The Elliott Bay Book Company

NEW YEARS DAY
Sunday, January 1

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, January 3 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Our twice-a-week Children's Storytimes, set for Tuesday and Saturday mornings each month, commence for January—and the New Year—with this morning's reading from picture- and storybook favorites out of our children's section. One of our Elliott Bay bookfolk will do the reading and telling honors. Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin! Please join us.

ELLIOTT BAY BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, January 3 at 6:30 p.m.

Each month, the Elliott Bay Book Club reads and discusses the best in contemporary fiction with the occasional classic thrown in for good measure. Our first selection for the new year is Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco. Winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize, Ilustrado begins with a body. On a clear day in winter, the battered corpse of Crispin Salvador is pulled from the Hudson River. Gone, too, is the only manuscript of his final book, a work meant to rescue him from obscurity by exposing the crimes of the Filipino ruling families. Miguel, his student and only remaining friend, sets out for Manila to investigate. The result is a rich and dramatic family saga of four generations; tracing one hundred and fifty years of Philippine history forged under the Spanish, the Americans, and the Filipinos themselves. Exuberant and wise, wildly funny and deeply moving, Ilustrado is a daring and inventive debut novel that "begins as a murder mystery and develops into an ambitious exploration of cultural identity, ambition, and artistic purpose." - The New Yorker.

OMAR BARGHOUTI
Wednesday, January 4 at 7 p.m.

Among those here for the Modern Language Association's Seattle meeting is noted independent Palestinian commentator, activist, and author Omar Barghouti. Besides the MLA, he'll be making a number of appearances, among them a talk at Elliott Bay on Wednesday evening, as well as an evening at St. Mark's Cathedral, north of Elliott Bay on Capitol Hill, on Thursday—that evening is sponsored by the Mideast Focus Group of St. Mark's. He has a timely book in hand, BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights (Haymarket Books). "No one has done more to build the intellectual, legal, and moral case for BDS than Omar Barghouti. The global Palestinian solidarity movement has been transformed and is on the cusp of major breakthroughs." – Naomi Klein. "I have been to Palestine where I've witnessed the racially segregated housing and the humiliation of Palestinians at military roadblocks. I can't help but remember the conditions we experienced in South Africa under apartheid. We could not have achieved our freedom without the help of people around the world using nonviolent means of boycotts and divestment to compel governments and institutions to withdraw their support for the apartheid regime. Omar Barghouti's lucid and morally compelling book is perfectly timed ..." – Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

CLIFFORD BERNIER & CECILIA MARTÍNEZ-GIL
Thursday, January 5 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

A duo of poets published by Gival Press, an Arlington, Virginia-based literary press that publishes in English, French, and Spanish, visit Seattle as part of the Modern Language Association's national convention gathering in the city this week, and read together here this evening. Clifford Bernier, founder and former host of the Washington D.C.-area poetry series, Poesis, reads from his collection The Silent Art, which has been nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Joining him is poet and screenwriter Cecilia Martínez-Gil, with her new collection, Psaltery and Serpentines. "Clifford Bernier's The Silent Art is a beautiful jazz symphony sweetened with the zen of everydayness and a 'double bass blues for Trane' ... This cat has great chops in the poetry and jazz of life." – M.L. Lieber. "Psaltery and Serpentine kisses its readers on the mouth so that the poetry become 'the ripe fruit to ... lips' ... Cecilia Martínez-Gil welcomes the reader into the world of poetry as a partner in the creative act, and readers engage this book-length seduction as tango partners and 'symphonic creatures.'" – Rich Murphy.

JUDITH HALBERSTAM & CHANDAN REDDY
Friday, January 6 at 7 p.m.

A good and lively evening is in store as eminent visiting University of Southern California professor Judith Halberstam and University of Washington professor Chandan Reddy discuss recent, related books. Judith Halberstam is the author of In a Queer Time and Place, Female Masculinity, Skin Shows, and, recently, The Queer Art of Failure (Duke University Press). "Failure abounds all around us: economic collapse, nation-states falter, and malfeasance rules. In the face of our dismal situation, Judith Halberstam distills and repurposes the negative in order to think outside the tyranny of success. The Queer Art of Failure finds a new vitality in not winning, accumulating, doing, or knowing ... this compelling book pushes beyond many of the impasses and blockages that limit critical horizons today." – José Esteban Muñoz. Professor Halberstam also edits the Perverse Modernities series for Duke University Press, of which Chandan Reddy's Freedom with Violence is one of the newest releases. To wit: "Freedom with Violence is a one of a kind, once in a generation book. Chandan Reddy argues that 'American political modernity' depends absolutely on a notion of freedom crafted out of a constitutive violence which takes the form of race ... he pulls his argument into tighter and tighter spirals, connecting his thesis about race to brilliantly original accounts of sexuality and making stunning connections between North American racial politics and European colonialism. This is a classic, landmark study." – Judith Halberstam.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, January 7 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

SHIRO KASHIBA
Saturday, January 7 at 2 p.m.

Kyoto-born, Ginza-trained, revered Seattle chef Shiro Kashiba founded Seattle's first full-service sushi bar in 1967 at Nikko. Since 1994, he has been serving some of the nation's best sushi at his namesake Belltown restaurant (2401 Second Avenue), and mentoring generations of sushi chefs. Today he'll appear in conversation with Bruce Rutledge, co-founder with Yuko Enomoto, of Chin Music Press. Chin Music has just published Shiro: Wit, Wisdom, & Recipes from a Sushi Pioneer in beautiful, loving form, Part-memoir, fine art book, and cookbook, it's filled with photos, ephemera, sushi-making tips, recipes, and stories from Shiro's life. More of that here today. And, following the onstage conversation, we'll have a drawing for a limited number of tickets for tasting some of Shiro's sushi here.

JANE BORDEN
Saturday, January 7 at 7 p.m.

North Carolina debutante Jane Borden grew up in genteel Greensboro, where manners mattered and smiles were mandatory. Like many before her, she then set out for Manhattan—first to visit, and then, following a series of jobs such as undercover investigating illegal, Canal Street-fashion knock-offs, ended up staying. This how-I-got-here story is told in her hilarious, smart, thoroughly enjoyable memoir, I Totally Meant to Do That (Broadway). Jane Borden has contributed to Saturday Night Live, New York Times Magazine, and Comedy Central. "Out of all the North Carolina greenhorns who ever navigated the funky streets of twenty-first century New York, she may be my favorite." – Gary Shytengart.

ERIC UTNE
Sunday, January 8 at 2 p.m.

Founder of Utne Reader magazine and active on a variety of cultural and civic fronts in his home city of Minneapolis and beyond, Eric Utne was also step-grandson to the late, great Brenda Ueland (1891 – 1985), an iconic figure in the American cultural landscape, most known to readers here for her enduringly popular book, If You Want to Write. Eric Utne is here today to talk about Brenda Ueland—and one of the great loves in a life that had many, the Norwegian explorer, scientist, statesman, athlete Fridtjof Nansen (1861- 1930). Brenda My Darling: The Love Letters of Fridtjof Nansen to Brenda Ueland (Utne Institute) is a fascinating trove of correspondence, edited by Eric Utne. "What is remarkable about these letters is how Nansen opens up and exposes himself for Ueland, who was younger than him by 30 years ... Over 80 years after they were written, these letters take us far from the mists and glaciers of Nansen's Arctic adventures. They give us the opportunity to admire the literary Fridtjof Nansen and his abilities as a writer of love poetry." – Per Egil Hegge, from the Foreword.

ERIC A. STANLEY, LORI SAFFIN, RALOWE T. AMPU, & TOSHIO MERONEK
Sunday, January 8 at 5 p.m.
--PLEASE NOTE TIME CORRECTION FROM EARLIER PUBLICATIONS--

Also in Seattle for the MLA convention are the editors and many contributors to a major new anthology of writing addressing the intersections of race, gender, ability, class, and sexuality with the prison industrial complex to argue for trans/queer liberation and prison abolition. Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex (AK Press), edited by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith, is a collection of writing by current and former prisoners, activists, and academics. Joining Eric A. Stanley tonight are contributors Lori Saffin, Ralowe T. Ampu, and Toshio Meronek. "Captive Genders is at once a scathing and necessary analysis of the prison industrial complex and a history of queer resistance to state tyranny." – Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. "An exciting assemblage of writings—analyses, manifestos, stories, interviews—that traverse the complicated entanglements of surveillance, policing, imprisonment, and the production of gender normativity ... the contributors to this volume create new frameworks and new vocabularies that surely will have a transformative impact on the theories and practice of twenty-first century abolition." – Angela Y. Davis.

WENDY CALL
Monday, January 9 at 7 p.m.

Co-presented with ONE EQUAL HEART FOUNDATION. Seattle writer Wendy Call returns to Elliott Bay this evening for a special book presentation and discussion sponsored by local NGO One Heart Foundation, as part of their ongoing series exploring various aspects of "El Buen Vivir," an indigenous vision for living sustainably. Wendy Call's book, No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy (University of Nebraska Press), recently won the Grub Street National Book Prize for Nonfiction. One Equal Heart Foundation raises funds to support programs of health, sustainable development, indigenous rights, and education among the Tseltal Maya in Chiapas, Mexico. For more information, please see www.oneequalheart.org.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, January 10 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

ELLIOTT BAY GLOBAL ISSUES & ETHICS BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, January 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Our Global Issues & Ethics Book Group is devoted to discussing books that cover the most relevant topics of our everyday lives. Our first selection for the new year is Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, From the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll. To what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did thay fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Ghost Wars details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan (including its covert operations against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989), the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan. James Bamford in The Washington Post calls it, "A long overdue look at the peaks and valleys of the CIA's presence in Afghanistan through the decades leading to September 10, 2001...a well-written, authoritative, high-altitude drama with few heroes, many villains, bags of cash, and a tragic ending—one that may not have been inevitable."

CAROL GUESS & KEVIN SIMMONDS
Tuesday, January 10 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

Tonight two esteemed queer writers of both prose and poetry share our stage. Carol Guess' most recent reading here was from her novel, Homeschooling, a Lambda Award finalist for Lesbian Fiction. This visit, she'll read from My Father in Water (Shearsman Books), an interlinked collection of essays about her relationship with her late, scientist father. "'As they float across regions right now and bodies back then' these essays refuse to distinguish between life and labor, love and loss. Guess proves herself to be—yet again—a consummate recorder of our collective queer heart." – Scott Herring. Traveling here from San Francisco to read is poet, musician, and past Jack Straw Foundation writer Kevin Simmonds. He will read from his new book of poems, Mad for Meat (Salmon Poetry/Dufour). "As sharply and carefully honed as his poems are, Kevin Simmonds has managed to preserve a quality of urgency, spontaneity and surprise in his poems through his unquestionable sense of music, and above all, his willingness to take risks in subject and form." – Kwame Dawes.

WINIFRED GALLAGHER
Thursday, January 12 at 7 p.m.

With such books as Rapt: Attention and the Focuses Life, The Power of Place, and Just the Way You Are, Winifred Gallagher has been writing insightfully about how we perceive and know different things in different ways. Her newest book brings a bit of a smile with it: New: Understanding Our Need for Novelty and Change (Penguin Press) is a new book that we are delighted about, one that probes beyond the surface of matters such as being excited about the newest book, to behavioral and neuroscientific reasons for our affinity for novelty. "A bright look at our fascination with the new and different. Gallagher examines how we deal with the ever-increasing amount of novelty and rate of change in our lives ... 'we already crunch four times more data ... than we did just 30 years ago,' writes the author ... Engaging and cautionary." – Kirkus Reviews.

SARAH VAN GELDER
Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m.

From locally-based, internationally-influential Yes! Magazine, comes This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement (Berrett-Koehler). This newly-published anthology, edited by Sarah Van Gelder of Yes!, is one of the first primers and printed accounts of the movement that arose in this country this past year. Contributors to the book include Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, Ralph Nader, David Korten, and others, along with early Occupy activists such as David Graeber (here at Elliott Bay on January 25), Marina Stern, and Hena Ashraf. This evening should be a good way to look at what has happened, and how things might develop in an eventful New Year.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, January 14 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

JOHN BURGESS, STEPHEN ROXBOROUGH, & JOANNIE STRANGELAND
Saturday, January 14 at 2 p.m.
      POETRY

John Burgess reads from Graffito, his third collection (Ravenna Press). A Jack Straw writer in 2006 and (with Stephen Roxborough) co-founder of the original Burning Word Festival, he serves as editor for the online journal Snow Monkey and appears with the Band of Poets. Stephen Roxborough, aka roxword, has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His most recent book is This Wonderful, Perpetual, Beautiful (Neopoiesis Press). Joannie Stangeland will read from Into the Rumored Spring (Ravenna Press), a series of poems about the illness and recovery of a friend facing breast cancer. She is the author of two previous chapbooks including Weathered Steps.

ELLIS AVERY
Saturday, January 14 at 7 p.m.

A welcome Elliott Bay return is made this evening by Ellis Avery. Her beautiful, Japan-set debut novel, The Teahouse Fire, has been a reader and critical favorite—the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction, the ALA's Stonewall Fiction Award, and was a Kiriyama Prize Notable Book. She is here with The Last Nude (Riverhead), a beguiling new novel based on the life and loves of Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. "The Last Nude is a remarkable novel: at once a seductive evocation of Lost Generation Paris, a faithful literary rendering of Tamara de Lempicka's idiosyncratic and groundbreaking art, and a vibrant, intelligent moving story in its own right. It's also smoking hot." – Emily Barton. "As erotic and powerful as the paintings that inspired it, Ellis Avery's artist-muse love story is as much about money, class, and betrayal." – Emma Donoghue.

CATHERINE C. ROBBINS with RANDE COOK (KWAKWAKA'WAKW)
Sunday, January 15 at 2 p.m.
--PLEASE NOTE TIME CORRECTION FROM EARLIER PUBLICATIONS--

Veteran journalist Cather Robbins' articles on such subjects as native telecommunications and the Hopi station KUYI, the Pecos repatriation, and related topics. Have appeared in the New York Times, High Country News, and elsewhere for over three decades. They now appear in expanded form in her new book, All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos) (Bison Books), a collection which reports on Native Americans from a variety of backgrounds working quietly to enhance their communities. "Robbins' ability to take the all-encompassing term Indian, once used to stereotype a myriad of peoples, and how it not as a limiting factor but as describing a larger brotherhood, is inspiring. The capacity of artists and journalists from various tribes to form alliances and bring the Indian voice to the non-Indian public is a monumental step forward in understanding today's Indian country." – Indian Country Today. Joining Ms. Robbins will be American Indian artist Rande Cook (Kwakwaka'wakw)—in conversation. All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos) has a chapter on artists and 'the buckskin ceiling.' This conversation will explore that. Rande Cook is represented by the Steinbreuck Gallery here in Seattle. His work has also appeared in the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

ADAM JOHNSON
Monday, January 16 at 7 p.m.

Nearly a decade after his highly praised debut novel, Parasites Like Us and a collection of stories, Emporium, Stanford writing professor Adam Johnson is here with The Orphan Master's Son (Random House) a major new novel that is garnering all kinds of early attention and excitement. "Johnson's novel accomplishes the seemingly impossible: an American writer has masterfully rendered the mysterious world of North Korea with the soul and savvy of a native, from its orphanages and its fishing boats to the kitchens of its high-ranking commanders. While oppressive propaganda echoes throughout, the tone never slides into caricature; if anything, the story unfolds with astounding empathy for those living in constant fear of imprisonment—or worse—but who manage to maintain their humanity against all odds ... In this moment and a thousand others like it, Johnson juxtaposes the vicious atrocities of the regime with the tenderness of beauty, love, and hope." – Publishers Weekly. "Am addictive novel of daring ingenuity; a study of sacrifice and freedom in a citizen-eating dynasty; and a timely reminder that anonymous victims of oppression are also human beings who love. A brave and impressive book." – David Mitchell.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME with special guest SAMANTHA VAMOS
Tuesday, January 17 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Please join us at the castle for a special Storytime with children's author Samantha Vamos, who will be reading her newest book, The Cazeula that the Farm Maiden Stirred. This energetic tale is based on on the nursery rhyme "The House that Jack Built" and seamlessly blends Spanish and English words into its verse. "Complete with an arroz con leche recipe and glossary of Spanish words, this thoughtful work will appeal to both Spanish speakers and learners. A wonderful read-aloud, filled with merriment and conviviality," says the Kirkus Review. Storytime is recommended for families with children ages 2 – 8, though all ages are welcome to join in the fun!

SPECULATIONS - ELLIOTT BAY SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, January 17 at 6:30 p.m.

As the literature of ideas and imagination, Science Fiction and Fantasy simply demands discussion. Our selections for January are the two books that make up Hal Duncan's The Book of All Hours series, Vellum and it's sequel Ink. It's 2017 and angels and demons walk the earth. Once they were human; now they are unkin, transformed by the ancient machine-code language of reality itself. They seek The Book of All Hours, the mythical tome within which the blueprint for all reality is transcribed, which has been lost somewhere in the Vellum—the vast realm of eternity upon which our world is a mere scratch.
The Vellum, where the unkin are gathering for war.
The Vellum, where a fallen angel and a renegade devil are about to settle an age-old feud.
The Vellum, where the past, present, and future will collide with ancient worlds and myths.
And the Vellum will burn. . . .

WILLIAM GIBSON
Tuesday, January 17 at 7 p.m.

We are delighted to welcome back one of the most engaging, visionary, and committed novelists at work today, William Gibson, who is here from his Vancouver home with a quite different new book. Coming on the heels of his astounding tenth novel, Zero History, Distrust That Particular Flavor (Putnam) is his collected nonfiction work to date, a book covers ground from George Orwell to online watch collecting to drug trafficking in Singapore. "Cyberpunk's patron saint of prose proves that his reality is every bit as trippy as his fiction. Gibson's gift for language is such that banal discussions of Steely Dan and even eBay take on otherworldly aspects ... In this case, understanding the writer a little better makes the fantastic thoughts emanating from his head all the more captivating and strange. A provocative, surprising look at the lesser-known parts of a sci-fi superstar's writing career." – Kirkus Reviews. William Gibson's extraordinary body of work includes Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Idoru, Pattern Recognition, and Spook Country.

Wednesday, January 18 at 7 p.m.

THOMAS FRANK
Thursday, January 19 at 7 p.m.
--THIS EVENT CANCELLED!--

Founding editor of The Baffler, Thomas Frank has long been explaining what seems inexplainable—the author of The Wrecking Crew and One Market Under God, he scathingly looked at how people would vote blatantly against their own interests in What's the Matter with Kansas? Now, he looks at sympathy for the rich in hard times (whose hard times?)—in his newest, Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (Metropolitan Books). "No one fools Thomas Frank, who is the sharpest, funniest, most intellectually voracious political commentator on the scene. In Pity the Billionaire he has written a brilliant expose of the most breathtaking ruse in American political history: how the Right turned the biggest capitalist breakdown since 1929 into an opportunity for themselves." – Barbara Ehrenreich.

S.R. "RUDY" MARTIN, JR.
Friday, January 20 at 7 p.m.
--POSTPONED TO MARCH 7TH--

A founding faculty member of The Evergreen State College—over forty years ago—Rudy Martin (as he is most widely known) was a beloved and inspiring teacher over most of Evergreen's first decades. In recent years, he has taken up serious writing—producing a family memoir, On the Move: A Black Family's Western Saga; a novel, Natural-Born Proud: A Reverie; and a book of stories, Seaside Stories (Blue Nile Press)—a collection of stories set around a small Black community in coastal California in the 1950s—a pastor father 'presiding.'

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, January 21 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

DENISE FRISINO
Saturday, January 21 at 2 p.m.

Pacific Northwest native writer Denise Frisino uses a fictional story about the unsolved murder of a Prohibition-era rum-runner to tell a larger story from Seattle's past. Whiskey Cove (Book Publishers Network) is set during the 1970s, when a young college student stumbles into the ongoing mystery. Denise Frisino's own family history and her research into the era inform the story.

ALEXIS M. SMITH
Saturday, January 21 at 7 p.m.

Portland writer Alexis Smith helps get the New Year underway where Northwest writers and writing are concerned on a high note with her debut novel, Glaciers (Tin House Books). "Glaciers, Alexis Smith's brilliant debut novel, is filled with kaleidoscopic pleasures. Using prose as clear as pure, cold air, Smith moves the narrative vertically as well as horizontally, each ticking minute yielding more insights into a young woman's life revealed over one single day. The past, present, and imaginary future stream into beautifully unstable geometries ... Line by line, in and out of time, this is a haunted, joyful, book—a true gift."- Karen Russell.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, January 24 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

STAGES - ELLIOTT BAY DRAMA BOOK GROUP
Tuesday, January 24 at 6:30 p.m.

Elliott Bay's Drama Book Group, Stages, meets once a month to read, enjoy and discuss great plays and dramatic works, contemporary and classic, from the U.S. and around the world. Our first selection for the new yeart is Sarah Ruhl's Passion Play. Here we have a three-and-a-half hour intimate epic, plunging the depths of the timely intersection of politics and religion. Ruhl dramatizes a community of players rehearsing their annual staging of the Easter Passion in three different eras: 1575 northern England, just before Queen Elizabeth outlaws the ritual; 1934 Oberammergau, Bavaria, as Hitler is rising to power; and Spearfish, South Dakota, from the time of Vietnam through Reagan’s presidency. In each period, the players grapple in different ways with the transformative nature of art, and politics are never far in the background. Please join us!

GALYA DIMENT
Tuesday, January 24 at 7 p.m.

Published late this past autumn, A Russian Jew of Bloomsbury: The Life and Times of Samuel Koteliansky (McGill-Queens University Press) is University of Washington professor and chair of the Slavic Studies and Languages Department Galya Diment's revelatory biography of a key figure in the Bloomsbury literary circle that included Virginia and Leonard Woolf, Katherine Mansfield, H.G. Wells, Dilys Powell, D.H. Lawrence, and many more. His roles included translating a number of Russian classics for the Woolfs' Hogarth Press. "Part biography, part cultural history ... the book teems with vivid vignettes of the emotionally complicated Koteliansky, his close friend D.H. Lawrence ... and many more. A fascinating read for lovers of literature, culture, history, and personality." – Brian Boyd.

DAVID GRAEBER
Wednesday, January 25 at 7 p.m.

One of those at the forefront of the Occupy Wall Street activity beginning this past autumn was eminent University of London anthropologist David Graeber. His writing has long had sway and influence in academic and political circles—that has changed dramatically with Occupy Wall Street and with publication of his paradigm-defining book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years (Melville House). "Fresh ... fascinating ... Graeber's book is not just thought-provoking, but also exceedingly timely. His sweeping narrative history essentially argues that many of our existing ideas about money and credit are limited, if not wrong." – Gillian Tett, The Financial Times. "Terrific ... in the best anthropological tradition, Graeber helps us reset our everyday ideas by exploring history and other civilizations, then boomeranging back to render our own world strange, and more open to change." – Raj Patel. "A brilliant, deeply original political thinker." – Rebecca Solnit.

CARTER SICKELS
Thursday, January 26 at 7 p.m.

Another stellar fiction debut by a Northwest author is made this evening by Portland writer Carter Sickels. His The Evening Hour (Bloomsbury) is set in mountainous country—West Virginia mountainous country, specifically coal mining country. "The troubled heart of this country, and the hearts of the deeply compelling people who populate it, beat strangely and unforgettably in The Evening Hour. A. Carter Sickels is a tremendous novelist with a tremendous story to tell in these pages, and he tells it with beauty and power."- Stacy D'Erasmo. "A refreshing cry from the populace, Carter Sickel's The Evening Hour captures the spirit of America's New Feudalism." – Tom Spanbauer.

GARY MARCUS
Friday, January 27 at 7 p.m.

As he turned forty, acclaimed scientist Gary Marcus was known for his studies of evolution, language, and cognitive development, but not for his musical talent. He learned to play the guitar and investigated how anyone of any age might master a new skill. His new book, Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning (Penguin Press), takes readers into a deeply pleasurable journey in which the writer, as his own experimental subject, encounters experts on errors, examines why we like the songs we like, and the role machines can play in making music. Gary Marcus, now the Director of the NYU Center for Child Languages, is the author of three earlier books, including Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human MindNew York Times Book Review Editor's Choice—as well as the 3-in-1 Improvisor and Chatternome apps.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Saturday, January 28 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

DIANA E. JAMES
Saturday, January 28 at 2 p.m.

Historic preservationist Diana E. James' book, Shared Walls: Seattle Apartment Buildings, 1900 – 1939 (McFarland), began as a collaborative project with famed local historian Jacqueline B. Williams, and in the intervening years became a solo project. Now finally complete, this fascinating and essential volume offers a comprehensive account of apartment building history, styles, designs, and an account of some key individual building histories. Diana James will give a brief overview and also provide tips for researching your own building's history. Following the talk, Diana James will lead a short walking tour and discuss the history of some of the buildings in our Capitol Hill/First Hill neighborhood.

TOM MUELLER
Saturday, January 28 at 5 p.m.
--LATE BREAKING ADDITION!--

Over from his home in the Ligurian countryside outside of Genoa is New Yorker writer Tom Mueller. His captivating book, Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (W.W. Norton), blew out of booksellers' shelves over the holidays. His publisher couldn't keep up with demand for this story, which began as an arresting New Yorker piece on present-day scams going on with olive oil. The book delves further into that, at the same time giving a rich history of this remarkable substance. "How long have readers waited for a story like this? A century? A millennium? Finally, the earth's most poetic food has found its storyteller. Essential, smart, and ridiculously overdue." – Bill Buford.

RED PINE / BILL PORTER & ERIC PAUL SHAFFER
Sunday, January 29 at 1:30 p.m.

This Sunday afternoon reading features Bill Porter, renowned translator (as Red Pine) of ancient Chinese texts, and chronicler of the old ways in a China undergoing massive change (Road to Heaven, Zen Baggage), and poet/novelist Eric Paul Shaffer, visiting from Hawai'i. Since Red Pine/Bill Porter's last readings locally—for Zen Baggage and translations of Lao-tzu's Taoteching and In Such Hard Times: The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu—Empty Bowl has released a new edition of P'u Ming's Oxherding Pictures & Verses. We also should have on hand his newest published translation, The Lankavatara Sutra: Translation and Commentary (Counterpoint)—the first translation into English of the original text used by Bodhidharma. The author of five books of poetry, Eric Paul Shaffer is here for his recent novel, Burn & Learn: Memoirs of the Cenozoic Era (Leaping Dog Press). Set in the not-so-distant-once-upon-a-time of Albuquerque, this picaresque tale is one of young men finding—and losing their way in that deeply engrained, western American way. This should be a day of good spirits, all around.

SHARON CUMBERLAND
Monday, January 30 at 7 p.m.
      POETRY

Celebration is in order this evening as Seattle University Creative Writing Program director and poet Sharon Cumberland reads from her just-published first full collection, Peculiar Honors (Black Heron). "Sharon Cumberland knows the forceful pronouncement, but also possesses the rarer gift for quietness and gentle naming—a contemporary Adam christening the hard-to-name emotions and perceptions of grief, happiness, faith." – Andrew Hudgins. "In these poems we meet Madonnas in jeans; Athenas in Greek widow's weeds; nosey aunts with faces displayed on Mylar birthday balloons; and medieval schoolmasters enjoining their pupils to write themes on those who have died by drowning, crucifixion, or pure joy." – Carolyne Wright.

CHILDREN'S STORYTIME
Tuesday, January 31 at 11:30 a.m.
      KID'S EVENT

Join us for this fun round of readings from picture and storybooks ... Go to the castle in the children's section ... and the stories begin!

JONATHAN TALAT PHILLIPS
Tuesday, January 31 at 7 p.m.

The Electric Jesus: The Healing Journey of a Contemporary Gnostic (Evolver Editions/North Atlantic Books), edited by Daniel Pinchbeck, details Jonathan Talat Phillips' journey from defeated media activist during the 2004 election, through a harrowing spiritual/cultural awakening process that led to the founding of Reality Sandwich, and forty-plus "Evolver Spore" cultures around the world, follows the rise of a growing, domestic underground culture, and offers other insights for helping heal the planet. "A modern Odyssey of awakening, Jonathan Talat Phillips' journey into Gnosticism deeply resonates with the eccentric moment. The Electric Jesus, a spiritual autobiography, reveals a life lived in the light of transformation, searching for the mystic core of a planetary civilization." – Alex Grey.

ALSO TO NOTE:

• Seattle Arts & Lectures. PICO IYER on Jan. 25 (see listing here) and SAL U programs are the only offerings in January. February brings JENNIFER EGAN (Feb. 1) and poet ALBERT GOLDBARTH, Feb. 9. Please see www.lectures.org for more information.
• Richard Hugo House. Our neighbors around the corner at 1634 Eleventh Avenue have a busy January: Castalia Poetry Reading, Jan. 3; "Apocalypse Not: Seven Poets for 2012," Jan. 5; RYAN BOUDINOT's launch for Blueprints of the Afterlife (see listing here), Jan. 16; MARTHA GROVER book release party, Jan. 17; DAVID SCHMADER's play, A Short-Term Solution to a Long-Term Problem, Jan 20-21 & Jan. 27-28, are among the slated programs. See www.hugohouse.org for information on these and more.
• Town Hall Seattle. In addition to Elliott Bay's productions and co-productions at Town Hall, there are numerous other literary, political, cultural, scientific, musical, and other offerings to be experienced. Among the January programs Elliott Bay is not involved in to draw attention to, is a special group reading of writers in Seattle for the MLA conference on Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m.—60 writers are scheduled to participate. See www.townhallseattle.org for information on that, and much more.

LEAPING AHEAD: FEBRUARY

Leaping ahead: February. February does its once-every-four years thing and goes long—we take advantage, as you can see: among those due through: KURT TIMMERMEISTER, Feb. 1; JONATHAN EVISON, Feb. 2; Search For Meaning Book Festival, Feb. 4 at Seattle University; ELLEN SWEETS, Feb. 5; REBECCA WALKER, Feb.6 at Northwest African American Museum; GARY GEDDES, Feb. 6; DAVID LONG for Granta, Feb. 7; DAVE ISAY, Feb. 7 at Town Hall Seattle; ERIC LIU & NICK HANAUER at Seattle Public Central Library, Feb. 7; PAM HOUSTON, Feb. 8; WAEL GHONIM with D. PARVAZ, Feb. 8 at Town Hall Seattle; MATT RUFF with PAUL CONSTANT, Feb. 9; DIANE FUJINO, Feb. 10; SHIRIN SHERKAT, Psy.D, Feb. 11 at 2; BENJAMIN CAWTHRA, Feb. 11 at 7; MARTHA BAYNE, Feb. 12; KATHERINE BOO, Feb. 14 at Stimson Auditorium, Seattle Asian Art Museum; JAMES SPURLOCK, Feb. 15; J.A. JANCE, Feb. 15 at Seattle Public Central Library; PAULA BROADWELL, Feb. 16 at Town Hall Seattle; NATHAN ENGLANDER, Feb. 16; SHANNA STEVENSON, Feb. 17 at noon at Woman’s Century Club; RALPH RICHARD BANKS, Feb. 17; DANA STABENOW, Feb. 18; KRIS SAKNUSSEMM, Feb. 21; JIM YARDLEY with BOB WEISS at Seattle Public Central Library, Feb. 21; AMY FRANKLIN-WILLIS, Feb. 22; DAVID WOLMAN, Feb. 23; MICHIO KAKU, Feb. 24 at Town Hall Seattle; BRAYDEN HIRSCH, Feb. 25 at 5’ AFRICAN AMERICAN WRITERS ALLIANCE group reading, Feb. 25; STEVE ERICKSON, Feb. 27; TUPELO HASSMAN, Feb. 28; DAVID C. UNGER, Feb. 28 at Town Hall Seattle; PEGGIELENE “KING PEGGY” BARTELS, Feb. 29 at Northwest African American Museum; ERIC KLINENBERG, Feb. 29 at Town Hall Seattle. All of the above are subject to change, and others will be added, as well. Please check back on our website at the end of January and/or see our February newsletter for more current and detailed information forthcoming. Thanks.

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING is the title of a book on Occupying Wall Street—see Friday, January 13.