April 2021

  • To the Max: ’80s Music in Books

      Let’s face it…many a music snob would declare the 1980s as the worst decade in music, while others would put ’80s music in the “so bad it’s good” category. A flurry of recent titles chronicle the highlights, and occasional lowlights, of the decade’s most influential artists. For me and my high school friends, heavy… Continue reading

  • 2021 Fiction by Asian American and Pacific Islander authors

    Looking for captivating new titles to enjoy as we observe Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month this May? Here are ten varied works of fiction by AAPI authors published so far this year. Continue reading

  • Fictional glimpses inside the film industry

    With the 2021 Academy Awards celebration coming up on Sunday, April 25, check out one of these recent novels with insider views of the film industry. Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little – Film editor Marissa Dahl experiences the world filtered through her encyclopedic knowledge of film. Struggling to find film editing work after… Continue reading

  • Are you ready for Seattle Independent Bookstore Day – X 10!?

    Are you ready for Seattle Independent Bookstore Day – X 10!?

    A good little bookstore…is a laboratory for our coming together        – Ross Gay Seattle loves its bookstores, and right near the top of that long, sad list of things we really missed in 2020 was Seattle Independent Bookstore Day. Well, it’s back – and bigger than ever! Starting this Saturday, April 24,… Continue reading

  • What’s so special about Hemingway?

    What’s so special about Hemingway?

    Last week we shared a some of the many authors who’ve been influenced by Ernest Hemingway, whose seminal role in American literature was highlighted in Lynn Novick and Ken Burns’ recent documentary Hemingway. Yet viewers of that show may have noted the intriguing fact that those interviewed often didn’t agree upon which of his works… Continue reading

  • Radical Mycology!

    Radical Mycology!

    We live in one of the most fungally rich regions in the United States. Oregon has the largest single living organism on Earth in the Malheur National forest. It’s a fungus known by several names: Armillaria, scientifically; Honey Mushroom commonly; or, locally, as the Humongous Fungus. By 2015 it was three square miles large and… Continue reading

  • What Happens When Poetry Propagates a Nation?

    Citizens, the month of harvest is here. Celebrate National Poetry Month. Here comes, once again, An American Sunrise. Arrived, once again, a proliferation of poetry; each poem The Winged Seed of a thousand thoughts. From whence do they come, these Words Like Thunder? Of course, from poets, those propagating Children of Grass who Forage for Earth… Continue reading

  • Writers in the Hemingway Tradition

    If you’re watching Lynn Novick and Ken Burns’ documentary Hemingway this week on PBS, you’ve heard a lot of writers and commentators talking about what a profound influence Ernest Hemingway has had on American literature. As the writer Tobias Wolff puts it, “It’s hard to imagine a writer today who hasn’t been in some way… Continue reading

  • Icy Isolation

    Ok, I know Spring is sprung and we’re all ready for flowers, more daylight, and sunnier days, but I’m taking one last look back at winter with this trio of recent suspense novels that find characters trapped in remote, snowy mountain lodges in the Alps. One by One by Ruth WareThe eight shareholding employees of… Continue reading

  • Clarion West’s Beyond Afrofuturism series: Black Editors and Publishers in Speculative Fiction

    Are you interested in Speculative Fiction? Are you a writer? Are you interested in learning more about Black editors and publishers in the speculative fiction field? We are pleased to be co-sponsoring this upcoming online event series with the Clarion West Writers Workshop and don’t want you to miss it! The first event, Ancestors and… Continue reading

  • With “Masked Classics” Pandemic Publishing Comes of Age

    With “Masked Classics” Pandemic Publishing Comes of Age

    When in doubt, fall back on a classic. It worked for Pride, Prejudice and Zombies and its many spinoffs, and now resourceful publishers, making up for lost time and revenue, aim to make it work for a pandemic-weary reading public. Gimik Books (a division of Langweiliger-Zellstoff) has just premiered a new line of “masked classics,”… Continue reading