5 Author Appearances and Lectures to Check Out This Spring
Featuring Anne Lamott, Ariel Levy, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Ijeoma Oluo, and more.
By Gwendolyn Elliott February 26, 2018
This article originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print in the March 2018 issue, as part of the Spring Arts Preview. Click here to subscribe.
A little bird—or a tweet, rather—told us Anne Lamott, best-selling author of Bird by Bird, will visit Seattle this spring. The author, whose other titles include Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith and Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, has the same dreadlocks, but also a new tome exploring the power of grace and forgiveness. It’s called Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy (2017, Riverhead Books). 4/8. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. Benaroya Hall, downtown, 200 University St.; 206.215.4747; seattlesymphony.org
Another woman you need to know, according to Seattle Arts & Lectures, is New Yorker staff writer Ariel Levy; she’s part of the literary salon’s “Women You Need to Know” series. Her National Magazine Award–winning 2013 essay, “Thanksgiving in Mongolia,” about her miscarriage, inspired her new memoir, The Rules Do Not Apply, which was published last year by Random House. 5/15. 7:30 p.m. $35. Benaroya Hall, downtown, 200 University St.; 206.215.4747; seattlesymphony.org
Viet Thanh Nguyen, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his 2015 immigrant novel, The Sympathizer, drew inspiration from his own struggles for his 2017 short story collection titled The Refugees, which follows characters straddling dual identities. 5/7. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. Benaroya Hall, downtown, 200 University St.; 206.215.4747; seattlesymphony.org
“There Goes the Neighborhood” is the theme of a Hugo Literary Series event in May; novelist Jami Attenberg (All Grown Up, The Middlesteins), award-winning Bangladeshi-American poet Tarfia Faizullah and Seattle-based essayist Ijeoma Oluo—whose first book, So You Want to Talk About Race, was published in January—will present new work on the subject. (In a poetic twist, the location for this event is not Hugo House, which is currently between homes and slated to open its new HQ in July.) 5/11. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. Fred Wildlife Refuge, Capitol Hill, 127 Boylston Ave. E; 206.588.6959; hugohouse.org
Best-selling crime writer and Baltimore Sun veteran Laura Lippman joins former Sun colleague and The Wire screenwriter David Simon in a conversation about what makes good crime reporting and detective fiction. If the secret to successful crime writing is a busy marriage, this wedded couple would know: Simon is currently at work on his new TV drama, The Deuce, starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal; Lippman’s latest is her 2018 novel, Sunburn. 3/30. 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St.; 206.215.4747; seattlesymphony.org
Follow Us
Ferry Tales: Eight Indie Bookstores Worth the Ride
Plan a summer day around these bookshops in Seattle, Bremerton, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, and Poulsbo.
Independent bookstores tend to be cornerstones of the communities in which they reside, and Seattle is no exception. In addition to helping customers discover their next read, these neighborhood hubs host weekly gatherings and events, like publication release parties, author talks, and book clubs. Many of them have cafés and reading tables that encourage lingering…
Rearview Mirror: Seattle Art Fair is Back, Nordstrom Throws a Block Party, and a Must-Try Ice Cream Sundae
Things I did, saw, ate, learned, or read in the past week (or so).
SEATTLE ART FAIR RETURNS The buzziest event of the summer (well, aside from the World Cup), is returning next week. Now in its 10th edition, the Seattle Art Fair will once again take over the Lumen Field Event Center, packing it to the gills with art from 101 local, national, and international galleries. This year,…
Studio Sessions: Jennifer Leigh Harrison
Seattle artist Jennifer Leigh Harrison uses layers of paint and abstraction to explore what we carry beneath the surface.
Jennifer Leigh Harrison’s paintings are dense with movement. Color and texture gather into mosaic-like fields, as if they have been fractured and reformed. There are places in the work where a frenetic buzz seems trapped between the canvas and the first layer of paint. That energy runs through Patterns of Belonging, her current exhibition at…
ENHYPEN’s Jay Has K-Pop Stardom and a Seattle Heart
The Federal Way-raised singer talks hometown memories, Ivar’s clam chowder, and how it feels to perform in the place he grew up.
Long before he was performing in sold-out arenas around the world and representing brands like Prada, ENHYPEN’s Jay called the Puget Sound region home. Born Jay Park (not to be confused with the other famous K-pop star of the same name, who is also from Seattle) in Seattle and raised in nearby Federal Way before…