Please join us for an evening of revelry and literary flourishing at Seattle Arts & Lectures’ annual gala, Words Bloom, and help us raise $375,000 to continue fulfilling our mission! Together, we’ll celebrate 35 years of cultivating transformative experiences through story and language with our community.

This four-part reading series features acclaimed poets, writers, and comics artists who teach in SAL’s Writers in the Schools program. These resident writers come together to read from their own works-in-progress, inspiring the same craft and performance skills they teach in the classroom. Join us in this free event at Hugo House to celebrate the brilliance of the WITS writer cohort on March 28, 2023!

From Michelle Zauner, the indie rock sensation known as Japanese Breakfast, Crying in H Mart is an unforgettable memoir about family, food, grief, love, and growing up Korean American. Join us for a special SAL Presents conversation with Michelle Zauner, celebrating the memoir’s paperback publication. Create Your Own Series subscriptions, as well as Patron and Grand Patron single tickets, come with a copy of Crying in H Mart, shipped to the ticket holder’s door.

The Balanced Ecosystem: Creating and Sustaining a Classroom Community that Celebrates Literacy and Offers Relational and Affirming Feedback Strategies Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is Eastern Shawnee. Her first book, Tributaries, was published by the University of Arizona Press and won a 2016 American Book Award. Da’ has held residencies at the Richard  Hugo House, Tin House,  and Jack Straw. Her newest book, Instruments of the True Measure, is the winner of the Washington State Book Award. Da’ lives near Seattle with her husband and son.

Chris Abani is an acclaimed novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. Born to an Igbo father and English mother, Abani grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria. His experiences in his home country inspire much of Abani’s work, equally informed by his research into African poetics, twentieth century Anglophone literature, Yoruba and Igbo philosophy and religion, and many other areas of study. Abani’s latest work is a book of poetry entitled Smoking the Bible, in which he illustrates the connective geography between harm, regret, and release, as his poems move through landscapes of Nigeria, the Midwestern United States, adulthood, and childhood. Q&A with Pádraig Ó Tuama.

A trenchant observer of democracy, Masha Gessen is the author of twelve books, including the National Book Award-winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and Surviving Autocracy. Their coverage of current political unfoldings in Russia, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise of autocratic leaders appears regularly in the pages of The New Yorker and the New York Times. Q&A with Margaret O’Mara, Professor of History at the University of Washington.

A graphic novelist, tattoo artist, illustrator, and filmmaker, James Spooner directed the seminal documentary AFRO-PUNK. His graphic novel, The High Desert, weaves in the Black roots of punk rock and a vivid interlude in the thriving eighties DIY and punk scene in NYC’s East Village. He co-founded the Afropunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands globally.

“One of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time,” Pico Iyer is a renowned travel writer beloved for his gift of perspective. In a new culminating work, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Iyer brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives. Q&A with Ruchika Tulshyan.

“There is a crisis of violence in our communities,” says Connie Walker, an award-winning Cree journalist from Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan. In her podcasts Stolen and Missing & Murdered, Walker investigates cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s (Season 2), Walker unearths how her family’s story fits into one of Canada’s darkest chapters: the residential school system. Q&A with journalist Wudan Yan.

One of the most acclaimed writers of our time, Louise Penny is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. With a CWA Dagger and seven Agatha Awards to her name, as well as her reputation as a master plotter, Penny is sure to thrill and delight with her latest release.

Join us for a conversation with legendary actor and best-selling author Tom Hanks about his first novel, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, about the making of a star-studded, multimillion-dollar superhero action film—and the humble comic books that inspired it. All tickets, with the exception of a limited number of Pay What You Can tickets, include a copy of The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, shipped to the ticket holder’s door by our partner bookstore, Third Place Books.

This four-part reading series features acclaimed poets, writers, and comics artists who teach in SAL’s Writers in the Schools program. These resident writers come together to read from their own works-in-progress, inspiring the same craft and performance skills they teach in the classroom. Join us in this free event at Hugo House to celebrate the brilliance of the WITS writer cohort on May 24, 2023!

One of our most popular events of the year, each Moth Mainstage features simple, old-fashioned storytelling by five wildly divergent raconteurs who develop and shape their stories with The Moth’s directors. Theme and storytellers to be announced in Spring 2023!