Since 1984, Portland Arts & Lectures has brought leading authors, historians, artists and critics to our community to discuss their work and the trajectory of contemporary culture, connecting readers and writers of all ages in a spirit of intellectual curiosity and engagement with events, classroom visits, and forums. Portland Arts & Lectures brings the world’s most celebrated writers, artists and thinkers to our community. Five preeminent voices of contemporary literature are coming to the stage of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall for one-night only presentations and you are invited.

Portland Arts & Lectures is a program of Literary Arts, a community-based nonprofit literary center located in downtown Portland, with a 35-year history of serving Oregon’s readers and writers.

All events take place at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Subscribe to the 2019/2020 season

Series subscriptions include five memorable evenings with some of the most inspiring authors at work today:

The series will begin on October 24 with author and staff writer for The New Yorker, George Packer. His new book is Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century. On November 14, we welcome Amor Towles, author of the New York Times best sellers Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. The series continues on January 15 with Min Jin Lee, whose latest novel, Pachinko, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. On February 20, we will host Susan Orlean, author of eight books, including her most recent, The Library Book, a New York Times best seller and a Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year for 2018. The series will close on May 7 with Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, a New York Times best seller which won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award.