April 2022

  • May Author Events: Douglas Stuart, Angela Garbes, Claudia Castro Luna and More

    May Author Events: Douglas Stuart, Angela Garbes, Claudia Castro Luna and More

    From Douglas Stuart’s story of working-class families and queer love to Seattle writer Angela Garbes’ memoir about the power and potential of mothering to reshape society, the Library’s May author programs feature a wide range of authors and topics. And you can see some of these amazing authors in person! Four May events will be… Continue reading

  • Día Is Here! Celebrate Children’s Day / Book Day with The Seattle Public Library

    Día Is Here! Celebrate Children’s Day / Book Day with The Seattle Public Library

    Children’s Day/Book Day, commonly known as Día, is a celebration of children, families and reading that culminates yearly on April 30. It emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This nationally recognized initiative was founded in 1997 by author and children’s author and poet Pat Mora. You can celebrate… Continue reading

  • A Peek at Peak Picks for May 2022

    Here’s a sneak peek at the ten new books joining Peak Picks in May! For fiction, Emily Henry will delight readers with the story of a cutthroat literary agent who tries not to fall for her rival in Book Lovers; Adrian McKinty’s tale of a Seattle family’s nightmarish trip to the Australian Outback will thrill… Continue reading

  • Two Years of No Late Fines at The Seattle Public Library — How Is that Going?

    Two Years of No Late Fines at The Seattle Public Library — How Is that Going?

    On Jan. 1, 2020, something big happened for patrons of The Seattle Public Library: The Library stopped charging daily overdue fines, a change that Seattle voters approved as part of the 2019 Library levy. Why the change? As the Library shared leading up to the levy, we were following research showing that daily late fines… Continue reading

  • Hit the Reading Trail: 4 Earth Week StoryWalks at Seattle Parks

    Hit the Reading Trail: 4 Earth Week StoryWalks at Seattle Parks

    Want a fun way to celebrate Earth Week with the children in your life? Hit the trail at four Seattle parks while reading amazing picture books that are installed along the way. From Tuesday, April 19 to Tuesday, April 26, StoryWalks® will be installed at Herring’s House Park (Tualtwx) in the Duwamish industrial area; Lincoln Park… Continue reading

  • Teen Novels in Verse

    To celebrate National Poetry Month, here are eleven terrific titles in verse. In Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne, Skyy feels terribly alone after her best friend’s boyfriend calls her a name she can’t forgive or forget.  Her sudden freedom allows her to see herself in a new light and consider all the ways she… Continue reading

  • Celebrate National Poetry Month 2022

    April is National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate the role played by poetry and poets in our culture, and to read some poetry! We’ve got you all set to find a collection of poetry to sink into, with lists created by librarians for adults, teens, and kids. Seattle Picks: 2021 Poetry Revisited 2021 was… Continue reading

  • Live from Seattle’s Central Library (and Online): Author events this April and May

    Last night (April 12), for the first time in two years, the Central Library opened the doors of its Level 1 Microsoft Auditorium for an in-person author event. Award-winning author Reyna Grande joined Seattle-area writer Kathleen Alcalá on stage for a conversation about her novel “The Ballad of Love and Glory,” about an unforgettable romance… Continue reading

  • The Soul Pole Standing Tall Again at the Douglass-Truth Branch

    On Tuesday morning, April 5, a small crowd of neighbors, Library staff and journalists gathered outside the Douglass-Truth Branch to see a very welcome event: A forklift lowering the carefully wrapped 21-foot tall Soul Pole artwork into its base on the lawn of the Library. The Soul Pole has stood tall in that base since… Continue reading

  • Library as Community

    Working in a library during the pandemic has been hard, but not for reasons you might think. It was hard because we had to close to keep people safe and working with people is one of the most primary functions of a public library. What is a library with no patrons? The pandemic and our… Continue reading

  • New Fiction Roundup – April 2022

    New novels by heavy-hitters such as Jennifer Egan, Emily St. John Mandel, and Douglas Stuart join debut novels involving a heist, police in Lahore, and a trip across the 1880s American West. 4/5: The Candy House by Jennifer Egan Tech mogul Bix Bouton develops “Own your Unconscious,” a technology that allows one to externalize their… Continue reading

  • Unbanned Books: A Celebration

    With all the attention that has been garnered by alarming censorship challenges that have been erupting in libraries and school districts across the nation, we thought it might be nice to focus on the bright side. Here are just some of the many books deemed so harmless that their place on library shelves hasn’t been… Continue reading