SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: Sonder

SAL’s Gift Guide for Literature Lovers

Still searching for the perfect gift for the voracious reader in your life? We’ve got a few suggestions they’ll flip for – and we don’t just mean flipping pages!   SAL Flex Pass Give them the gift of conversation, connection, and inspiration. Only available until noon on December 23, SAL’s 4-Part Flex Pass gives you […]

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National Poetry Month at Open Books!

Open Books: A Poem Emporium, Seattle’s beloved poetry-only bookstore, has been celebrating National Poetry Month like mad all April. If you’ve missed the first three weeks of contests, prompts, parties, and displays, you have one more week – and so many ways – to celebrate National Poetry Month alongside them and to support this local, independent treasure. […]

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On Ross Gay and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude

By Gabrielle Bates I feel like a different type of tenderness might be emerging.—Ross Gay When Ross Gay read for the SAL Poetry Series last week, it was exactly what I needed. I dare say it was exactly what we all needed. All of us streaming into that auditorium from the cold—carrying our bodies quickly, […]

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A SAL Love Story: Dana & John

Forget Tinder—from friendships to loveships, SAL’s been bringing folks together for almost thirty years now through good books and good conversation. That why, this Valentine’s Day, we’re featuring one couple – Dana Bettinger and John Jacobs – who have been long-time friends of SAL. We asked them to share their SAL love story, including what role reading […]

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#litgoals: SAL’s Resolutions for the New Year

By Alison Stagner, Events & Development Coordinator, Sonder Editor My New Year’s resolutions, literary and otherwise, always have something in common: I never stick to them. I suspect this has something to do with the ridiculous idea that our calendar year begins in January, the month I am least likely to be out of my pajamas, instead […]

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Friday Roundup: The Holiday Edition!

Twelve fun (holiday) links from around the web. First of all: William Faulkner’s hot toddy recipe. How the Victorians invented Christmas cheer with the help of Dickens. Are you doing the Read Harder Challenge in 2017? “Hygge” is the new word of the season (unless you’re Danish, of course). Winter poems from the editors at Poetry […]

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What SAL’s Reading: Best of 2016

One thing about 2017 is certain: the literature will be stunning. As the new year unfolds, many are turning to our cultural thought leaders for direction and perspective, which always makes for a good beginning—reading, as book-lovers have long suspected, has been proven to enhance our ability to empathize and to increase brain function. But before we get ahead […]

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Indies First: SAL Instagram Takeover

Book nerds, it’s time to use your powers for good! On Small Business Saturday, November 26, Indies First will be unfolding at an independent bookstore near you. This national campaign to support local indies was launched by Sherman Alexie in 2013, a day where thousands of authors volunteered as guest booksellers across the country. In an open letter to fellow […]

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Three Questions: Travel Writer Kim Brown Seely

Perhaps this Thanksgiving weekend you’ll be joining the tens of millions of Americans on the road, or—in light of the recent election—hiding at home from certain relatives, eyes blurry as you scroll through your Facebook feed. Either way, this is a great time for a virtual escape. Luckily, we have Kim Brown Seely, a local writer who […]

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What SAL’s Reading: Fall Edition

Ruth Dickey, Executive Director: “I am currently reading Walk Through Walls by Marina Abramović, which has stunned and moved me, and Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón. I was so captivated by Ada’s reading that I tried to purchase the book that evening, but Open Books had run out (and then I struck out at both Phinney […]

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