March 22, 2021
Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program is delighted to announce the theme of this year’s Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest! Every year, WITS holds the Elaine Wetterauer Writing Contest for students and teachers from all WITS schools, representing all writing genres. The 2020/21 contest, open until May 14, invites students and teachers […]
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March 18, 2021
By Rebecca Hoogs, SAL Associate Director Maira Kalman is the writer or illustrator of more than 30 books for adults and children, including The Elements of Style (Illustrated), My Favorite Things, The Principles of Uncertainty, and, most recently, an illustrated version of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. When I read The Principles of Uncertainty […]
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March 10, 2021
By Rebecca Hoogs, SAL Associate Director Toi Derricotte is the author of six collections of poetry, including “I”: New and Selected Poems, which was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2019. She is also the beloved co-founder, with Cornelius Eady, of Cave Canem, which was established to remedy the under-representation and isolation of […]
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March 8, 2021
Dear friends, It’s been an extraordinary last two weeks at SAL, hearing from Bill Gates, Bill Bryson, and Toi Derricotte. Each event was delightful in its own way, and I’ve been thinking about how each spoke to the power of curiosity and learning—Gates talked about scheduling half-days for diving into topics, and Bryson spoke of […]
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February 24, 2021
This essay is part of a series in which Seattle Arts & Lectures partners with Poetry Northwest to present reflections on visiting writers from the SAL Poetry Series. On Friday, February 26, Toi Derricotte will read and discuss her work in an online event at 7:30 pm (PST). Tickets are still available! By Bettina Judd […]
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By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director I first learned of Bill Bryson’s work from my brother and sister-in-law, who have what I believe is one of the most romantic hobbies. For 25 years, they have read books out loud to one another, and Bryson was one of their early favorites. Diving into his work, it’s […]
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February 21, 2021
1 Trail blazing through his work, a student loses himself to the sound of thoughts and inquiries echoing throughout his skull, disregarding exchanged pleasantries passing by that would only encave him. 2 Blindly wandering the streets, a child loses themselves, taking their time getting home, asking the question of where it ever was, if they […]
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February 17, 2021
Akshaya Ajith, a high school student doing a remote internship with the Writers in the Schools program at SAL, attended SAL’s Literary Arts Series event with Madeline Miller, the author of Circe and Song of Achilles, on January 27, 2021. Read on to hear her reflections. By Akshaya Ajith, WITS Intern Through her rich interpretation […]
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February 8, 2021
Somewhere, deep in the valley, I sit in the darkness. I am reading; it is intriguing. As I sit reading, the words seem to fly off the page and into the night sky. The words seem to illuminate the meadow, illuminate the meadow in which I sit. The words seem to dig down deep inside […]
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February 4, 2021
Zoë Mertz is a University of Washington student doing a remote internship with the Writers in the Schools program at SAL. After attending SAL’s recent Literary Arts Series event with Madeline Miller on January 27, Zoë reflects on her own obsession with retelling and adapting classic tales, as well as the anxiety—and the creative power—that […]
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