A 20th Anniversary Showcase of Washington's Literary Artists

Seattle Arts & Lectures, Artist Trust, and the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities, in celebration of our 20th anniversaries, will co-present readings by selected recipients of the Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellowships from the last 20 years. Twelve of the state’s most accomplished poets, essayists and novelists will share their work prior to each Literary Lecture Series event at 5:30pm in the S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium of Benaroya Hall. Readings are free of charge to all ticketholders.

October 15, 2007 - MacArthur “genius” and UW professor Linda Bierds is an award-winning poet who has earned particular recognition for her verse reflections of historic events and personages. Her most recent collection is First Hand. David Shields, another UW professor, is the author of eight books, including Black Planet: Facing Race During an NBA Season—a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

November 19, 2007 - Physician-poet Peter Pereira interweaves the worlds of the body, medicine, word play, and domestic gay life. A founding editor of Floating Bridge Press, his books include The Lost Twin, Saying the World, and What's Written on the Body. Susan Rich is a poet, traveler, and activist. Author of two books of poetry, including the recent volume Cures Include Travel, she has also worked as a staff person for Amnesty International, an electoral supervisor in Bosnia, and a human rights trainer in Gaza.

January 14, 2008 - Ann Pancake is a fiction writer and essayist who focuses on the people and atmosphere of Appalachia, contributing to our understanding of poverty in the 20th century. Her first novel, Strange As This Weather Has Been, is just out. Naturalist Lyanda Haupt has worked for Seattle Audubon and as a seabird researcher in the tropical Pacific. Her first book, Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds, which explores the relationship between humans and birds, won the 2002 Washington State Book Award.

February 4, 2008 - Kathleen Flenniken’s first collection of poems, Famous, won the 2005 Prairie Schooner Prize and was named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association. Co-editor at Floating Bridge Press, she has taught poetry through Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program. Donna Miscolta’s poems have appeared on the King County Poetry Bus Project, and her short fiction has been published in the Raven Chronicles, The Americas Review, and Seattle Magazine. Her story "Rosa in America" is in the 2006-07 issue of New Millennium Writings.

March 5, 2008 - Kathleen Alcala is the author of a short story collection, Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist, and three novels: Spirits of the Ordinary, The Flower in the Skull, and Treasures in Heaven. A play based on her novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, was produced by The Miracle Theatre of Portland, Oregon. Mark Halperin, Central Washington University professor, also taught in Japan, Estonia, and Russia. He has published translations of Russian and Soviet period writers Bunin, Galich, Kharms, and Platonov. His latest book of poetry is The Measure of Islands.

April 29, 2008 - Laurie Lamon described her debut collection, The Fork Without Hunger, as using “language to point us toward…the world of stillness.” Professor at Whitworth College, she was chosen by Poet Laureate Donald Hall for the 2007 Witter Bynner Fellowship. Poet and short story writer Nance Van Winckel has received two NEA Poetry Fellowships. Her fifth poetry collection, No Starling, was just published. She teaches at Eastern Washington University and Vermont College.