater Jae Nichelle. Taylor Byas’s second collection, Resting Bitch Face, uses watching and surveillance to explore Black female subjectivity. Byas engages with multiple art forms — painting, film, sculpture, and photographs – to explore the perspectives of artist and muse, of watcher and watched. Taylor is in conversation with m. mick powell, whose debut poetry collection Dead Girl Cameo: A Love Stroy in Poems features of chorus of pop stars – Aaliyah, Whitney Houston, Lisa
In this episode we feature one of the giants of story telling and of long form journalism, Tracy Kidder. Kidder passed away at the age of 80 in March 2026, and so we are sharing this recording from 2011 as a way for us to celebrate his life and work, and all that he has given to readers. Spanning over 50 years, Kidder’s career began at the Iowa Writers Workshop where he enrolled in 1974 after military service in the Vietnam war. He began with aspirations to be a novelist but soon found that he had talent for seeing the through line of the lives of the people all around him. And so for his enti
The City of Portland is engaged in a national dialogue about public art, history, monuments, and memorials. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Portland Monuments Project is a multi-year project with the goal of deciding on the future of seven monuments that were damaged, toppled, or removed following demonstrations in Portland in 2020-2021. Portland Monuments Project aims to foster public dialogue to reimagine and transform the purpose of monuments and memorials in Portland. This episode is part three, the final installment of a three-part series as part of the Portland Monuments Pro
The City of Portland is engaged in a national dialogue about public art, history, monuments, and memorials. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Portland Monuments Project is a multi-year project with the goal of deciding on the future of seven monuments that were damaged, toppled, or removed following demonstrations in Portland in 2020-2021 by fostering public dialogue to reimagine and transform the purpose of monuments and memorials in Portland. This episode is part two of a three-part series as part of the Portland Monument Project. The first episode revisited the city’s past, part
In the words of the Los Angeles Times, “A new book by (Patrick Radden) Keefe means drop everything and close the blinds; you’ll be turning pages for hours.” Keefe is an award-winning investigative journalist, a staff writer at the New Yorker, the creator of a popular podcast, and the author of six books, including the bestsellers Rogues, Empire of Pain, and Say Nothing. “When I go out looking for a good story,” says Keefe, “I almost never find one. Instead, the really good ones tend to fall in my lap.” Say Nothing was prompted by reading an obituary. A wild-seeming rumor about the 90’s heavy m
The City of Portland is engaged in a national dialogue about public art, history, monuments, and memorials. With support from the Mellon Foundation, the Portland Monuments Project is a multi-year project with the goal of deciding on the future of seven monuments that were damaged, toppled, or removed following demonstrations in Portland in 2020-2021 by fostering public dialogue to reimagine and transform the purpose of monuments and memorials in Portland. This episode is part one of a three-part series as part of the Portland Monument Project. This episode explores the city’s past, and part tw
Jill Lepore is a Harvard professor and contributing writer to the New Yorker. Her books include The Secret History of Wonder Woman, New York Burning, These Truths: A History of the United States, and her latest, We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution – and instant New York Times bestseller. This year is the semi-quincentennial of the United States of America and, as Lepore points out, also the anniversary of constitutionalism. There’s no better guide through American history than Jill Lepore, and it is a delight to spend an hour in civics class led by someone who readily references
Each year, Portland youth spend months writing and competing in poetry slam competitions on high school campuses across the city. Each April, about 20 finalists compete for the title of city-wide Portland slam champ at Verselandia!, in front of an audience of nearly 1,000. The 2026 Verselandia! competition returns to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on Thursday, April 30 at 7 pm. For more information and tickets visit our website literary-arts.org. On this episode, we go backstage at Verselandia! 2025 to talk to student poets as they wait to take the stage at the Schnitz, and then hear them p
April is National Poetry Month, and to kick things off, this year we have a conversation from the 2025 Portland Book Festival between two of our most accomplished contemporary poets: Pádraig Ó Tuama and Patricia Smith. Their conversation is moderated by Portland poet, musician, and Torah teacher, Alicia Jo Rabins. An Oregon Book Award finalist for her collection Fruit Geode, Alicia published her spiritual memoir earlier in 2026 with the wonderful title When We’re Born We Forget Everything. Alicia leads the conversation with Patricia Smith and Padraig O Tuama. Patricia Smith’s latest book is he
In this episode of The Archive Project, we feature poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong from Portland Arts & Lectures in January 2022. Hong became nationally famous in the spring of 2020 for her essay collection Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, a book so searing and powerful it landed her on the cover of Time magazine’s 2021 issue featuring the 100 most influential people in the world. Minor Feelings is a collection of seven essays is both a deeply personal account of Hong becoming—and being—an artist, and is also an account of her and her family’s experience as Korean Americans in th
This week features a conversation on humor in fiction featuring two masters of the genre: Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Thingas and, most recently, Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One, the story of a lesbian clown navigating life, love, and art in Florida; and Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and, most recently, So Far Gone, about a journalist living off the grid who is forced back into society to help his grandchildren. The conversation is moderated by OPB’s Jess Hazel, host of Morning Edition. As they discuss, Jess and Krisetn are both writers of place, and are often writing about
Portland Book Festival has been a proud partner of the National Book Foundation Presents program for many years now, and at the 2025 festival we featured a program called “The Cost of Hope,” moderated by National Book Foundation executive director Ruth Dickey, and featuring 2024 National Book Award in Nonfiction winner Jason De Leon, author of Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling, and 2025 National Book Award finalist in Fiction Megha Majumdar, author of A Guardian and a Thief. The intersections between Jason’s book, in which he embeds with a group of smugglers
