Asked about his idea of happiness, Colum McCann responded: "My dead grandfather touching me on the shoulder and telling me that it's time for us to go out for a drink." Enjoy a Q&A with McCann here and on May 24 at Benaroya Hall following his lecture.

Deborah Treisman of The New Yorker interviews Colum McCann about the uses of nonfiction—Alcock and Brown’s nonstop 1919 flight across the Atlantic—in his recent short story “Transatlantic.” Read more.

WITS is delighted to present, for the second year in a row, a portfolio of 16 hand-set artist-made letterpress broadsides featuring poems by patients at Seattle Children's Hospital.Click here to see them on SAL's Facebook page. To see them in person, and to hear some of the patients read their work, come to the free WITS year-end readings on May 22 and 23, 6pm, at the Seattle Public Library.

Please join supporters of SAL's Writers in the Schools for a fundraising reception following the May 22nd End-of-Year Reading & Celebration at the offices of Davis Wright Tremaine, 1201 Third Avenue, 22nd Floor, 7:30-8:30pm. Writing matters to you, and WITS brings the joy of writing to thousands of young people in our local schools (and at Seattle Children's Hospital) each year. The elementary and middle school students you hear on this night are just a small sample of the wide impact our program makes. Your gift on this night will help us to sustain this work into our 17th year! Please RSVP by May 16th.