Belonging. We believe access is core to belonging, and we bring an intersectional lens to breaking down historical and societal forces that create and enforce racial, economic, access, and geographic barriers. We strive to foster spaces where all community members feel valued, invited, and welcomed in a spirit of mutual inspiration and exchange.

Racial Equity. We bring an anti-racist lens to all of our programmatic and budgetary decisions to work against the historical and present-day effects of white supremacy. We prioritize, amplify, and celebrate the voices, stories, and lived experiences of writers and readers who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color in the community and beyond.

Transparency & Trust. We build trust through transparency in our processes, decision-making, follow-through, and accountability. We prioritize thoughtful, intentional action; responsiveness over reactivity; and regular, open, and honest communication centered on community feedback.

Curiosity. We cultivate curiosity—in our audiences, students, staff, and community members—by providing opportunities for wonder and learning that are rooted in humility and make visionary futures possible.

Joy. We value the joy forged through individual acts of reading and writing and the connection and community created through the sharing of stories.

These updates represent significant actions that each team at SAL is highlighting from July 2024 to June 2025:

Youth Programs

• Doubled WITS Rewritten services and prepared program for successful future expansion.
• Launched a mentorship program for WITS Writers to build skills to lead their own Professional Development for Educator workshops.
• Expanded our reach by partnering with new school partners in Highline Public Schools and Tukwila Public Schools.

Public Programs

• Increased transparency, data tracking, and info-gathering by using a post-event rubric with age and race demographics, partnerships, and revenue/expenses for events.
• Focused on outreach and expanding our SAL community by expanding partnerships with 13 new or re-established relationships with BIPOC-led/serving organizations and media partners, 19 rural libraries, and 2 Indigenous libraries.
• Experimented with new free, non-lecture event formats, such as silent reading parties and book clubs.
• Invested in staff-wide mental health training for de-escalation to provide better communication and crisis management to our patrons at events.

Administration.

• Created a team of staff and Board and a robust process to choose a consultant to lead us in developing our new strategic plan.
• Instituted electronic payments to contractors which has improved speed of payment, security for all parties, and cut down on workload for SAL staff.
• All leadership team members spent the year in ongoing equity-focused coaching with our consultants, Diana Falchuk & Sonali Sangeeta Balajee.

Development

• Assessed who is represented in our donor constituency, who we ask for gifts, and what motivates people to give.
• Broadened our donor circle and diversified our audience to bring people closer to the art and our mission by stewarding new donors, first time donors, in-kind donors, and lapsed donors as we do our top donors.
• Renewed our initiative of offering a community-level ticket price to the SAL gala, allowing more parts of our community to attend and participate and providing new pathways to connect to our mission.

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Past Reports:

2023/24 Racial Equity Accountability Report

Summer 2022 Racial Equity Accountability Report

Winter 2022 Racial Equity Accountability Report

SAL makes significant investments in the literary arts community by supporting locally and globally celebrated writers. Through conversations and craft talks by dynamic, nationally-acclaimed authors, as well as free community programs like Summer Book Bingo, launched in 2015, and the SAL/on air podcast, launched in 2018, our Public Programs present opportunities for our community—of writers, speakers, students, teachers, readers, listeners, and more—to come together and feel challenged, connected, and inspired.

Our nationally-recognized Writers in the Schools (WITS) program, founded in 1994, matches local professional writers in K-12 with public schools and hospitals to elevate the expressions of all students as they discover and develop their authentic writing and performance voices. SAL’s Youth Poetry Fellowship (YPF) program, launched in 2015, serves a cohort of young writers committed to poetry, performance, civic and community engagement, education, and equity across the Puget Sound region. One of the fellows, the Youth Poet Laureate, publishes a poetry chapbook that is released annually by Poetry NW Editions.

SAL has stayed true to our mission, yet responded to a changing world, by producing all programs in-person and online, and by offering $7 tickets to all events. In 2024/25, over 30,000 SAL attendees had accessible, meaningful experiences with the foremost writers and thinkers of our time; one-quarter of those tickets were free or provided at very low cost to community members. In 2024/25, over 6,000 students worked with a WITS Writer-in-Residence.