A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director In the story “The Husband Stitch,” Carmen Maria Machado tells a version of a story about a woman who cooks and eats the liver her husband has bought, and then unable to afford another, cuts out her own liver to feed him. She writes, “That may not be the […]
Valentine there is a red-quilted heart-shaped box of chocolates sitting on my bedside and a pink envelope with my name on it written in a script that speaks secrets I will never spill even if the time comes that the script is all I have left to remember rain on a green ice cream […]
By Bianca Glinskas Carmen Maria Machado’s new work, In the Dream House, uses elements of creative nonfiction, fantasy, pulp fiction, and horror, and more. Each genre uses the capital ‘I’ as its powerful entry point to retell Carmen’s experiences in an abusive queer romantic partnership with somebody who shares the same gender identity. Buzzfeed News […]
By Akshaya Ajith, SAL Volunteer Even before the stage lights dimmed, the room was filled to the brim with pure excitement. There was not a shuffle or a cough, just a silent blanket of anticipation for the stage door to open and hearts to be filled. It was a kind of fierce joy that illuminated […]
By Ruth Dickey, SAL Executive Director I bet each one of you in this room remembers the first time that you fell in love with Lindy West’s writing. Mine was her Guardian essay about her wedding—“My wedding was perfect—and I was fat as hell the whole time.” I can’t even remember how I found it […]
A photo of a girl Rosy cheeked and round Hangs on a wall in my house Arms spread wide and welcoming The perfect picture of childhood Of tire swings And clam bakes And playing pretend She worries about birds and cats and worms Sits on her porch swing Listens to her dad play guitar Savoring […]
Remember Remember to pack. Remember to look out your telescope every day. Remember to tell your loved ones you’re leaving soon, until the final day comes. Remember to invite them to come to the rocket ship to say bye, and they will remember you, too. Then they will launch you into orbit and remember everything […]
Give Me Your Tired I can say all that where I come from to where my parents, and their parents were born. But what does it matter our skin, hair or eyes It’s lineage that matters.The seed in which knows how to grow into an apple tree, the apple falls and the seed grows to […]
Harvard historian Jill Lepore is concerned about the brittleness of our politics—in her sold-out talk, which opened our Women You Need to Know Series on October 12, she argued that without historical context, our vision of the present has become impoverished and compressed into social media snapshots and bumper sticker slogans. What, she asked, can we gain by […]
Butterflies or Eleven Responses to the Phrase “You’re So Quiet” 1 oh really? i hadn’t noticed 2 talking to dreamers with big smiles and small consciences is like floating on indestructible clouds but clouds are not indestructible 3 that’s funny because you’re so loud 4 your words light the room on fire talk in disparate […]