Posts Tagged ‘Portland Arts & Lectures’
Portland Arts & Lectures Presents Ruth Reichl 3/28
Portland Arts & Lectures is honored to host Ruth Reichl, author of Not Becoming My Mother, on March 28, 2010. Reichl was editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine from 1999 until the magazine sadly announced its last issue would hit stands this past November. She also was previously the resident restaurant critic for The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.
Reichl was known throughout the culinary world as a no-nonsense critic with a knack for calling out five-star restaurants for their service, cuisine, and treatment of patrons; celebrity or not.
Now it seems Reichl can turn her attention to her budding career writing books. Her repertoire includes her four memoirs Tender at the Bone (1998), Comfort Me with Apples (2001), Garlic and Sapphires (2005), and her most recent installment Not Becoming My Mother (2009).
A true foodie to the core, Reichl has been raved by The New York Times as “A real food journalist who, through a combination of caprice and canny career management, has had a front-row seat for some of the greatest American culinary developments over the last 30 years.” In addition, famous chef Alice Waters states, “She understands that food is about nourishment and it’s precious; she feels a great responsibility to educate people with the right information.”
Please join Literary Arts in welcoming Ruth Reichl to our fare city of Portland, a developing foodie capital, for her presentation at Portland Arts and Lectures on March 28, 2010.
Tags: Portland Arts & Lectures, Ruth Reichl
Posted in Events |
PA&L series presents Christopher Hitchens on Jan. 5, 2010
On January 5, Literary Arts is bringing Christopher Hitchens, an outspoken controversial English-American journalist, to the Arlene Schnizter Concert Hall as part of its Portland Arts & Lectures series. Get a pair of free tickets (reserved seats) with a Give!Guide donation of $100 or more to Literary Arts!
Hitchens has been a columnist and literary critic at such publications as Vanity Fair, Slate, The Nation, and The Atlantic. His most recent book, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (published in 2007), was received with mixed reviews.
New York Times critic Michael Kinsley celebrated Hitchens’ “…logical flourishes and conundrums, many of them entertaining to the nonbeliever,” whereas Bruce DeSilva of the Associated Press said that “Hitchens has nothing new to say, although it must be acknowledged that he says it exceptionally well.”
Literary Arts is excited to welcome this prominent author and activist and we invite you to join us for what promises to be an entertaining evening hosted by the self-described “contrarian.”
Tickets for the remaining 3 lectures in the 2009-2010 Portland Arts & Lectures series (speakers include Christopher Hitchens, Ruth Reichl, and Edwidge Danticat) are available now as part of a Holiday package for as little as $60. You also have the opportunity to win 1 of 6 tickets to the remainder of the series by participating in our various Give!Guide Facebook and Twitter contests being held throughout December.
Visit www.give.literary-arts.org for more information.
Tags: Christopher Hitchens, Portland Arts & Lectures
Posted in Events |
Author Profile – Natalie Serber
Welcome to another of our author profile features. Today we’d like to introduce WITS writer in residence Natalie Serber, who grew up in Santa Cruz, California, but currently resides here in Portland, Oregon.
What was the most recent book you read?
A Gate at the Stairs, by Lorrie Moore
What are you currently working on?
I am currently working on a novel, set in Boring, Oregon, about a mildly unhappy family, struggling with their changing geometry. Parents coping with the landscape of a marriage shadowed by cancer, teenagers who no longer need or want them in the immediate way they once did, teenagers who make their own, sometimes hilarious, sometimes catastrophic, decisions.
What are you currently reading?
Two books by Deborahs; Twilight of the Superheroes, by Deborah Eisenberg, and Curious Attractions, by Debra Spark. If you know another good Debra book, please tell me.
What did you read growing up?
I read Harriet the Spy, Laura Ingalls Wilder books (for a while I carried around an onion wrapped in a dishtowel, pretending it was my doll.) Nancy Drew, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Kurt Vonnegut.
A Recent Favorite book?
Lush Life, by Richard Price
Authors?
Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro, Jhumpa Lahiri, E.M. Forster, Tony Hoagland, Junot Diaz, Deborah Eisenberg
How does Oregon influence your writing?
My novel is set in Boring, Oregon and in Portland.
How did you get involved with Literary Arts?
When I moved to Portland, six years ago, I was thrilled about the Arts and Lectures Series and bought season tickets. The first one I attended was Jeffrey Eugenides and I was ecstatic to see so many people walking toward the Schnitz. There were traffic control people with those lit wands as if it was a Stones Concert, and I thought to myself, this is the perfect place for me to live–people take writing and literature seriously.
How is Literary Arts important for writers?
Literary Arts supports writers in multiple ways, first, they give us the opportunity to go into a classroom and share our passion with students. Some writers say that teaching saps them for their own creative work, I find that I am invigorated by my work with students, by their energy, and by the fresh way they look at things.
Where do you go to do your writing?
Reed College Library
When writing, do you set goals for yourself (i.e. ten pages per day)?
Gasp! 10 pages per day….I am so depressed right now. I am happy if I write 2 pages per day. I am painfully slow and deliberate in my writing.
What’s one piece of advice you would give to aspiring writers?
Carry a pen and paper with you wherever you go. Pay attention to the world. And, by all means, read, read, read widely.
Did you write in high school?
Yes I did, but I never had a creative writing class or a visiting writer. I think my high school career would have been much more successful if I’d been exposed to writing, to a wider range of authors, to understanding that what I had to say was valid and worthwhile.
What does WITS do for the student?
Writers in the Schools puts a working artist in the classroom. We come in, we share with the students how we work, how we translate our life experiences in our writing, and hopefully we create a little crack, a little ‘aha’ moment, opening the students to possibilities, to trusting that their ideas are unique and important. When my students share their work aloud, I can see in their faces both fear and pride. It is powerful.
What school do you teach at?
I will be at Marshall this spring.
What has been the biggest reward about doing WITS?
I want to describe that time in the classroom, when I have given the students a prompt, whether it is a piece of music, a phrase, an image, or a line from a poem and we all begin to write, often hesitantly at first, but then, I look up, and I see bent heads and hear pens moving, and everyone is writing–something happens to the air in the room and we become unified, we are all having the same experience, putting down our ideas. I love that.
Tags: Literary Arts, Natalie Serber, Portland Arts & Lectures, WITS
Posted in Author Profile |
Al Gore – A Literary Arts and Powell’s Books Presentation
Andrew Proctor, Al Gore and Susan Denning backstage at the Keller.
For those of you that might have missed it, Al Gore spoke at the Portland Keller Auditorium last Wednesday. Gore spoke on his new book, Our Choice, and the ongoing fight against climate change and global warming.
The former Vice-President and Nobel Prize winner has dedicated himself to this cause over the past few years, beginning with his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth. His message that climate change threatens our world and current civilizations has motivated millions of people all over the world to act and put the issue of climate change and global warming into the mainstream.
The current green movement, fight for the environment, and our future as a world civilization rests in the decisions we make. Mr. Gore has helped open up this dialogue and has held over 30 “Solution Summits” with top scientists, engineers, and policy experts to try and find ways to combat climate change.
Before the event Gore spent an hour speaking to Emily Harris and Dave Miller on OPB’s Think Out Loud. You can listen to the taping of the live show online here.
Gore spoke in Portland as part of the Portland Arts & Lectures series, sponsored by Literary Arts and Powell’s Books. If you’re interested in attending the remainder of the Arts & Lectures seminars, there are still 8 tickets left to win, follow us on Twitter and Facebook for details.
Tags: Al Gore, Portland Arts & Lectures
Posted in Events |