A fantastic evening of translation thanks to Il Punto! Italian Cultural Center and Caffè Musica. Translator Deborah Woodard and actor Riccardo Pieri reunited for an expanded evening of reading and experimentation of Amelia Rosselli’s Diario Ottuso | Obtuse Diary. This is a new translation of Rosselli’s experiments with prose and was done with Roberta Antognini and Dario De Pasquale.
We captured about half the reading and despite the quality at the beginning, think that anyone who is doing translation and then needing to present it in public would find this interesting. As Deborah would probably say, it helps to have a playful and inventive actor with you! Thanks Riccardo! Be sure to click through the to the notes in YouTube if you’re interested in what segments of the text they are working with.
A fantastic evening of drama at Hugo House with two literary luminaries (oh, we can brag!). Christine Deavel and J.W. Marshall, formerly of Open Books, took the audience on a trip through moments of some of their favorite plays and bits dialogue that inspired and taught them as they wrote their own play, Vicinity/Memoryall.
We are going to be so excited to see this play in July of 2019 at the 18th & Union Space. Please email them directly at VelMar Works to get on their mailing list or sign up for ours as we can’t wait to share more about the play’s progress.
A great evening! 
Laura Read reading a prayer 
Democratic candidate, Lisa Brown 
Kate Lebo at the Barlett
With much gratitude to Kate Lebo, Sam Lingon and Spokane’s hot and happening literary scene, we turned her book launch party for Seven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers in a raise-the-roof take the people to church fundraiser for Democratic challenger, Lisa Brown.
Some of the best writers in Spokane— Chelsea Martin, Sharma Shields, Laura Read, Ellen Welcker, Nance Van Winckel, and Maya Jewell Zeller— joined Kate on stage to each read one of the poems, ending with an appearance by Lisa Brown with some comments on the values of art in a democratic society— one reason the Republicans keep voting against funding for the arts!
I was amazed that the night raised $1700 from a crowd out to see poets, but that speaks to the passion people have for a real representative of the people and not the billionaires and for the demand for accountability for the corruption under the Trump administration.
We always enjoy our trips to Spokane. SO many wonderful writers! And a shout out to the Bartlett for once again hosting us. They have a GREAT venue if you’re looking for performance space in Spokane.
Three years!
We were honored to be included in Hugo House’s inaugural season and delighted that we could present readers from past, present and future ERB books!
Pardon the photos— I certainly did not stand in the best space given the lighting and stage! But given the schedule Hugo House keeps, I am sure that in time, I’ll find the best spot to stand!
Thanks to Maya Jewell Zeller, Melinda Mueller, Christine Deavel, J.W. Marshall, Deborah Woodard, Riccardo Pieri and E. Briskin for reading work published with us or new work of theirs. We also thank Rachel Kessler who was representing the Vis-à-Vis Society, whose epic 100 Rooms is sure to be a big hit in 2019. And finally, we want to give a shout to Aileen Keown Vaux, who’s recently published Consolation Prize (Scablands Books) is one of my favorite books of 2018. So many of the other Washington small presses have been gracious with their knowledge, that it felt important to give a shout back!
We also had an opportunity to show one of our Emerging Vision Filmmaker films, so a another round of applause to Rebecca Starkey for her work considering Alchemy for Cells and Other Beasts and her mother!
Finally, that was a very full house and we appreciate very much all the readers who are finding our work and joining us in these events. THANK YOU.
Aileen Keown Vaux 
Christine Deavel & J.W. Marshall 
Deborah Woodard + Riccardo Pieri 
Maya Jewell Zeller 
Melinda Mueller 
Rachel Kessler
Always a pleasure to have a reading at Open Books, but last night was especially so as we launched our first play, Vicinity/Memoryall by Christine Deavel and J.W. Marshall.
Years ago, when I was still quite young and new to Seattle, I started going to Open Books… and through time and many dozens of books later, have been friends with these two kind and generous people. As someone who never had much poetry in college and never completed a degree, I can say, that they are the biggest influence I have had in my poetic education.
It has been a wonderful honor to publish a their first play and to have the type of collaborative experience I was hoping for when starting this publishing enterprise. I have learned so much from them as we have worked through this process together.
In addition to hearing pieces of their new play (to be produced in July 2019), we also screened Sarah Lintakoon‘s “Olive”. She was the winner of our Emerging Visions Award for 2018. While checking it a bit long, we were delighted at the ways Sarah creatively worked with very little budget and a team, to tell her own story about memorialization and grief.
Finally, we also got to hear Christine sing her song, What the Moon Knows and her the musical variation composed by her father, R. Gary Deavel. Take a listen on Soundcloud.
Thanks to Open Books for hosting the book launch for our new translation of Amelia Rosselli’s “Diario Ottuso/Obtuse Diary” by Deborah Woodard, Roberta Antognini and Dario De Pasquale.
Here’s a short segment from the last section of the book, “Obtuse Diary” read by Deborah Woodard and actor, Riccardo Pieri. I thought this presentation of a bilingual text was really effective and an imaginative way for an (primarily) English-listening audience to comprehend the meaning, while still hearing the sound of the work.
A wonderfully attentive crowd for WordsWest and a particularly nice evening to find that the C & P Coffeehouse has been saved from development by neighbors pitching in to buy it.
Dianne Aprile and Melinda Mueller braided their readings on the theme of “Who Tells Her Story?”. I’ll be looking forward to Dianne’s memoir she was reading from being published.
We managed to get two short snippets of Melinda reading from Mary’s Dust. The first is Mary Easty and the second is Anna Maria dal Violin, which you can read in Poetry Northwest (as well as hear some of Lori Goldston’s music).
And we’ll also add in our film on the book by Christian Anderson, in the event you have not seen it.
Lori Goldston and Melinda Mueller tried a new format for reading at this month’s Margin Shift, with Lori playing and Melinda reading over, through and around Lori’s compositions. It was an invigorating interpretation of their work together in Mary’s Dust.
Thanks to Common Area Maintenance for hosting. It makes me so happy that spaces like this still exist in Belltown.
Thanks to everyone that came out for our first reading of Alchemy for Cells & Other Beasts in Seattle. And hurrah for Ellen Welcker joining in…her newest book was slightly delayed, you will want to find it at Open Books early next year.
One of the bonuses of last night was that we got to finally meet Rebecca Starkey, our first Emerging Visions Filmmaker Award winner. See her film HERE.
Photo of everyone by Gabrielle Bates of Open Books.
Ellen Welcker, Maya Jewell Zeller, Carrie DeBacker, Rebecca Starkey at Open Books
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Here’s what we brought back from the Buenos Aires Book Fair, as well as books recommended to us from our new Argentinian authors, or booksellers that we met. Be sure to check our social media to see our recommendations for book stores and other Buenos Aires delights.
Again, Northwest poets, we share these with you and are happy to lend these difficult to get locally books with you if your interest include contemporary Spanish-language poetry. Just drop us an EMAIL. Please do not PM, please email us. Obviously, we are very interested in doing what we can to promote any of this work being translated.
Finally, a note on our selections, and particularly coming from me— a person who is not fluent in Spanish and is new to the literature of Argentina. First, let it be known that we asked our awesome editor, Erin L. McCoy, to select whatever books she found engaging. Second, as per our press, we are definitely interested in women writers and queer writers as a default state of being. We were interested in learning more writers outside of Buenos Aires. Per my current interests with the press, I was looking for interesting looking hybrid texts (much rarer to see than in the US Market) and prose poetry. And I was not interested in poetry that was extremely first person or “flat” which seems to be a trend and one that drives me a bit crazy. Sometimes I would pick up a book and Erin would say, “Oh, that would actually drive you crazy…” and sometimes I would pick up a book and she would say, “Oh, that is an interesting find!” Finally, I might have bought a few of these books just based on something to do with the production and for that, I did not ask Erin. I know what I like on production.