- VIDHYA NAGARAJAN
Seattle is the biggest literary city in the United States aside from New York City, where the publishing industry was founded and will remain until it dies. From the explosive growth of Amazon.com to the revived, relocated Elliott Bay Book Company to all the feisty readings series around town (the Breadline at Vermillion, Cheap Wine & Poetry at Hugo House, the conceptual SPLAB on Beacon Hill), Seattle is a city of readers and writers. We have dozens of great readings venues; a well-stocked library system with beautiful neighborhood branches; densely packed, vivacious bookstores; and an embarrassment of resources for aspiring authors, thanks to institutions like the Jack Straw Writers Program and Hugo House’s many classes.
The one thing Seattle doesn’t have is a literary movement, its own unique style. That’s because our writers have been scattered around the city, trapped in monklike solitude for decades, too self-conscious (in that delightful writerly way) to talk openly about embarrassing, lofty topics like craft and goals and legacies. The thing we need, the way to bring Seattle’s scene together, is a strong and diverse community of authors. The best place to build that community is a bar.
(Keep reading.)