• Next week, hundreds of excellent small publishers are coming to town to put on a gigantic book fair—but you, general public, are barred. Only attendees of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference will be admitted, and one-day passes are more than a hundred bucks. Organizers blamed Seattle tax laws, implying that other literary conferences with open-to-the-public book fairs might have been "scofflaws." The AWP also claimed that they never said the book fair would be open to the public, but at press time, a web cache search had revealed an April 2013 announcement stating exactly that. Check Slog for the latest Bookfairgate news.

• Since leaving Reel Grrls last month, Betsey Brock and Robin Held have been high-profile free agents. Last week, On the Boards announced it's hired Brock to head up audience affairs. Since Brock has attended most OtB performances in the last decade, our first thought was: Doesn't she already work at OtB? Congrats to both sides on a natural fit. Where will Held land?

• Ernest Hemingway sounds like Rachael Ray in his "PAPA'S FAVORITE HAMBURGER" recipe, just made available by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library: "You can add all sorts of goodies and flavors to the ground beef," he enthuses, espousing a kitchen-sink approach including garlic, India relish, capers, and more. Basically, he made a burger the opposite of the way he made writing. A more Hemingwayesque moment: "Let the meat sit, quietly marinating."

• The art-gallery closures keep on coming. Now it's Fetherston, hosting its final reception Thursday, February 20. Fetherston moved to Georgetown in 2012 after it was priced out of its 15-year home on Capitol Hill, showing artists including Robert Hardgrave, Elizabeth Jameson, and Melissa Stern. Betsy Fetherston e-mailed that it's "a personal choice (not health) and [due to] changes in the retail space market. It has been a good run and I am not going away..." Where do all the former art dealers go?

• Of course the dancing was impressive in last weekend's shows by Mark Morris Dance at the Paramount, so let's talk about Martin Pakledinaz's artful costumes, from neoplastic sharpness to a sea of hazy pastels, dancers wafting about in draped tunics moving in lyrical drifts. Also, dancers have the most extraordinary derrieres, and it is nice of them to share them with the rest of us.

• Inaugural winners of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist and Venture Project awards, administered by Artist Trust, are Jessika Kenney ($50,000), Cris Bruch ($15,000), and Amy O'Neal ($15,000). The deserving, and different, creators will be featured at the Frye Art Museum.

• Mayor Ed Murray explained/apologized this week for firing successful arts officials and replacing them with his picks for no reason other than "It is extremely important to me that I, and my administration, build a personal relationship with the people who work in the local film and music industries in Seattle." Perhaps those working in local film and music have priorities other than forming personal relationships with changing administrations.