The Archive Project

This is a special episode featuring a staged reading of Cindy Williams Gutiérrez’s Words That Burn, winner of the 2017 Oregon Book Award for Drama.

Words That Burn is a dramatization of the World War II experiences of William Stafford, Lawson Inada, and Guy Gabaldón. Especially relevant in today’s political climate, Words That Burn brings to life the distinctive voices of a conscientious objector, a Japanese-American internee, and Chicano Marine, juxtaposing the history and perspectives of three World War II figures in their own words.

This version is abridged by the author, directed by Gemma Whelan, with sound designed by Jonathan Swanson, and run by Rosie Lambert. Recorded at Literary Arts downtown event space in May 2018, this performance features actors Damon Kupper as William Stafford, Paul Susi as Lawson Inada, and Anthony Green as Guy Gabaldón.

Cindy Williams Gutiérrez is a poet-dramatist who draws inspiration from the silent and silenced voices of history and herstory. The 2016 recipient of the inaugural Oregon Literary Fellowship for Writers of Color, Cindy was selected by Poets & Writers Magazine as a 2014 Notable Debut Poet. Her poetry collection, the small claim of bones (Bilingual Press), won second place in the 2015 International Latino Book Awards. Her poems have appeared in Borderlands, CALYX, Crab Orchard Review, Harvard’s Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, UNAM’s Periódico de poesía, Portland Review, Quiddity, and ZYZZYVA and have been anthologized in Basta: 100+ Latinas Against Gender Violence (University of Nevada-Reno) and Raising Lilly Ledbetter: Women Poets Occupy the Workspace (Lost Horse Press). She is also one of the founders of Los Porteños, Portland’s Latino writers’ collective.

In this lecture, Siddhartha Mukherjee dives into the complex topic of genetic research and why he wanted to write The Gene: An Intimate History, reasons of which include his family’s own history with genetic diseases. He shares the timeline of historic discoveries in the science of genes, from Gregor Mendel’s work with inheritance patterns in pea plants to modern-day somatic cell and germ line gene therapies, and speculates on the scientific possibilities in the future of genetic research. Throughout the lecture, he asks philosophical questions that will – in the not too distant future – become very real quandaries that human beings will have to face. He asks questions such as: If you could learn more about your or your children’s genetic makeup and potential risks, would you want to know? Would that knowledge change the course of your actions? And is humanity prepared for the responsibility that will come with our growing scientific knowledge?

“Genetics is not an abstraction for me. It is one of the most concrete realities that my family has faced, and I would argue it is one of the most concrete realities that virtually every family will face.”

“In these political times, please read the chapters on race… The Victorian construction of ‘race’ is entirely arbitrary, and the fact that we are fighting about a scientific construction that’s largely arbitrary is really embarrassing.”

“This is technology that our children will be debating and talking about in a way that will make much of these current debates entirely trivial.”

Siddhartha Mukherjee is the author of The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction, and The Laws of Medicine. He is the editor of Best Science Writing 2013. Mukherjee is an assistant professor of medicine at Columbia University and a cancer physician and researcher. A Rhodes scholar, he graduated from Stanford University, University of Oxford, and Harvard Medical School. He has published articles in Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The New York Times, and Cell. He lives in New York with his wife and daughters.

In this episode of The Archive Project, New Yorker staff writer George Packer speaks on the subject of “American Identity in the Age of Trump” using the lens of his most recent book, The Unwinding. In this work of nonfiction, Packer tells the political and socio-economic story of the past three decades by journeying through the lives of several Americans, including a son of tobacco farmers who becomes an evangelist for a new economy in the rural South, a factory worker in the Rust Belt trying to survive the collapse of her city, a Washington insider oscillating between political idealism and the lure of organized money, and a Silicon Valley billionaire who arrives at a radical vision of the future. Packer interweaves these stories with sketches of public figures, from Newt Gingrich to Jay-Z, and collages made from newspaper headlines, advertising slogans, and song lyrics. All of this in search of an answer to the question: How did we get here? [book description courtesy of Macmillan]

George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which received numerous prizes and was named one of the ten best books of 2005 by The New York Times Book Review. He is also the author of the novels The Half Man and Central Square, and the works of nonfiction The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, The Village of Waiting and Blood of the Liberals, which won the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. His play, Betrayed, ran in Manhattan for five months in 2008 and won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. He lives in Brooklyn.

In this episode, George Saunders discusses the process that lead to his award-winning first novel, Lincoln in the Bardo, which contemplates the time Abraham Lincoln spent in his son’s tomb following his death and the fate of the young boy’s soul. With all the characteristic wit and humor of his short stories, Saunders takes the audience through the process of writing the novel—from the first spark of inspiration decades ago, through many iterations, to the final masterpiece. Saunders explores both craft and the role of the literary artist today with a compassion and intimacy that resonates deeply in our current moment.

“If I am a novelist—and that’s open for debate—but if I am, and you are my dear reader and you pick up the novel and you know it’s a novel, we enter into a sacred, ancient contract of storyteller and story-receiver. The contract that we have entered into is: I am going to do whatever it takes, including small lies, exaggerations, omissions, compressions. My purpose is to, through multiple lies or fictions, to convey to you a higher truth. And in the process, by doing that, I’m availing myself of a higher truth—you are too—and in that sacred moment, like two fish rising, we kiss. That’s a very holy thing.”

George Saunders is the author of nine books, including Tenth of December, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the inaugural Folio Prize (for the best work of fiction in English) and the Story Prize (best short-story collection). He has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships and the PEN/Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story, and was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2013, he was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. He teaches in the creative writing program at Syracuse University

This episode of the Archive Project features writer and thinker Reza Aslan as he takes the listener on a historical journey to find the roots and reasons for faith. In this lecture, Aslan reflects on the nature of faith, highlighting the human tendency to depict higher powers in our own image. Aslan uses evidence from several archaeological sites—some from as far back as 14,000 B.C.—to illustrate the human drive toward ritual faith and humanization of the divine. Aslan asks the listener to consider not what we believe, but why. Using his vast knowledge of varied religions and cultures, Aslan creates a crash-course on the history of faith and its role in all our lives, regardless of belief.

You could look at the entirety of human spirituality, the entire history of religious expression, and what you will see is one long, ever-evolving, and remarkably cohesive attempt to make sense of God by giving God our personality and our attributes, our emotions, our motivations, our strengths and our weaknesses, our vices, our virtues—even our own bodies. In short, by making God a human being.” 

“I’m not saying there’s no such thing as God or that God is just some kind of human construct; that may be true, but it’s not something I’m interested in. I have no interest in having a conversation about whether or not God exists. I’m not here to prove one way or the other, because there ain’t no proof. Faith is a choice. I often say that anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to convert you…Faith is not a rational thing; it’s an experiential thing. It’s an emotion, like love.”

Reza Aslan is an internationally renowned writer, commentator, professor, producer, and scholar of religions. His books, including his #1 New York Times Bestseller, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, have been translated into dozens of languages around the world. He is also a recipient of the prestigious James Joyce Award. Born in Iran, he lives in Los Angeles with his wife, author and entrepreneur, Jessica Jackley, and their three sons. Aslan currently teaches at the University of California, Riverside.

This episode of The Archive Project features filmmaker and writer Francis Ford Coppola discussing his new book, Live Cinema and Its Techniques, with New York Times’ Melena Ryzik. In this eye-opening interview, Coppola discusses his thoughts on live cinema, a technique in which movies are performed live and broadcast via satellite into theaters. Throughout the conversation, Coppola looks back on his own career and the history of the art form itself, giving us an intimate and informative glimpse into the mind of one the greatest American filmmakers of his generation.

Perhaps this new method, this digital method of making films might imply different kinds of films, films that wouldn’t have been possible in the old, mechanical, photochemical era. And one of the aspects that it could be is that you could make cinema—basically what we know as cinema, movies—and they could be made in a live performance. And this old tradition of performance, which has been with the theatre for thousands of years, wouldn’t necessarily be lost.” 

Francis Ford Coppola is a writer, director, and entrepreneur perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning masterpieces, The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now (1979). In addition to his numerous directing credits, Coppola has written or adapted many of the stories he’s brought to the screen. In 1997, he began a decade-long break from filmmaking, focusing on a number of new ventures, including Zoetrope: All-Story, a literary magazine of essays and short stories which publishes emerging writers alongside literary powerhouses. Since his return to film in 2007, Coppola has released three films through his production company, American Zoetrope. The Godfather Notebook, Coppola’s notes on the novel as he made the film, was published in 2016, followed by this year’s Live Cinema and Its Techniques. Coppola is currently creating a four-part “live cinema” movie based on his own family’s multigenerational history.

Melena Ryzik is the lead writer of the New York Times’ Carpetbagger blog. In addition to being a general assignment culture reporter, covering film, music, theater, television, visual art, dance and the occasional Dumpster pool party or eco-art-barge, Ms. Ryzik has chronicled cultural life in New York for the UrbanEye video series and written the UrbanEye e-mail, a daily events guide. She joined The New York Times in 2001 writing for metro and investigative news, and got her start on the red carpet beat as a contributing writer for The Times column Boldface Names. She enjoys riding her bicycle to black tie events.

For over 50 years, Ursula K. Le Guin’s science fiction and fantasy books offered hope and inspiration to readers and writers everywhere. Le Guin passed away on January 22, 2018.

This live event, presented in Portland, Oregon on June 13, 2018, featured tributes from writers and friends who represent the wide-ranging influence Le Guin has had on international literature for more than 50 years, including Margaret Atwood (by video), Molly Gloss, Walidah Imarisha, Jonathan Lethem, Kelly Link, China Miéville, and Daniel José Older. Andrea Schulz, Le Guin’s editor at Harcourt, and Julie Phillips, Le Guin’s biographer, also spoke at the tribute. The tribute included rare documentary footage of Le Guin, along with photos and images from her life and work. The full event is available to watch online here.

As a genre-defying writer, Ursula K. Le Guin authored more than 50 works, including novels, poetry collections, and children’s books that explore issues of race, gender, and environmentalism. Her books have been translated into more than 40 languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. Her many honors include the Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, and PEN-Malamud. In 2014, she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished contribution to American Letters.

While her speculative fiction urged readers to explore new worlds and distant futures, Le Guin was an active guardian of her writing community and her home state of Oregon. She was an ardent supporter for writers and independent publishers and actively used her platform to defend free speech. Le Guin was involved with Literary Arts for 31 years, as a participant, trusted advisor, and ardent supporter. Her dedication helped shape Literary Arts’ programs that serve more than 20,000 readers and writers each year.

Molly Gloss is a fourth-generation Oregonian who lives in Portland. She is the bestselling author of The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, Wild Life, The Hearts of Horses and Falling From Horses. Her work has earned numerous awards, including an Oregon Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the PEN West Fiction Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award; and a Whiting Writers Award.

Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator, and spoken-word artist. She is the author of the poetry collection Scars/Stars, the nonfiction Angels with Dirty Faces, and co-editor of Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements. She has facilitated writing workshops at schools, community centers, youth detention facilities, and women’s prisons.

Jonathan Lethem is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His works include his début novel Gun with Occasional Music, a finalist for the 1994 Nebula Award; Motherless Brooklyn, winner of both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Macallan Gold Dagger for crime fiction; and The Fortress of Solitude, a New York Times best-seller. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and The New York Times. Lethem is also a 2005 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of Salsa Nocturna, the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series, and the Young Adult novel Shadowshaper, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, which won the International Latino Book Award and was shortlisted for the Kirkus Prize in Young Readers’ Literature, the Andre Norton Award, the Locus, the Mythopoeic Award, and named one of Esquire‘s 80 Books Every Person Should Read.

This episode features award-winning poet and thinker Claudia Rankine discussing race in America in the years since the publication of her hybrid form volume of poetry Citizen: An American Lyric. In this lecture, Rankine explores not only what it means to be black in America today, but how the black experience relates to what we unconsciously consider the standard, white experience. In a society that sees whiteness as the default, how do we interpret and interrogate what it means to be white in America? Using a series of examples ranging from the history of color photography to her own Yale classroom in the present day, Rankine’s lecture reminds us that perhaps our current political climate shouldn’t come as such a surprise after all.

Claudia Rankine is the author of five collections of poetry including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely; two plays including Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue; numerous video collaborations and is the editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind. For her book Citizen, Rankine won both the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN Literary Award, the NAACP Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (Citizen was the first book ever to be named a finalist in both the poetry and criticism categories); and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Citizen also holds the distinction of being the only poetry book to be a New York Times best seller in the nonfiction category. Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Jackson Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives in California and teaches at Yale University as the Frederick Iseman Professor of Poetry.

This episode of The Archive Project features New York Times bestselling author in conversation with fellow nonfiction favorite Chuck Klosterman, discussing life, career, and the ethics of writing nonfiction. In her newest collection of essays, Look Alive Out There, Crosley explores active volcanoes, crashing shivas, befriending swingers, and squinting down the barrel of the fertility gun, always rising to the occasion with unmatchable nerve and electric one-liners. In this episode, Klosterman, full of humor and humility, asks Crosley to consider the limits of memory and ethics: Is possible to remember something differently even once it has been publicly recounted on the page? And what debt does the essayist owe to the real people who populate their stories, especially those who cannot share their side of things? Crosley tackles each of these with signature wit and emotional weight. 

Sloane Crosley is the author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake, a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and How Did You Get This Number, both New York Times bestsellers. Her debut novel, The Clasp, was a national bestseller and has been optioned for film by Universal Pictures. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Esquire, Elle, and New York magazine, among many others. She is currently a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and Interview magazine. Her new collection of essays, Look Alive Out There, was published by FSG/MCD in April 2018. She lives in Manhattan. [Book description and bio courtesy of sloanecrosley.com]

Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of eight books of nonfiction (including Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; But What If We’re Wrong?; and Chuck Klosterman X) and two novels (Downtown Owl and The Visible Man). He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, GQ, Esquire, Spin, the Guardian, The Believer, Billboard, The A.V. Club, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for the New York Times Magazine for three years, appeared as himself in the LCD Soundsystem documentary Shut Up and Play the Hits, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. [Bio courtesy of chuckklostermanauthor.com]

This episode features Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen reading from his novel The Sympathizer. Between readings, Nguyen humorously meditates on his own refugee experience as a Vietnamese American growing up in post-war Sacramento, California. A profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel, The Sympathizer is the story of a man of two minds, someone whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties. In both conversation with and opposition to the narratives of the Vietnam War that have preceded it, Nguyen’s novel offers an important and unfamiliar new perspective on the war: that of a conflicted communist sympathizer. 

Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. His novel, The Sympathizer, is a New York Times bestseller and won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as five other awards. He is also the author of the nonfiction books Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War and Race and Resistance: Literature and Politics in Asian America. His most recent book is the bestselling short story collection, The Refugees. He is a University Professor, the Aerol Arnold Chair of English, and a Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. Viet is actively involved with promoting the arts and culture of Vietnamese in the diaspora through two organizations: The Diasporic Vietnamese Artists Network (DVAN), for which he is the co-director, stages film festivals, youth arts groups, and literary festivals and events that center around the voices of Vietnamese in the diaspora. diaCRITICS is DVAN’s blog for which Viet is the editor. It features book, film, and art reviews, essays and commentaries, interviews with artists and writers, travelogues, and more, all dealing with the cultural production of Vietnamese in the diaspora. Viet is also on the steering committee for USC’s Center for Transpacific Studies, which encourages the study of how cultures, peoples, capital, and ideas flow across the Pacific and between Asia, the Americas, and the Pacific Islands.