A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Attention all young poets, rappers, leaders, and activists in the greater Seattle area, ages 14-19: are you interested in representing Seattle as the 2020/21 Youth Poet Laureate? We’re now accepting applications for this year’s Youth Poet Laureate program, and we want to see your work! What is the YPL program? Since 2015, the Seattle Youth […]
Every year, Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program holds the Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest to celebrate the wisdom, creativity, and heart captured in student and teacher writing. The inspiration from this year’s contest was drawn from Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic historical novel that follows a Korean family over the […]
Do you have a middle or high-schooler at home looking for learning opportunities? Or, maybe you’d like some inspiration for yourself? Today’s #SALMoment comes from WITS Writer-in-Residence Laura Da’, who shares a writing prompt for when times feel overwhelming. This lesson teaches us to center and focus, to become quiet and still, even though the […]
Dear friends, I write you in literally unprecedented times. When Carmen Maria Machado was with us in January (which now seems like decades ago), she talked about the process of writing her memoir, In the Dream House, and said it was challenging because, as time moved, “I kept becoming a different person, as we all do.”These […]
April is coming soon, and while there may be a lot going on in our communities right now, it’s important to remember that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. That means it’s the perfect time for us all to brush up on our local support centers, and how we can get involved with their work—including […]
Every year, Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program holds the Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest to celebrate the wisdom, creativity, and heart captured in student and teacher writing. The inspiration from this year’s contest was drawn from Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee, an epic historical novel that follows a Korean family over […]
With our daily lives disrupted, we are all working to finding new forms of togetherness. From balconies, Italians break into song and Spain applauds its healthcare workers. Bookshops hand-deliver to Seattle porches. Local relief funds have opened up for artists and hospitality workers. And we at Seattle Arts & Lectures want to do what we […]
By Lisa Wells, WITS Writer-in-Residence I think of writing as a practice of awareness, a habit of heightened attention to detail—to light, gesture, sensation, intonation—and I try to approach the teaching of writing with the same quality of attention, awake to the shifting dynamics of the classroom. Good writing demands that we be awake in […]
In our latest episode of SAL/on air, our literary podcast featuring talks from across Seattle Arts & Lectures’ thirty years, we hear from Adam Davidson, the co-founder of NPR’s Planet Money and an economics writer at The New Yorker. Davidson joined us earlier this year, on January 22, for a Journalism Series discussion of his book, […]
SAL Board Member Nancy Tollefson picked up the baton to chair this year’s Words Matter 2020 Gala Committee, and she’s had a smile on her face the entire time. An inspiring, fun, and natural leader, Nancy has been working tirelessly behind the scenes and cheering as each auction item has been procured, delicious desserts donated […]