On Claudia Rankine and Citizen
May 20, 2016
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 transgr...
SAL/ON
A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Category: Poetry Series
Required Reading: Claudia Rankine
May 11, 2016
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...
Sjohnna McCray: Small Freedoms
March 3, 2016
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 o...
Author Crush: Tracy K. Smith
February 25, 2016
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.
Book Club Inspiration: The Bushwick Book Club at SAL
January 27, 2016
By Erin Langner, Sonder Editor & WITS Program Associate The Bushwick Book Club‘s ambition is something to be admired. As a subpar member of a standard kind of book club that meets monthly an...
Introductions: Srikanth Reddy at McCaw Hall
December 21, 2015
On December 1, SAL Associate Director Rebecca Hoogs introduced Srikanth Reddy‘s thought-provoking lecture, “Like a Very Strange Likeness and Pink,” a talk that examined the quest...
“Black,” by WITS Student Anisa Rae Robinson
December 14, 2015
Black My color is the color of absence, silence. The memory of something you thought was there, but now it’s gone. The color of your mind when you’re in a deep rest. The color of shadows that foll...
Linda Pastan’s Breathless Words at The Center School
December 2, 2015
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate & Sonder Editor When Linda Pastan and I approached a classroom of The Center School, where she was about to speak, we were three minutes early. A teacher i...
Introductions: Linda Pastan
November 24, 2015
On November 10, Linda Pastan brought her quiet but powerful literary presence to McCaw Hall for SAL’s 2015/16 Poetry Series. SAL Associate Director Rebecca Hoogs introduced her and moderated t...
“The Sea,” by WITS Student Annabelle Bachhuber
November 23, 2015
The Sea I kept deep-sea secrets in a little black bag. I carried boats through the toughest storms. I asked the fish where the shark lived. I was rough but calm. I was tired. I knew when the storm wou...