Top writers to give Portland lectures.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Four novelists, a playwright and a comedian will be featured in the 2004-2005 Portland Arts & Lectures series at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall.

Opening the series, on Oct. 6, will be novelist and short story writer T. Coraghessan Boyle, author of "The Road to Wellville" (1993), "Riven Rock" (1998), "Drop City" (2003) and the forthcoming novel "The Inner Circle," focusing on men who worked with Alfred Kinsey at his Institute for Sex Research in the 1940s and '50s. Boyle has won two PEN/Faulkner Awards and several O. Henry Awards. "Drop City" was a National Book Award finalist.

Comedian Shelly Berman will speak Dec. 8. Along with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Berman was a member of the Compass Players (now known as Second City) in Chicago. He won three Grammy Awards, for "Inside Shelly Berman" (1959), ``Outside Shelly Berman'' (1961) and ``The Edge of Shelly Berman'' (1963). He currently plays Larry David's father on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

Playwright Terrence McNally will speak Jan. 19. McNally has had more than 15 plays and musicals produced on Broadway since 1963. Along with the Tony Award-winning musicals "Kiss of the Spiderwoman" and "Ragtime," he has written straight dramatic works such as "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," "The Lisbon Traviata" and "Corpus Christi." His latest work, "The Stendhal Syndrome," opened in New York earlier this year.

Novelist Tracy Chevalier will speak Feb. 10. Her books include "The Virgin Blue" (1997), "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (2000), "Fallen Angels" (2001) and "The Lady and the Unicorn" (2003).

Novelist Jane Smiley will speak March 15. Smiley won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1991 for "A Thousand Acres," an American family novel inspired by William Shakespeare's "King Lear." Her novels include "Barn Blind" (1980) and "Good Faith" (2003). Her current work is "A Year at the Races: Reflections on Horses, Humans, Love, Money and Luck" (2004).

Novelist Edward P. Jones will speak April 21. Like Smiley, Jones won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for one book, "The Known World" (2004). It is set in pre-Civil War Virginia, where freed slaves owned black slaves. Jones won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a National Book Award finalist for "Lost in the City" (1992), a collection of stories set in the black communities of Washington, D.C., during the 1960s and '70s.

All presentations begin at 7:30 p.m. Series tickets range from $85 (upper balcony) and $90 (seniors and college students) up to $215. Partial-series tickets are $95, $82 or $66 for five, four or three lectures. Individual tickets will go on sale Sept. 1. These are $5 for high school students, $15 for upper balcony, $18 for college students and seniors, $25 general admission. Call [phone].