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P.C. Cast, Renée Ahdieh, and Kendare Blake Oct 11, 2017

Show notes

In this episode of The Archive Project we dive into the world of Young Adult fantasy with authors P.C. Cast, Renée Ahdieh, and Kendare Blake. P.C. Cast’s Moon Chosen tells the story of Mari, an Earth Walker, as she seeks her destiny in a world where humans, their animal allies, and the earth itself have been drastically changed. In Renée Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn, a re-telling of “A Thousand and One Nights,” we follow Shahrzad, a young woman determined to uncover the mystery behind the young Caliph’s murderous reputation. And in Three Dark Crowns Kendare Blake takes us to the island of Fennbirn, where triplets Mirabella, Katherine, and Arsinoe must use their magical talents against one another in a fight to the death for the title of Queen Crowned. This panel is moderated by Portland’s own National Book Award finalist, Laini Taylor.

P.C. Cast is the #1 New York Times and #1 USA Today bestselling author of the House of Night series, co-written with her daughter, Kristin. Cast is a member of the Oklahoma Writers Hall of Fame, and her novels have been awarded the Oklahoma Book Award, YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Prism, Holt Medallion, Daphne du Maurier Award, Booksellers’ Best, and the Laurel Wreath. Ms. Cast lives in Oregon.

Renée Ahdieh is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Flame in the Mist, The Wrath & the Dawn, and The Rose & the Dagger. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, Victor, and their dog, Mushu.

Kendare Blake is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels and short stories, including the Three Dark Crowns series, The Anna series, and the Goddess series. She enjoys the work of Milan Kundera, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Bret Easton Ellis, and Richard Linklater. She lives and writes in Kent, Washington, with her husband and their two cats and dogs.

Laini Taylor is the author of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone young adult fantasy trilogy. Her ‘Dreamdark’ books, Blackbringer (2007) and Silksinger (2009) are about faeries — not dainty little flowery things, but warrior-faeries who battle devils. Her first young adult book, Lips Touch, was a finalist for the 2009 National Book Award.

Carrie Brownstein and Jon Raymond Oct 04, 2017

Show notes

This episode of The Archive Project features musician, writer, and actress Carrie Brownstein discussing her memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, with writer and filmmaker Jon Raymond during 2016’s Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival. In this candid and casual conversation Brownstein discusses her time in the iconic rock band Sleater-Kinney, her acting and directing in the hit comedy Portlandia, and the publication of her memoir. In this intimate and sometimes humorous interview, we are given a glimpse into Brownstein’s life beyond the spotlight. Featuring readings from her memoir, we learn from Brownstein herself about the experiences that have shaped her into one of the Pacific Northwest’s most important artists.

“When I was in between the first iteration of Sleater-Kinney and the second I started writing for NPR Music…and I realized that the work and the pieces that people were most drawn to always incorporated my own narrative. So when I would try to take this kind of objective, journalistic tone, or even kind of veer into something vaguely academic there was a coldness to it, and it really didn’t feel authentic. Whenever I drew from my own experience and kind of weaved that into the story of seeing a band or why I related to a certain city or show I found that I was creating a connection with an audience. And that connection was something I was always seeking… I credit that time with finding my voice as a writer.” –Carrie Brownstein

Carrie Brownstein is a musician, writer and actor who first became widely known as the guitarist and vocalist of the band Sleater-Kinney and later as a creator, writer and co-star of the Emmy-nominated, Peabody Award winning television show Portlandia. Brownstein’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Believer, Slate, and numerous anthologies on music and culture. Her memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, was named a New York Times Notable Book of 2015 and was nominated for an Oregon Book Award. She lives in Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles.

Jon Raymond is the author of the novels The Half-Life, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 2004; Rain Dragon; and the short story collection, Livability, winner of the Oregon Book Award. He is also the writer of the film Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and cowriter of the films Old Joy (2006) and Wendy and Lucy (2008), both based on his short fiction. He is also cowriter of the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011), winner of five Emmy Awards. His writing has appeared in Tin House, The Village Voice, Bookforum, Artforum, and many other publications.

David Levithan, Michelle Tea, & William Ritter (Rebroadcast) Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

In Another Day, best-selling author David Levithan tells the story from the side of Every Day’s Rhiannon as she seeks to discover the truth about love and how it can change you. Girl at the Bottom of the Sea, Michelle Tea’s sequel to Mermaid in Chelsea Creek, finds our hero Sophie traveling from Massachusetts to Poland with her unlikely guardian, the mermaid Syrena. And in Beastly Bones, the follow-up book to the acclaimed Jackaby, William Ritter tells of a supernatural investigation from the perspective of Abigail Rook, R.F. Jackaby’s assistant. Alison Clement, author of Twenty Questions, moderates this panel.

They like knowing there are other cultures in the world, and they rally at the opportunity to think about other societies and other ways of thinking about things. And when we only focus on one—just Western society—we miss out on lots of really cool philosophical ways of thinking about the world. – William Ritter, on teaching world mythologies

It is a really sweet feeling to create characters and then get to keep returning to them. – Michelle Tea, on writing a sequel or series

You may deploy this amazing metaphor [in your manuscript], and you’re like, ‘Wow! I’ve seen everything in a new light because of this amazing articulation that is so brilliant.’ And then when you’re revising, you’re like, ‘There is no way this character would ever have thought that.’ And so you have to kill your darling. – David Levithan, on character and voice

David Levithan is the author of numerous books for young adults, including Boy Meets Boy, the Lambda Literary Award winner Two Boys Kissing, and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, which was adapted into a film starring Michael Cera. Levithan is an editorial director at Scholastic and the founding editor of its PUSH imprint, which is devoted to finding new voices and new authors in teen literature. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Michelle Tea is an author, poet, and literary arts organizer whose work often explores queer culture, feminism, race, class, and prostitution, among other topics. Her award-winning memoir, Valencia, was adapted into a feature length film shot by 21 independent filmmakers as a collaborative film-arts project. Tea is the founder of the literary nonprofit RADAR Productions and the co-founder of the infamous spoke word tour, Sister Spit. She lives in San Francisco.

William Ritter is the author of two Young Adult novels, Jackaby and its sequel, Beastly Bones. He is a graduate of the University of Oregon and currently teaches high school language arts and mythology. When reading aloud, he always does the voices. He lives in Springfield, Oregon.

The moderator of this panel is Alison Clement. She is the author of Pretty is As Pretty Does and Twenty Questions, which won the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction through the Oregon Book Awards in 2007. Before earning her Master’s Degree, Clement had dropped out of college after reading Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society and worked a variety of jobs, including selling underground newspapers in Madison, Wisconsin; managing an occult bookstore in Normal, Illinois; and panhandling in San Francisco. She now teaches composition at a small, rural community college in Oregon.

Salman Rushdie (Rebroadcast) Sep 13, 2017

Show notes

In this lecture, recorded shortly following the 25^th anniversary of the publication of his controversial novel, The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie shares personal stories and his insights from his time spent in hiding. The consequences Rushdie faced following The Satanic Verses, largely from the fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, are brought to life in his memoir Joseph Anton, which takes its title from the assumed name he traveled under. He shares stories of his personal encounters wrought with dark comedy and talks about the delight of his return to normalcy. He also clears up some common misconceptions about the book, explaining how it was written to be a funny novel and how it is largely about the migrant experience of Indians relocating to the UK.

There are absolutes that have to do with our nature as human beings, and one of those absolutes, perhaps the bedrock of those absolutes, is the freedom of expression, because without that freedom all the other freedoms disappear.”

“It’s not difficult to defend the freedom of speech of people that you agree with or people who don’t particularly upset you. It’s when somebody says something that you think is genuinely objectionable and awful, that’s when you discover if you believe in free speech.”

“The secret of an open society is that people will say things you don’t like, and you have to just deal with it.”

Salman Rushdie is a British Indian novelist and essayist. His second novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), won the Booker Prize. His epic fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), was the subject of a major controversy, provoking protests from Muslims in several countries. Death threats were made against him, including a fatwā calling for his assassination issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 2012, he published Joseph Anton: A Memoir, an account of his life in the wake of the controversy over The Satanic Verses. Much of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent; his work is concerned with the many connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations.

Elizabeth Gilbert and Ann Patchett (Rebroadcast) Sep 06, 2017

Show notes

This episode of The Archive Project features best-selling authors, and long-time pen pals, Elizabeth Gilbert and Ann Patchett. Their devoted and supportive friendship sparkles throughout their conversation as they weave comfortably through topics at the forefront of their lives as high-profile female authors.

Taking an honest and open approach, they discuss the challenge of balancing the demands of being professional, committed writers while simultaneously facing expectations from society, as women, to spend time and energy on nurturing, supporting, and caring for others. They also discuss fame and the desire/necessity for privacy and invisibility from the public eye, as well as the ups and downs of writing fiction and dedicating themselves to this craft.

We should be miked whenever we’re together.”

“You have to write the thing that causes I revolution in your mind. …The thing that makes your heart race, that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, that you can’t not write.”

Ann Patchett is the author of seven novels and three books of nonfiction, including The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, State of Wonder, Truth & Beauty, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage. Her Books have been both New York Times Notable Books and New York Times bestsellers. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. In November of 2011, she opened Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, with her business partner Karen Hayes. She has since become a spokesperson for independent booksellers, championing books and bookstores publicly. In 2012 she was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Elizabeth Gilbert was born and raised in rural Connecticut, living on her family’s Christmas tree farm. She is best known for her memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, which was also turned into a blockbuster Hollywood film. The memoir was an international bestseller, having sold more than 10 million copies in thirty different languages. In addition to her memoirs, biographies, and other works of nonfiction, she has also written two novels: Stern Men and The Signature of All Things. The Signature of All Things was recognized as a Best Book of 2013 in The New York Times.

Mohsin Hamid (Rebroadcast) Aug 23, 2017

Show notes

In this episode of The Archive Project, author Mohsin Hamid discusses his childhood transitions from Pakistan to the United States and back again, citing Star Wars and Dungeons & Dragons as two of his earliest storytelling influences. He goes on to highlight moments on his journey as a writer, including how Moth Smoke, his debut book, began as his Harvard Law thesis; how he convinced a supervisor to let him have three months off each year to work on his writing; and the most basic human trait that unites us all: mortality.

At one point, [Douglas Adams] writes that ‘the secret to flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing.’ And that is really how I approach writing novels. I throw myself at the ground and hit, repeatedly, for years—I write draft after draft after draft…and eventually, hopefully, I miss.”

“I saw my dad playing with my daughter every morning and getting so excited about what she would be doing in five years, in ten years. And meanwhile, my father’s brother passed away, his best friend passed away, and yet my father was so excited about this future. And I realized that in some way his love for this child had altered his relationship to time.”

Pakistani writer Mohsin Hamid is the author of three novels and one collection of essays. His debut book, Moth Smoke, was shortlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award, propelling him from his career as a management consultant in New York to an author in his hometown of Lahore. His second novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, was an international best seller, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and adapted into a movie directed by Mira Nair. His book of essays, Discontent and Its Civilizations, contains his reflections on life over the past 15 years. Hamid spent much of his childhood and early adulthood alternating between life in Pakistan and life in the United States. From this experience, Hamid has noted, “I’m somebody who can blend in usually quite quickly, but inside continues to retain a sense of feeling foreign.” In addition to living in Lahore, New York, and California, Hamid spent eights years in London following the start of his professional writing career. Of the central theme of his works, Hamid has stated, “All of my novels are love stories, in a way. I think love is kind of the plot in our lives, you know? It’s embedded in the culture and even the religion of the part of Pakistan I’m from, which is that one of the ways in which we can confront the horror of being mortal and dying one day is to love enough that we’re not so central to ourselves that we can’t face the fact that we’re going to end.”

Michael Lewis in conversation with Hanna Rosin (Rebroadcast) Aug 17, 2017

Show notes

In this episode of The Archive Project, Michael Lewis – in conversation with NPR’s Hanna Rosin – discusses his latest book, The Undoing Project. He describes the unique and powerful emotional core of the working relationship between Nobel-Prize winning psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, the monumental work they did in the field of mental biases and flawed perceptions, and why he was inspired to put their story to page.

On the work/relationship between Kahnerman & Tversky: “The ideas don’t happen without the love affair. The work they do together is unlike the work they do apart. It is a pure collaboration.”

“On accessibly writing on difficult topics: “I don’t want to try to seem smarter than my reader, because I don’t feel smarter than my reader.”

“On our flawed memory and mental biases: “We’re always responding to the last tragedy. We’re not calculating the odds in any way. We’re only responding to what just happened.”

Michael Lewis, the author of the best-selling books Moneyball, The Blind Side, Flash Boys, and The Big Short, will join NPR’s Hanna Rosin for a live onstage interview. His latest book, The Undoing Project (December 2016), examines how a Nobel Prize–winning theory of the mind altered our perception of reality. The book explores the work of Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, whose research into decision-making and judgment offered new trends in behavioral economics, politics, advanced medicine, and sports.

Hanna Rosin is the co-host of the NPR podcast Invisibilia, which debuted at #1 on the iTunes podcast charts. She is the author of several books, including The End of Men. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, and GQ magazine.

Mary Oliver (Rebroadcast) Aug 09, 2017

Show notes

Mary Oliver reads poems from several of her collections, focusing on brief images of the natural world that she believes people need to attend. These poems include “Messenger,” “Thirst,” “Percy 1,” “The Swan,” “Beans,” “Swimming with Otter,” “Wild Geese,” “Percy 2,” “There you were and it was like spring,” and “The Sun.” Between poems, Oliver shares details about her personal life, including her time as a teacher and her time spent observing the world with the help of her partner, photographer Mary Cook.

“Certainly anybody who starts reading a sentence has the curiosity to finish that one sentence, yes? And this is why I’ve kind of done what you could do with dashes and semicolons and so forth. A good number of my poems are 36 lines long and one sentence.”

“Attention without feeling, I began to learn, is only a report. An openness and empathy was necessary if the attention was to matter.”

“People travel to keep from crying in place.”

A notoriously private person, Mary Oliver has been described by The New York Times as “far and away America’s best-selling poet,” and has written more than 30 collections of poetry and nonfiction. Her allocates include a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award, and a Lannan Literary Award. While she never formally completed a degree, Oliver has received honorary doctorates from four institutions, including Dartmouth College and Tufts University. As a teenager, Oliver lived briefly in the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, where she helped Millay’s family sort through the papers the poet left behind. In her review of Oliver’s poetry, Maxine Kumin noted that Oliver “stands quite comfortably on the margins of things, on the line between earth and sky, the thin membrane that separates human from what we loosely call animal,” acting as an “indefatigable guide to the natural world, particularly to its lesser-known aspects.” Though Oliver currently resides in Florida, she lived in Provincetown, Massachusetts, for roughly 40 years with her partner, photographer Mary Cook, and the location has served as the inspiration for much of her work.

Carlos Fuentes (Rebroadcast) Aug 02, 2017

Show notes

Carlos Fuentes gives a talk titled “After the Cold War: The Rise of a New Agenda.” It is the keynote address for a conference intended to help Oregonians put into a global perspective the cultural, economic, and political significance of the emerging Hispanic population of Oregon and the United States. Fuentes discusses the changes taking place in the world since the end of World War II, mainly focusing on the increases in technology and economy brought on by rapid globalization. Because of this globalization, he says, it is incredibly significant to bridge the gap between “us” and “them.” He makes the case that the solution to many of the divisions in the world lies in coexistence, collaboration, and understanding.

Carlos Fuentes was a Mexican novelist, playwright, critic, and diplomat referred to by The New York Times as “Mexico’s elegant public intellectual and a grand man of letters, whose panoramic novels captured the complicated essence of his country’s history for readers around the world.” His novel The Old Gringo earned him international acclaim in 1985 and was made into a movie featuring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda. It was the first book by a Mexican novelist to become a bestseller in the United States. He received the Cervantes Prize, the most prestigious Spanish-language literary award, as well as the National Order of Merit, France’s highest civilian award to a foreigner, and was shortlisted for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times.

The problem that is rushing forward to meet and embrace us is that of the other—learning to live in our new multi-polar world with he or she who is not like you and me.”

“Melting pots are now either unmelting or brimming over, for the city of the 21^st century is demanding that we not only assimilate the foreign, but that finally we accept its continual cultural personality.”

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