23,000 READERS ENGAGED
From Literary Arts’ 2024/25 Annual Report
From the concert hall to the classroom, world-renowned authors interacted with our communities throughout the season. Our 2024–25 season of events featured more than 150 authors at Portland Arts & Lectures, Portland Book Festival, and other events. We loved welcoming audiences in the concert hall, festival stages, our new headquarters and bookstore, and on the radio.
Portland Arts & Lectures
Thousands of subscribers and hundreds of high school students gathered in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for our 40th anniversary year of presenting. The landmark season lineup featured Amy Tan, Abraham Verghese, Timothy Egan, Emily Wilson, and M. Gessen. In addition to the lectures, authors engaged with readers and writers of all ages in sessions with professional writers and meetings with public high school students.
Click here for the 2024/25 season lineup.
The Archive Project
Our radio show and podcast The Archive Project broadcasts a wide range of Literary Arts programming, including recordings from Portland Arts & Lectures, Portland Book Festival, Everybody Reads, Verselandia!, and other events. Our eleventh season premiered in November 2024.
Everybody Reads 2024
In partnership with Multnomah County Library and The Library Foundation, this year’s Everybody Reads program featured Javier Zamora and his bestselling memoir Solito. The library distributed 8,200 free copies of Solito, more than 1,200 of them in Spanish. The eBook and audiobook copies were checked out at least 8,000 times. During his time in Portland, Zamora met with around 500 students at Roosevelt and McDaniel high schools.
Portland Book Festival
On Saturday, November 2, 2024, more than 6,000 book lovers of all ages flocked to Portland Art Museum and neighboring venues in downtown Portland to hear conversations about new books, from bestsellers to exciting debuts. Presenters included Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Powers, award-winning musician and picture book author Ani DiFranco, horror writer extraordinaire Stephen Graham Jones, bestselling romance novelist Casey McQuiston, and Portland’s own Renée Watson. The day also featured food trucks, a book fair, and pop-up readings in Portland Art Museum galleries.
Delve Readers Seminars
Delve participants gathered weekly to read and discuss works by Karl Marx, Ursula K. Le Guin, Marilynne Robinson, and other writers.
Special Events
Literary Arts is honored to have hosted Special Events with some of the most remarkable authors at work today. In fall 2024, we hosted groundbreaking journalist Connie Chung speaking on her memoir Connie, bestselling author and podcaster Malcolm Gladwell and his latest book Revenge of the Tipping Point, as well as Ta-Nehisi Coates with his first book of nonfiction in 10 years, The Message. Coates was in conversation with local author Omar El Akkad.
Committed to Equity
- Portland Book Festival lineup featured more than 50% BIPOC presenters (on-stage authors, moderators, and pop-up authors).
- Free and reduced-price tickets were offered for all programs, including through Arts for All and the Multnomah County Library’s Discovery Pass program. Youth tickets were free for Portland Book Festival, Everybody Reads, and Verselandia!.
- Javier Zamora’s sold-out Everybody Reads event was presented with live Spanish language captioning.
Read the full report below.
Click here for a PDF version of the report.
