This Week in Lit: Records, Spelling Bees and Cambodian Grrrl...
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Courtney Smith at University District Book Store:
Record collecting can be a girl’s best friend, and Courtney Smith is determined to show ladies the ropes. With her book Record Collecting For Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd One Album at a Time, Smith attempts to shatter the notion that collecting is all about the dudes. Even the Executive Vice President of Sub Pop has raved about the book. Its familiarity, thoughtfulness and humor make it memorable, and Smith fully reveals herself as a bad ass lady. With fantastic taste in music, of course. Don’t forget to pick up your autographed copy!
Monday, 7 p.m. // University District Book Store // Free
The Local Celebrity Spelling Bee at Richard Hugo House:
Spelling bees! Oh the embarrassment, excitement, humanity of it all! Well, maybe it wasn’t exactly that exciting in 6th grade, but I’m positive that any CELEBRITY spelling bee hosted by Richard Hugo House is bound to be entertaining as hell. Local celebrities, students, teachers and community members will be gathered to celebrate this spelling bee (and fundraise for the House’s classes and events)! The rules are also a little…flexible—if a contestant makes a mistake, the audience can buy them some “cheating options”—strange, but all proceeds are going to a worthy cause! The Bee will be featuring Paul Constant of The Stranger, writer Langdon Cook, Arrested Development writer Maria Semple, writer Stacey Levine, John Roderick, Hugo House founder France McCue, and many more!
Tickets from strangertickets.com or by calling 206.322.7030. You can get Dictionary.com level tickets for $25, or Oxford English Dictionary tickets for $50 (includes reserved table seating and a pre-party with the celebs and free food and beer!)
Thursday, 7:30 p.m. // Richard Hugo House // $25 for general admission, $50 for special seats
Arlene Kim and Ann M. Doe Overstreet at Elliott Bay Book Co.:
An evening with Seattle poets! Korean-American poet Arlene Kim reads from her debut collection, What Have You Don to Our Ears to Make Us Hear Echoes?. The poetry explores the immigrant experience, with a dash of folklore and fantastical added in. Anne M. Doe Overstreet will also be in the house reading from her first book, Delicate Machinery Suspended: Poems, a book already celebrated for its soft touch, depth and wisdom.
Friday, 7 p.m. // Elliott Bay Book Co. // free
Anne Elizabeth Moore at Elliott Bay Book Co.:
Anne Elizabeth Moore will be stopping in today to chat about her newest book, Cambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh—the story of her trip to Cambodia! She had just planned on promoting the power of independent media through self-publishing zines—but she ended up experiencing a hell of a lot more. This longtime co-publisher of Punk Planet mixed with the second generation of Cambodian genocide survivors, and in doing so learned a little bit about political corruption and pain, but also about the hope that love can bring. And who knew just how much learning about self-published media could inspire a community.
Saturday, 5 p.m. // Elliott Bay Book Co. // Free
