Archives of Portrait Gallery

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

Langston Hughes

February 1st would have been the 116th birthday of American poet, social activist, novelist and playwright Langston Hughes. Spend some time with his poems here.

Here in Seattle, we are also celebrating the new non-profit arts organization, Langston, created to continue the mission of the historic Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute and dedicated to cultivating and showcasing Black brilliance.

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

Get writing

Your story isn't going to write itself.

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

Farewell to Ursula K. Le Guin
Fierce, visionary, legendary, human.

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, January 18: Her Body and Other Parties Reading

Author Carmen Maria Machado reads from her celebrated debut collection of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties. It’s a book that crosses lines from sci-fi to horror to thriller to odd Law & Order: Special Victims Unit parodies.
Seattle Public Library, 1000 4th Ave., 386-4636, http://spl.org, 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

Thursday, January 11: The Immortalists Reading*

Author Chloe Benjamin’s latest novel, The Immortalists, is about a mystical prophecy that foretells death. It’s a clever addition to the genre of fiction based around the primal thought experiment centered around what you would do if you knew the exact date and time of your death.
Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.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

Friday, January 5: David Sedaris Workshop Performances

From this Friday to Thursday of next week, Sedaris is reading eight times at Broadway Performance Hall. He’s workshopping his next collection, Calypso, which comes out in summer of this year, and he’s counting on Seattle to help him make it perfect.
Broadway Performance Hall, 1625 Broadway, 934-3052, 7 pm, $50.

Wishing Nichelle Nichols a very happy 85th Birthday!

Wishing you and yours
a quiet spot with good light
and plenty of books to read.

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, December 15: Four Seattle Poets

The last author reading at Elliott Bay Book Company for the year of 2017 is a stellar lineup of debut poets. You definitely know Jane Wong, whose Overpour was the first big debut of the year. And frequent readers of the site also know EJ Koh, whose A Lesser Love is a genius collection that spans love and war. Mita Mahato is a paper-cut cartoonist whose first collection, In Between, is a milestone in the small-but-growing field of poetry comics. You might not know Montreux Rotholtz or her debut collection, Unmark, and that’s okay. Every great reading has some element of discovery to it, doesn’t it? Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.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

Thursday, December 7: Poetry Across the Nations: An Indigenous Reading

See our Event of the Week column for more details. Fred Wildlife Refuge, 128 Belmont Ave. E., 322-7030. http://www.hugohouse.org, 7:30 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

Saturday, December 2nd: Healing Histories

Everfair novelist, much-anthologized short story author, and Seattle Review of Books columnist Nisi Shawl teaches a free writing class in the Green Lake branch of the Seattle Public Library. What the hell could you possibly have to lose? For the low, low price of free, Shawl will almost certainly leave you a better author than you were when you walked into the room.
Seattle Public Library, Green Lake Branch, 7364 East Green Lake Dr N, http://spl.org, 2 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

Friday, November 24th: Shabazz Palaces with Special Guest Gillian Gaar

Seattle hip-hop geniuses Shabazz Palaces are branching out and becoming multimedia moguls. Tonight, they debut their first-ever comic book, Quazarz vs. The Jealous Machines, with a signing and DJ set in Georgetown’s fabulous Fantagraphics Bookstore and Gallery. Expect some neat things to happen when comics and hip-hop combine. Along for the ride is Seattle-area music writer Gillian Gaar, who will be signing her new book Hendrix: The Illustrated Story.

Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 925 E. Pike St., 658-0110, http://fantagraphics.com/flog/bookstore, 6 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

Friday, November 17th: Technically Wrong Reading

Subtitled Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Toxic Tech, in Technically Wrong, Sara Wachter-Boettcher explains why the male bias in the tech industry is creating a culture that places the needs and interests of men light years ahead of those of women or nonbinary individuals.

Impact Hub, 220 2nd Ave S, https://impacthubseattle.com, 7:30 pm, $5.

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

Emil Ferris

This weekend is all about the Short Run Comix and Art show, and Friday is the pre-funk. Short Run all-stars including Emil Ferris, Leela Corman, Julia Wertz, Jordan Crane, Gemma Correll, Tom Hart, nishat akhtar, Rebecca Artemisa, and Anders Nilsen will talk and cavort over refreshments. Several of the artists will share presentations of their work, too.

Friday, November 3rd: Short Run Marathon Art Show & Pre-Festival Party
Fantagraphics Bookstore & Gallery, 925 E. Pike St., 658-0110, http://fantagraphics.com/flog/bookstore, 6 pm, free.

Saturday, November 4th: Emil Ferris in conversation with Leela Corman and Paul Constant.
VERA Stage Room, Seattle Center, 2-3 pm, free

Monday, November 6th: Emil Ferris at the UW. Emil will discuss her work and career in the context of disability culture. The discussion will be moderated by José Alaniz, Director of the UW Disability Studies Program.
Odegaard 220, University of Washington Campus, 4-5:30 pm https://www.facebook.com/events/372854903150133/

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

Nikki Giovanni

Poet, author, educator and activist, Nikki Giovanni has written over 30 children’s books and poetry collections.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nikki-giovanni
http://www.nikki-giovanni.com

Giovanni will be in Seattle January 16, 2018 as part of the Seattle Arts & Lectures "Sherman Alexie Loves" series.
https://www.lectures.org/season/special_events.php?id=484

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

Monday, October 23: An Evening with G. Willow Wilson

Humanities Washington brings Seattle memoirist, novelist, and comics writer G. Willow Wilson to the stage for a conversation about creating the world’s most famous Muslim superhero, what it means to be a political writer, and how to juggle fame across two or three literary disciplines.

Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Ave S. 682-1770 x102 http://humanities.org. $20. All ages. 7:30 p.m.

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

Sunday, October 15: The First 500 Words

Seattle young adult writer Martha Brockenbrough teaches a free class that will help writers refine the vital first 500 words of their books by minding six important points. It might sound gimmicky, but this is important stuff; the first 500 words are what will get you noticed by agents, editors, and browsers.
Seattle Public Library, Broadview Branch, 12755 Greenwood Ave. N.. 684-7519, http://spl.org. Free. All ages. 2 p.m.

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

Friday, October 6: From Here to Eternity Reading

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician whose new book, From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, “travels the world [from Bolivia to Japan to Indonesia] to discover how other cultures care for their dead.” Tonight, she’s joined by Seattle poet Sonya Vatomsky in an onstage conversation. She goes to Bolivia to see cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls; to Japan to watch relatives of the deceased use chopsticks to pluck their loved ones’ bones from cremation ashes; to Indonesia to watch a man dress his grandfather’s mummified body.

The Summit, 420 E. Pike St., 322-7411, http://townhallseattle.org. $5. 21+. 7 p.m.

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

Saturday, September 30: Riot Days Reading

Maria Alyokhina was fighting Putin years before your grandmother put on a pussy hat and started writing long Facebook rants about fighting Putin. As a member of Pussy Riot, Alyokhina spent two years in jail for her anti-Putin protests, and her memoir of her time as a Pussy Rioter will likely inspire some American women to fight a little nastier.

Elliott Bay Book Company, 1521 10th Ave, 624-6600, http://elliottbaybook.com . Free. All ages. 7 p.m.

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

Friday September 22nd: Over the Top

This one is a little different: The Washington National Park’s Discovery Group hosts a booze dinner in which scientific experts discuss projects they’re running in Washington national parks. At the end of the night, one of the projects will be funded by pooling everyone’s admission fee in a kind of American Idol for science.

Georgetown Ballroom, 5623 Airport Way S., 762-4999. https://wnpf.org/discovery/ . $25. All ages. 5:30 p.m.