2022/2023 Seattle Arts + Lectures Season announced!

Featuring both in-person and digital options, and an incredible line-up of authors, poets, chefs, travelers, and musicians ...

Details about the appearances, including reviews of books and great videos of the guests, all on the SAL website, here.

A brief list of the guests and dates of their appearances is here, and further down is a selection of all the books!

Alice Wong: Online-Only. Thursday, September 15, 2022 6:00 pm PST. Alice Wong joins SAL and The Seattle Public Library for a free community event celebrating the release of her memoir, "Year of the Tiger." Wong is a disabled activist, writer, media maker, and consultant. More information here.

Abdulrazak Gurnah: In-Person & Online. Tuesday, September 20, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. More information here. Winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah’s "Afterlives" is a sweeping, multi-generational saga of displacement, loss, and love, set against the brutal colonization of east Africa.

A Conversation with Maggie O’Farrell: In-Person & Online. Tuesday, October 11, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall.
Maggie O’Farrell, the Northern Irish author of the “magnificent and searing” novel "Hamnet," returns with "The Marriage Portrait," an electrifying new tale. Full of the drama and verve with which she illuminated the Shakespearean canvas of "Hamnet," she brings the world of Renaissance Italy to jewel-bright life and offers an unforgettable portrait of a resilient young woman’s battle for her very survival. More information here.

Celeste Ng: In-Person & Online. Monday, October 17, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall.
Celeste Ng is the bestselling author of three novels: "Everything I Never Told You," "Little Fires Everywhere," and her latest work, "Our Missing Hearts." In 2020, Ng’s "Little Fires Everywhere" was adapted into a popular limited series on Hulu, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington. Following its nationwide success, Ng’s latest work, "Our Missing Hearts," explores the ways that supposedly civilized communities can pretend to ignore the most searing injustice. More information here.

John Irving: In-Person & Online. Wednesday, October 26, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time, from "The World According to Garp" to "The Cider House Rules." He returns with "The Last Chairlift," his first novel in seven years—a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics, set between Colorado and New England. More information here.

Jon Meacham: In-Person & Online. Sunday, October 30, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer Jon Meacham chronicles the life of Abraham Lincoln in "And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle," charting how—and why—he confronted secession, threats to democracy, and the tragedy of slavery to expand the possibilities of America. More information here.

James Welch Prize Reading: In-Person & Online. Thursday, November 3, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Hugo House—Lapis Theater. Co-Presented by Poetry Northwest and Hugo House. The second annual James Welch Prize reading, celebrating two Indigenous poets from the U.S., is presented in partnership with Hugo House and Poetry Northwest, featuring judge Elise Paschen and winners Halee Kirkwood and Melanie Merle. More information here.

Rick Steves: In-Person & Online. Thursday, November 10, 2022 7:30 am PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Hometown hero Rick Steves is a public television host, a best-selling guidebook author, and an outspoken activist who encourages Americans to broaden their perspectives through travel. He has dedicated his career to providing accessible information, helping Americans to have the most stress-free, cost effective, and enlightening travel experiences possible. He is a big proponent of “Traveling as a Political Act,” the subject of his SAL talk. More information here.

An Evening with Nigella Lawson: In-Person & Online. Sunday, November 13, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium. Nigella Lawson is an internationally renowned food writer and TV cook whose successful television programs have made her a household name around the world. In her latest book, "Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories," Lawson intertwines essays which explore our relationship with food with more than a hundred new recipes. More information here.

Sasha LaPointe’s new Community Curated Series [3 events] will be announced soon! In Person & Online. Blind subscribe to this three-part series today, or check back soon when the line-up is announced. More information here.
Sasha LaPointe Presents: TBD #1. Wednesday, November 30, 2022 7:30 pm PST.
Sasha LaPointe Presents: TBD #2. Friday, January 27, 2023 7:30 pm PST.
Sasha LaPointe Presents: TBD #3. Saturday, March 4, 2023 7:30 pm PST

[*Sasha LaPointe, author of  "Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk" is Vi Hilbert's great granddaughter ... We were lucky enough to host an event with Janet Yoder author of "Where the Language Lives: VI Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed," information and link to the recorded event, here.]

Patti Smith: In-Person & Online. Friday, December 2, 2022 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Patti Smith is a writer, performer, and visual artist. She garnered international acclaim in the 1970s for her revolutionary merging of poetry with early punk and rock and roll. She has released twelve albums, including Horses, which has been hailed as one of the top one hundred debut albums of all time by Rolling Stone.
Smith has authored a number of poetry collections, as well as a National Book Award winning memoir, "Just Kids." Her latest endeavor is a book of photography entitled "A Book of Days," set to be released in November 2022. More information here.

Amor Towles: In-Person & Online. Tuesday, January 31, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Amor Towles is the author of three runaway bestsellers: "Rules of Civility," "A Gentleman in Moscow," and now, "The Lincoln Highway." After working as an investment professional for over twenty years, Towles turned full-time writer, penning massively successful works which deal in historical fiction but are at their core detailed character studies. More information here.

Reginald Dwayne Betts: In-Person & Online. Thursday, February 9, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. After incarceration, how do you reenter a society that doesn’t offer open arms? Reginald Dwayne Betts is an award-winning author, poet, lawyer, and outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform, whose work interrogates and challenges our notions of justice. Betts has adapted his celebrated poetry collection, "Felon," into a one-man performance piece, which he will perform for this SAL Presents event. All the information here.

On Being: Krista Tippett with Isabel Wilkerson—In-Person & Online. Wednesday, February 15, 2023. 7:30 pm PST. At Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium. Peabody Award-winning host Krista Tippett presents a live recording of the wildly popular "On Being" podcast, featuring guest speaker Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, has become a leading figure in narrative nonfiction with "The Warmth of Other Suns" and "Caste." Join these two friends and interpreters of the human condition for a night of incredible conversation. All the information here.

Poetry: Kate Baer: In-Person & Online. Thursday, March 2, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Rainier Arts Center.
Kate Baer is an author and poet who garnered acclaim following the publication of her first collection of poetry, "What Kind Of Woman." The collection examines the many roles women play in the modern era, as Baer seeks to place the experiences of motherhood, female companionship, and marriage at the heart of what it means to be poetic.
Baer’s newest work, "And Yet," dives even deeper into themes of friendship, love, loss, and motherhood, displaying Baer’s ever-increasing capacity to explore these topics in rare poetic form. All the information here.

A Conversation with Jason Reynolds: In-Person & Online. Monday, March 13, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is the bestselling author of over a dozen books for young readers. His book, "Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You," a collaboration with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, and his bestselling stories, such as "Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks," "All American Boys (with Brendan Kiely)," "Long Way Down," and "Miles Morales-Spiderman" make him “one of the most exciting, constantly surprising voices in children’s literature.” All the information here.

Ruth Ozeki: In-Person & Online. Saturday, March 18, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. Ruth Ozeki is a novelist, filmmaker, and Zen Buddhist priest, who has garnered acclaim for her ability to integrate issues of science, technology, religion, environmental politics, and global pop culture into unique, hybrid forms. Her latest novel, "The Book of Form and Emptiness," tells the story of a young boy who, after the death of his father, starts to hear voices and finds solace in the companionship of his very own book. More information here.

Poetry: Chris Abani: In-Person & Online. Monday, April 3, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Rainier Arts Center. Chris Abani is an acclaimed novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter, and playwright. Born to an Igbo father and English mother, Abani grew up in Afikpo, Nigeria. His experiences in his home country inspire much of Abani’s work, equally informed by his research into African poetics, twentieth century Anglophone literature, Yoruba and Igbo philosophy and religion, and many other areas of study.
Abani’s latest work is a book of poetry entitled "Smoking the Bible," in which he illustrates the connective geography between harm, regret, and release, as his poems move through landscapes of Nigeria, the Midwestern United States, adulthood, and childhood. All kinds of information here.

Masha Gessen: In-Person & Online. Monday, April 17, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. A trenchant observer of democracy, Masha Gessen is the author of twelve books, including the National Book Award-winning "The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia" and "Surviving Autocracy." Their coverage of current political unfoldings in Russia, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise of autocratic leaders appears regularly in the pages of The New Yorker and the New York Times. The information here.

Pico Iyer: In-Person & Online. Tuesday, May 2, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. “One of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time,” Pico Iyer is a renowned travel writer beloved for his gift of perspective. In a new culminating work, "The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise," Iyer brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives. The information here.

Connie Walker: In-Person & Online. Monday, May 8, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Town Hall Seattle—The Great Hall. “There is a crisis of violence in our communities,” says Connie Walker, an award-winning Cree journalist from Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan. In her podcasts "Stolen" and "Missing & Murdered," Walker investigates cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
In seeking to unravel the mysterious disappearance of Jermain Charlo—a young Indigenous mother who left a bar in Missoula, Montana, in 2018 and was never seen again—"Stolen" examines more broadly what it means to be an Indigenous woman in America. More information here.
Bonus Q&A with journalist Wudan Yan, here.

Louise Penny: In-Person & Online. Monday, May 15, 2023 7:30 pm PST. At Benaroya Hall — S. Mark Taper Foundation Auditorium. One of the most acclaimed crime writers of our time, Louise Penny is the bestselling author of the beloved Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. With a CWA Dagger and seven Agatha Awards to her name, as well as her reputation as a master plotter, Penny is sure to thrill and delight with her latest release. The information here.