Full Description
Seattle, with its spectacular natural beauty and rough frontier history, has inspired writers from its earliest days. This anthology spans seven decades and includes fiction, memoirs, histories, and journalism that define the city or use it as a setting, imparting the flavor of the city through a literary prism.
Reading Seattle features classics by Horace R. Cayton, Richard Hugo, Betty MacDonald, Mary McCarthy, Murray Morgan, and John Okada as well as more recent works by Sherman Alexie, Lynda Barry, David Guterson, J. A. Jance, Jonathan Raban, and others. It includes cutting-edge work by emerging talents and reintroduces works by important Seattle writers who may have been overlooked in recent years.
The writers featured in this volume explore a variety of neighborhoods and districts within the city, delineating urban spaces and painting memorable portraits of characters both historical and fictional.
Contents
Foreword--Charles Johnson
Acknowledgments
Introduction--Peter Donahue
Part 1: Coming into Focus (1930s-1980s)
Northwest Gateway: The Story of the Port of Seattle--Archie Binns
The Executioner Waits--Josephine Herbst
Farthest Reach: Oregon and Washington--Nancy Wilson Ross
Annie Jordan: A Novel of Seattle--Mary Brinker Post
Long Old Road--Horace R. Cayton
How I Grew--Mary McCarthy
Anybody Can Do Anything--Betty MacDonald
Skid Road: An Informal Portrait of Seattle--Murray Morgan
Nisei Daughter--Monica Sone
No-No Boy--John Okada
Seattle, Past to Present--Roger Sale
Digressions of a Native Son--Emmett Watson
The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet's Autobiography--Richard Hugo
Part 2: Many Voices (1980s-1990s)
Still Life with Woodpecker--Tom Robbins
The Rainy City--Earl W. Emerson
Sister of the Road--Barbara Wilson
Seattle's Son--David Guterson
The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest--Timothy Egan
Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of America--Jonathan Raban
Black Planet: Facing Race during an NBA Season--David Shields
Emerald City: Third & Pike--Charlotte Watson Sherman
Seattle and Vicinity--Colette Brooks
A Good Man--Rebecca Brown
Lying in Wait--J. A. Jance
Rites of Passage: A Memoir of the Sixties in Seattle--Walt Crowley
Street--Jack Cady
Cold Snap--Thom Jones
American Bullfrog--Charles D-Ambrosio
Indian Killer--Sherman Alexie
Blurred Vision: How the Eighties Began in One American Household--Natalia Rachel Singer
Dark Blue Suit--Peter Bacho
Part 3: Unto Itself (1990s-Early 2000s)
A Fair Trade--Michael Byers
Seattle Now: A Letter--Emily Baillargeon Russin
Allan Stein--Matthew Stadler
Sleep Dummy--Matt Briggs
Breaking In--Paisley Rekdal
Cruddy--Lynda Barry
Green Lake--Edwin Weihe
Never Mind Nirvana--Mark Lindquist
Pearl's Secret: A Black Man's Search for His White Family--Neil Henry
The Strangeness of Beauty--Lydia Minatoya
Epilogue--John Trombold
Bibliography
