In This Newsletter

• News & Updates
• Call for Trayvon Martin Community Partners 
• Help Us Tell SAL's Story
• Words Matter Auction Teaser: Lunch with Nancy Pearl 
• SAL & Writers Resist
• WITS & YPL Around Town

News & Updates

• Registration for Camp WITS is now open! Don't miss another summer of creative writing workshops, field trips, and fun for young writers. Early birds, register here by Feb. 20 for a special discount! More info here.
• Reading gave me the ability to "slow down and get perspective...and get in somebody else's shoes." As we say goodbye for now to the 44th President, Obama shares the books that got him through his eight years in office. Hopefully they will help us get through the next few years without him. Read more. 
• Need further proof that Seattle is one of the most readerly cities in the country? Check out this fun list of restaurants with a literary background. Read more.
• "I cherished the thought that grand historical and political narratives might falter, just slightly, in the face of skillful interactions with things that are not us." Upcoming SAL author, Helen Macdonald, on the relationship between natural and national history, and finding home in a country she no longer recognizes. Read more. 

On the Blog

• "A classroom does not have to be just a classroom. It can be a canvas, a spaceship, an incubator, and a safe(r) place—all at once." WITS Writer Nikkita Oliver on what's simple and complex about teaching writing right now. Read more.
• "As soon as you say this word..."  WITS Writer Sierra Nelson explores the magical, multilingual powers of "wolf." Read more.

Call for Trayvon Martin Community Partners

SAL is inviting community non-profits and organizations working on issues of reducing gun violence and promoting racial justice, social justice, and Black Lives Matter to share materials and information before and after our February 15 event with the parents of Trayvon Martin. This event will be held at Town Hall at 7:30. Audience members will be invited to visit partner tables in the lobby both before and after the event to learn about local resources and opportunities to get involved and be engaged.

Interested in tabling at this event?
Email Amelia Peacock at apeacock@lectures.org. Thank you!

Help Us Tell SAL's Story

We’re making a video to tell the story of SAL and engage more people of all generations in the power of the written word – and we need your help!
 
Make a quick stop at the SAL video booth immediately following these upcoming SAL events and tell us about your favorite SAL moment or what you love most about SAL:

• Feb. 1: Helen Macdonald
• Feb. 7: Ross Gay
• Feb. 17: Karen Russell with Sherman Alexie & Jess Walter
• Feb. 22: Roxane Gay

2017 Words Matter Sneak Peek

You don’t want to miss SAL’s 2017 Words Matter Gala & Auction on March 23, 2017 at the Four Seasons Hotel Seattle! Besides enjoying a sumptuous meal, a spectacular view, and an inspiring program, you could win:

• Personalized reading recommendations over lunch with local book maven Nancy Pearl at the renowned, members-only dining club, The Ruins, as well as a chance to get your very own copy of Nancy’s very first novel and hear about how she wrote it.
• Dinner at the elegant Sorrento Hotel with Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The New Yorker Emily Nussbaum, including tickets to her upcoming SAL lecture at Town Hall.
• A tranquil, week-long writing retreat at a lovely waterfront home on Camano Island. 
• And much more!

Best of all, as a Words Matter guest, you’ll be a literary champion, promoting the power of the written word to change lives in our community.
 
Tickets are $175 each/$1,750 for a table of 10. Cocktail attire; sparkles encouraged. Register here. For more info, contact SAL Development Director Leanne Skooglund at lskooglund@lectures.org or 206-621-2230 x17.
 

SAL & Writers Resist

Last Sunday, 13 writers from throughout Washington, including the SAL Seattle Youth Poet Laureate, Angel Gardner, came together at Town Hall for “Writers Resist,” a reading in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. The event was part of a nationwide series of readings celebrating the American ideals of freedom and equality. Writers shared both their own work and work by writers who modeled courage and commitment to social justice through their work, including MLK, Sojourner Truth, Umberto Eco, Walt Whitman, Malcolm X and more.  

Watch the video of all 13 writers here, and hear the two incredible poems “Nicknames” and “Letter to America" at minute 17:40 read by Youth Poet Laureate, Angel Gardner (pictured). 

Featured Writers:

Daniel James Brown (The Boys in the Boat)
G. Willow Wilson (The Butterfly Mosque)
Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins)
Elissa Washuta (My Body is a Book of Rules)
Robert Lashley (The Homeboy Songs)
Jane Wong (Overpour)
Samuel Ligon (Wonderland)
Kristen Millares Young (prize-winning journalist and fiction writer)
Bruce Barcott (Weed The People)
David Laskin (The Children’s Blizzard)
Claudia Castro Luna (This City, Seattle’s Civic Poet)
Tod Marshall (Bugle, Washington State Poet Laureate)
Angel Gardner (Seattle’s Youth Poet Laureate)

Don't miss SAL's next Local Voices reading!