A Blog of Seattle Arts & Lectures
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 […]
Last week, as I sat in the back of the View Ridge Elementary School library, several classes of fourth graders began to file into the room, prompting me to consider the most appropriate attire for an elementary school poetry reading. The available options included: a neon-green Seahawks knit hat (with blue tuft topper); a purple […]
By Daemond Arrindell, WITS Writer-in-Residence It was my first day returning to a high school on the south side of Seattle, where I have taught during residencies for the past three years. I hadn’t seen the kids for more than six months after working with them last winter, so I decided to teach a lesson […]
By Alison Stagner, Words Matter Event Coordinator “The thing I keep circling back to over and over is why didn’t I get involved sooner?” Tim Griffith tells me on a drizzly afternoon. Tim has been on the SAL board for the past four years, and is this year’s Vice-President. Born in Olympia, raised in Auburn, […]
By Laura Gamache, WITS Writer-in-Residence Years ago, my friend Linda and I were sitting in a circle of new mothers. Her son, Peter, was nine or ten. He was by far the oldest child at our gathering. He amiably agreed to go into the backyard with a group of little boys. After a bit, a […]
By Erin Langner, WITS Program Associate After the Golden Globes ushered us fully into film’s award season Sunday night, the usual questions of how far the industry has pushed beyond old boundaries in the past year have come back, too. When Kate Winslet declared 2015 “an incredible year for women in film,” during her acceptance speech, I wondered […]
By Margot Kahn Case, WITS Writer-in-Residence One of the many vagaries of high school, as I remember it and as I see it played out in my WITS classes, is the question, “What makes me unique?” It’s so easy to go down the “I’m-not-very-interesting” path, in the same way that it’s easy to lose sight […]
Mohammed AlShubayli wrote “I am” while he was a patient at Seattle Children’s Hospital, with WITS Writer-in-Residence Sierra Nelson. His poem was made into a broadside designed and printed by artist Juliet Shen, in partnership with the School of Visual Concepts. We hope you will join us next Thursday, January 14 from 6-8 p.m., at Cupcake Royale on Capitol […]
This essay was commissioned by SAL on the occasion of our program featuring Judy Blume in the 2014/15 Literary Arts Series, on June 11, 2015, written by WITS Writer-in-Residence Rachel Kessler. By Rachel Kessler, WITS Writer-in-Residence Are You There, God? It’s Me, the Shy “Early-Bloomer” is the book I’d like Judy Blume to write next. By […]