Archives of Portrait Gallery

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Thursday, June 21: Roxane Gay
Last week, we reviewed a timely reissue of Roxane Gay's debut short story collection. Tonight, Gay is in town with Not That Bad, an anthology of women’s stories in these #MeToo-y times. No matter what book you leave this reading with, you’ll be satisfied. Gay is one of our most important writers.
University Temple United Methodist Church, 1415 NE 43rd St, 634-3400, http://www2.bookstore.washington.edu/, 7 pm, $16.99 - $26.99.

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Saturday, June 16: Bloomsday Staged Reading
It’s Bloomsday again, so get your Joyce on with this reading from Ulysses. If you’re someone who tried and failed to enjoy Ulysses in print, hearing it read aloud might just be the key that unlocks the book for you.
Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave., 386-4636, http://spl.org, 2:30 pm, free.

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Saturday, June 9: All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party Panel Discussion
To celebrate the half-centennial of Seattle’s Black Panther Party, the Frye is hosting a “panel discussion examining the local impact of the aesthetic legacies of the Black Panther Party with artist, activist, and cultural policy expert Royal Alley-Barnes and King County Councilman Larry Gosset.” These Black Panther Party Events have been a lot of fun, and it’s truly moving to watch as people who were involved with the Party back at the beginning reunite after many decades apart. Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave, 622-9250, http://www.fryemuseum.org/, 2 pm, free.

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Today is Walt Whitman's 199th birthday. Learn more about this seminal American poet and essayist and spend some time with his works: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/walt-whitman

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Friday, May 25
Stellar Poets from Near and Far!

Enjoy an evening of poetry with this stellar lineup of poets: Derrick Weston Brown, Bennie Heron, Bettina Judd, Quenton Baker, and Anastacia-Reneé.
Open Books, 2414 N. 45th St, 633-0811, http://openpoetrybooks.com, 7 pm, free.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Seattle Reads Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi

This year's Seattle Reads choice is Homegoing, the debut novel by Yaa Gyasi. (You can see a calendar of Gyasi's appearances on SPL's website.) Homegoing tracks the lives of two sisters born in the 18th century. One is captured and sold into slavery, the other marries into a privileged family. Gyasi follows the sisters and their descendants through history with the confidence one normally associates with someone who has published a long line of novels. It is not a DFW-style doorstop, but it somehow spans 250 years from cover to cover.

Gyasi is arriving in Seattle at a high point in her career - when Ta-Nehisi Coates refers to you as "an inspiration," you know you're doing something right - but it's easy to imagine that she'll ascend to even higher peaks in years to come. The Seattle Reads program is a great way for our city to stake a claim on Gyasi's future success, to ensure that she'll return to share her victories with us for years to come.

(Various locations and times, free.)

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Friday, May 11: Hugo Literary Series

An amazing array of writers - Portland novelist Lidia Yuknavitch, poet Tarfia Faizullah, and the indefatigable Ijeoma Oluo - present new work, along with singer-songwriter Nick Droz, on the theme "There Goes the Neighborhood."
Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave, http://hugohouse.org, 7 pm, $25.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author or event for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Saturday, May 5: LeVar Burton Reads Live!

How wonderful it is to be read to! If you aren't lucky enough to catch the live reading at the Neptune this weekend, you can always tune into the podcast LeVar Burton Reads!

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Saturday, April 28: Independent Bookstore Day

Independent Bookstore Day is a one-day national party that takes place at indie bookstores across the country on the last Saturday in April.
Learn more about our Event of the Week
See https://www.facebook.com/SEABookstoreDay/ for more information..

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Thursday, April 19: Dock Street Salon

Two local authors who have published new novels in the last few months, Anca Szilágyi (author of Daughters of the Air) and Ross McMeekin (author of The Hummingbirds), will read and discuss what it’s like to publish a new book.
Phinney Books, 7405 Greenwood Ave. N, 297-2665, http://phinneybooks.com, 7 pm, free.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

National Only Child Day

Today is National Only Child Day. Celebrate all the joys of being a one-and-only in the way that only you can.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Simple tools

Write a list, write a poem, write a tenet, write a letter, write a song, doodle a picture of your dog, draw a map, make a mark.

Each week, Christine Marie Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Thursday, March 29th:
Word Works: Charles Johnson
Tonight Hugo House is welcoming Johnson to give a talk about the craft of writing as part of their Word Works series. He’ll be delivering a lecture based on his essay “Storytelling and the Alpha Narrative,” and then he’ll take audience questions on just about any writing-related topics they can imagine. It’s an opportunity to listen to one of our most consequential authors, and to drink in a tiny sip of his oceans of expertise.
Annex Theatre. 1100 E Pike St, http://hugohouse.org, 7 pm, $15

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Sunday, March 25: King-Snohomish County Regional Spelling Bee

Exciting! Some 90 middle-schoolers join in M-O-R-T-A-L C-O-M-B-A-T to determine who is the best speller in the region. The winner will go on to face the best spellers in the country. Go get 'em, kids!
https://townhallseattle.org/event/king-snohomish-county-regional-spelling-bee-3/ Campion Ballroom at Seattle University, 914 E. Jefferson St, 12:15 pm, free.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Sunday, March 18: Hedgebrook Equivox

A portrait in honor of Women's History Month: Historian and law professor Annette Gordon-Reed brought to life the story of Sally Hemings and her descendents in her Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. Gordon-Reed made history herself as the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in History.

Gordon-Reed will join Hedgebrook for a literary star-studded brunch benefit featuring talks from playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Danai Gurira, and other Hedgebrook alumna.
*Herban Feast, 4136 1st Avenue, http://www.hedgebrook.org/equivox/, 11 am, $150.

For #InternationalWomensDay, a collection of all the amazing, diverse, talented, inspiring women that have run in Portrait Gallery over the past few years.

Click any face to see the painting bigger, with more information about the featured writer.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Sunday, March 4: Tyehimba Jess Olio Reading

This Sunday, Seattle Arts and Lectures is bringing Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jess to McCaw Hall. Jess is an artist who seems custom built for this moment in history. His poetry reflects the rich history of music of Black America - the blues, the gospel, the work songs, the jazz - and he’s rewriting the nation’s history to make more space for Black stories and songs.
*McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St, http://lectures.org, 7:30 pm, $20.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Friday, February 23: “Meditation for Writers” with Ruth Ozeki

This Friday at Washington Hall, author and Zen Buddhist priest Ruth Ozeki will speak on the theme “Meditation for Writers,” and it is a talk that only she could give. She’ll help writers gain the focus that modern technology seeks to steal from them, and the perspective that only a true sense of timelessness can offer.

Washington Hall, 153 14th Ave, http://washingtonhall.org, 8 pm, $15.

Each week, Christine Larsen creates a new portrait of an author for us. Have any favorites you’d love to see immortalized? Let us know

Octavia at the Pond

In a slight departure from format and in celebration of the Literary Event of the Week at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute where The Bushwick Book Club will create new music based around Seattle sci-fi giant Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, here is an illustration imagining a young Octavia Butler.