Every week we ask an interesting figure what they're digging into. Have ideas who we should reach out to? Let it fly: info@seattlereviewofbooks.com. Want to read more? Check out the archives.

Arianne True is a Seattle-based poet from the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations. She teaches with Writers in the Schools, is a Hedgebrook alum, and has her MFA from the program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She'll (probably! If we're still gathering for this!) appear at Cheap Wine & Poetry on March 19th at Hugo House, and she's our Poet in Residence for March. Read her first piece for us, "Nautilus".

What are you reading now?

Honestly I'm at some point in like ten different books right now (poetry/nonfic/novels/comics), which is the norm for me - I bounce around a lot based on how I feel in a given moment, and it all seems to track fine. But the two books I'm reading most right now are Min Jin Lee's Pachinko and Kira Jane Buxton's Hollow Kingdom. Pachinko's kinda blowing me away with how she does characters in it - for pretty much every person, no matter how much of a side character you might call them or how briefly they appear, we get insight into their inner lives, even if just in glimpses. I think it's amazing that she does that for everyone, not just the main cast like you'd expect, and it's a special kind of magic that makes the world feel more human, and not just the world of the book but the world we live in too. Hollow Kingdom is a lot of fun for the concept and how the voice is mega strong and does so many impressive moves between voices, and extra fun too for being so incredibly place-based in my hometown - I'm even starting to see Seattle a little differently because of the book, like "oh here's where zombie people were hanging off that landmark," or "look, that's where they almost got eaten," etc. Which is fun, if occasionally unsettling.

What did you read last?

A lot of what I read is comics/graphic novels, and the most recent ones were the newest volume of Lumberjanes (always gives me joy/inspiration/more emotional skills), the final volume of Shimanami Tasogare by Yuuki Kamatani (a queer manga that, among other things, does some cool work with how many different ways self-discovery and expression can go), and Are You Listening?, Tillie Walden's new one (love her style and worldbuilding, and this one went some moving directions for me).

What are you reading next?

This Town Sleeps by Dennis Staples (who was in my MFA cohort and is a fantastic writer, his first book just came out and I can't wait to start), Rusty Brown by Chris Ware (a friend with great taste in comics lent it to me so I'm excited to check it out even though I know almost nothing about it), and I'm hoping to finally get to Nancy Isenberg's White Trash: The 400-Year Untold Story of Class in America (my partner read me some of it a bit back and it's so good, and I have a copy, I just haven't been pushing it to the top of the list because I'm having so much fun with novels). I'm also excited for Corinne Manning's collection We Had No Rules coming out in May, and trying to finish some other things first to make a spot for it in my reading pile :)