This evening has a celebratory air to it as esteemed Seattle writer Stacey Levine and others launch a new edition of her superb novel, Frances Johnson (Verse Chorus Press). Originally published by Matthew Stadler and Rich Jensen's brainchild, Clear Cut Press, in 2005, this book, a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, has been out of print for some time. The new edition was revised by the author, re-typeset, and printed in a 5" by 8" trade format with a striking new cover. This evening's gathering will highlight work by some of Seattle's hard-working arts practitioners, with brief readings by Stacey Levine, and local poets Rebecca Hoggs, Johnny Horton, and others, with music by cellist Lori Goldston (Spectratone International Earth). Plus a special musical guest and refreshments. Stacey Levin received The Stranger Genius Award in 2009. "Stacey Levine ignores lyricism as an evolutionary dead end. Life is fractious and dire, her prose style says; let fiction serve as razor and torch. It's not that Levine isn't funny or that she doesn't forge phrases and sentences of throat-clutching beauty. It's just that her effort to dissect humankind's propensity for neuroses, fallacies, and other inanities requires measured drollery and surgical concision." – Donna Seaman, Bookforum.