The Archive Project

This episode features authors Jonathan Lethem, Helen Phillips, and Dana Spiotta as they discuss the presence of the fantastic or strange in their work. In The Gambler’s Anatomy, Jonathan Lethem tells the story of Bruno Alexander, an international backgammon hustler who believes he’s psychic. Helen Phillips’s short story collection, Some Possible Solutions, takes us through a series what-ifs and dystopias in which Phillips’s characters struggle to develop meaningful relationships amidst the chaos. Dana Spiotta’s Innocents and Others is the story of Meadow, Carrie, and Jelly, three women grappling with questions of art, ethics, and intimacy in 1980s Los Angeles. This panel is moderated by BuzzFeed’s Isaac Fitzgerald.

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.

Helen Phillips is the author of four books, including the short story collection Some Possible Solutions, winner of the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award; The Beautiful Bureaucrat, a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, finalist for the NYPL Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and the collection And Yet They Were Happy, named a notable collection by The Story Prize. Her work has been featured on Selected Shorts, at the Brooklyn Museum, and in the Atlantic, the New York Times, and Tin House, among others.

Dana Spiotta is the author of four novels: Innocents and Others; Stone Arabia, a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist in fiction; Eat the Document, a finalist for the National Book Award and a recipient of the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; and Lightning Field. Spiotta was a Guggenheim Fellow, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, and won the 2008-9 Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome. She lives in Syracuse with her daughter Agnes and teaches in the Syracuse University MFA program.

In this episode of The Archive Project, Richard Russo, Karen Russell, and Kevin Young discuss inequality and its influence on their work. In Everybody’s Fool, Richard Russo revisits the town of North Bath, NY and its colorful citizens a decade after the events of Nobody’s Fool. Karen Russell takes us to the edge of reality with Swamplandia!, the story of an alligator wrestling family, the Bigtrees, and their struggle to maintain their way of life in the Florida Everglades. Kevin Young’s Blue Laws takes us on tour through the poet’s prolific career and blurs the already thin line between the personal and the political. This panel is moderated by literary critic John Freeman.

Richard Russo is the author of eight novels, two collections of stories, and Elsewhere, a memoir. In 2002 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Empire Falls, which, like his earlier novel Nobody’s Fool, was adapted for the screen in a multiple-award-winning HBO miniseries. In 2016 he published Everybody’s Fool, a sequel to his 1993 book Nobody’s Fool.

Karen Russell, a native of Miami, won the 2012 National Magazine Award for fiction, and her first novel, Swamplandia!, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2011. She is a graduate of the Columbia MFA program, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, and a MacArthur “Genius” grant recipient. Russell is also the author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Vampires in the Lemon Grove: Stories, and Sleep Donation: A Novella. She lives in Philadelphia.

Kevin Young is the author of eleven books of poetry, prose, and nonfiction including Blue Laws: Selected & Uncollected Poems 1995-2015, longlisted for the National Book Award; Jelly Roll: a blues, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness, winner of the PEN Open Book Award and finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He is the editor of eight other collections, most recently The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton, 1965-2010. He is currently the Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and is set to become the Poetry Editor of the New Yorker.

John Freeman is the editor of Freeman’s, a literary annual published by Grove Press. He has written several books of nonfiction including, How to Read a Novelist and Dictionary of the Undoing, as well as two collections of poems, Maps and The Park. The former editor of Granta, he is now Artist-in-Residence at NYU and executive editor of The Literary Hub. Between 2014 and 2020, he edited a series of anthologies on inequality, concluding with Tales of Two Planets, which focuses on the climate crisis and global inequality. Freeman’s work has been translated into more than 20 languages and appears in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Zyzzyva. He lives in London.

This episode of The Archive Project features celebrated novelist and screenwriter, Alice Hoffman in conversation with the Director of the Multnomah County Library Vailey Oehlke at Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival. Hoffman joined us at Wordstock: Portland’s Book Festival in 2016 to discuss her then newly published novel, Faithful. This New York Times bestseller follows Shelby Richmond, a young woman burdened by guilt, on her emotional journey to rediscover herself after terrible tragedy.

Alice Hoffman is the New York Times bestselling author of Practical Magic, Here on Earth, and The Dovekeepers, which was praised by Toni Morrison as, “beautiful, harrowing, a major contribution to twenty-first century literature.” Hoffman has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults. Her work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman’s novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares, and other magazines.

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.

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.

For the next season of The Archive Project, Literary Arts is thrilled to partner with Cole Haan, the fashion brand that’s acknowledging extraordinary people who write, read, and shape the world through their stories. The stories you’ll hear this season highlight, among many themes, the pivotal moments in these writers’ careers, and the friendships and partnerships that make authorship happen.

Here is a glimpse of the wonderful talks and conversations we’ll be airing this fall on our podcast and radio show, including Margaret Atwood, Carrie Brownstein, P.C. Cast, Colson Whitehead and many others. To find more extraordinary stories, beyond the countless conversations on The Archive Project, visit ColeHaan.com.

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.

In this lecture, recorded shortly following the 25th 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.

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. 

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.”