SAL/ON

A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures

Category: Ben Fountain

Introductions: Ben Fountain

April 4, 2017

On March 1 at Benaroya Hall, Ben Fountain—National Book Critics Circle Award-winner and author of the novel Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk (now a film by Ang Lee)—floored us with his well-crafted lecture on what compels us to participate in the (somewhat crazy) act of writing, despite all the economic, social, and political odds stacked against […]

Billy Lynn’s Long Half‑Time Walk book cover

The Relevance of Billy Lynn’s Long Half-Time Walk

February 24, 2017

By Michael Overa, WITS Writer-in-Residence Americans love the art of the spectacle. And if you’re talking business, there’s nothing like a giant American flag and patriotic music to sell whatever it is you want to sell. It becomes a dangerous cocktail, this concoction of flag-waving jingoism, capitalism, and pageantry. Billy Lynn’s Long Half Time Walk […]

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21h

"...Sometimes I feel like
My brain is running too fast for me to catch up with
And the world is running faster
And that the colors in my mind
Don’t fit on paper..."

Emma Francis
McClure Middle School
#WITSReadings2022

21h

"...What a thing to be
To be standing at a window and seeing
Out, out and beyond
The solid wall that keeps the window’s place..."

from "The Coolness of Glass"
by Ainslee Workman
Ballard High School
#WITSReadings2022

21h

"Start with your dry ingredients. / Add 1 cup of family or as much as possible to a large bowl. / 2 teaspoons of happiness — not too much but not too little! / Add 8 tablespoons of love but measure with your heart..."

from "Recipe for Life"
by Mufri Awel Sado
TOPS K-8 School

21h

"...My ears are foxes
Always alert and in awe
Of experience

My mouth is a secret.
Going on steadily until too much is said
And wishing it was closed..."

by Jessica Chamberlain
TOPS K-8 School
#WITSReadings2022