About Listening

Educated at Barnard College and Harvard University, Lena Lencek is professor of Russian literature and the humanities at Reed College.  She is a specialist in the conference method of instruction, which relies on interactive learning strategies and has led seminars for over 25 years. To her varied portfolio of communication skills, she brings a distinguished record of successful mentoring, grant writing, and research directing.  Lencek is an effective public speaker who has lectured internationally to diverse audiences.

Lencek  is the author of numerous articles and books, among them Frozen Music. A History of Portland Architecture (Portland: Western Imprints, 1984); Making Waves (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987); The Beach. A History of Paradise on Earth (New York: and Viking/ Penguin and London: Secker & Warburg/ Pimlico, 1998, 1999; Blackstone Audiobooks, 1999), co-written with Gideon Bosker, and selected New York Times Notable Book of the year for 1998.  Her most recent books include Beach. Stories of the Sand and Sea (New York: Marlowe Books, 2000); Sail Away.  Stories of Escaping to Sea (New York: Marlowe Books, 2001); Escape. Stories of Getting Away (New York: Marlowe Books, 2002); Beaches (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000); Pilgrimage (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2003) Off the Wall (Chronicle, 2004); Dynamic Wave Theory (Booth Cliborn/Abrams, 2006). Works-in-progress include Vacation. Work. Fatigue, and the Conquest of Time for N.N. Norton; and How to Write Like Chekhov (NY: Perseus Books, 2009).

Lencek’s translations of folkloric texts and lyrical poetry from Russian, Slovene, and Bulgarian have appeared in various journals, both here and abroad, and include The Golden Bird. Fairy Tales from Slovenia (Cleveland and New York: The World Publishing Co.).  For her translations of the poetry of Elissaveta Bagrjana, Lencek was honored by the Bulgarian Academy of Arts and Letters.

A radio columnist for Canadian Public Broadcasting, and frequent contributor to “The Savvy Traveler”, National Public Radio, Lencek has worked on a number of television documentaries, including Nothing to Hide (Australia: Beyond Productions for Discovery Channel); Beach Crazy (Los Angeles: Termite Productions for Arts and Entertainment; Technological Beach (for History Channel), and, in production, a two-hour documentary based on The Beach. A History of Paradise on Earth, for the History Channel. During the summer of 2000, The Beach was read on BBC’s Radio 4.

Lencek’s research has been supported by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IREX, Harvard University, Committee for the Humanities, Oregon Arts Commission. Lencek sits on the boards of the French American International School, the International High School of Portland, Oregon, and has served on the boards of the Portland Center for the Visual Arts and  the Portland Opera. Slovene by nationality, she was born and raised in Italy, and has traveled and lived abroad extensively.  She can function in the following living languages: English, Russian, Slovene, Italian, French, Serbo-Croatian.