Portland Arts & Lectures 1984 – 2006

2005-06 Series
Cynthia Ozick – novelist, critic and short-story writer
Simon Winchester – novelist
Alexander McCall Smith – author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective series
Marilynne Robinson – winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Azar Nafisi – acclaimed author of Reading Lolita in Tehran
Peter Matthiessen – award-winning novelist, travel and nature writer

2005-06 Special Events
David McCullough – twice winner of the National Book Award and of the Pulitzer Prize
Garry Wills – renowned historian and cultural critic
Charles Jencks – architect, historian, critic
Doris Kearns Goodwin – Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer
Coleman Barks: Rumi – an evening of poetry, music and dance
Maya Lin – artist and architect presenting The Confluence Project
Paul Auster & Siri Hustvedt – in conversation
Kaye Gibbons – acclaimed novelist
Harvey Pekar – critic and comic book writer

2004-05 Series
T.C. Boyle – award-winning novelist and short story writer
Shelley Berman – Grammy-winning actor and comedian
Terrence McNally – one of America’s leading playwrights
Tracy Chevalier – best-selling historical novelist
Jane Smiley – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Edward P. Jones – winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction

2004-05 Special Events
Steve Brodner – art journalist and cartoonist
David Sedaris – best-selling author and commentator
Chris Van Allsburg – National Book Award-winning children’s author
Roddy Doyle – Booker Prize-winning novelist and screenwriter
Greil Marcus – preeminent pop culture critic
Sue Monk Kidd – novelist and nonfiction writer

2003-04 Series
Jeffrey Eugenides – Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist
Sandra Cisneros – leading voice of Mexican-American literature
Tobias Wolff – memoirist, novelist and short-story writer
Billy Collins – former U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress
Matt Groening and Lynda Barry – cartoonists extraordinaire
Ian McEwan – distinguished British novelist and screenwriter

2003-04 Special Events
Paul Theroux – acclaimed travel writer, novelist and critic
David Guterson – novelist
Donna Tartt – novelist
Zelda, Scott & Ernest – a dramatic reading with Calvin Trillin, Mary Karr and Robert Stone

2002-03 Series
Seamus Heaney – poet
Zadie Smith – novelist
George Plimpton – author, essayist and editor of The Paris Review
Francine Prose – critic, essayist and novelist
Andrea Barrett – novelist
David Mamet – playwright, screenwriter, director and novelist

2002-03 Special Events
September 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero
Ira Glass – radio host and producer of “This American Life”
Tim O’Brien – novelist
Yann Martel – Booker Prize-winning novelist

2001-02 Series
Stephen Jay Gould – paleontologist, science writer
Edward Albee – playwright
Edna O’Brien – novelist
James Atlas – biographer
Francine du Plessix Gray – novelist, biographer
Edmund White – novelist, biographer
Anchee Min – memoirist, novelist
J.M. Coetzee – novelist, essayist

2001-02 Special Events
Joan Didion – novelist, essayist
David Sedaris – writer, humorist

2000-01 Series
Ursula K. Le Guin – novelist, poet
Jeanette Winterson – novelist, essayist
John Ridley – screenwriter, novelist
Peter Carey – novelist
Robert Pinsky – poet, essayist
Terry Gross – host and executive producer of “Fresh Air”

2000-01 Special Events
Andrei Codrescu – poet, essayist, radio commentator
Maya Lin – artist, architect
Howard Gardner – educator, writer

1999-00 Series
James Fenton – poet, journalist, essayist, critic
Russell Banks – novelist, short-story writer
Ann Patchett & Elizabeth McCracken – in conversation
A.L. Kennedy – novelist, short-story writer
Ron Chernow – biographer, business historian
Michael Cunningham & Amy Bloom – novelists in conversation
Ira Glass – host and executive producer of “This American Life”

1999-00 Special Events
David Sedaris & Sarah Vowell – in conversation
Martin Espada – poet, essayist
Alvin Josephy – historian, essayist, journalist
Frank McCourt – novelist
Gore Vidal – historian, novelist, essayist
Solomon Volkov – historian, writer
Michael Ondaatje – novelist, poet, playwright, film director

1998-99 Series
Charles Frazier & Kaye Gibbons – novelists
Richard Ford – novelist, short-story writer
David Remnick – journalist, nonfiction writer
Barbara Kopple – filmmaker
Caryl Phillips – novelist, playwright, essayist
Julian Barnes – critic, essayist, novelist
Salman Rushdie – novelist

1998-99 Special Events
David Sedaris – NPR commentator, humorist, essayist
Adrienne Rich – poet, essayist
Frank Gehry – architect (with PICA)
John Callahan – Juneteenth announcement celebrating the late Ralph Ellison’s newest book

1997-98 Series
Elaine May – screenwriter, playwright
Grace Paley & Anne Lamott – short-story writers and novelists
Orville Schell – scholar, journalist
Amos Oz – novelist, short-story writer
Sherman Alexie, David Foster Wallace, Cristina Garcia & Gish Jen – young writers
Frank McCourt & Mary Gordon – memoirists
Jules Feiffer – cartoonist, playwright
Chinua Achebe & Robert Lyons – in conversation

1996-97 Series
Elmore Leonard – novelist, screenwriter
Antonia Fraser – historian, novelist
Mary Karr – poet, memoirist
John Updike – novelist, poet, critic, short-story writer
Jim Harrison – novelist, screenwriter
Maya Lin – architect, sculptor

1996-97 Special Events
Paul Theroux – travel writer, novelist
Eilean Ni Chuilleanain & Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill – poets in conversation
David Sedaris – NPR commentator, humorist, essayist
Frank Sulloway – science historian
Bill Moyers – journalist, television producer

1995-96 Series
Kazuo Ishiguro – novelist, short-story writer
Anna Deavere Smith – playwright, actress, educator
Tim O’Brien – novelist, short-story writer, essayist
Doris Kearns Goodwin – historian, educator, biographer
John Fowles – novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist
Edward O. Wilson – naturalist, educator, author

1995-96 Special Events
Paul Theroux – travel writer, novelist
Michael Ondaatje – novelist, poet, playwright, film director
Studs Terkel & Garrison Keillor – in conversation

1994-95 Series
Tony Hillerman – mystery writer, journalist
Lorrie Moore – short-story writer, novelist, critic
Robertson Davies – novelist, essayist, editor, playwright, director
Edward Said – literary critic, educator
A.S. Byatt & Michael Ondaatje – in conversation
Nicholson Baker – novelist, essayist

1994-95 Special Events
Patrick O’Brian – novelist, biographer, naval historian
David Sedaris & Bailey White – in conversation

1993-94 Series
Jan Morris – travel writer
Czeslaw Milosz & Robert Hass – in conversation
Terry McMillan – novelist, literary criticism
John Edgar Wideman – novelist, short-story writer
Margaret Atwood – poet, essayist, novelist, short-story writer
Tony Kushner – playwright
Saul Bellow – novelist, short-story writer

1993-94 Special Events
Paul Theroux – travel writer, novelist
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.- educator, essayist, literary/social critic
Jacob Lawrence & Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence – artists

1992-93 Series
Joan Didion & John Gregory Dunne – in conversation
Philip Roth – novelist, short-story writer
Doris Lessing – novelist, short-story writer, journalist
Hanif Kureishi – screenwriter, novelist, short-story writer, journalist
Bill Buford & James Fenton – in conversation
Charles Johnson – novelist, essayist, short-story writer

1992-93 Special Events
Dave Barry – columnist, humorist, essayist
Trisha Brown – choreographer, dancer
Robert Hughes – art critic, social historian

1991-92 Series
William Styron – novelist, essayist
Garry Trudeau – cartoonist, journalist, screenwriter
Maxine Hong Kingston – autobiographer, novelist, journalist
Toni Morrison – novelist
Robert Coles – pediatrician, psychiatrist, author, poet
Carolyn Heilbrun & Amanda Cross – essayist, mystery writer

1991-92 Special Events
Garrison Keillor – radio personality, storyteller, author
Annie Dillard – nonfiction writer, novelist

1990-91 Series
August Wilson – poet, playwright
Wallace Stegner – novelist, short-story writer, conservationist
Amy Tan – novelist
E.L. Doctorow – novelist, editor, dramatist, essayist
Eduardo Galeano – Uruguayan novelist and journalist
Jane Smiley – novelist, short-story writer

1990-91 Special Events
George Segal – artist and sculptor
V. S. Naipaul – novelist, short-story writer, travel writer
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.- educator, essayist, literary/social critic
Jonathan Miller – British author, director, physician

1989-90 Series
John McPhee – journalist
Joyce Carol Oates – novelist, short-story writer, poet, nonfiction writer
Peter Gay – historian, writer
Brendan Gill – theater and architecture critic, novelist
Andre Dubus – short-story writer, novelist
Wendy Wasserstein – playwright

1989-90 Special Events
Philip Glass – musician, composer
May Sarton – novelist, short-story writer, poet
Carlos Fuentes- novelist, educator, essayist
Gary Indiana- art critic, novelist, short-story writer
Margaret Atwood- novelist, short-story writer
Richard Ford & Tobias Wolff – novelists, short-story writers

1988-89 Series
John Updike – novelist, poet, critic, short-story writer
James Gleick – author, science reporter for The New York Times
Donald Barthelme – novelist, short-story writer
Louise Erdrich & Michael Dorris – novelists
Isabel Allende – Chilean novelist and journalist
Rosamond Bernier – arts lecturer

1988-89 Special Events
Maya Angelou – poet, singer, novelist
Calvin Trillin – columnist, humorist, novelist
Annie Dillard – essayist, nonfiction writer
Fran Lebowitz – (ART/AIDS Benefit) humorist, satirist
Jamaica Kincaid – short-story writer, novelist

1987-88 Series
Larry McMurtry – novelist, screen writer
Barry Lopez – writer, naturalist
Paul Theroux – travel writer, novelist
Oliver Sacks – neurologist, clinical writer
Bobbie Ann Mason – short-story writer, novelist
Robert Stone – novelist, screenwriter

1986-87 Series
Alice Walker – novelist, short-story writer
Jonathan Miller – British author, director, physician
Ellen Gilchrist – novelist, short-story writer
Stephen Jay Gould – paleontologist, author
Roger Angell – fiction editor for The New Yorker, baseball writer

1986-87 Special Events
Garrison Keillor – radio personality, storyteller, author
Doris Lessing – novelist, poet, short-story writer

1985-86 Series
Tom Wolfe – novelist, journalist
Susan Sontag – critical essayist
Fran Lebowitz – humorist
Maya Angelou – poet, singer, novelist
John Kenneth Galbraith – economist, educator, writer

1984-85 Series
Calvin Trillin – columnist, humorist, novelist
Ann Beattie – novelist, short-story writer
Norman Mailer – novelist
Pauline Kael – film critic

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