2019/2020 Portland Arts & Lectures: George Packer (Sold Out)

George Packer is a journalist, novelist, playwright, and staff writer for The New Yorker. His latest book is Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, which the members of the Whiting Award grant jury—from whom Packer was awarded a grant to complete the work—say is “irreverent, fast-paced, and unfailingly rigorous. . . an enthralling nonfiction picaresque that offers incisive clues to the complexities this country faces today.” Packer’s other works include the nonfiction titles The Unwinding, recipient of the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2013; The Assassins’ Gate, which was named one of the ten best books of 2005 by the New York Times Book Review and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Blood of the Liberals, which won the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was a Guggenheim Fellow and has taught writing at Harvard, Bennington, and Columbia.

The 35th season of Portland Arts & Lectures features some of the most engaging writers at work today. Our 2019/2020 season features George Packer, Amor Towles, Min Jin Lee, Susan Orlean, and Colson Whitehead. Subscriptions to this five-part series are on sale now.

The 2019/2020 season of Portland Arts & Lectures is sold out, except for Patron and Reserved-level subscribers renewing their seats from the 2018/2019 season.

Please call our box office at 503-227-2583 to renew your seat from last year.

Series subscriptions go on sale every spring and sell out early. Sign up to our email newsletter to receive updates on when our events go on sale. 

The series will begin on October 24 with author and staff writer for The New Yorker, George Packer. His new book is Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century. On November 14, we welcome Amor Towles, author of the New York Times best sellers Rules of Civility and A Gentleman in Moscow. The series continues on January 15 with Min Jin Lee, whose latest novel, Pachinko, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. On February 20, we will host Susan Orlean, author of eight books, including her most recent, The Library Book, a New York Times best seller and a Washington Post Top 10 Book of the Year for 2018. The series will close on May 7 with Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys and The Underground Railroad, a New York Times best seller which won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award.

[See also the Portland’5 website]