
Portland Arts & Lectures
1984–2023
Literary Arts is honored to have hosted some of the world’s most celebrated authors and thinkers. Many of their sought-after talks can be heard on The Archive Project, our radio show and podcast.
Past Speakers
2022/23
Abdulrazak Gurnah
Anthony Doerr
Lauren Groff
Patrick Radden Keefe
Ada Limón
Special events:
The Moth Mainstage
Amor Towles
Everybody Reads: Ruth Ozeki
Tom Hanks
2021/22
Daniel James Brown
Cathy Park Hong
Brit Bennett
Richard Powers
Edwidge Danticat
Special events:
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Mira Jacob
2020/21
Helen Macdonald
Madeline Miller
Ibram X. Kendi
Joy Harjo
Yaa Gyasi
Special events:
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Ross Gay
2019/20
George Packer
Amor Towles
Min Jin Lee
Susan Orlean
Colson Whitehead
Special Events:
Margaret Atwood
Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Tommy Orange
2018/19
Jill Lepore
Tara Westover
Tayari Jones
Jennifer Egan
Jaqueline Woodson
Special Events:
A Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin
DeRay Mckesson
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie
Barry Lopez Horizon Book Launch
2017/18
George Saunders
Reza Aslan
Jesmyn Ward
Claudia Rankine
Viet Thanh Nguyen
Special Events:
Francis Ford Coppola
Joe Biden
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Mohsin Hamid
2016/17
Louise Erdrich
Don DeLillo
Colum McCann
Tracy K. Smith
Siddhartha Mukherjee
Special Events:
Michael Lewis
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Matthew Desmond
2015/16
Jane Smiley
Anthony Doerr
Adam Gopnik
Robin Coste Lewis
Mohsin Hamid
Special Events:
The Nation LIVE!
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Cristina Henríquez
2014/15
James McBride
Elizabeth Kolbert
Michael Chabon
Ruth Ozeki
Katherine Boo
Special Events:
30th Birthday Party (featuring Elizabeth Gilbert and Calvin Trillin)
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Mitchell S. Jackson
Poetry Downtown:
Terrance Hayes
Mark Doty
Anne Carson
2013/14
Salman Rushdie
Ann Patchett
Lawrence Wright
Chris Ware & Chip Kidd
Julia Alvarez
Special Events:
Malcolm Gladwell
The Moth Mainstage
William Stafford Centennial Celebration (featuring Li-Young Lee, Tony Hoagland, Paulann Petersen, Matthew Dickman, Kim Stafford, and Mary Szybist)
Everybody Reads: Justice Sonia Sotomayor
2012/13
Jeffrey Toobin
Barbara Kingsolver
Jonathan Franzen
Stephen Greenblatt
Nikky Finney
Special Events:
Mark Bittman
Ira Glass
David Byrne & Carrie Brownstein
The Moth Mainstage
Everybody Reads: Sherman Alexie
2011/12
Annie Proulx
Stacy Schiff
Sebastian Junger
Abraham Verghese
Chimamanda Adichie
Special Events:
National Book Award Finalists Announcement
Tom Brokaw
Everybody Reads: Heidi W. Durrow
The Moth Mainstage
2010/11
Margaret Atwood & Ursula K. Le Guin
Natasha Trethewey
Elizabeth Strout
Tracy Kidder
Art Spiegelman
Special Events:
Bill Bryson
Leslie Marmon Silko
Everybody Reads: Wes Moore
The Moth Mainstage
2009/10
Wally Lamb
Lydia Davis
Christopher Hitchens
Ruth Reichl
Edwidge Danticat
Special Events:
Tin House Anniversary Celebration
Karen Armstrong
Greg Mortenson
Al Gore
The Moth Mainstage
Isabel Allende
Rigoberto González (PEN World Voices Festival)
2008/09
Richard Russo
Annie Leibovitz
Michael Pollan
Ann Patchett & Elizabeth Gilbert
Scott Simon
Mira Nair
Special Events:
David Sedaris
W. S. Merwin
Calvin Trillin
Terry Tempest Williams
2007/08
Orhan Pamuk
Diane Ackerman
Colson Whitehead
Mary Oliver
Stephen Sondheim & Frank Rich
Marjane Satrapi
Special Events:
Richard Powers
Elizabeth Gilbert
Paul Hawken, Barry Lopez, & Rebecca Solnit
Poetry Downtown:
Li-Young Lee
Eavan Boland
Edward Hirsch
Lucille Clifton
2006/07
Calvin Trillin
Frank Rich
Frank McCourt
Suzan-Lori Parks
Mary Gaitskill & George Saunders
Jonathan Lethem
Special Events:
Stephen King
Scott Turow
David Sedaris
Will Shortz
Poetry Downtown:
Mark Strand
Kevin Young
Carolyn Forché
Charles Simic
2005/06
Cynthia Ozick
Simon Winchester
Alexander McCall Smith
Marilynne Robinson
Azar Nafisi
Peter Matthiessen
Special Events:
David McCullough
Garry Wills
Charles Jencks
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Coleman Barks: Rumi
Maya Lin
Paul Auster & Siri Hustvedt
Kaye Gibbons
Harvey Pekar
Poetry Downtown:
Robert Bly
Adrienne Rich
Philip Levine
Jane Hirshfield
2004/05
T. C. Boyle
Shelley Berman
Terrence McNally
Tracy Chevalier
Jane Smiley
Edward P. Jones
Special Events:
Steve Brodner
David Sedaris
Chris Van Allsburg
Roddy Doyle
Greil Marcus
Sue Monk Kidd
Poetry Downtown:
Ted Kooser
W. S. Merwin
Maxine Kumin
August Kleinzahler
2003/04
Jeffrey Eugenides
Sandra Cisneros
Tobias Wolff
Billy Collins
Lynda Barry & Matt Groening
Ian McEwan
Special Events:
David Guterson
Donna Tartt
Mark Kurlansky
Paul Theroux
Zelda, Scott & Ernest: A dramatic reading with Mary Karr, Calvin Trillin, & Robert Stone
Poetry Downtown:
Ellen Bryant Voigt
Paul Muldoon
Charles Wright
Carol Muske-Dukes
2002/03
Seamus Heaney
Zadie Smith
George Plimpton
Francine Prose
Andrea Barrett
David Mamet
Special Events:
September 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero
Ira Glass
Tim O’Brien
Yann Martel
Poetry Downtown:
James Tate
Louise Glück
Galway Kinnell
2001/02
Stephen Jay Gould
Edward Albee
Edna O’Brien
James Atlas
Edmund White
Francine du Plessix Gray
Anchee Min
J.M. Coetzee
Special Events:
Joan Didion
David Sedaris
Poetry Downtown:
Cornelius Eady
Robert Creeley
Naomi Shihab Nye
Jorie Graham
2000/01
Ursula K. Le Guin
Jeanette Winterson
John Ridley
Peter Carey
Robert Pinsky
Greil Marcus
Terry Gross
Special Events:
Andrei Codrescu
Maya Lin
Howard Gardner
Mike Rich
Poetry Downtown:
C. K. Williams
Adam Zagajewski
Claudia Rankine
Matthew Rohrer
Sharon Olds
1999/00
James Fenton
Russell Banks
Ann Patchett & Elizabeth McCracken
A. L. Kennedy
Ron Chernow
Michael Cunningham & Amy Bloom
Ira Glass
Special Events:
David Sedaris
Sarah Vowell
Gore Vidal
Solomon Volkov
William Kittredge & Alvin Josephy
Martín Espada
Michael Ondaatje
1998/99
Charles Frazier & Kaye Gibbons
Richard Ford
David Remnick
Barbara Kopple
Caryl Phillips
Julian Barnes
Salman Rushdie
Special Events:
David Sedaris
Adrienne Rich
Frank Gehry
1997/98
Elaine May
Grace Paley & Anne Lamott
Orville Schell
Amos Oz
Sherman Alexie
Gish Jen
Cristina Garcia
David Foster Wallace
Frank McCourt & Mary Gordon
Jules Feiffer
Chinua Achebe & Robert Lyons
Special Events:
Garrison Keillor
Michael Feldman
1996/97
Elmore Leonard
Antonia Fraser
Mary Karr
John Updike
Jim Harrison
Maya Lin
Special Events:
Paul Theroux
Bill Moyers
David Sedaris
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin & Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
Frank Sulloway
1995/96
Kazuo Ishiguro
Anna Deavere Smith
Tim O’Brien
Doris Kearns Goodwin
John Fowles
Edward O. Wilson
Special Events:
Paul Theroux
Michael Ondaatje
Studs Terkel
Garrison Keillor
Gary Snyder
Naomi Shihab Nye
1994/95
Tony Hillerman
Lorrie Moore
Robertson Davies
Edward Said
A. S. Byatt
Michael Ondaatje
Nicholson Baker
Special Events:
Patrick O’Brian
David Sedaris
Bailey White
Tom Spanbauer
Charlotte Watson Sherman
1993/94
Jan Morris
Czeslaw Milosz
Robert Hass
Terry McMillan
John Edgar Wideman
Margaret Atwood
Tony Kushner
Saul Bellow
Special Events:
Paul Theroux
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Jacob Lawrence
Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence
1992/93
Joan Didion & John Gregory Dunne
Philip Roth
Doris Lessing
Hanif Kureishi
Bill Buford
James Fenton
Charles Johnson
1991/92
William Styron
Garry Trudeau
Maxine Hong Kingston
Toni Morrison
Robert Coles
Carolyn Heilbrun & Amanda Cross
Special Events:
Garrison Keillor
Annie Dillard
1990/91
August Wilson
Wallace Stegner
Amy Tan
E. L. Doctorow
Eduardo Galeano
Jane Smiley
Special Events:
George Segal
V. S. Naipaul
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Jonathan Miller
1989/90
John McPhee
Joyce Carol Oates
Peter Gay
Brendan Gill
Andre Dubus
Wendy Wasserstein
Special Events:
Philip Glass
May Sarton
Carlos Fuentes
Gary Indiana
Margaret Atwood
Richard Ford
Tobias Wolff
1988/89
John Updike
James Gleick
Donald Barthelme
Louise Erdrich
Michael Dorris
Isabel Allende
Rosamond Bernier
Special Events:
Maya Angelou
Calvin Trillin
Annie Dillard
Fran Lebowitz
Jamaica Kincaid
1987/88
Larry McMurtry
Barry Lopez
Paul Theroux
Oliver Sacks
Bobbie Ann Mason
Robert Stone
1986/87
Alice Walker
Jonathan Miller
Ellen Gilchrist
Stephen Jay Gould
Roger Angell
Special Events:
Garrison Keillor
Doris Lessing
1985/86
Tom Wolfe
Susan Sontag
Fran Lebowitz
Maya Angelou
John Kenneth Galbraith
1984/85
Calvin Trillin
Ann Beattie
Norman Mailer
Pauline Kael
Latest Archive Project Episodes
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Jun 4, 2023
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May 26, 2023
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May 21, 2023
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May 14, 2023
The Archive Project Podcast
Literary Arts is honored to have hosted some of the world’s most celebrated authors. Many of their sought-after talks can be heard on The Archive Project, our radio show and podcast.