New Season of Portland Arts & Lectures

Portland Arts & Lectures Proudly Announces
The 2010-2011 Season
Spring is here and so is a new season of Portland Arts & Lectures.

We have crafted next season to feature some of the finest writers. Four of our speakers next season have won the Pulitzer Prize while one has won the Man Booker Prize. All have more literary laurels than can be tallied here!

MARGARET ATWOOD & URSULA K. LE GUIN Together In Conversation Sept. 23, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.

Margaret Atwood-The Washington Post calls Atwood, "Canada's greatest living novelist." Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1939 and attended the University of Toronto and then Radcliffe College where she completed her master's degree. Atwood's novels are best known for illustrating the characters of women in modern society and their roles in urban life and sexual politics. Her works have been translated into more than 30 languages and she currently writes book reviews for multiple Canadian magazines. Atwood is also a strong promoter of women's rights and her writing reflects her position. "We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and powerful woman as an anomaly," says Atwood.

Ursula K. Le Guin-The Guardian comments on Le Guin's writing as a "pleasure to read on all levels." Le Guin is famous for her science fiction and fantasy novels like Lavinia, which is set in Virgil's Aeneid. Le Guin appreciates most the works of classical authors and enjoys complimenting them by setting her stories in their novels. Le Guin was born in Berkeley, California in 1929 and studied at Radcliffe College and then Cambridge University where she received her master's degree in romance languages. Her father was an anthropology professor at UC-Berkeley. Le Guin believes that most of her creativity comes from him. "My father studied real cultures and I make them up," says Le Guin.

NATASHA TRETHEWEY Oct. 21, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. Pulitzer Prize-winner Trethewey is "clearly a poet to savor," says Maxine Kumin. Trethewey was born in Gulfport, Mississippi in 1966 and studied at the University of Georgia and then received her master's degree in creative writing and English from Hollins University. Trethewey is best known for her books of poetry, Bellocq's Ophelia and Storyville Diary. Each of these books has received numerous awards such as the Grolier Poetry Prize and the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Currently, Trethewey teaches as an Assistant Professor of English, poetry and creative writing at Emory University in Georgia.

ELIZABETH STROUT Jan. 25, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. Strout is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the best-selling books, Olive Kitteridge and Amy and Isabelle. The New Yorker says, "Strout animates the ordinary with astonishing force." Amy and Isabelle was made into a movie in 2001, which was produced by Oprah Winfrey. Strout was born in Portland, Maine in 1956 and studied at Bates University and later earned a law degree from the Syracuse University of Law and a Certificate of Gerontology from the Syracuse School of Social Work.

TRACY KIDDER March 3, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. The New York Times says, "Kidder has become a high priest of the narrative arts." Kidder is the author of Strength in What Remains, House and The Soul of a New Machine. Kidder is a literary journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winner whose work covers a wide range of topics and often celebrates the heroic acts of everyday people. Tracy Kidder was born in New York City in 1945 and studied at Harvard College in 1967 where he earned an AB degree. Kidder served in Vietnam from 1967 until 1969 and was later awarded a bronze star. Kidder later earned an MFA from the University of Iowa.

ART SPIEGELMAN April 28, 2011 at 7:30 p.m. Steven Barclay Agency says, "Art Spiegelman has almost single-handedly brought comic books out of the toy closet and onto the literature shelves." Spiegelman is referred to by many as the "father of graphic literature" and is the only graphic novelist in history to win the Pulitzer Prize. Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden in 1948. He later attended SUNY Binghamton University where he earned an honorary doctorate of letters in 1995. Spiegelman attributes most of his success to the influential graphic authors of the past. "I'm supposed to be making comics, so I had to do it the best way I knew how, which is what those guys at the beginning of the Twentieth Century were doing," says Spiegelman.

SUBSCRIPTION TICKETS AVAILABLE ONLY (5 LECTURES):-Season ticket prices start at $70 ($14 per lecture).-Order Online at http://www.literary-arts.org/-Or contact us by phone at 503.227.2583-All events are at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall