In five years, Seattle Lit Crawl has become more than just a bookish pub crawl—it’s now the fever-pitch climax of autumn, the busiest night of the busiest time of the year for literary Seattle. On the evening of October 27, 35 readings—each lasting 45 minutes, with programs starting at 6, 7, 8, and 9 p.m.—will unfold all over Downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill. You can find a full listing of all of them at litcrawl.org, but here are a few itineraries to get you started. Feel free to mix or match, based on your interest.
If you’re looking to try something new: Your night starts at Ada’s Technical Books, where cartoonists Amy Camber, Robyn Jordan, Owen Curtsinger, and Lauren Armstrong will read new work. Next, head to Vermillion, where Robert Lashley, Imani Sims, Anastacia Renee, Quenton Baker, Sakara Remmu, and Andy Yun give a reading titled “Fuck Yo Couch,” which press materials promise will reveal “a Rick James-level of disregard for politesse.” At 8 p.m., head to Capitol Cider for Contagious Exchanges, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s conversational series about queerness and genre and literature, featuring Tobi Hill-Meyer and Elizabeth Colen. And finally, back at Vermillion, artist Steph Kesey will present new animated GIFs that tell a story about two pieces of pasta falling in love in a pot of boiling water.
If you want only the best of the best, regardless of genre or medium: Start at Folio: The Seattle Athenaeum, where Poetry Northwest magazine presents up-and-coming poets Sierra Nelson, Megan Snyder-Camp, and Jane Wong. Next, head to Barca, where Steven Barker, Hanna Brooks Olsen, and Jeanine Walker will read nonfiction about family. Zoë Events hosts Monica Dimas, Angela Garbes, Anna Goren, and Rachel Kessler talking about what food means to ourselves and to others. Finally, head to Capitol Cider, where Nicole Hardy, Peter Mountford, Ross McMeekin, and Paulette Perhach will read new fiction and nonfiction on the theme “A Fool and His or Her Money.”
If you can’t stop thinking about politics because it’s almost time for the election and Donald Trump is a sexist monster: Hugo House kicks off the night with Samar Abulhassan, Laura Da’, and Ann Teplick sharing their favorite radical feminist poets. At 7 p.m. down at Folio, Shankar Narayan, Jordan Alam, Pimone Triplett, and Margaret Rhee will read new work about what it means to be Asian-American in 2016. Stay at Folio for the 8 p.m. program, in which Martha Silano, Mary Ellen Talley, Gail Tremblay, and Sarah Zale will read work about women in the workplace. Then head to Zoë for the 9 p.m. reading; Kristiana Kahakauwila, Sara Marie Ortiz, Cooper Lee Bombardier, and Elissa Washuta read new nonfiction for VIDA, the feminist literary organization.
No matter where you go, be sure to meet back up for the afterparty at Velocity Dance Center, which promises original dance and music works in response to writing, and DJ Chuck spinning records until midnight. Maybe drink too much and call out sick the next day; after all, Lit Crawl comes but once a year. Lit Crawl, various locations, litcrawl.org. Free. 6 p.m.–midnight Thurs., Oct. 27. Paul Constant is the co-founder of The Seattle Review of Books. Read daily books coverage like this at seattlereviewofbooks.com.
