Seattle Reads

  • A conversation with Seattle Reads author Peter Heller

    — posted by Linda J. Peter Heller, author of our 2015 Seattle Reads book The Painter, chatted with me about the power of community book events, the inspiration for his character Jim Stegner, books he loves, and the crush he had on a librarian when he was 11 years old. Thank you for being a part of Seattle… Continue reading

  • Seattle Reads is NOW

    ~Posted by Jen B. We are delighted to welcome inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, for Seattle Reads 2014, beginning on Saturday, April 26! The featured work this year, For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey, traces Blanco’s experience after receiving the White House committee invitation to submit three poems from which the inaugural… Continue reading

  • Got Poem?

    Posted by Tom It’s National Poetry Month once again, and as usual, Seattle and its libraries are awash in poetry events. The Northeast Branch is hosting its annual all-ages poetry contest, in which everyone is invited to submit a poem at any time in April, and potentially win prizes (including the Wedgie grand prize trophy) and… Continue reading

  • Seattle Reads Author Amy Waldman Reflects on Her Recent Experiences at Seattle Public Library Readings

    Author Amy Waldman recently appeared at several Seattle Public Library locations to talk with audiences about her novel,  The Submission, this year’s Seattle Reads selection. The book describes the events following a jury’s blind selection of a ground zero memorial, designed by a Muslim-American architect. Here are her reflections on talking with Seattle readers about the book. One of the primary goals of… Continue reading

  • Seattle Reads: Interview with Amy Waldman, author of ‘The Submission’

    How did it feel to have your debut novel chosen for the Seattle Reads program? I was stunned, to be honest! A first novel gets written in a void — it’s hard to imagine anyone reading your book, let alone a whole city discussing it. It’s an honor to be part of such a pioneering… Continue reading

  • Our online book group discusses “Little Bee”

    We’ve been talking for years about doing an online book discussion group, but we never saw a model that really inspired us. It’s easy enough to start something online, but how do you get people to actually show up? People might be eager to share an opinion, but how do you create enough of a sense of… Continue reading

  • Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets movie

    Come to the Central Library this Sunday, March 21, from 2-4pm in the Microsoft Auditorium on Level 1 for a film screening of Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets. This film is a memorable and moving portrait of the lives of street kids living in Casablanca’s abandoned lots. Ali, Kouka, Omar and Boubker, four young… Continue reading

  • Book Groups Read My Jim

    I have had the pleasure now of facilitating two book group discussions of this year’s featured work for Seattle Reads, My Jim by Nancy Rawles. What I have seen (and heard from others) about the reactions of readers to Rawles’ book is that it makes a powerful impression.  My Jim also gives readers plenty to… Continue reading

  • Want to read more African American historical fiction?

    Once you read Nancy Rawles’ My Jim, a compelling slave story about Sadie (the wife of Huck Finn’s friend Jim), who chose to remain a slave and stay with her family on the plantation, you will likely want to read other stories like it: narratives that sweep you back in time and make you think.… Continue reading

  • Writers of the Harlem Renaissance, Part II

    Here is a continuation of the Writers of the Harlem Renaissance post from Tuesday:  Jessie Redmon Fauset Though she is not very well-known today, Fauset was, along with Zora Neale Hurston, one of the most prolific African America writers of the Harlem Renaissance. Two of her four novels, There is Confusion and Plum Bun: A… Continue reading

  • Writers of the Harlem Renaissance: Part 1

    The period between the 1920s and the beginning of World War II marked a blossoming of African American literature, especially in New York. Events that precipitated this period, now referred to as the Harlem Renaissance, included a widespread migration to northern cities by African Americans from the South; job and educational opportunities for African Americans;… Continue reading

  • Banned Book of the Month: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Consistently among the most challenged books in schools and libraries, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has courted controversy since its original publication back in 1885, though not always for the same reason. It was first removed from the collection of the Concord Free Library in Massachusetts over its “rough, course and inelegant expressions.” I… Continue reading

  • Seattle Reads author … in Seattle!

    Dinaw Mengestu, author of The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears, is in town (see the schedule for his five Library visits and two other appearances) — and that in itself is a beautiful thing. Lots of cities now have community reads or “One Book” projects to bring people together for  discussions and events centered around a book. But… Continue reading