Time travel may not be possible, but two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Colson Whitehead transports readers back to the 1970s with the latest edition in his Harlem Saga.  The second in a trilogy that began with the successful Harlem Shuffle, Crook Manifesto blends dark elements with humor to feature the gritty realities in New York City’s complex history. From Blaxploitation films, America’s Bicentennial Celebrations, and the Jackson Five, Whitehead shows popular culture as it was five decades ago, to high crime rates, social unrest, swelling racial tension, and anti-police sentiment that seem to mirror life today. The novel is an unembellished exploration of harsh truths. Yet in between the corruption, theft, violence, and a motley crew of hustlers and hitmen is Whitehead’s perhaps unexpected exploration into the meaning of family, adding greater depth to the narrative. Colson Whitehead’s kaleidoscopic portrait of Harlem explores a city under siege and a turbulent decade, told through the eyes of a colorful cast over multiple years. Fans of this novel’s predecessor will appreciate the reprisal of earlier characters and familiar situations, and new readers may be drawn to Crook Manifesto’s unique blend of dark comedy, caper, and commentary on the urban landscape. Colson Whitehead is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Underground Railroad, which in 2016 won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and the National Book Award and was named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. Other books include The Noble Hustle, Zone One, Sag Harbor, The Intuitionist, John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, and The Colossus of New York. He is also a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a recipient of the MacArthur and Guggenheim Fellowships. He lives in New York City. Robert Sindelar has been a bookseller for over 32 years. He is the Managing Partner of Third Place Books (est. 1998), an independent bookstore with 3 locations in the greater Seattle area. Robert has served on the Board of Directors of the American Booksellers Association including serving as its Board President from 2017-2019. Crook Manifesto Third Place Books

  If you’ve kept up with current affairs or politics over the past decade, James Comey is likely a familiar name. Between 2013 and 2017, Comey served as the seventh director of the FBI and has been at the center of headlines about the Clinton email controversy, the Russian interference hearing, and his dismissal by former president Trump. Yet before the headlines and prior to his time with the FBI, James Comey had already led a uniquely extensive career, holding positions as a prosecutor, defense lawyer, general counsel, teacher, and author. Now Comey is entering the world of literary fiction with the release of his debut crime novel, Central Park West. Drawing on his career in Federal Law Enforcement as well as his time prosecuting members of the mob, Comey grounds his narrative in a level of realism that can only be achieved through insider knowledge and lived experience. The story begins as a multi-year case against a powerful mobster finally cracks and an unimpeachable witness takes the stand. But just when it seems like the defendant can be put away for good, a note containing information on a high-profile murder blows the case back open. The result is an investigation riddled with conspiracy, corruption, and danger. Join James Comey at Town Hall as he discusses Central Park West, named the “Most Anticipated Read of 2023” by Reader’s Digest and Newsweek. James Comey has been a prosecutor, defense lawyer, general counsel, teacher, writer, and leader. He most recently served in government as Director of the FBI. His best-selling book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership was published in 2018 and made into a 2020 television limited-series. His second book, Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust, also a New York Times bestseller, was published in 2021. Jim, as he is known to family and friends, and his wife, Patrice, live in Virginia and are the parents of five and grandparents (so far) of three. Steve Scher is a podcaster and interviewer and has been a teacher at the University of Washington since 2009. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years and was Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.  Central Park West: A Crime Novel Third Place Books

The tomato gets no respect. Never has. Stored in the dustbin of history for centuries, accused of being vile and poisonous, appropriated as wartime propaganda, subjected to being picked hard-green and gassed, even used as a projectile, the poor tomato is the Rodney Dangerfield of foods. Yet, the tomato is the most popular vegetable in America (and, in fact, the world). It holds a place in America’s soul like no other vegetable and few other foods. Each summer, tomato festivals crop up across the country; John Denver had a hit single titled “Homegrown Tomatoes;” and the Heinz tomato ketchup bottle, instantly recognizable, is in the Smithsonian. Author William Alexander is on a mission to get tomatoes the respect they deserve. Supported by meticulous research but told in a lively, accessible voice, Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World will seamlessly weave travel, history, humor, and a little adventure (and misadventure) to follow the tomato’s trail through history. A fascinating story complete with heroes, con artists, conquistadors, and no surprise, the Mafia, this book is a mouth-watering, informative, and entertaining guide to the good that has captured our hearts for generations. William Alexander is a New York Times bestselling author and the writer of three critically-acclaimed books, including The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden. He’s been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition and Weekend Edition and has written for the New York Times, the LA Times, Saveur, and others. Ten Tomatoes that Changed the World: A History Third Place Books

Often when we think of cinema, the first places that come to mind are New York or Los Angeles. But did you know that hundreds of films and television shows are set in cities around the Pacific Northwest? From popular series like Twin Peaks to blockbuster book adaptations like Twilight, culture writer David Schmader’s new book Filmlandia!: A Movie Lovers Guide to the Films and Television of Seattle, Portland, and the Great Northwest highlights more than 200 film and television entertainments created and centered in our region. Extensively researched and curated by Schmader, Filmlandia! explores the oft-overlooked film culture of The Pacific Northwest. The author shows a culture that is thriving and robust, one that is finally given space to be celebrated in a guide that aims to be visually arresting and compelling – much like the films themselves. Classics like Sleepless in Seattle are discussed, but so are little-known documentaries, including multiple about Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain. Schmader put in a lot of screen time and research for this release, resulting result is over 200 TV and film entries that feature synopses (with healthy doses of levity and insight), behind-the-scene facts and trivia, and regional scenic highlights. Sidebars showcase the television shows that shaped the public’s perception of the region (such as Twin Peaks, Shrill, and Portlandia), filmmakers like Gus Van Sant and Lynn Shelton, queer cinema, silent films, and more. This is a talk for any cinephile or anyone with a curiosity about a lesser-known aspect of Pacific Northwest culture! David Schmader is a writer and performer devoted to exploring his obsessions, from homophobic rock stars and pray-away-the-gay Christians to trash cinema and legalized drugs. His solo plays have been performed in theaters across the US. From 1998–2015, Schmader was staff writer and editor for Seattle’s Pulitzer-winning newsweekly The Stranger, where he wrote the issue-opening column “Last Days: The Week in Review.” He is the world’s foremost authority on the glorious terribleness of the movie Showgirls, hosting annotated screenings of Paul Verhoeven’s notorious stripper drama at cinemas all over North America and providing the commentary track for the Showgirls DVD. He is the author of Filmlandia: A Movie Lover’s Guide to the Films and Television of Seattle, Portland, and The Great Northwest and Weed: The User’s Guide, published by Sasquatch Books. Kathy Fennessy is a Seattle Film Critics Society board member, an approved critic for Rotten Tomatoes, and a regular contributor to Rock and Roll Globe, Seattle Film Blog, and Video Librarian. She has also written or spoken about film for Amazon, KEXP’s Sound and Vision, KUOW’s All Things Considered, Minneapolis’s City Pages, the Northwest Film Forum, the Seattle International Film Festival, and The Stranger. She was born in Connecticut, raised in Alaska, and works in development at Cascade Public Media/KCTS 9. She is a Whitman College graduate and has lived in the Pacific Northwest for 35 years. Filmlandia!: A Movie Lover's Guide to the Films and Television of Seattle, Portland, and the Great Northwest Third Place Books

Every year, Town Hall selects exceptional local artists and scholars for paid residencies where they engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community. Findings Night is the final presentation for Residents to showcase what they have worked on at Town Hall. Learn more about our residencies here. Sally James, Scholar-in-Residence The Year 12 project asks about a pivotal period in a young person’s growth when what’s swirling around us in news, music or culture may leave a permanent imprint on our identities. Through shared stories from community members and scientific explanations of why this year is so important, the audience will be encouraged to revisit their own Year 12. On May 30th, Sally will be joined by these three storytellers: Sydney Floryanzia, a Ph.D student in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington, is working on developing drug-delivery methods to cross the blood-brain barrier Charles Mudede is both a journalist and a filmmaker who’s works can be found in The Stranger and other publications. Two of his films, Police Beat and Zoo, premiered at Sundance, and Zoo was screened at Cannes. Bryn Nelson is a Seattle-based author, journalist, and editor who specializes in scientific, environmental, medical, and travel-related stories. His new book, Flush: The Remarkable Science of an Unlikely Treasurehas tapped into all four of those interests. Sally James is a writer whose curiosity about people has taken her from jails to hospitals to schools to research labs. Once a staff member on daily newspapers, she has been an independent writer on medicine and science for many years. She has reported stories for the South Seattle Emerald, Parentmap, and Seattle Business magazines, as well as other outlets. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Seattle with her husband and a noisy cat. She is a former president of the Northwest Science Writers Association, a nonprofit supporting science communication.

Have you ever heard the beginnings of a tale involving someone from Florida and not been at least a little intrigued? New York Times bestselling author, Pulitzer Prize winner, and actual Florida Man Dave Barry returns with Swamp Story, a compelling novel that blends crime and comedy set in the state known for its unbelievable occurrences. New mom Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star whose handsome exterior belies a disappointing personality. Broke and desperate for a way out, Jesse stumbles across a long-lost treasure that she believes could solve all her problems if she can figure out how to keep it away from some dangerous men who are in pursuit of said fortune — and now Jesse. Meanwhile, a man named Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer schemes to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” The Monster is in fact an unemployed alcoholic named Phil wearing a Dora the Explorer costume head. Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of overzealous TikTokers to swarm the swamp searching for the monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. And if that weren’t enough Floridian chaos, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, author Dave Barry’s new caper full of mayhem is unpredictable. But this is fitting — it is, after all, Florida. Dave Barry is the author of more bestsellers than you can count on two hands, including Lessons from Lucy, Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys, Dave Barry Turns Forty, and Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up. A wildly popular syndicated columnist best known for his booger jokes, Barry won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He lives in Miami. Swamp Story The Elliott Bay Book Company

Once upon a time, there was a gigantic mess named Jen Sincero. She bought the cheapest toothpaste, dated all the wrong people, drove broken cars, and made zero money. A decade later, Jen is now a world-renowned author, success coach, and motivational speaker and celebrating the 10th anniversary of her blockbuster bestseller, You Are a Badass (new edition on sale April 11th). A lot can change in ten years, especially considering 2013 looks a hell of a lot different than 2023 but one thing remains: in order to kick ass, you must first lift up your foot. Jen Sincero is getting the band back together for the You Are A Badass Anniversary Tour and hitting the road to celebrate her timeless and beloved how-to-guide that has transformed lives and inspired a movement. With her signature “jenisms,” she will make sure you leave the event with a modern-day understanding of why you are how you are, how to love what you can’t change, how to change what you don’t love, and, of course, how to use The Force to kick some serious ass. Jen Sincero is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and motivational cattle prod who’s helped countless people transform their personal and professional lives via her products, speaking engagements, newsletters, seminars, and books. Her #1 New York Times bestseller, You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life, has remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over five years, has sold over 5 million copies worldwide, is available in over 40 languages, and continues to grow in popularity around the globe. Her follow-ups, You Are a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth, You Are a Badass Every Day, and Badass Habits are written with the same signature sass, down-to-earth humor and blunt practicality that made You Are a Badass a beloved bestseller and Jen a celebrated voice in the world of self-development. You Are a Badass The Elliott Bay Book Company

Growing up, Chasten Glezman Buttigieg didn’t always fit in. He felt different from his father and brothers, who loved to hunt and go camping in the rural, conservative small town where he lived. Back then, blending in was more important than feeling seen. So, when Chasten realized he was gay, he kept that part of himself hidden away for a long, painful time. With incredible bravery, and the support of his loved ones, Chasten eventually came out — and when he did, he learned that being true to himself was the most rewarding journey of all. Finding acceptance and self-love can seem like a tremendous challenge, but it’s never impossible. With honesty, courage, and warmth, Chasten relays his experience in this young adult adaptation of his memoir, about growing up in America and embracing his identity, while inspiring young people across the country to do the same. I Have Something to Tell You — For Young Adults is a hopeful, candid memoir by the husband of a former Democratic presidential candidate about growing up gay in his small Midwestern town. Chasten Glezman Buttigieg grew up in Traverse City, Michigan. He is a teacher, advocate, and husband of former Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. Chasten currently lives with Pete; their two children, Gus and Penelope; and their two rescue dogs, Buddy and Truman, in Northern Michigan. I Have Something to Tell You — For Young Adults is his second book. Naomi Ishisaka is the Assistant Managing Editor for Diversity and Inclusion and the Social Justice Columnist for The Seattle Times. She is a journalist and photographer who focuses on racial equity and social justice. I Have Something to Tell You — For Young Adults The Elliott Bay Book Company

Can we still love the work of Hemingway, Polanski, Naipaul, Miles Davis, or Picasso? Should we love it? In this unflinching, deeply personal book that expands on her instantly viral Paris Review essay, “What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?” Claire Dederer asks: Does genius deserve special dispensation? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss? She explores the audience’s relationship with complicated artists, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster to create something great. And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art. Claire Dederer is a bestselling memoirist, essayist, and critic. Her books include the critically acclaimed Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning, as well as Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, which was a New York Times bestseller. Poser has been translated into eleven languages, optioned for television by Warner Bros., and adapted for the stage. Sonora Jha is the author of the memoir How to Raise a Feminist Son and the novel Foreign. After a career as a journalist covering crime, politics, and culture in India and Singapore, she moved to the United States to earn a PhD in media and public affairs. Dr. Jha’s op-eds, essays, and public appearances have been featured in the New York Times, on the BBC, in anthologies, and elsewhere. She is a professor of journalism at Seattle University. Her new novel, The Laughter, has opened to rave reviews from The New York Times, Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and others.  Angela Garbes is the author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, called “a landmark and a lightning storm” by the New Yorker. Essential Labor was named a Best Book of 2022 by both the New Yorker and NPR. Her first book, Like a Mother, was also an NPR Best Book of the Year. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A first-generation Filipina American, Garbes lives with her family on Beacon Hill. Monsters The Elliott Bay Book Company

Side Notes from the Archivist is a preservation of Black culture viewed through a feminist lens. The Archivist leads readers through poems that epitomize youthful renditions of a Black girl coming of age in Philadelphia’s pre-funk ’80s; episodic adventures of “the Black Girl” whose life is depicted through the white gaze; and selections of verse evincing affection for self and testimony to the magnificence within Black femme culture at-large. In her uniquely embracing and experimental style, Anastacia-Reneé documents and celebrates diverse subjects, from Solid Gold to halal hotdogs; as homages and reflections on iconic images, from Marsha P. Johnson to Aunt Jemima; and as critiques of systemic oppression forcing some to countdown their last heartbeat. Anastacia-Reneé (she/they) is a queer, hybrid writer, educator, retro-flector, artist, speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of Side Notes from the Archivist (2023) and Forget It (2017), and they were selected by NBC News as part of the list of “Queer Artists of Color Dominate 2021’s Must See LGBTQ Art Shows.” She was a former Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), Hugo House Poet-in-Residence (2015-2017) Jack Straw Curator, and Arc Artist Fellow (2020). Her work has been anthologized in Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature; Home is Where You Queer Your Heart; Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry; Afrofuturism: Black Comics and Superhero Poetry, and many others. Their work has appeared in Hobart, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, Alta, Torch, Poetry Northwest, A-Line, Cascadia Magazine, Hennepin Review, Split this Rock, Ms. Magazine, and others. Reneé has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. Quenton Baker is a poet, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. Their current focus is black interiority and the afterlife of slavery. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Jubilat, Vinyl, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. They were a 2019 Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and a 2021 NEA Fellow. They are the author of we pilot the blood (2021) and ballast (2023). Side Notes from the Archivist

Town Hall Seattle and Gage Academy of Art present Preston Singletary: Honoring Stories Through Glass-Blowing. The art of Preston Singletary has become synonymous with the relationship between European glass-blowing traditions and Northwest Native art. His artworks feature themes of transformation, animal spirits, and shamanism through elegant blown glass forms and mystical sand-carved Tlingit designs. Singletary learned the art of glass blowing by working with artists in the Seattle area including Benjamin Moore and Dante Marioni. As a student and assistant, he initially focused on mastering the techniques of the European tradition. In 1993 he traveled to Sweden and was immersed in the Scandinavian design community where he met his future wife Åsa and lived there for 6 months. Throughout his over thirty years of glass-blowing experience, he has also had opportunities to learn the secrets of the Venetian glass masters by working with Italian legends Lino Tagliapietra, Cecco Ongaro, and Pino Signoretto. In 2010, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts degree from the University of Puget Sound. Now recognized internationally, Singletary’s artworks are included in museum collections such as The British Museum (London, UK), The Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), The Seattle Art Museum (Seattle WA), the Corning Museum of Glass (Corning, NY), the Mint Museum of Art and Design (Charlotte, NC), the Heard Museum (Phoenix, AZ), and the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC). Preston Singletary maintains an active schedule by teaching, lecturing, and exhibiting internationally. In 2009, the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, launched a major mid-career survey of his work, entitled “Preston Singletary: Echoes, Fire, and Shadows”. In 2018 he launched a new traveling exhibition with the Museum of Glass, titled “Preston Singletary: Raven and the Box of Daylight”, which pushes the boundaries of glass as a medium for storytelling. His latest work is a large Killer Whale Totem created entirely in lead crystal and standing at nearly eight feet tall.

Every year, Town Hall selects exceptional local artists and scholars for paid residencies where they engage with Town Hall programs and collaborate with our programming team to develop original events for the community. For our Spring 2023 residency, we’re lucky enough to have both a Scholar- and an Artist-in-Residence. This Scratch Night will showcase their work in progress. Scholar in Residence: Sally James Sally James is a writer whose curiosity about people has taken her from jails to hospitals to schools to research labs. Once a staff member of daily newspapers, she has been an independent writer on medicine and science for many years. Most recently, she’s reported stories for the South Seattle Emerald, Parentmap, Seattle and Seattle Business magazines, and other outlets. She is the mother of three adult children and lives in Seattle with her husband and a noisy cat. She is a former president of the Northwest Science Writer’s Association, a nonprofit supporting science communication. Focus while in Residence: In the words of Sally, “The Year 12 project is asking about a pivotal time in a young person’s growth when what’s swirling around us in news, music, or culture may leave a permanent imprint on our identities. Laura Kastner, Ph.D., a clinical professor of psychology at the University of Washington, will join James onstage to talk about the brain changes that happen around age 12. Kastner is the author of several books about adolescence and parenting. You can participate in Sally’s Year 12 project here: Share your Year 12 Stories!

Sometimes the impact of our actions and interactions can be vaster and longer lasting than we can predict. France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever ― and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name. This event will have CART transcription. Victoria “V. E.” Schwab is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic series, Villains series, Monster of Verity duology, Cassidy Blake series, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. Her work has received critical acclaim and been featured in the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Washington Post, and more translated into more than two dozen languages, and has been optioned for television and film. When she’s not haunting Paris streets or trudging up English hillsides, she lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is usually tucked in the corner of a coffee shop, dreaming up monsters. Nisi Shawl is the multiple award-winning author and editor of over a dozen books, including Nebula Award finalist Everfair, two volumes of the New Suns anthology series, and Filter House, co-winner of the 2009 Otherwise Award. Recent titles include the horror collection Our Fruiting Bodies and the middle-grade historical fantasy Speculation. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue The Elliott Bay Book Company

Join award-winning NPR journalist Ari Shapiro for an evening of conversation about his memoir and tales from his storied broadcast career.  The beloved host of “All Things Considered” is known for his adventurous spirit and insatiable curiosity, which has served him well whether he’s traveling on Air Force One with President Obama, navigating war-torn countries, or following community leaders fighting for social justice. His new memoir, The Best Strangers In the World, details all of this and more in captivating essays and is a true love letter to journalism. Shapiro will be joined by special guests as he shares insights from his life spent listening. Ari Shapiro is the host of NPR’s ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, the most listened-to radio news program in the United States. He won the Edward R. Murrow Award for coverage of the Trump Administration’s asylum policies on the US-Mexico border. The COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW honored him with a laurel for his investigation into disability benefits for injured veterans. The American Bar Association awarded him the Silver Gavel for exposing the failures of Louisiana’s detention system after Hurricane Katrina. And at age 25, Shapiro won the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize for an investigation of methamphetamine use and HIV transmission. Shapiro makes frequent appearances as a guest singer with the “little orchestra” Pink Martini. He created the original one-man show, HOMEWARD, in 2016. Since 2019, he has performed and toured the stage show OCH AND OY with Tony Award winner Alan Cumming. He lives in Washington, DC. https://www.npr.org/people/2101154/ari-shapiro Dan Shapiro, an innovative entrepreneur, and five-time CEO has dedicated his career to helping people bring their ideas to life. With accomplishments spanning software, board game design, and laser technology, Dan’s pursuits are fueled by curiosity and inventive problem-solving. Inspired by his passion for teaching his children, Dan created Robot Turtles, the bestselling board game in Kickstarter history. Robot Turtles teaches programming principles to kids as young as preschool, and has been sold everywhere, from Target to the Museum of Modern Art. As CEO and cofounder of Glowforge, the 3D laser printer company, Dan shattered crowdfunding records by raising $27.9M in 30 days. Glowforge now helps millions of people around the world bring their creative ideas to life. Dan’s accomplishments have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, and on the front page of the New York Times. He holds more than 30 patents for his creations and lives in Seattle with his wife and teenage twins. The Best Strangers in the World Third Place Books

Movies, books, and TV shows tell us we should’ve already found our people — those close, always dependable, tried-and-true forever friends — by the time we’re adults (and if we haven’t, there must be something wrong with us). But it’s often easier said than done. Where do you find close friends beyond childhood or school? Is it even possible? Like many people navigating adulthood, Lane Moore thought she would have friends by now. Sure, Moore has plenty of casual acquaintances and people she likes hanging out with, but she wanted to find her people — the ones she lists as her emergency contact, the ones she calls when something funny or horrible happens, the ones who bring over soup over when she’s sick as she would do for them — her chosen family. You Will Find Your People is the groundbreaking guide to making and keeping the friends we’ve all been desperately waiting for. In this follow-up to her best-selling book How to Be Alone, Moore shows us how to make real friends as an adult, cope with friend breakups, navigate friendships with coworkers, roommates, and family members, and provides real tools on how to create healthy boundaries with friends to deepen your bonds. Through hilarious personal anecdotes and hard-won wisdom, Moore teaches us how to finally work through our fears and past hurts, to bravely cultivate and maintain the lifelong friendships we deserve. Lane Moore is an award-winning stand-up comedian, actor, author, and musician. Moore is the creator of the hit comedy show Tinder Live, and the bestselling author of How To Be Alone and the forthcoming You Will Find Your People. Moore’s writing has appeared everywhere from The New Yorker to The Onion, and she is the former sex and relationships editor at Cosmopolitan, where she received a GLAAD Award for her groundbreaking work expanding the magazine’s queer coverage. Moore is the frontperson in the band It Was Romance and lives in Brooklyn with her dog-child, Lights. Angela Garbes is the author of Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, called “a landmark and a lightning storm” by the New Yorker. Essential Labor was named a Best Book of 2022 by both the New Yorker and NPR. Her first book, Like a Mother, was also an NPR Best Book of the Year as well as a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and New York Magazine, and featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. A first-generation Filipina American, Garbes lives with her family on Beacon Hill. Lindy West is a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, and is the author of Shit, Actually, the New York Times bestselling memoir Shrill, and the essay collection The Witches Are Coming. Her work has also appeared in This American Life, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vulture, Jezebel, and others. She is the co-founder of the reproductive rights destigmatization campaign #ShoutYourAbortion. Lindy is a writer and executive producer on Shrill, the Hulu comedy adapted from her memoir. She co-wrote and produced the independent feature film Thin Skin. You Will Find Your People Third Place Books

Defiance had provoked Lisa Thompson to enter the male-dominated world of high-altitude mountaineering, but defiance could only take her so far. After a harrowing battle with cancer, Lisa realized she needed to understand what motivated her to take greater and greater risks in the mountains. Finding Elevation chronicles Thompson’s path from novice climber to world-class mountaineer, as she becomes the second American woman to summit K2, which is considered by many to be the deadliest mountain in the world. More than a climbing memoir, Finding Elevation is a deeply personal examination of motivation and the human spirit. It is a story of what can happen when we finally stop letting others define our limits and instead trust that we are capable of more. In this inspiring book, Thompson reaches beyond the mountain to tell a story of heartbreak, resilience, and the discovery that we are responsible for defining our own boundaries, finding our own happiness, and facing our fears head-on. Lisa Thompson is a mountaineer, cancer survivor, and sought-after speaker and coach. Growing up in the flat, humid farmlands of Illinois, she relied on adventure as a distraction, always knowing that she’d someday leave her hometown for something bigger. She soon became the first person in her extended family to graduate from college. She worked for twenty-five years as an engineer and in leadership roles at technology companies. Since she began climbing in 2008, Lisa has summited some of the most challenging mountains in the world, including Everest. She has completed the Seven Summits, reaching the top of the highest peak of each of the seven continents. Through her company, Alpine Athletics, and other platforms, Lisa shares her message of strength and resilience with corporate and private groups worldwide. She lives in Seattle with her golden retriever, Chevy, who loves the mountains almost as much as she does. You can learn more about Lisa at www.lisaclimbs.com. Alexandra Oliva is the author of two novels, Forget Me Not and The Last One, which was a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist as well as a Seattle Times Best Book of 2016. Her work has been translated into over twenty-five languages and her writing has appeared in The New York Times. Originally from the Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, Ali was a first-generation college student, graduating from Yale University in 2005. She later earned her MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City and soon afterward moved to the Pacific Northwest. She now lives on Seattle’s Eastside with her husband, dog, and young son. Finding Elevation: Fear and Courage on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain Third Place Books

Born and raised on her family’s 7-acre ranch in Auburn, Washington, African American sculptor Marita Dingus has been exhibiting her artwork locally and internationally for over 30 years. Working almost exclusively with found objects of every possible variety, Dingus’s work is a commentary on the enslavement of African people, recycling, and the politics of poverty. Her signature African-inflected figures of all sizes have become a familiar sight in the region, having been shown at galleries, museums, outdoor installations, and even on the walls of Town Hall Seattle, where her piece “Woman as the Creator” can be viewed on the 1st Floor. Gary Faigin talks with her about her long career and where she plans to go from here. Marita Dingus attended Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia (BFA, 1980) and San Jose State University (MFA, 1985). She has received a Visual Art Fellowship from Artist Trust (1994), a John S. Guggenheim Fellowship (1999), and the Morrie and Joan Alhadeff PONCHO Artist of the Year Award (2005). Dingus has had solo shows at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and The Stenersen Museum, both in Norway (2002, 2006), as well as the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA (2005 – 2006). Her work has been included in Nature/Culture organized by The Society for Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh (2006 – 2008), Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC (2006 – 2007) and 21st Century American Women Artists at the Residence of the United States Ambassador to NATO in Brussels, Belgium (2006 – 2010). Her work is in many regional museums and corporate collections. Dingus currently lives and works in the state of Washington and is represented by Traver Gallery in Seattle. Painter, critic, and author Gary Faigin is cofounder and Artistic Director of Gage Academy of Art in Seattle, as well as the school’s Still Life Atelier instructor. Faigin also serves as a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he teaches facial expressions to graduate animation students and works on a research team studying the human perception of stylized facial expressions. He has taught in art schools across the country including the National Academy of Design and the Parsons School of Design. In 2001, Faigin published his first book, The Artist’s Complete Guide to Facial Expression, which has since been translated into seven languages and reprinted sixteen times. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Gage Academy of Art.

You look good for your age.” “You’re too young to understand.”  In employment decisions, family discussions, medical care, and even in birthday cards, assumptions about being “over the hill” or “a lazy kid” are common. What do you wish society would stop saying about your generation? How can we talk about age and aging in a more positive, affirming way? In this interactive and fun talk, Dori Gillam welcomes individuals from every generation to explore how we can begin valuing all ages — including our own. Dori Gillam is a speaker and writer, inspiring older adults to age creatively. She writes for 3rd Act Magazine, is a member of the Speaker’s Bureau for Humanities Washington, Board Chair for the NW Center for Creative Aging, Charter Member of the Age Friendly Seattle Coalition, and volunteers with Habitat for Humanity building houses around the world. Dori cared for her parents for the last seven years of their lives and performs a story about them at local theaters and conferences. With a BS degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington, Dori has worked for Sound Generations, AARP, and the Bayview Retirement Community. She is proud to have been born and raised in Seattle, does a mean tap-dance to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” and has climbed Mt. Rainier and Mt. Kilimanjaro. Dori’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson live in California. Northwest Center for Creative Aging (NWCCA) advocates for the creativity, vitality, and wholeness inherent in all of us. As we age, we discover new capacities and new interests. We seek activities that expand our minds, strengthen our bodies, and open our hearts. We recognize the necessity of interdependence, humor, generosity, and gratitude to bolster us during challenging times. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Northwest Center for Creative Aging.

Why are mystery novels so captivating? Well, name a better way to be thrilled without ever having to leave your own home … For over 30 years, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George has been penning page-turners for crime novel enthusiasts around the globe. This winter, the Seattle-based writer is back with the paperback release of her latest book Something to Hide. This book is #21 in George’s A Lynley Novel series, known for involving crimes that are “deeply shocking and suspenseful.” This time, Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeants Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata investigate the murder of one of their own: a police detective sergeant who was working on a special task force in North London’s Nigerian community. When an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death, Lynley is assigned to the case, which he soon learns has far-reaching and unexpected cultural associations. Lynley, Havers, and Nkata must sort through the lies of people whose superficial cooperation masks the damage they do to one another. And just when we think we know who the killer is, George turns the tables. With a combination of adventure, sociocultural implications, and engaging characters, Something to Hide is a world familiar to seasoned readers of George’s writing, and enrapturing to newcomers. Elizabeth George is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one psychological suspense novels, four young adult novels, two books of nonfiction, and two short-story collections. Her work has been honored with the Anthony and Agatha awards, two Edgar nominations, and both France’s and Germany’s first prize for crime fiction. She lives in Washington State. Moira Macdonald is a longtime arts critic for The Seattle Times, writing primarily about books, movies and dance. Something to Hide: A Lynley Novel (Hardcover) Third Place Books

The Billboard Hot 100 began in 1958, and for many, that little countdown list provokes some strong feelings of nostalgia. Did you listen in while gathered around a family-room radio? A walkman? Blasted through a car stereo, waiting in the driveway until you heard the #1 song of the week? The way we access music might have changed drastically over the decades, but the Billboard Hot 100 still reigns supreme as the industry-standard record chart. And it has a story to tell. Beloved music critic Tom Breihan started to tell some of that story when he launched his Stereogum column, “The Number Ones,” in early 2018. With the goal to write about every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100, in chronological order, he’s still in the early aughts after four years. And the column has taken on a life of its own, sparking online debate and occasional death threats, and now, its own book. In The Number Ones, Breihan explores twenty pivotal #1s throughout chart history to tell a remarkably fluid and connected story of music, from the Brill Building songwriters to the Beatles and the Beach Boys; from Motown to Michael Jackson, Prince, and Mariah Carey; and from the digital revolution to the K-pop system. He also illuminates what makes indelible ear candy across the decades—including dance crazes, recording innovations, television phenomena, disco, AOR, MTV, rap, compact discs, mp3s, social media, memes, and much more — leaving us to wonder what future eras of music will hold. Tom Breihan is the senior editor at the music website Stereogum, where he writes “The Number Ones,” a column where he reviews every #1 hit in the history of the Billboard Hot 100. He’s written for Pitchfork, the Village Voice, the AV Club, GQ, and the Ringer, among others. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, with his wife and kids. He is seven feet tall. Tom Nissley is the owner of Phinney Books and Madison Books in Seattle, and the author of A Reader’s Book of Days. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and in 2010 won eight games on Jeopardy!. The Number Ones: Twenty Chart-Topping Hits That Reveal the History of Pop Music Phinney Books

As an art critic and a museum staffer, Erin Langner was skeptical of what she would find when she visited the Las Vegas Strip for the first time in the mid-2000s. To her surprise, she returned whenever the opportunity arose, seeking to understand her attraction to this “escape” destination — and the personal histories it conjured. The architecture of the Mirage casino surfaced the vacations to Florida that bandaged her grieving family together in the wake of her mother’s death. An encounter with a fake Venus de Milo during a bachelorette party shed light on her identity construction as a woman. An impersonator show evoked the rituals we create as we navigate loss. Together, the essays of Souvenirs from Paradise become a guide to holding fantasy and reality together in one glimpse, in order to better understand our impulses and ourselves. Souvenirs from Paradise was selected as the winner of Zone 3 Press’s Creative Nonfiction Book Award by Wendy S. Walters. Erin Langner writes about art, architecture and identity. She is a regular contributor to Hyperallergic and METROPOLIS magazines. Her writing has also appeared or is forthcoming in publications including Fourth Genre, december, The Offing, The Normal School, Hobart, The Brooklyn Rail and Pidgeonholes. Langner is the recipient of a Jack Straw Writers fellowship (2022) and the Good Hart Artist Residency (2023). She earned her M.A. in Museology from the University of Washington and her B.A. in Humanities from the University of Colorado. She lives in Seattle with her husband and daughter and works on exhibitions and publications at the Frye Art Museum. Souvenirs is her debut essay collection. Jen Graves is a stepmother, a mother, a dog mother, a couples and family therapist, sometimes adjunct faculty, and — back when she had the honor of publishing Erin Langner’s writing at The Stranger — a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism. Souvenirs from Paradise Phinney Books

For years, consumers have been promised a simple, carefree digital future. We could live, work, learn, and play from the comforts of our homes, and have whatever we desire brought to our door with the flick of a finger. Instant communication would bring us together. All this technological convenience would give us more time to focus on what really mattered. When the pandemic hit, for many, that future transformed into the present almost overnight. But the reviews aren’t great. It turns out that people like leaving the house, instant communication can spread more anger than joy, and convenience seems to take away time rather than giving it to us. Oops. But as David Sax argues in his new book The Future is Analog, we’ve also had our eyes opened. There is nothing about the future that has to be digital, and embracing the reality of human experience doesn’t mean resisting change. Sax explores work, school, leisure, and more, asking perceptive and pointed questions: what happens to struggling students when they’re not in a classroom? If software is built for productivity, who tends to the social and cultural aspects of our jobs? Can you have religion without community? For many people, the best parts of quarantine were the least digital ones: baking bread, playing board games, going hiking; using our hands, hugging our children and breathing fresh air. Sax suggests that if we want a healthy future, we need to choose community over convenience and humanity over technology. David Sax is a writer, reporter, and speaker who specializes in business and culture. His book The Revenge of Analog was a #1 Washington Post bestseller, was selected as one of Michiko Kakutani’s Top Ten books of 2016 for The New York Times, and has been translated into six languages. He is also the author of three other books: Save the Deli, which won a James Beard award, The Soul of an Entrepreneur, and The Tastemakers. He lives in Toronto. The Future Is Analog: How to Create a More Human World (Hardcover) Third Place Books

There’s no denying it: Work relationships can be hard. The stress of dealing with difficult people can dampen creativity and productivity, degrade the ability to think clearly and make sound decisions, and cause people to disengage. We might lie awake at night worrying, withdraw from work, or react in ways we later regret — rolling our eyes in a meeting, snapping at colleagues, or staying silent when we should speak up. Too often we grin and bear it as if we have no choice. But people can only endure so much thoughtless, irrational, or malicious behavior. In Getting Along, workplace expert and Harvard Business Review podcast host Amy Gallo identifies eight familiar types of difficult coworkers: the insecure boss; the passive-aggressive peer; the know-it-all; the biased coworker; and others — and provides strategies tailored to dealing constructively with each one. She also shares principles that will help you turn things around, no matter who you’re at odds with. Taking the high road isn’t easy, but Gallo offers a crucial perspective on how work relationships really matter, as well as the compassion, encouragement, and tools you need to prevail on your terms. Through relatable, sometimes cringe-worthy examples and the latest behavioral science research, Gallo offers practical advice for navigating your toughest relationships at work — and building interpersonal resilience in the process. Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, where she writes about workplace dynamics. She is the author of the HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict and cohosts HBR’s Women at Work podcast. As a speaker and workshop facilitator, Gallo has helped thousands of leaders deal with conflict more effectively and navigate complicated workplace dynamics. She is a graduate of Yale University and has a master’s in public policy from Brown University. Ruchika Tulshyan is the founder of Candour, a global inclusion strategy firm. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. As a keynote speaker, Ruchika has addressed audiences at organizations like NASA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and U.S. Congress. Ruchika is on the Thinkers50 Radar list and Hive Learning’s Most Influential D&I Professionals. She is a former business journalist who is now regularly quoted as a media expert in outlets like NPR, The New York Times, and Bloomberg. Ruchika is the author of The Diversity Advantage: Fixing Gender Inequality in the Workplace and Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work. Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) Third Place Books

Imagine a world where decisions are decided by the roll of a pair of dice. What to eat? Roll the dice. Who to marry? Roll again. How to die, and when? Get rolling. We can only imagine how different our lives might be if we surrendered every decision to the unpredictable fall of two numbered cubes. From Penn Jillette — yes, that Penn Jillette of the legendary duo Penn & Teller — comes Random: a crime novel that aims to bring Jillette’s magic from the stage to the page, inviting readers into a caper story that explores ideas like faith and fate with irreverence, wit, and humor. In Random, Las Vegas native Bobby Ingersoll finds out that he has inherited a crushing gambling debt from his father of ill repute, just two weeks before his twenty-first birthday. The debt is owed to the deplorable Fraser Ruphart who oversees a bottom-rung criminal empire, and Bobby’s prospects of paying off the note, which is due the day he turns 21, are bleak. In the nick of time, Bobby stumbles on enough cash to pay off the crime lord and change his family’s fortune. Perhaps even more significantly, Bobby finds that he has become a “believer” of sorts. But Bobby does not consign his big break to a higher power — what Penn Jillette hero ever could? Instead, he devises and devotes himself to Random, a philosophy where his life choices are based entirely on the roll of his “lucky” dice. What follows is an amusing exploration that’s less about what defines us and more about what divines us. Random combines the intellectual curiosity of Richard Dawkins with the humor and grit of an Elmore Leonard antihero, and its protagonist is Jillette’s creative solution to navigating the chaos of the post-truth era. Penn Jillette is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality and as half of the world-famous Emmy Award–winning magic duo Penn & Teller, whose live show spent years on Broadway and is now the longest-running headlining show in Las Vegas. The pair have their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Jillette cohosted the Showtime series Penn & Teller: Bullshit! which was nominated for thirteen Emmy Awards and won him a Writers Guild Award. He currently cohosts the CW Network competition series Penn & Teller: Fool Us! His weekly podcast, Penn’s Sunday School, was the number one downloaded podcast on iTunes during its debut week and was named by iTunes as Best New Comedy Podcast. He is the author of numerous books, including the nonfiction New York Times best-selling books Presto!: How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales and God No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales; the novel Sock; and the essay collection Every Day Is an Atheist Holiday! Random (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Books

Before there was Kate Beaton, the New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark! A Vagrant, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons — specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, Katie heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush — part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can’t find it in the homeland they love so much. Katie encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands, where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet is never discussed. Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, northern lights, and boreal forest. Her first full length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands blends history, politics, and memoir in an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people. Beaton is joined in discussion by memoirist and New York Times bestseller Claire Dederer. Kate Beaton is a Canadian cartoonist who appeared on the comics scene in 2007 with her online work Hark! A Vagrant. She has published two books with Drawn & Quarterly: Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside Pops: A Hark! A Vagrant Collection, which spent five and six months on the New York Times graphic bestseller list respectively. She has also appeared on best-of-the-year lists from Time, The Washington Post, Vulture, E!, and more. She has also published two picture books: King Baby and The Princess and the Pony. Beaton lives in Cape Breton, Canada. Claire Dederer is a bestselling memoirist, essayist, and critic. Her books include the critically acclaimed Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning, as well as Poser: My Life in Twenty-three Yoga Poses, which was a New York Times bestseller. Poser has been translated into eleven languages, optioned for television by Warner Bros., and adapted for the stage. A longtime contributor to The New York Times, her work has also appeared in The Paris Review, The Atlantic, The Nation, Vogue, and many other publications. She began her career as the chief film critic for Seattle Weekly. Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Books

Jonathan Franzen is known for being, well, a little bit of everything: cantankerous and compelling, celebrated and controversial. Known for his vivid character development, his six novels have provoked commentary of all sorts from each end of the spectrum and everywhere in-between. Unsurprisingly, when Franzen — dubbed by TIME as “The Great American Novelist”— releases a new book, people pay attention; his latest novel, Crossroads, is no exception. In Crossroads, it’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free from a joyless marriage — unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who’s been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. The story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis, Crossroads explores the history of two generations with humor and complexity that resonates with our contemporary times. Jonathan Franzen is the author of six novels, most recently Crossroads and Purity, and five works of nonfiction, including The Discomfort Zone, Farther Away, and The End of the End of the Earth. Among his honors are the National Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Award, the Heartland Prize, Die Welt Literature Prize, the Budapest Grand Prize, and the first Carlos Fuentes Medal awarded at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. Franzen is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Akademie der Künste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. An ardent bird-watcher, he has served on the board of the American Bird Conservancy since 2008, and has received the EuroNatur Award for his work in bird conservation. Tom Nissley is the owner of Phinney Books and Madison Books in Seattle, and the author of A Reader’s Book of Days. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and in 2010 won eight games on Jeopardy!. Crossroads: A Novel (Paperback) Third Place Books

From the authors of 2020’s Tiny Imperfections comes a new novel that takes a humorous but candid look at issues like race, religion, parenting, and love through the lens of female friendship. Never Meant to Meet You features protagonist Marjette Lewis, a self-proclaimed “fixer” and kindergarten teacher facing the challenges of raising a son on the verge of manhood, entering her first year without her best friend (the campus “Black-up”) at the private school, and dealing with an ex-husband who is the source of chronic vexation. In contrast to Marjette, her white, Jewish neighbor Noa Abrams appears perfect on the outside, and Marjette is too focused on her own matters to butt in to her neighbor’s business affairs this time. But when tragedy strikes Noa’s family and an unexpected students enters Marjette’s classroom, she is forced to face both her neighbor and her own disappointment — as well as the possibility of new love. Through laughter, tears, and expanding our pre-conceived notions of family and kinship, Marjette and Noa find common ground, common goals, and a strength they didn’t know they had. Alli Frank and Asha Youmans are coauthors of Tiny Imperfections (Random House, 2020), and Alli is a contributing essayist in the anthology Moms Don’t Have Time to: A Quarantine Anthology. Alli has worked in education for more than twenty years, from boisterous public high schools to small, progressive private academies. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford Universities, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. Alli became a Tall Poppy Writer in 2022. Asha Youmans spent two decades teaching elementary school students. A graduate of University of California, Berkeley, Asha lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and has two grown sons. Asha is a fabulous home cook who loves storytelling and connecting with others by making them smile. In 2022, Asha joined with Alli as a Tall Poppy Writer. Learn more about Alli Frank and Asha Youmans at www.alliandasha.com. Tara Conklin is a writer and former lawyer whose first novel, The House Girl,  was a New York Times bestseller, #1 IndieNext pick, Target book club pick, and has been translated into eight languages. Her second novel, The Last Romantics (2019) was an instant New York Times bestseller and major book club pick. Her latest novel Community Board will be released March 28, 2023. Never Meant to Meet You

Imagine having an identical twin on the other side of the world — one you had no idea existed. That was the reality for sisters Isabella and Hà, born in Việt Nam but adopted and raised separately across the globe. One sister remained in a rural Vietnamese village that often went without electricity; the other grew up with a wealthy white family in the American suburbs. Their respective upbringings were worlds apart, both geographically and otherwise. The pair were reunited in their teenage years in a highly anticipated, but fraught meeting. After learning about Isabella and Hà, award-winning journalist and UC Irvine professor Erika Hayasaki began interviewing the sisters, as well as their biological and adoptive families, in 2016. Hayasaki traced the girls’ diverging childhoods all the way to their reunion and the complicated years that followed. Hayasaki’s qualitative research now culminates in a richly textured story, Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family. The book presents Hà’s and Isabella’s stories from their perspectives, exploring complex topics including transnational and transracial adoption, class, Asian and Asian-American identity, nature vs. nurture, and sisterhood. Somewhere Sisters is at once a compelling and intimate account of forging one’s own identity as well as a meditation on the meaning of family and belonging. Erika Hayasaki teaches in the Literary Journalism Program at the University of California, Irvine. She is a journalist interested in the intersections of identity, race, psychology, inequality, science, technology, history, and the human condition. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Atlantic, Marie Claire, MIT Technology Review, Slate, and many others. She is a former New York-based national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, where she spent nine years covering breaking news and writing feature stories. She is the recipient of several fellowships, and her award-winning science writing has been featured in Longform’s Best of Science writing of 2016 and 2017, and notably selected in the Best American Science and Nature Writing 2019. Her previous book, The Death Class: A True Story About Life, was published in 2014. Grace Madigan is the Arts & Culture reporter for KNKX radio. She’s done stories covering everything from local musicians to Sue Bird’s legacy. The stories she seeks out are the ones that touch on identity and race. She grew up in the Seattle area and is an adoptee from China which is an experience she’s written about before. Her favorite way to connect with her cultural heritage is through food. Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family (Hardcover) Third Place Books

Most kids’ today are very tech savvy, whether they’re playing video games, watching streaming services, interacting on social media, or even — as the pandemic quickly showed us — attending school virtually. Tech companies have become a huge part of kids’ lives, but at what cost? Who benefits and how does technology and consumer capitalism affect child development? Susan Linn, one of the world’s leading experts on the impact of technology on children, is working to find the answers to these questions. There’s a growing body of research detailing the harms of excessive immersion in the unregulated, powerfully seductive, profit-driven world of the “kid-tech” industry. In Who’s Raising the Kids? Susan Linn explores the roots and consequences of this monumental shift toward a digitized, commercialized childhood. She identifies specific impacts on kids’ values, relationships, and their learning experiences. Even before the pandemic and the boom of online learning, kids have been important consumers for a range of tech, media, and toy companies. Linn delivers compelling evidence that consumer capitalism and technology marketed to enhance children’s lives actually negatively impacts kids. Together at Town Hall, Seattle’s renowned literary figure (and Linn’s sister!) Nancy Pearl, talks with Linn about the context and impact of technology on today’s children. Susan Linn is a psychologist, award-winning ventriloquist, and a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of media and commercial marketing on children. She was the Founding Director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (now called Fairplay) and is currently research associate at Boston Children’s Hospital and lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Susan and her work have been featured on TODAY, Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, The Colbert Report, Dateline, NPR’s Marketplace, The New York Times, The Washington Post, POLITICO, TIME, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. The author of Consuming Kids, The Case for Make Believe, and Who’s Raising the Kids? she lives in Brookline, Massachusetts. Nancy Pearl is a librarian, best-selling author, literary critic and the former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at Seattle Public Library. Inspired by her childhood librarians, she received her MLS from the University of Michigan in 1967 and worked in the public library systems in Detroit, Tulsa, and Seattle. She is the creator of the internationally recognized community reads program, which began in 1998 as “If All Seattle Read the Same Book” and was the inspiration for the Archie McPhee “Librarian Action Figure.” Her many awards and honors include the Women’s National Book Association Award in 2004; the Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association in 2011; and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community by the National Book Foundation in 2021. Pearl is a frequent speaker at literacy organizations, libraries, and community groups throughout the world, and comments on books regularly on KWGS, Tulsa, Oklahoma Public Radio. Book Lust with Nancy Pearl is her monthly book show on the Seattle Channel. She authored the popular Book Lust series, four titles filled with recommendations of good books to read. She is also the author of George & Lizzie (Touchstone Books, 2017) and co-authored The Writer’s Library: The Authors You Love on the Books That Changed Their Lives (HarperOne, 2020). Who's Raising the Kids?: Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children (Hardcover) Third Place Books

Juan Alonso-Rodríguez describes his paintings and sculptures as an on-going exploration of abstraction based on forms both found in nature, and those conceived by human ingenuity. From horizon lines to his father’s wrought iron railing designs, memories of sights and sounds of his Caribbean origins always play an integral part in his creativity. He is influenced by the organized balance, pattern, and symmetry found in nature as well as that of architecture that lives in harmony with the natural world. In the first Gage art talk of the season, Scott Méxcal interviews Alonso-Rodríguez about how he “accidentally” became a professional artist, his long career in the Pacific Northwest, being Latinx, the changing Seattle landscape, and the process of art as meditation. Cuban-born Juan Alonso-Rodríguez is a self-taught artist whose transition from music to visual arts coincided with his move to Seattle in 1982. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and is included in permanent collections such as Tacoma Art Museum, Portland Art Museum, and Henry Art Gallery. He has won a Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, The Neddy Fellowship, and the ​De​Junius Hughes Award for Activism​​.​ In 2019 he received an Artist Trust Fellowship and the Washington State Governor’s Arts Award for an Individual Artist.​ He was selected Lecturer for the 2021 University of Washington Libraries’ Artist Images. Scott Méxcal (né McCall) is a cultural worker in the genre of socially engaged practice art. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Scott’s ancestors have lived on both sides of the Rio Grande for countless generations. Descended from indigenous people and Spanish/European colonizers, he has called the traditional homeland of the Duwamish people, Seattle, Washington, his home for the past 20 years. Scott has contributed to the creative cultural fabric of the city as a graphic designer, a public artist, a youth art mentor, and art activist. His work has hung in numerous exhibitions throughout the city and surrounding area. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Gage Academy of Art.

Do you have a strong opinion about things like the Oxford comma, splitting infinitives, or whether to use punctuation in a text message? Well, you’re not alone. When Ellen Jovin set up her first Grammar Table outside her Manhattan apartment building and invited people to ask her questions, it took only around thirty seconds for the first visitor to arrive. Dozens more followed with their own grammatical inquiries and Grammar Table became an instant hit. Word of its success spread — attracting the attention of outlets like the New York Times, NPR, and CBS National News. Jovin decided to take it on the road, traveling across the United States to answer questions from people from all walks of life: writers, lawyers, editors, businesspeople, students, bickering couples, and anyone else who uses words. These experiences led to her latest work, Rebel With a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian. Jovin, a self-proclaimed “grammar nerd” is no stranger to writing, having penned three other books that help people with mastery of the English language and its nuances. Rebel, however, is not just another guide to polishing our prose or satisfying our age-old linguistic curiosities or longstanding phobia of semicolons. It is punctuated with linguistic debates from tiny towns to the nation’s largest cities, and a testament to the social power that grammar wields to both delight and divide us. Even the most ardent of logophiles will learn something in this talk that is sure to entertain as well as enlighten. Ellen Jovin is a cofounder of Syntaxis, a communication skills training consultancy, and is the author of three other books on language. She is also the creator of a traveling pop-up grammar advice stand called the Grammar Table, whose adventures serve as the basis of this book. Ellen has a B.A. from Harvard College in German studies and an M.A. from UCLA in comparative literature, and has studied twenty-five languages for fun. She lives with her husband, Brandt Johnson, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Rebel With A Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian (Hardcover) Third Place Books

When someone recommends a book to you that you end up loving, something special happens: you feel closer to that person somehow, understood on some unspoken level. That could be one of the reasons why Zibby Owens, a top influencer in the book publishing world, has garnered a passionate fanbase of her own as the host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books™. While Owens spends most of her time discussing other author’s books, she’s now ready to tell her own story, Bookends, which is a deeply personal memoir about her journey to finding her voice and rewriting her story — all stemming from her lifelong love of books. Her vivacious energy, authenticity, and steadfast support of authors started in childhood, a precedent set by the profound effect books and libraries had on her own family. But after losing her closest friend on 9/11 and later becoming utterly stressed out and overwhelmed by motherhood, Zibby was forgetting what made her her. She turned to books and writing for help. Just when things seemed particularly bleak, Zibby unexpectedly fell in love with a tennis pro turned movie producer who showed her the path to happiness: away from type A perfectionism and toward “letting things unfold organically.” What “unfolded” was a meaningful career, a great love, and finally, her voice, now heard by millions of listeners. Owens shares her story while exploring things like relationships, love, food issues, the writing life, and finding one’s true calling. There’s something powerful about sharing the love of books, and Owens tells us just how powerful that can be. Zibby Owens is an author, podcaster, publisher, CEO, and mother of four. Zibby founded Zibby Owens Media, a privately-held media company designed to help busy people live their best lives by connecting to books and each other. One division is Moms Don’t Have Time To, the home for Zibby’s podcasts, publications (including two anthologies), and communities. The other is Zibby Books, a publishing home for fiction and memoir, co-founded with Leigh Newman. Her award-winning podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, has been downloaded millions of times. She is a regular columnist for Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and Moms Don’t Have Time to Write on Medium. Her upcoming memoir, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, comes out July 1, 2022. She is also the author of the children’s book, Princess Charming. She lives in New York with her husband and four children. Julia Quinn is the author of the wildly popular Bridgerton books, now a Netflix original series produced by Shondaland Media. She is a graduate of Harvard & Radcliffe Colleges and briefly attended Yale School of Medicine before deciding to pursue a full-time writing career. She is the author of nineteen consecutive New York Times bestsellers. In March 2021, all eight Bridgerton novels were on the NYT list at the same time, a record for an adult fiction author. Her novels have been translated into 41 languages, and in the United States alone, there are over 20 million copies of her books in print. Bookends: A Memoir Of Love, Loss, And Literature University Book Store

Poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, widely known for penning the famous words, “I know why the caged bird sings!” in his poem, Sympathy. Born in 1872, Dunbar was one of the first African American writers to be internationally recognized in the wake of emancipation. But while his extraordinary talent was celebrated, a deeper examination of his life reveals much about Black fame, and the cultural response to it, near the turn of the century. In a meticulously researched biography, author and scholar Gene Andrew Jarrett describes the person behind the fame, offering a revelatory account of a writer whose celebrity as the “poet laureate of his race” hid the private struggles of a man who felt like a “caged bird” that sings. While audiences across the United States and Europe flocked to enjoy his literary readings, Dunbar privately bemoaned shouldering the burden of race as an artist. He came to regard his fame as a curse as well as a blessing. Jarrett’s work illustrates the tension that Dunbar held throughout his brief, astonishing life. Beautifully written and full of historical artifacts, Jarrett offers a richly detailed and nuanced portrait of Dunbar and his work, transforming how we understand the life and times of a central figure in American literary history. And in some ways, Jarrett has given Dunbar a chance to tell his own story, to share the fully actualized person that he was. Rather than a caged writer under the category of race, we get to honor the human behind the poetry on the 150th anniversary of his birth. Gene Andrew Jarrett is Dean of the Faculty and William S. Tod Professor of English at Princeton University. He is the author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature and Deans and Truants: Race and Realism in African American Literature. He is also the coeditor of The Collected Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar and The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Tom Morgan is the Program Director for Race and Ethnic Studies and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Dayton. His research focuses on the politics of narrative form, African American haiku, the short story in late nineteenth-century periodical culture, and, of course, Paul Laurence Dunbar. His published work includes essays on James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Richard Wright, Kate Chopin, and Stephen Crane, and he edited The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar with Gene Andrew Jarrett. He is currently working on a new edition of Dunbar’s poetry. Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird

Nabil Ayers has been part of the music scene in many capacities: musician, record-label creator, band manager, music executive, and founder of Seattle’s Sonic Boom Records. He is also an author, writing about music and race for the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and many others. Now Ayers has written a new memoir, My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family, about his relationship with his father, Black jazz musician Roy Ayers; being a mixed-race person in the United States; and his work in the music industry. While Ayers’ famous musician father was rarely present in his life, he still turned out to be a strong influence, showing up in Ayers’ love of music and his eclectic career in the music industry. Motivated by his father’s absence, Ayers researched and connected with other extended family members and discovered the existence of several half-siblings, as well as a paternal ancestor who was enslaved. Following these new family connections, Nabil meets and befriends the descendant of the plantation owner, which strangely paves the way for him to make meaningful connections with other extended family he never knew existed. In conversation with KEXP’s Cheryl Waters, Ayers discusses his drive to understand his roots and redraw the lines that define family and race. Nabil Ayers has written about race and music for The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and GQ. Ayers is the President of Beggars Group US, where he has run campaigns for The National, Big Thief, Grimes, Future Islands and St. Vincent, as well as reissue campaigns including Pixies’ album Doolittle which was certified Platinum in 2019. At age 25, Ayers and his business partner opened Seattle’s Sonic Boom Records store, which they sold to a longtime customer in 2016. As a drummer Ayers has performed in several bands including The Long Winters and Tommy Stinson. On his own record label, The Control Group/Valley of Search, Ayers has released music by Cate Le Bon, Lykke Li, The Killers, PJ Harvey, Patricia Brennan, and his uncle, the jazz musician Alan Braufman. Ayers lives with his wife in Brooklyn, NY. For more than 25 years, radio DJ and producer Cheryl Waters has been enriching people’s lives through artist advocacy and music discovery at the influential Seattle radio station KEXP. A lifelong music lover, Cheryl’s career in radio began in 1994 as a volunteer DJ at the station, then-known as KCMU, while she was working as an environmental scientist. Since 2005, Cheryl has been the host of the Midday Show on KEXP, a daily music program where she interviews and champions a wide spectrum of musicians from KEXP’s studios in Seattle, WA, as well as at remote broadcasts in cities ranging from New York and Austin to Mexico City and Reykjavik. In her role as the station’s Live Performances Manager, Cheryl curates and books more than 300 live sessions at KEXP each year, which have collectively received over 1 billion views worldwide on KEXP’s YouTube channel, which has over 2 million subscribers. My Life in the Sunshine: Searching for My Father and Discovering My Family (Hardcover) Elliott Bay Books

David Duchovny is best known for his television roles as FBI agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files (1993-2002 and 2016-2018) and writer Hank Moody on Californication (2007-2014), both of which earned him Golden Globe awards. Beyond his extensive on-screen accomplishments, which include dozens of other films and television shows, he’s also a musician and the writer of four novels. Duchovny last joined us at Town Hall to talk about his 2016 book, Bucky F*cking Dent; this June, we’re pleased to welcome him back to discuss his latest title, The Reservoir. Inspired by Duchovny’s own quarantine times in New York City, The Reservoir follows an unexceptional man living during an exceptional time. Ridley, a former Wall Street veteran, looks back on his life during his days of quarantined solitude and examines his wins, failures, career, relationships, and family. Brooding night after night, he gazes out his picture window high above the Central Park Reservoir and spots a flashing light in an apartment across the park. It’s almost as if a lonely quarantined person is signaling him in Morse code. Who are they? And are they in trouble? Determined to identify the mystery person, Ridley leaves the safety of his apartment to save his hypothetical damsel in distress and descends into a surreal and dangerous world of conspiracies, madness, and sickness. As he spirals further into mysteries of love, life, and fatherhood, he realizes that the key to it all might lie deep beneath the freezing waters of the reservoir. Join us at Town Hall as Duchovny discusses his latest novel’s twists, turns, and reflections of our disorienting and distanced times. David Duchovny is an award-winning actor, writer, director, New York Times best-selling author, and singer-songwriter. With an acting career spanning more than three decades, Duchovny is a two-time Golden Globe winner and four-time Emmy nominee. He is a prolific author whose fourth novel, Truly Like Lightning, was published in February 2021. His previous novels include the New York Times bestseller Holy Cow, Bucky F*cking Dent, and Miss Subways. As a musician, Duchovny has released three studio albums, Hell or Highwater, Every Third Thought, and Gestureland. Jess Walter is a former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the author of seven novels, one book of short stories, and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into 32 languages, and his fiction has been selected three times for Best American Short Stories as well as the Pushcart Prize and Best American Nonrequired Reading. His stories, essays, and journalism have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, Playboy, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Ploughshares, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many others. Buy the Book: The Reservoir (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Typically held at bars and nightclubs, drag is a form of entertainment in which a performer uses clothing and makeup to impersonate a particular gender identity, usually of the opposite sex. Yet drag is so much more than nightclub entertainment — it provides community, instills self-confidence, and can even save lives. Join drag king performer Ceasar Hart and explore the history of drag culture and why it is so important for many in the LGBTQ+ community. Discover the impact of this art form, and how it can be used not only to raise awareness and advocate for LGBTQ+ acceptance, but also as a powerful vehicle for individual self-expression. Ceasar Hart (he/him) has been a drag king performer in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade. Alongside graduating recently from Washington State University with a bachelor’s degree in communications, he has produced his own drag shows in Grays Harbor and co-hosted stages for both Seattle Pride and Seattle PrideFest. Hart lives in Grays Harbor. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Humanities Washington.

According to census data, the greater Seattle area is home to the fifth-largest Filipino American population in the U.S — the majority of which arrived in the area after 1965. From the 1950s to 1970s, Filipino Americans, or Pinoys, faced serious hardships and struggles with racism, discrimination, and exploitation. It was a difficult life for many. The struggle persists today, with the U.S. seeing a steep rise in discrimination and violence against Asian Americans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new collection of autobiographical essays, Uncle Rico’s Encore, award-winning author Peter Bacho shared stories that illuminate the Filipino American experience. Bacho related vivid stories of community, generational connection, defiance, and activism, including resistance to the union-busting efforts of the federal government and organizing for decent housing and services for elders. He also illustrated the Filipino American experience of the era through intimate moments of everyday life in familiar places such as Madison Beach, Beacon Hill, and Madrona Park. The result is a tribute to Filipino Seattle and the people who contributed to Pacific Northwest culture, arts, business, and politics, while also offering a glimpse into the national Asian American experience. Peter Bacho is the author of six books: Cebu, Dark Blue Suit, Boxing in Black and White, Nelson’s Run, Entrys, and Leaving Yesler. His books have received several awards, including the 1992 American Book Award. He is an adjunct professor at The Evergreen State College Tacoma Campus. Bacho was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Seattle’s Central District. Robert Flor is a poet and playwright whose work has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, and his plays have been performed at the Rainier Arts Center, the Eclectic Theater, and in the Filipino Community of Seattle. He was born in Seattle and grew up in Seattle’s Central District and Rainier Valley. Buy the Book: Uncle Rico's Encore: Mostly True Stories of Filipino Seattle  Presented by Town Hall Seattle and the Wing Luke Museum, with introductions by Joël Barraquiel Tan, Executive Director of the Wing Luke Museum. Sponsored by the Boeing Company.

When the Seattle Art Museum opened the Olympic Sculpture Park on the urban waterfront in 2007, it changed the way people could interact with art and experience the city’s environment. The fact that it’s free and open to everyone makes the park one of the most inclusive places to see art in the Pacific Northwest. The sculpture park contains pieces like Alexander Calder’s red sculpture The Eagle, Jaume Plensa’s giant head Echo, and Neukom Vivarium, a 60-foot nurse log in a custom-designed greenhouse, among many others. Although many people believe that the greatest work of art at the park is the park itself and the way it connects with its surroundings. Because of the efforts of the Seattle Art Museum and the city, instead of being filled with private condo buildings, this former industrial site has become a welcoming part of the waterfront for the public to enjoy sculptures, activities, and the gorgeous Elliott Bay views. The new book Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park: A Place for Art, Environment, and an Open Mind, pays homage to the interconnected spirit of the park. Mimi Gardner Gates — the director of the Seattle Art Museum (1994–2009) at the time of the Sculpture Park’s conception and creation — edited this collection of writings and images about the park and how public-private partnerships can create innovative civic spaces. Other contributors include Barry Bergdoll, Lisa Graziose Corrin, Renée Devine, Mark Dion, Teresita Fernández, Leonard Garfield, Jerry Gorovoy for Louise Bourgeois, Michael A. Manfredi, Lynda V. Mapes, Roy McMakin, Peter Reed, Pedro Reyes, Maggie Walker, and Marion Weiss. Seattle Times journalist Lynda V. Mapes and SAM curator Catharina Manchanda joined Gates in discussion about the remarkable waterfront park and how it might inspire future innovation in civic spaces. Mimi Gardner Gates was director of the Seattle Art Museum for fifteen years and is now director emerita, overseeing the Gardner Center for Asian Art and Ideas. Previously, she spent nineteen years at Yale University Art Gallery, the last seven-and-a-half of those years as director. She is a fellow of the Yale Corporation; Chairman of the Dunhuang Foundation; Chairman of the Blakemore Foundation; a trustee of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum; a trustee of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, and serves on the boards of the Yale University Art Gallery, the Northwest African American Museum, the Terra Foundation, and Copper Canyon Press. Dr. Gates formerly chaired the National Indemnity Program at the National Endowment for the Arts and served on the Getty Leadership Institute Advisory Committee. Lynda V. Mapes is a journalist, author, and close observer of the natural world, and covers natural history, environmental topics, and issues related to Pacific Northwest indigenous cultures for The Seattle Times. Over the course of her career she has won numerous awards, including the international 2019 and 2012 Kavli gold award for science journalism from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest professional science association. She has written six books, including Orca Shared Waters Shared Home, winner of the 2021 National Outdoor Book Award, and Elwha, a River Reborn. Catharina Manchanda joined the Seattle Art Museum as the Jon & Mary Shirley Curator of Modern & Contemporary Art in 2011. Notable exhibitions for SAM include Pop Departures (2014-15), City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India (2015), Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas (2017), and Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection (2021). Prior to joining SAM, she was the Senior Curator of Exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio. She has also worked in curatorial positions at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is the recipient of numerous international awards including an Andy Warhol Foundation grant, Getty Library Research grant, and others. Buy the Book: Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park: A Place For Art, Environment, And An Open Mind from University Book Store Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

It’s no surprise that people love short stories. They hold all the elements of a great novel — an intriguing theme, characters that seem to come to life, and storytelling that lingers even after the last page — all packaged in a brief, delightfully readable package. It’s no wonder that award-winning author Don Lee has returned to short stories in his latest book, The Partition, 21 years after his landmark debut collection, Yellow, was published. In The Partition, Lee explored Asian American identity and the estrangement, alienation, and longing for connection that can come with it. Spanning decades, his nine novelistic stories traverse an array of cities from Tokyo to Honolulu to Boston, touching on encounters in local bars, restaurants, and hotels. Lee once said that his 2013 novel, The Collective, is about “sex, drugs, and rock and roll,” all while diving into the minds of relatable characters. The Partition follows a similar vibe. With almost acrobatic storytelling and characters that richly portray the human psyche, The Partition incisively examines heartbreak, identity, family, and relationships through characters searching for answers to universal questions: Where do I belong? How can I find love? What defines an authentic self? They’re the kinds of questions that leave you wondering and examining your own life — all trademarks of great short stories, told by a seasoned storyteller. Don Lee is the author of the story collection Yellow and the novels Country of Origin, Wrack and Ruin, The Collective, and Lonesome Lies Before Us. He has received an American Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, the writer Jane Delury,and teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Temple University in Philadelphia. Rob Arnold is a Chamorro poet with nearly two decades of experience in literary publishing and related positions. Currently he is the interim executive director of Hugo House. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, the Gettysburg Review, Hyphen, and Poetry Northwest, among others. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has received support from the Somerville Arts Council, the Jack Straw Cultural Center, and Artist Trust. Buy the Book: The Partition (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

As a hockey-loving kid from Minnesota, Jim Weber always had a competitive spirit and a knack for leadership. In the seventh grade, he wrote that he wanted to become an NHL hockey player, and his second choice was to someday run a successful company. Although his hockey dreams didn’t quite pan out, Weber further honed his leadership skills in college, earning his undergrad in business management followed by an MBA from the Tuck School of Business. As Weber’s career continued to grow, he worked in banking and held leadership roles with several large consumer product brands, including Pillsbury and Coleman. But in 2001, Weber’s career — and the trajectory of a local athletic brand — shifted when he became the CEO of Brooks Running and put a purpose-driven approach at the center of it all. The struggling brand had seen four CEOs in the past two years, and the staff betting pool had him lasting four months. Weber devised a one-page strategy that he believed would save the company and lay the foundation for Brooks to become a leading brand in running. It would require courage, conviction, and fortitude for the team to out-execute much larger brands. But as the saying aptly goes, the process was a marathon, not a sprint; as Brooks blossomed, it caught the attention of Warren Buffett, who declared it a standalone subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 2012. Today, people yearn for authentic leadership and the desire to attach to brands and people they can trust. In his new book, Running with Purpose, Weber shared some of his most powerful insights and leadership principles that he believes are essential to building trust and drawing people to a purpose bigger than themselves. Joined in conversation with avid Seattle runner and radio personality John Richards, Weber offered a framework for anyone looking to apply purpose in their life – both professionally and personally. Jim Weber has been the CEO of Brooks Running Company since 2001. Weber’s professional journey includes leadership roles for several consumer product brands such as chairman and CEO of Sims Sports, president of O’Brien International, vice president of The Coleman Company, and various roles with The Pillsbury Company. Weber was also managing director of U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray Seattle Investment Banking practice and a commercial banking officer at Norwest Bank Minneapolis (now Wells Fargo). He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and a Master of Business Administration degree with high distinction from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. John Richards is the KEXP Program Director and host of The Morning Show on KEXP. He has helped turn the Seattle radio station into one of the most loved and trusted public radio stations in the world. John is also the creator and host of KEXP’s Running Podcast, a mix of music and inspiration for runners, and hosts the Dr. and the DJ podcast with his wife Dr. Amy Lindsey. He is the owner of the bar Life on Mars on Capitol Hill and the father of two boys and one dog. Buy the Book: Running with Purpose: How Brooks Outpaced Goliath Competitors to Lead the Pack (Hardcover) from Third Place Books This event is sponsored by Brooks Running. 

In Black Writers Unmasked, members of the African-American Writer’s Alliance will share African proverbs, wisdom, love, hope, and readings from their new anthology. AAWA Members participating in this event are listed below, and their biographies are available here. Gail Haynes Georgia S. McDade Helen J. Collier (co-facilitator) Lola E. Peters Minnie A. Collins (co-facilitator) Noni Ervin Rolyat Mosi Traci Harrell About the African-American Writers’ Alliance The African-American Writers’ Alliance is a diverse and dynamic collective of Seattle-area writers of African descent that provides an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers. They help one another polish their skills, provide peer review, and create opportunities for public readings and other media venues. Ultimately the group encourages members to publish individually and collectively. Their stories — triumphs, tragedies, and whatever is within and between the two — are the history of African Americans. Presented by Town Hall Hall Seattle and the African-American Writers’ Alliance.

Sometimes it feels like we’re living the same day over and over again. We wake up in the same bed, eat the same breakfast, do the same tasks, and talk to the same people, just coasting along and going through the motions. Taking a vacation can offer a temporary break from the mundane; at the same time, it only reinforces the sameness of daily life. In Adrienne Celt’s new novel End of the World House, Bertie and Kate are longtime best friends who are about to be separated when Kate moves to a different city. The world is enmeshed in conflict, but a ceasefire gives them a chance to head to Paris for a vacation and one last hurrah. While in Paris, a mysterious person offers them an exclusive tour of the Louvre museum, where things quickly start to go awry. The apocalypse heats up, the friends become separated, and Bertie starts reliving the same day over and over. As Bertie tries to find Kate and get things back on track, she faces an ever-changing mystery and distortions of time and reality. As we make our way out of our own pandemic time loop, Celt offers a timely and comedic story of female friendship and breaking free of the humdrum. Adrienne Celt is originally from Seattle, but now lives in Tucson, Arizona. She is the author of two previous novels: Invitation to a Bonfire and The Daughters, which won the 2015 PEN Southwest Book Award for Fiction and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR. Adrienne is also a cartoonist, and she publishes a weekly webcomic at LoveAmongtheLampreys.com. Ruth Joffre is the author of the story collection Night Beast, which was longlisted for The Story Prize. Her fiction and poetry have appeared or are forthcoming in Kenyon Review, Lightspeed, Gulf Coast, The Masters Review, Pleiades, The Florida Review Online, Wigleaf, Baffling Magazine, and the anthologies Best Microfiction 2021 and 2022, Unfettered Hexes, and Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest. A graduate of Cornell University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Ruth lives in Seattle, where she serves as Prose Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House. Buy the Book: End of the World House: A Novel (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.

On the first stop of the “Las cuatro esquinas Tour” around the United States, Dr. Adriana Pacheco and Seattle Escribe bring together a panel of key players in education, culture, and literature to discuss names, topics, trends and voices in literature by writers of hispanic heritage and their impact on the culture. The literature of writers from Spanish-speaking countries who write from the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain is impacting the world in an unprecedented way. Awards, publishing houses, curated lists, and translations of new books give proof of the movement. Hablemos, escritoras has followed these changes and recognizes synergies that mark our contemporary world, as well as the causes and motivations that have driven the phenomenon. This talk, part of the 2022  “Las cuatro esquinas Tour” around the United States, will allow for conversations with cultural advocates, members of the community, and especially readers about what we have learned after years of work. Most importantly, it offers space to learn what is happening in our region, the challenges we face, and the road that still needs to be traveled in recognizing new names, topics, and trends. The tour’s goal is to broaden the scope of the conversation beyond regional borders and to encourage and foster meaningful, nationwide conversations about the presence, impacts, and influences of literature, language, and the hispanic culture in the United States. This event will be presented in English. Presented by Town Hall Seattle, Seattle Escribe, and Hablemos, escritoras. Participants Catalina Marie Cantú (Xicana) is of Indigenous Mexican/Madeiran heritage and is a multi-genre writer, interdisciplinary artist, Jack Straw Fellow, and Alum of VONA/Voices and The Mineral School. She has received funding from Artists’ Trust, Hugo House, Centrum, and Hedgebrook. Her poems and stories have been published widely and anthologized. Cantú earned a B.A. in La Raza Studies and a J.D. from the University of Washington, where she was a co-founding member of the groundbreaking Latinx groups MEChA and Teatro del Piojo. As a volunteer attorney, she managed the King County Bar Association Bilingual Spanish Legal Clinic. She is a co-founding member and current Board President of La Sala Latinx Artists and former chair of Los Norteños NW Latino Writers. As a writer, Cantú’s goal is to bring her Latinx BIPOC family viewpoint to the page and provide stories to connect readers to themselves and their familias. She is currently finishing her braided essay collection and her first YA novel. She lives on the unceded traditional land of the Coast Salish peoples, specifically, the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People. Miguel Guillén joined ArtsWA in 2016 and currently serves as Program Manager for the Grants to Organizations program. As a seasoned arts administrator, Miguel provides support to community-based arts organizations and projects, small arts groups, and artists across Washington. He has previously managed arts programs for the private sector. Born in Mexico and raised in the Skagit Valley of Washington State, Miguel received an Arts Management Certificate from Seattle Central College. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle. He is a practicing visual artist. Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018-2021), and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). Castro Luna’s newest collection of poetry, Cipota Under the Moon, is forthcoming in May of 2022 from Tia Chucha Press. She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices, the Pushcart-nominated Killing Marías, which was also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook This City. Her most recent non-fiction is in There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis. Living in English and Spanish, Claudia writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children. Alfonso Mendoza is a Mexican author that has written and published more than forty peer reviewed academic articles and chapters in the areas of economics, finance, and social sciences. As a creative writer, he enjoys writing short stories and poetry. Alfonso was a founding member of Seattle Escribe and participated as a student in the first writing workshop. Since then, he has remained in close contact with creative writing and the writers in the group. He is the current president of Seattle Escribe. José Luis Montero is passionate about storytelling regardless of the medium. After dabbling in radio, photography, and filmmaking, he turned his artistic attention towards the written word, both in English and Spanish. He was born and raised in Mexico and has lived most of his adult life in Seattle. He earned a certificate in Literary Fiction from University of Washington and a Master in Narrative and Poetry from Escuela de Escritores in Madrid. Upon his return from Spain, he worked as a production intern for Copper Canyon Press and assistant editor of poetry for Narrative Magazine before becoming a resident of the Jack Straw Writers Program in 2021. He is the former president of Seattle Escribe, a nonprofit promoting Spanish literature, and currently serves on the board of Seattle City of Literature. Dr. Adriana Pacheco was born in Puebla, Mexico and is a naturalized American Citizen. She sits at, and is the former Chair of, the International Board of Advisors at University of Texas Austin. She is an Affiliate Research Fellow at Llilas Benson, a Texas Book Festival Featured Author (2012), has several publications in collective books and magazines and has edited several books like Romper con la palabra. Violencia y género en la literatura mexicana contemporánea (Eón, 2017), and Para seguir rompiendo con la palabra. Dramaturgas, cineastas, periodistas y ensayistas mexicanas contemporáneas (Literal/Eón, 2021). She is the founder and producer of Hablemos Escritoras podcast and its accompanying encyclopedia, and founder of the first online bookstore for the United States focusing on women writing in Spanish or of Hispanic heritage: Shop Escritoras. She is currently working on several new books. Rubi Romero has worked as a content and policy manager, technical account manager, and UX Researcher at Amazon. In addition, Rubi serves as one of the leaders for Latinos@; an affinity group at Amazon, as a Career Development Director, and as a project manager for the Hispanic Heritage Month. Rubi graduated from the University of Washington with a Master’s Degree in Digital Business and a B.A. in Communications and Sociology. Previously, she was a Project Manager for Microsoft and a Program Director for a non-profit organization where she built a State Program to assist Latino Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Human Trafficking. Rubi is originally from Mexico City and has lived in Seattle since 1994. Kristen Millares Young is a journalist, essayist and novelist. Named a Paris Review staff pick, her debut novel Subduction won Nautilus and IPPY awards. Her short stories, essays, reviews and investigations appear most recently in the Washington Post, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, the Los Angeles Review, and others, as well as the anthologies Alone Together, which won a Washington State Book Award in general nonfiction, and Advanced Creative Nonfiction: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology. She is the editor of Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature, a 2021 Washington State Book Award finalist in creative nonfiction. A former Hugo House Prose Writer-in-Residence, Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Examples of Northwest Coast art appear in museums and collections throughout our region, but what does it mean when there is no word for “art” in the language of the people who created it? How might the Indigenous definition of art be far more expansive — demonstrating rich kinship connections and manifesting spiritual power — than a non-Indigenous framework? For anyone who regularly engages with art, these are compelling questions of accountability and cultural respect. In Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast, coeditors Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Aldona Jonaitis considered how Northwest Coast art is inseparable from its communities, demonstrating kinship connections, manifesting spiritual power, and far beyond. Together with over a dozen other contributors, the book brings Indigenous understandings of art to the foreground, recognizing its rich context and historical erasure within the discipline of art history. Aiming to “unsettle” Northwest Coast art studies, the collection of essays centers voices that uphold Indigenous priorities, integrates the expertise of Indigenous knowledge holders about their artistic heritage, and questions current institutional practices. Bunn-Marcuse, Jonaitis, and Neel joined us for a virtual discussion about decolonization work in museums, the role of women in transmitting cultural knowledge, examining artwork as living documents, and more. Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse is director of the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art, curator of northwest Native art at the Burke Museum, assistant professor of art history at the University of Washington, and coeditor of In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Northwest Coast Art at the Burke Museum.  Aldona Jonaitis is former director of the University of Alaska Museum of the North, professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, and author of Art of the Northwest Coast and The Yuquot Whalers’ Shrine. Lou-ann Ika’wega Neel is the granddaughter of Ellen Kakasolas Neel, and is also a practicing visual artist in the areas of wood carving, jewelry, textiles, and digital design. Lou-ann was the Repatriation Specialist at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria, B.C. There, her work involved reconnecting artists with the treasures created by their ancestors and assisting First Nations communities to ensure the safe return of their Ancestors’ Remains to their respective homelands. Buy the Book: Unsettling Native Art Histories on the Northwest Coast Edited by Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse and Aldona Jonaitis  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Jonathan Galassi is an acclaimed poet, translator, and longtime publisher at Farrar, Straus and Giroux who has built a life around the art of language. His poetry, described as “direct and plain-spoken,” by The New York Times, is known for illuminating the human experience and its multitudes, from nature and fatherhood to love and partnership. In addition to poetry, Galassi is a novelist. His newest book, School Days, asks fundamental questions about love and sex, friendship and rivalry, desire and power, and the age-old dance of benevolence and attraction between teacher and student. In School Days, Sam Brandt is a long-term resident of Connecticut’s renowned Leverett School. As an English teacher, he has dedicated his life to providing his students with the same challenges, encouragement, and sense of possibility that helped him and his friends become themselves at the school half a lifetime ago. When Sam is asked to help investigate a charge involving the abuse of one of his former classmates by a teacher, Sam is flooded with memories of his closest friends and mentors. Sam’s search for the truth becomes a quest to get at the heart of Leverett, then and now. The school changed enormously over the years, but at its core lie assumptions about privilege and responsibility untested for more than a century. And Sam’s assumptions about his own life are shaken, too, as he struggles to understand what really happened all those years ago. Jonathan Galassi is the President and Publisher at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Previously, he worked in publishing at Random House and Houghton Mifflin, later joining FSG, where he also served as editor-in-chief and executive editor before becoming president. He is also a poet and a translator of poetry, especially for the works by Giacomo Leopardi and Eugenio Montale. His poetry has earned him the Guggenheim Fellowship and the position of Honorary Chariman for the Academy of American Poets. He is the recipient of the Maxwell E. Perkins Award, which recognizes an editor, publisher, or agent who “has discovered, nurtured and championed writers of fiction in the U.S.” His first novel, Muse, was published in 2015, and he is the author of three poetry collections. Juan Carlos Reyes is an essayist and fiction writer who has published the novella A Summer’s Lynching and the collection Elements of a Bystander. His essays and short stories have appeared in West Branch, Waccamaw, Florida Review, and Moss, among others. He received an Artist Trust Storyteller Grant and a PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellowship and is the most recent Board President of Seattle City of Literature. He has taught creative writing with the Alabama Prison Arts + Education Project and with Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas and is currently an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Seattle University. Buy the Book: School Days: A Novel by Jonathan Galassi  Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a prolific writer, passionate speaker, multicultural educator, and activist on Asian Pacific American issues. In her new collection of essays, You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids, she navigated the space between cultures and reflects on lessons learned from both Asian American elders and young multiracial children. It’s a rich space, filled with linguistic nuance that Wang so deftly weaved throughout her writing. In the aftermath of a messy divorce, Wang writes in hope of beginning to build a new life with four children, bossy aunties, unreliable suitors, and an uncertain political landscape. Her essays are peppered with a wide range of topics, including cooking food to show love, surviving Chinese School, being an underpaid lecturer, finding love in a time of elections, crying with children separated from their parents at the border, charting the landscape of frugal/hoarder elders during the pandemic, witnessing COVID-inspired anti–Asian American violence while reflecting on the death of Vincent Chin, teaching her sixteen-year-old son to drive after the deaths of Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, and trusting the power of writing herself into existence. Within the lyric essays, Wang found the courage and hope to speak out for herself and for an entire generation of Asian American women. Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is an award-winning poet, essayist, journalist, activist focused on issues of Asian America, race, justice, and the arts. Her writing has appeared at NBCAsianAmerica, PRIGlobalNation, Center for Asian American Media, Detroit Journalism Cooperative, Cha Asian Literary Journal, Kartika Review, Drunken Boat, and the Joao Roque Literary Journal. She co-created a multimedia artwork for Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, is a Knight Arts Challenge Detroit artist, and is a Communities Correspondent for the PBS NewsHour out of Dearborn/Detroit. Buy the Book: You Cannot Resist Me When My Hair Is in Braids (Made in Michigan Writers) (Paperback) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

When the Hart-Celler Act passed in 1965, opening up U.S. immigration to non-Europeans, it ushered in a whole new era. But even to the first generation of Asian Americans born in the U.S. after that milestone, it would have been impossible to imagine that sushi and boba would one day be beloved by all, that a Korean boy band named BTS would be the biggest musical act in the world, that one of the most acclaimed and popular movies of 2018 would be Crazy Rich Asians, or that we would have an Asian American Vice President. Not to mention the creators, performers, entrepreneurs, and influencers making it all happen, both behind the scenes and on the screen. And then there are the activists and representatives who continue to fight for equity, building coalitions and defiantly holding space for Asian American voices and concerns. And still: Asian America is just getting started. Authors Jeff Yang, Phil Yu, and Philip Wang offered a love letter to and for Asian Americans in RISE — a scrapbook of voices, emotions, and memories from an era in which Asian American culture was forged and transformed. On an intimate, humorous tour through the pop-cultural touchstones and sociopolitical shifts of the past 30-plus years, Yang, Yu, and Wang chronicled how we arrived at today’s unprecedented diversity of Asian American cultural representation. From a step-by-step guide to a night out in K-Town to a handy “Appreciation or Appropriation?” flowchart, they celebrated the path from the past to the present through nostalgia and shared experiences. Jeff Yang has been observing, exploring, and writing about the Asian American community for over thirty years. He launched one of the first Asian American national magazines, A. Magazine, in the late ’90s and early 2000s, and now writes frequently for CNN, Quartz, Slate, and elsewhere. He has written/edited three books — New York Times-best-selling memoir, I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action; Once Upon a Time in China, a history of the cinemas of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Mainland; and Eastern Standard Time: A Guide to Asian Influence on American Culture. Phil Yu is the founder and editor of the popular Asian American news and culture blog, Angry Asian Man, which has had a devoted following since 2001. His commentary has been featured and quoted in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and elsewhere. Philip Wang is the co-founder of the hugely influential production company Wong Fu Productions. Since the mid-2000s, his creative work has garnered over 3 million subscribers and half a billion views online, as well as recognition from NPR and CNN for its impact on Asian American representation. Buy the Book: Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now (Hardcover) from Elliott Bay Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here. 

Growing up as an autistic and legally blind person, actor Mickey Rowe was told that he couldn’t be a part of the mainstream world. As Rowe navigated adulthood, he was ignored and misunderstood by classmates and colleagues, infantilized by theatre directors, and even barred from earning minimum wage, all because he is autistic. But for Rowe, the structure and repetition of theatre productions made sense — after all, he spent his entire life acting to pass as neurotypical. In 2017, Rowe became the first openly autistic actor ever to play any autistic role in a professional performance setting, taking on the lead role of Christopher Boone in the Tony Award-winning play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Today, Rowe is a prolific performer and speaker, a husband and father, and the author of Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor’s Journey to Broadway’s Biggest Stage. Together at Town Hall with writer Laurie Frankel, Rowe discussed his new book and how the things that make us different can turn out to be our biggest strengths. This event provided CART transcription and ASL interpretation. Mickey Rowe (he/him) has had a prolific and varied career as an actor, director, consultant, and public speaker, and is highly sought-after nationally and internationally. He was the first autistic actor to play Christopher Boone, the lead role in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. This also made him the first openly autistic actor ever to play any autistic role in a professional performance setting. He has also appeared in the title role in Amadeus and more. Rowe has been featured in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, PBS, Vogue, Playbill, NPR, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, HuffPost, and Forbes. He has keynoted at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Kennedy Center, Yale University, Columbia University, and others. Mickey was the founding Artistic Director of National Disability Theatre, which works in partnership with Tony Award-winning companies such as La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of four novels, including her most recent One Two Three and This Is How It Always Is. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Publisher’s Weekly, People Magazine, Lit Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald, and other publications. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award and the Endeavor Award. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty-five languages and have been optioned for film and TV. A former college professor, she now writes full-time in Seattle, Washington where she lives with her family and makes good soup. Buy the Book: Fearlessly Different: An Autistic Actor's Journey to Broadway's Biggest Stage (Hardcover) from Third Place Books Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.