Seattle City of Literature

Thanks for visiting our amazing City of Literature! The 2023 AWP Conference brought roughly 9,000 visitors to Seattle and the estimated economic impact was $15 million generated during the four day conference.

Seattle City of Literature partnered with a number of local organizations to host free public events throughout the city. Scroll to learn more about each event.

Co-created with Common Area Maintenance, we worked with local literary organizations, bookstores, and publishers to create a handheld literary event schedule to distribute throughout the city. Download the PDF above to get your digital copy! Click here for the complete AWP Offsite Schedule.

Storytellers have always shaped how the world sees Seattle. The Coast Salish peoples have lived here for 10,000 years, and there is a clear line from carvings and oral stories to the modern work of Klallam poet Duane Niatum and James Welch’s novels. Our writing heritage is guided by a sense of place, especially with respect to the natural world and how it shapes our existence.

Native storytelling traditions set our region on a narrative path that has coalesced into our identity as a center of creativity. It is time to celebrate the ingenious work of award winning and acclaimed Indigenous writers and storytellers in one spectacular night. Their creativity, ingenuity and talent has played an integral part into why UNESCO designated Seattle as a City of Literature.

Featured writers and storytellers: 

• Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest (Lhaq'temish Nation)

• Queer poet and folk artist Arianne True (Choctaw, Chickasaw)

• American Book Award winner Laura Da' (Eastern Shawnee)

• Memorious co-founder and poet Rob Arnold (Chamoru)

• Pacific Review editor and poet Scott Bentley

• Truman Capote Literary fellow Sara Marie Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo)

• Pacific Northwest Book Award winner Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Upper Skagit, Nooksack Indian Tribe)

• And more

This event, a collaboration between We the Indigenous founder D.A. Navoti (Hopi, Zuni, Akimel O’otham, Yavapai-Apache) and Seattle City of Literature, was hosted by Brandi Douglas (Puyallup Tribe), with a welcoming and land acknowledgement from Ken Workman (Duwamish Tribe). Small snacks were provided by Native Soul Cuisine.

Seattle City of Literature celebrated our essay collection SEISMIC. The event included short readings by editor Kristen Millares Young and three former Seattle Civic Poets, including Anastacia Reneé, Claudia Castro Luna, and Jourdan Imani Keith. We were also thrilled to receive a Mayoral Proclamation naming March 11 “Seattle City of Literature Day”!

All translators and friends of translators were invited to celebrate with Seattle's literary translation community! The event featured select readings by local translators, delicious free food, and drinks for purchase. Event sponsored by the Northwest Translators and Interpreters Society, the Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington, and Seattle City of Literature.

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