A big thank you to Portland’s book-loving community who showed up with enthusiasm this season to help us sell out the 40th anniversary of our Portland Arts & Lectures series. Since 1984, Portland Arts & Lectures has welcomed hundreds of world-renowned novelists, poets, journalists, historians, and artists to downtown Portland to share their unique world views and connect us through the power of storytelling, even through the first COVID lockdowns when we presented online-only and hybrid events. We are thrilled to be back to full capacity at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall and selling out the almost 3000-seat hall! Our 40th anniversary season welcomes a star-studded lineup: Amy Tan, Abraham Verghese, Timothy Egan, Masha Gessen and Emily Wilson.
Although this year’s Portland Arts & Lectures series has sold out, there are three new stand-alone events this fall at the Arlene Schnizter Concert Hall, featuring trailblazing news anchor Connie Chung on September 25 to discuss her forthcoming memoir, “Connie”; bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell on October 15 to discuss his forthcoming book, “Revenge of the Tipping Point”; and award-winning author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates on October 22 to discuss his first nonfiction book in nearly a decade, “The Message.” Please join us at one (or all!) of these upcoming events.
“Sharing the beautiful Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, our town hall of ideas, with a community of readers is an intimate and exhilarating experience that one can’t find anywhere else in Portland. Our city is at a critical inflection point, and we thank our community for embracing creativity and the arts to build a new way forward, and for committing to who we will become and the causes we all support. For the past four decades, our writers and our storytellers have helped us shine a light into the past and on the present, and will continue to illuminate ways we can make our city vibrant and welcoming for everyone.”
Andrew Proctor, Executive Director, Literary Arts
Forty Years of Portland Arts & Lectures (PAL) at a Glance
- PAL started in 1984 in the sunken ballroom at the Portland Art Museum with a capacity of 500.
- PAL moved during the 1987-88 season to the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall with a capacity of 2,776.
- PAL has hosted more than 230 world-class authors including Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje, Salman Rushdie and Paul Theroux, who appeared six times.
- Past PAL authors include:
- 51 Pulitzer Prize winners
- 51 National Book Award winners
- 12 Booker Prize winners
- Nine Nobel laureates
- Nine poet laureates
- Every year, hundreds of local high school students are provided free books and tickets to PAL author events through the generosity of PAL members and Literary Arts’ “Students to the Schnitz” program.
“Every year, but especially for our 40th anniversary, we put a lot of intention into choosing our lineup of authors.This season, we will welcome some of the country’s most celebrated writers and thinkers to Portland, whose stories will inspire us, challenge us, and help us to imagine a more inclusive and empathetic world.”
Amanda Bullock, Senior Artistic Director, Literary Arts
Our 40th anniversary celebrations will continue all year, with the fall 2024 opening of a new 14,000-square-foot headquarters in the Central Eastside Industrial District featuring an independent bookstore and café; the Portland Book Festival, which returns on Saturday, November 2, featuring more than 100 critically acclaimed and emerging writers and artists; and the recently announced writers residency in the home of Ursula K. Le Guin. We look forward to serving our community for another 40 years—and beyond!
