A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
Months Later Let me tell you about the day my tongue broke down. It melted into fine dust, iridescent particles of lies and rabbit-quick explanations I tried to get underneath where you used to be, but it was a tangled mess of boot buckles and bolts I sucked the lies from your marrow; they went […]
When we asked the different folks at SAL about the best writing on love, it was hard to know what to expect. The topic is so widely written about and so subject to cliché. And, yet, it is so satisfying to experience words on the page that somehow manage to capture the feeling and kind […]
Greg Stump is a WITS Writer-in-Residence at SAL and has been a regular contributor to The Stranger for more than a decade. He is the co-creator of the comic book series Urban Hipster, a former writer and editor for The Comics Journal, and the creator of the weekly alternative-newspaper comic Dwarf Attack. He teaches […]
By Christina Gould, Patron Services Manager As a SAL staff member, I usually have the privilege of catching a glance at the celebrated author prior to opening the house for our events—the moment when my expectations based on the things I have read and the reality of the person being here, in the flesh, come […]
By Rachel Kessler, WITS Writer-in-Residence “The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is – it’s to imagine what is possible.” –bell hooks How do we present ourselves to the world? This is an important question for sixth graders entering middle school. I like to open residencies by engaging students […]
On January 28, Geraldine Brooks brought her powerful and moving words to McCaw Hall for SAL’s 2015/16 Literary Arts Series. SAL Executive Director Ruth Dickey introduced her talk and moderated their conversation that evening. In The Secret Chord, Geraldine Brooks’ most recent novel, the narrator, the prophet Natan, reflects on his life, “I have had a great length of days, […]
Where I’m From I come from Ding Dong, Beep Beep Beep, Sponge Bob Squarepants. I come from the comfy gold sofa, sitting at a brown desk and putting on lipstick. Where I come from the clock goes backwards and the eyeliner won’t turn. Where I come from we eat Subway sandwiches and Ethiopian dishes, we […]
By Samar Abulhassan, WITS Writer-in-Residence “It is like writing my eyes instead of hands.” “You know how when you go into the wilderness you are expected to bring out your trash, leaving nothing behind? I spent the first half of my life leaving words in the world, and will spend the last half taking them […]
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 and always has a movie option for those of us that cannot keep up with the reading, it’s hard for me not […]
Knowing your resolutions for a new year is generally the easiest part of these annual aspirations. The real work invariably comes in executing them, though when we asked SAL staff and WITS Writers to share their literary resolutions for 2016, it became clear that publicly announcing them is also part of the battle. Now that […]