SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: 2015/16 Season

On Annie Proulx and Barkskins

By Annie Gala, Marketing & Programs Intern In college, I had the opportunity to study Annie Proulx’s Wyoming Stories in a class about women writing in the American West. I was amazed at her complex portrayal of masculinity and mortality in the rodeo story, “The Mud Below.” The story chronicles an aspiring rodeo man who risks death […]

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Introductions: Annie Proulx

On June 23rd, acclaimed novelist and short story writer Annie Proulx revealed the secrets of her writing process, family history, and Barkskins – her new masterwork – at Temple De Hirsch Sinai for SAL’s 2015/16 SAL Presents Series. This conversational interview was moderated by author David Laskin, and SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey gave an introduction to their talk, below. I’ve moved quite […]

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On Claudia Rankine and Citizen

By Gabrielle Bates “The route is often associative.” —Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric [Yes, and] When I was a little girl in Birmingham, Alabama, wracked with shame over some transgression I can no longer remember, I asked my father how, when faced with a choice, to know which decision is the right one. He […]

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Required Reading: Claudia Rankine

As part of our Required Reading series, we share a list of three essential works for each of SAL’s featured writers. Up this time: groundbreaking poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine.  Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) In 1970, Harvard professor Chester Pierce came up the term “micro-aggression” to describe the unconscious dismissals and insults non-black Americans inflict on black people. In […]

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From the Archives: Twelve Amazing Moth Tales

One of America’s most beloved radio shows, The Moth features stories by luminaries in the arts and sciences, newsmakers and news breakers, and every day heroes (and even a few reformed villains). If you’re unfamiliar, here’s how it works: each show begins with a theme, and storytellers explore that theme in unexpected ways, crossing between documentary […]

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Introductions: Teju Cole

On April 21st, writer, photographer, and art historian Teju Cole delivered a sweeping lecture on heritage, craft, and political responsibility at Town Hall Seattle for SAL’s 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced his talk and moderated their conversation that evening. By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director In a passage I love in Every […]

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On Emily St. John Mandel and Station Eleven

By Justine Chan A few months after the SARS outbreak in Hong Kong, my family and I took our usual summer family trip there. For some bizarre reason, the travel package even threw in a free month-long stay at the gaudy Metropole Hotel, the “epicenter” of the SARS outbreak. And so, my parents stayed there […]

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Sjohnna McCray: Small Freedoms

We were thrilled to have Sjohnna McCray join us from Savannah, GA for our recent event with Tracy K. Smith and Joshua Roman.  Sjohnna’s book, Rapture, was selected by Tracy K. Smith as the winner of the 2015 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and is forthcoming from Graywolf Press this April. […]

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Author Crush: Tracy K. Smith

By Anastacia Renee Tolbert, WITS Writer-in-Residence Tracy K. Smith’s Duende (2007) opens with: This is a poem about the itch. That stirs a nation at night.                                                            —”History” […]

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