Yesterday, Artist Trust announced that Seattle poet Quenton Baker received the $15,000 James W. Ray Venture Project Award, which "support[s] artistic excellence and the development of new ideas through individual and collaborative projects." Baker is going to devote the prize money to a full-length project about the only successful large-scale slave rebellion in United States history. We are so excited to see this book.

Baker, who is also a teacher, will publish his first full-length collection, This Glittering Republic, next year with Willow Books. If you're looking for some of his work right now, you should know that we published a wonderful poem by Baker titled "Love Letter" about six months ago. And if you'd like to see Baker read his work aloud, you should know that he's taking part in the Hugo House Literary Series this Friday at Fred Wildlife Refuge.

And if you'd like Artist Trust to keep giving out money to our artists, I'd encourage you to fill out their 2016 Artist Survey, which helps Artist Trust figure out what local artists need to survive in this business, and how best to allocate their resources. Your survey could help the next Quenton Baker win a grant in years to come.