I am delighted to have a pair of short fairy tales in Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest, out now from Scablands Books! This beautiful foil-stamped anthology, edited by Sharma Shields and Maya Jewell Zeller, features an incredible roster of Pacific Northwest authors, such as Gary Copeland Lilley, Rick Barot, Shawn Vestal, Tess Gallagher, Ruth Joffre, Nicola Griffith, Kate Lebo, Elissa Washuta, and Lucia Perillo, to name just a handful, and has some wonderful illustrations as well—you can preview a couple of them, including one from my story "Moss Child," here. You can pick up a copy directly from Scablands Books, or at Atticus, Auntie's, From Here, and Wishing Tree Books in Spokane. If you're based in the Pacific Northwest, your local library might like to know about it! Here is the "Suggest a Title" form for Seattle Public Library; many library systems have similar forms.

I'm excited to have two fairy tales in Evergreen: Grim Tales & Verses from the Gloomy Northwest, a Scablands Books anthology edited by Spokane-based superheroes Sharma Shields and Maya Jewell Zeller. The (foil-stamped!) book releases November 2 (perfect season to cozy up with a book while it's drippy outside!), but discounted pre-orders are now available. Sharma shared a snippet of one of my tales on Twitter here. It's an honor to be in the same book with Elissa Washuta, Ruth Joffre, and so many other talented writers.

 Please join me at the Central Library for Elissa Washuta's reading "Seattle's Fremont and the Centerless Universe" on Saturday, February 18 at 2 pm. Elissa spent the summer researching and writing in the Northwest tower of the Fremont Bridge. She'll read an excerpt of the work spun out of that residency, exploring Seattle's waterways, bridges, and spirits. And the neon Rapunzel! It's an honor to discuss this project with Elissa, a dear friend, fellow UW MFA alum, and ridiculously talented author.Apropos of landscape, there are still spots available in my Hugo House class Writing About Place. Class meets Wednesdays 2/22-3/29, 5-7 pm. Want to dream up a utopia? Destroy a dystopia? Burrow into memories of home or explore a foreign city?  We'll write lots, read great stories, and maybe share some snacks from George's, my favorite Polish deli, around the corner from Hugo House.Looking ahead to spring, I'm teaching an online webinar on Contemporary Fairy Tales via Inked Voices on Saturday, April 29, 9 am-10:15 am PST (12 pm-1:15 pm EST). You can also opt in for a critique of a four-page fairy tale here.

I normally think of August as a sleepy month for zoning out and wandering into enormous spider webs, but this year, in Seattle, there are quite a few things happening, all of which are free. Here's where I'll be if you'd like to join:*Thursday, August 7, 6 pm: ekFRANTICS, a reading of literature about imaginary art, with David Lasky and Arlo Smith at the Greg Kucera Gallery. This is being put on by the local press Babel/Salvage and coincides with the Pioneer Square Art Walk, one of my favorite art events in town. I'm reading selections from my novel-in-progress, Paralegal, about a 25-year-old visual artist who takes a job as a paralegal just before the economic crisis of 2008.*Thursday, August 14, 7 pm: My Body is a Book of Rules launch at Richard Hugo House. My dear friend Elissa Washuta launches her debut memoir, which I happily pre-ordered yesterday. I can't wait to get my hands on it and celebrate with her.*Thursday, August 21, 7 pm: The Furnace Presents Chelsea Werner Jatzke at Hollow Earth Radio. Corinne Manning and I are launching the third (!) season of our quarterly reading series featuring one writer, reading one entire story, "with vigor." Chelsea's story is inspired by the Velvet Underground. Come see it live; it's gonna be rad.*Monday, August 25, 7 pm: Seattle Fiction Federation #1 at Richard Hugo House: Corinne is reading at this new series featuring fiction only. I'm excited for this new venue.*Tuesday, August 26, 8 pm: Old Growth Northwest Reading & Opening Mic at the Jewel Box Theater: I'm a featured reader alongside Matthew Simmons and Melody Moberg. We're all reading new work in response to the prompt "My first day on the job was much like my last," plus something else of our choosing. Fun!Then after a week in California for my best & oldest friend's wedding, I've got one more very fun reading called Seattle Wage Slaves: Tales from the Grind, which features stories about work. I'm reading alongside Steve Barker, Sonora Jha, Michael Spence, and Wilson Diehl. That's on Thursday, September 11 at 6:30 at Office Nomads. There will be spiked coffee and free donuts!

The 2012-13 Made at Hugo House Fellowship is coming to an end (sad day!), and the first of our three final readings is this very Tuesday.Come see what we've been toiling away at all year:

• Poetry! September 10. Katie Ogle will read from THE SMALLEST GUN I COULD FIND  which follows a conversation between a speaker and her homonculus (Latin for "little man").  Bill Carty will read from YOU TROUBLER (Ahab to Elijah: "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" Taylor Swift: "I knew you were trouble.")
• Fiction! September 25.Irene Keliher will read from her dystopian novel THE VISIONARIES, Eric McMillan will read from CLEAR, his novel about the Iraq war, and I will read from my story collection MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME.
• Nonfiction! November 21.  Elissa Washuta will read from her second memoir, STARVATION MODE, along with Claire Jackson and Catherine Slaton.

These readings will be amazing! Come, come, come!It's been a wonderful year meeting with these talented writers, hearing guest speakers on topics such as grants and first book publications, taking free Hugo House classes, and snatching up surprise opportunities along the way, like Hedgebrook's Spring Salon. This year, I started to feel much more integrated in Seattle's literary community. And the fellowship encouraged me to roll up my sleeves, get more writing done, and get my writing out into the world more aggressively than I have ever done before. "The Zoo," the first story I wrote with the fellowship in mind (while nervously waiting to hear back about the fellowship, actually), was published in January, and two stories I've revised this year will be coming out later this fall (details to come).  I workshopped what I believe will be the last story in MORE LIKE HOME THAN HOME at the Tin House conference, and I'm excited to read it on the 25th. Many thanks to Brian McGuigan for coming up with this program and to Hugo House for making it happen!And check out the 2013-14 fellows!(Whew. I think I exhausted my monthly allotment of exclamation points.)