Seattle Reads Turns 25 and We’re Celebrating With Julie Otsuka

Seattle Reads exhibit at the Central Library
The new Seattle Reads 25th anniversary exhibit at the Central Library is open until June 26 at the Level 8 Gallery.

It’s hard to imagine, but back in 1998, citywide book clubs didn’t really exist.

Enter Nancy Pearl and Chris Higashi, who were with the Washington Center for the Book (then affiliated with the Library). They came up with the concept of encouraging readers across a community to read the same book, and discuss it. They envisioned connecting readers, authors and communities, and making books widely accessible (as libraries do).

Seattle Reads — then called “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” — started in 1998. Russell Banks’ “The Sweet Hereafter,” which chronicled a small town after a devastating school-bus crash, was the first title. Banks was invited to Seattle for community events.

As documented in this 2016 Seattle Times article, a shooting and bus crash that happened in Seattle one week before Banks arrived added poignancy. “It was an intersection of life and literature,” remembered Higashi. “In a sad and wonderful way it launched the program.”

The 1998 poster for Seattle Reads
The debut book selection for Seattle Reads, then called “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” was Russell Banks’ “The Sweet Hereafter.”

Twenty-five years later, Seattle Reads is credited with inspiring “one city, one book” programs in all 50 states and all across the world.

This map in the “Seattle Reads: 25 Years” exhibit now on at the Central Library documents the spread of programs, from Bucheon, Korea, to Nottingham, England, to Quebec, Iowa City, and Dublin.

Global impact of Seattle Reads

May 19-20: Julie Otsuka returns to Seattle Reads

Ernest Gaines was the second author chosen for Seattle Reads (“A Lesson Before Dying), followed by Bill Moyers (“Fooling With Words”), Molly Gloss (“Wild Life”), Chang-Rae Lee (“A Gesture Life”) and Isabel Allende (her body of work).

Ernest Gaines’ “A Lesson Before Dying” was chosen as the 1999 Seattle Reads title.

In 2005, Julie Otsuka’s “When the Emperor Was Divine” was selected. The debut novel was about the experience of a unnamed Japanese family forced from their home in Berkeley to an incarceration camp during World War II.

Seattle Reads was Otsuka’s first city reading program, as she remembered to the International Examiner recently.

“In 2005, I was at the very beginning of my literary career,” she said. “Seattle was the first city to choose ‘Emperor’ as its City Read, and I had no idea what to expect. I felt so warmly welcomed by the community, both Japanese Americans and non-Japanese Americans alike.” Audiences included survivors of World War II incarceration camps, which she describes as “incredibly moving.”

This weekend, Otsuka returns again to Seattle, this time to talk about her novel “The Swimmers,” which was selected as the 25th anniversary Seattle Reads book. Otsuka is the only author to be chosen twice.

Julie Otsuka

Exploring themes of intergenerational memory and loss, mothers and daughters, and the legacy of incarceration, “The Swimmers” offers many connection points to readers.

Otsuka’s first appearance is on Friday, May 19 at 1:30 p.m., at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center with Tom Ikeda, founder of Densho, which preserves and shares WWII Japanese American incarceration history. (Ikeda also appeared with Otsuka in 2005.)

On Friday, May 19 at 7 p.m., Otsuka will appear with Densho executive director Naomi Ostwald Kawamura at the Central Library, which will be Seattle Reads’ largest event. The event will also be livestreamed.

On Saturday, May 20, Otsuka will do two appearances with with Dr. Kristoffer Rhoads, who specializes in the evaluation and rehabilitation-oriented treatment of dementia and neurodegenerative disorders, at the Lake City Branch at 11 a.m. and the Greenwood Senior Center at 3 p.m.

“I’m hoping that I’ll get to meet some of the Japanese Americans I met in 2005, survivors of the camps,” Otsuka told the International Examiner about the upcoming events. “But I’m also eager to meet new readers, and talk about other things, swimming, the life of the body, the aging process, what we remember, what we forget.”

All Seattle Reads programs are free and open to the public but registration is required. Find registration links and more information at www.spl.org/SeattleReads.

25 Years of Seattle Reads: The Exhibit

The Seattle Reads celebration continues beyond this weekend. Visit the Central Library to see “Seattle Reads: 25 Years,” an exhibit at the Level 8 gallery that will be up until June 26.

Seattle Reads timeline25 years of Seattle Reads – timeline

Over the years, Seattle Reads has incorporated theater, music, dance and art in its events. apercut artist Lauren Iida is creating a “Memory Net” – a hand-cut paper temporary installation/performance piece – for the Library that is inspired by “The Swimmers.” This not-to-miss artwork will be added to the exhibit this weekend.

Seattle Reads 2023 is supported in partnership with Densho; Frye Art Museum, Creative Aging Programs; the Phinney Neighborhood Association’s Greenwood Senior Center; and The Memory Hub and UW Memory and Brain Wellness Center. It is made possible by The Seattle Public Library Foundation and The Wallace Foundation. Additional support provided by media sponsor The Seattle Times.

– Elisa M., Communications

Read all 25 Seattle Reads books

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