This year's Seattle Design Festival included A Little Free Library Design/Build Competition called Libraries on the Loose! The challenge: To design, build and steward a Little Free Library (LFL) prototype that promotes community and literacy in Seattle’s neighborhoods! The budget was $150 and all entrants had to submit documentation of their efforts including assembly instructions. One goal was to establish an inexpensive prototype that could serve as a template for future LFL builders. Twenty teams entered and the winner was “Spinning Stories” by Johnston Architects. Gotta love the umbrella. From the call for entries: Little Free Libraries are small-scale book shelters that function as “take-a-book, leave a-book” gathering places....
Seattle wants, and deserves, to be a UNESCO City of Literature
Right on the heels of hosting the largest AWP conference to date, the city of Seattle is preparing to launch a bid to become a UNESCO City of Literature. Spearheaded by writer Ryan Boudinot, the efforts already have the unanimous blessing of the Seattle City Council and Mayor Ed Murray. The designation would fall under the UNESCO Creative Cities network which is a group of 41 cities worldwide with specialties in film, literature, design, music, gastronomy, media arts and crafts and folk art. Currently 7 of the 41 cities have been designated as cities of literature - Edinburgh; Melbourne, Australia; Norwich; Dublin; Reykjavik, Iceland;...
Visual Libris: 100 artists and the books that influenced them
Fahrenheit 451 by Frank Germano. “Montag and Clarisse” 18” x 40” (framed, approximately 22” x 44”). Ink and acrylic. Inspired by the The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Conference that invaded Seattle last week artist Siolo Thompson put out the call for artists to create works derived from books that impacted their lives. 100 artists contributed and all genres, from sci-fi to non-fiction, poetry to romance are included. The result is the nothing short of spectacular. Ex Libris: 100 Artists, 100 Books is destined to be one of the bookish exhibition highlights of 2014. The sample below is just a taste of the depth, range...
The Literati Descend on Seattle: Over 10,000 Book Folk in Town for AWP
image James Yamasaki, via The Stranger It stands for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and their 2014 conference begins this week in the Emerald City. Though it sounds a bit academic and something you get credit for it is actually the largest literary gathering on the continent and best thing to happen around here since the Seahawk parade. Thousands of writers, poets, publishers, editors, and related book folk are here for the conference. Plenty of headline acts, Annie Proulx, Sherman Alexie, Robert Haas, Gary Snyder, Sharon Olds and there are also 650 vendors at the bookfair! I'll...
Two Books from a Murder Scene
Photo: TED S. WARREN / THE ASSOCIATED PRESSPolice officer with two books in hand that were collected as evidence from a gruesome murder scene in Federal Way, Washington (20 minutes south of Seattle) in which 5 people were killed.One is a dictionary and the other a copy of a book, “Fight Back and Win: What to Do When You Feel Cheated or Wronged.”The incident started as a domestic dispute.Story in the Seattle Times.