Blog - Jack Straw Cultural Center: Recent Episodes
Blog - Jack Straw Cultural Center
This year’s Writers Program Curator, Claudia Castro Luna, has selected the 2026 Jack Straw Writers: Natalie Pascale Boisseau, Kevin Dean, Elissa Favero, Jean Ferruzola, Rasheena Fountain, Gabriella Garcia, Maiah A Merino, BeeLyn Naihiwet, Diane Nguyen, Alejandro Pérez-Cortés, Sayantani Roy, and Ruth Marie Tomlinson.
Our writing fellows will be hard at work for the next few months writing and training at Jack Straw. Join us on the first three Fridays in May for their public debut as Jack Straw Writers!
The post Announcing the 2026 Jack Straw Writers appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Thank you for a wonderful 2025! We send our deepest thanks to the artists, students, teachers, community members, and everyone else who was part of another year of keeping art, culture, and heritage vital through sound.
This year, as always, our youth art and technology programs have helped students from elementary through high school express themselves and learn more about each other, and artists in our Artist Support Program, New Media Gallery, and Writers Program have worked with our artists and engineers to learn about sound and technology, create new work in our studios, and present it to the public.
Please consider a gift of any size to support this work in 2026!
Give Now!
The post Thank you for a wonderful year! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
THE JACK STRAW ARTIST RESIDENCY PROGRAMS offer established and emerging artists in diverse disciplines an opportunity to explore the creative use of sound in a professional atmosphere through residencies in our recording studios and participation in our various presentation programs. Artists may apply to only one program per year.
Writers Program Deadline: Sunday, November 2
Artist Support and New Media Gallery Program deadline: Monday, November 24
All Jack Straw residency applications are online via Submittable. If this format is not accessible to you for any reason, please contact us at arts@jackstraw.org or (206) 634-0919.
The 2026 Writers Program Curator is Claudia Castro Luna. A 2014 Jack Straw writing fellow, Claudia is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018–2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015–2018). She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press, 2017), both shortlisted for the WA State Book Award in poetry, 2023 and 2018 respectively. She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices (Chin Music Press, 2020) and the chapbook This City (Floating Bridge Press, 2016). Her most recent non-fiction is in There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis (Vintage) and in Memory’s Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort Worden (Empty Bowl). Born in El Salvador, Castro Luna lives in English and Spanish.
Questions? Check our FAQs or email us at arts@jackstraw.org.
The post Apply now for our 2026 Artist Residencies! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Dear friends of Jack Straw,
In these times when our rights, freedoms, livelihoods, and abilities to express ourselves are being made more and more precarious, the Jack Straw board and staff want to state openly that we are an organization and place where everyone is welcome and accepted for who they are.
We openly reaffirm our commitment to sharing and uplifting the voices of, and being a safe space for, immigrants and refugees; queer and trans people; Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; and people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
As an integral part of the Jack Straw community, we value you and your participation in who we are and what we do. Please take a moment and revisit our Mission, Vision, and History web page, which is a testament to our values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
In solidarity,
The board and staff of Jack Straw Cultural Center
The post Our Commitment to Our Community appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
This year’s Writers Program Curator, Kathleen Alcalá, has selected the 2025 Jack Straw Writers: Mateo Acuña, Hillary Behrman, Asha Dore, Makayla Danielle Gay, Jenny Harrington, Bill Hollands, Sigrun Susan Lane, Nhatt Nichols, Monique Ouk, Jason Prokowiew, Mia Tong, and Connor Watkins-Xu.
Our writing fellows will be hard at work for the next few months writing and training at Jack Straw. Join us on the first three Fridays in May for their public debut as Jack Straw Writers!
The post Announcing the 2025 Jack Straw Writers appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
THE JACK STRAW ARTIST RESIDENCY PROGRAMS offer established and emerging artists in diverse disciplines an opportunity to explore the creative use of sound in a professional atmosphere through residencies in our recording studios and participation in our various presentation programs. Artists may apply to only one program per year.
Writers Program Deadline: Thursday, October 31
Artist Support and New Media Gallery Program deadline: Monday, November 25
All Jack Straw residency applications are online via Submittable. If this format is not accessible to you for any reason, please contact us at arts@jackstraw.org or (206) 634-0919.
The 2025 Writers Program Curator is Kathleen Alcalá. A two-time Jack Straw writing fellow, Kathleen was born in Compton, California to Mexican parents. She is the author of six books that include a collection of stories, three novels, a book of essays, and most recently, The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, from the University of Washington Press. Forthcoming is Why Stars Burn from Rosarium Press. Her audio work was recently added to the PALABRA collection of the Library of Congress.
Recognitions include the Western States Book Award, the Governor’s Writers Award, two Artist Trust Fellowships and Jack Straw Writers Program fellowships in 2000 and 2012. Kathleen has been a guest professor at Seattle University and the University of New Mexico, as well as a writer in residence at Hugo House in Seattle and a Whitely Scholar in Residence at the Helen Riaboff Whitely Center in Friday Harbor, Washington.
Questions? Check our FAQs or email us at arts@jackstraw.org.
The post Apply now for our 2025 Artist Residencies! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
The Jack Straw Writers Program is still going strong in its 28th year, and we are proud of the work our program alumni continue to produce. The Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series is a chance to catch up with some of our poet alumni and celebrate their recent books.
We are amazed – and yet not surprised – by how prolific our poets continue to be: this six-reading series doesn’t even include everyone. We hope you will join us for as many of these readings as you can, in April, June, August, October, and November. Every reading promises to be an exciting, varied, and moving celebration of poetry.
Hosted by Kathleen Flenniken, Jack Straw fellow (2002), curator (2019), and board member.
Visit our Alumni Poetry Series web page on for information on each reading in the series. Artist links include each writer’s bio, information on their new books, and excerpts of their work.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 7pm
Jeannine Hall Gailey, Mercedes Lawry, Larry Laurence, Vincent Rendoni, Judith Skillman, and Carolyne Wright:
Monday, June 3, 2024, 7pm
Wendy Call, Kevin Craft, Erin Malone, Anastacia-Renee, Jeanine Walker, and Julene Tripp Weaver
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 7:00 pm
Laurie Blauner, Leanne Dunic, Michael Magee, Shin Yu Pai, Sylvia Byrne Pollack, and Molly Tenenbaum
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 7:00 pm
Suzanne Bottelli, Sharon Hashimoto, Ann Hursey, Raúl Sanchez, Carletta Carrington Wilson, and Deborah Woodard
Monday, October 21, 2024, 7pm
John Burgess, Bill Carty, Claudia Castro Luna, Denise Calvetti Michaels, Susan Rich, Katharine Whitcomb
Monday, November 18, 2024 (online, time tbd)
Lana Hechtman Ayers, Jamaica Baldwin, Danielle Bero, Sharon Carter, Larry Crist, Jory Mickelson, and Emily Pérez
The post The Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
This year’s Jack Straw Writers Program Curator, Nisi Shawl, has selected the 2024 Jack Straw Writers! We’re thrilled to welcome our new writing fellows: Amontaine Aurore, E.J. Batiste, Catherine DeNardo, Josh Griffin, Becca Rose Hall, Elyse Hauser, Stacy Nathaniel Jackson, Allison Masangkay, Gabriel Moseley, Mary Pan, McKenna Princing, and Jarrett Ziemer.
Our writing fellows will be hard at work for the next few months writing and training at Jack Straw. Join us on the first three Fridays in May for their public debut as Jack Straw Writers!
The post Announcing the 2024 Jack Straw Writers appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Jack Straw is thrilled to announce Summit Sound, an audio gallery at the new Seattle Convention Center Summit Building on Pine St. Summit Sound was envisioned by the SCC Art Program as “an outdoor space where residents and visitors can immerse themselves in one of our region’s revered creative disciplines–sound.” As the new home to multiple public artworks created by 23 commissioned artists, the Summit Building presents public works beyond the visual, offering a multi-sensory experience.
Jack Straw’s team selected a wide range of audio pieces from over thirty years of our arts and education programs, plus additional archival material from partners such as the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Department, to create a collection of music, sound, and spoken word amplifying and celebrating the unique and diverse voices of our inclusive Puget Sound community, in line with the Seattle Convention Center’s vision for this project.
Selected sounds for the initial launch of Summit Sound include music of many genres and spoken works produced through Jack Straw’s Artist Support Program; indigenous songs and stories from regional culture bearers; and poetry from fellows in the Jack Straw Writers Program as well as students at Denny International Middle School.
Summit Sound is a street-level, south-facing, outdoor, landscaped area with seating. It is located on the exterior of the building, mid-block on Pine Street between Ninth and Boren Avenues in downtown Seattle. Stop by and immerse yourself in these sounds, songs, and voices seven days a week, from 7am to 11pm – or listen any time – and find the full list of artists included – right here.
The post Announcing Summit Sound, a public audio gallery at the Seattle Convention Center appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
THE JACK STRAW ARTIST RESIDENCY PROGRAMS offer established and emerging artists in diverse disciplines an opportunity to explore the creative use of sound in a professional atmosphere through residencies in our recording studios and participation in our various presentation programs. Artists may apply to only one program per year. Writers Program Deadline: Wednesday, November 1 […]
The post Apply now for the 2024 Jack Straw Artist Residencies! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
The annual AWP (Association of Writers and Writing Programs) Conference is coming to Seattle this week, and you will have many opportunities to see and hear Jack Straw Writers and Artists reading and talking about their work, both at the conference and at countless public offsite events around the city.
In addition, Jack Straw will be the site for some offisite events. We’re working with Wave Books to produce a series of live audiobook recordings March 8th-12th. Check out the schedule and sign up to attending a reading here! We’re also hosting a reading with EcoTheo Collective on Friday evening, featuring our dear friend and past Jack Straw Writing Fellow and Writers Program Curator Anastacia-Renee.
For more offsite events, explore the official list or check in with your favorite local writers on social media to see what they’re up to. For the conference itself, read on below for a list of panels featuring writers who’ve been part of our Writers Program and Artist Support Program over the years (marked in bold). Enjoy!
Thursday, March 9
Friday, March 10
Saturday, March 11
Pre-recorded, on demand:When Home Is Not Safe
Judith Skillman, Linera Lucas, Lillo Way, Carolyne Wright, Susan April
Thursday, March 9:Migrations and Mutations: Writing and Translating From Our Bodies
(Cecelia Martinez-Gil, Wendy Call, Marco Antonio Huerta, Samina Najmi, Alison Mandaville)
Archives of the Body
(Kristen Millares Young, Putsata Reang, Anastacia Renée, Michelle Bowdler)
Re-visioning History in Creative Nonfiction
(Kathleen Alcalá, Teow Lim Goh, Nick Neely, Ana Maria Spagna)
Race to Machine: Asian-Americans Write Tech, Colonialism, and Dystopia
(Shankar Narayan, Franny Choi, Betsy Aoki, Neil Aitken, Margaret Rhee)
Connecting Community through Poetry
(Angela C Trudell Vasquez, Margaret Rozga, Raúl Sánchez, Maiah Merino, Gregory Luce)
Out of the Boneyard: Keeping Dead Manuscripts Alive
(Zoe Zolbrod, Anne Liu Kellor, Rebecca Skloot, Gina Frangello, Donna Miscolta)
Partnering for Progress: Building Language Equity at Artist Residencies
(Jane Hodges, Claudia Castro Luna, José Luis Montero, Teresa Luengo Cid, Maria de Lourdes Victoria)
From Novel to Screen
(Shawn Wong, tammy lynne stoner, Carter Sickels, Johanna Stoberock)
Writers Centers, Conferences, and Retreats: Write, Teach, and Work after the MFA
(Michael Khandelwal, Rob Arnold, Dariel Suarez, Erika Krouse, Jake Friedman)
Two (or More) Become One: Writing in Collaboration across Genre
(Katie Jean Shinkle, Steven Dunn, Natasha Marin, Amber Flame)
Panel Discussion: The Word, The Body, The Page
(Shin Yu Pai, Serena Chopra, Amaranth Borsuk, Elisheba Johnson)
Friday, March 10Hand to Stone: Fujitarō Kubota and James W. Washington, Jr. in Poetry and Prose
(Carletta Carrington Wilson, Elizabeth Austen, Kentaro Kojima, Shankar Narayan, Adriana Campoy)
A Decade of Professional & Creative Writing at Central Washington University
(Katharine Whitcomb, Maya Zeller, Joshua Welsh, Karla Maravilla, Ali Unal)
So You Want to Edit an Anthology? Editors on Pitch, Process, and Publication
(Ruben Quesada, Stephanie G’Schwind, Sun Yung Shin, Richard Santos, Emily Pérez)
Cripping and Digitizing: (Re)Imagining the Poetry e-book
(C. R. Grimmer, Molly Ubbesen, Katherine Deibel, Dene Grigar)
Stand (or Sit) and Deliver: Inviting Audiences into Poetry through Performance
(Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, NourbeSe Phillips , Ilya Kaminsky, Alicia Jo Rabins, Joshua Nguyen)
Crafting Nuestra América: The Literary Work of Diaspora
(Juan Carlos Reyes, Grisel Acosta, Urayoan Noel, Connie Pertuz Meza)
The Changing Myths That Shape Our Culture, Sponsored by Red Hen Press
(Francesca Bell, Afaa M. Weaver, Amber Flame, Douglas Manuel, Brynn Saito)
Extended Mournings: Encountering Violence, Memory, and Grief in the Asian Diaspora
(Serena Chopra, Jane Wong, Ching-In Chen, Divya Victor, Dao Strom)
Writing the Land: Inspiration and Perspiration to Create Poetry
(Catalina Marie Cantú, Erica Reid, Leona Sevick, Diana Raptosh, CMarie Fuhrman)
Writing in Spanish: The Case of Seattle Escribe
(José Luis Montero, Maria de Lourdes Victoria, Rita Wirkala, Teresa Luengo Cid)
Excerpted Readings by Seattle Theater Writers
(Kate Danley, Nabra Nelson, Gloria Majule, Maggie Lee, Miriam BC Tobin)
So You Want to Publish a Poetry Collection
(Gabrielle Bates, Luther Hughes, Shelley Wong, Paul Hlava Ceballos)
Writing the Investigative Memoir: Lessons Learned from the Writers Who Dunnit
(Steph Liberatore, Kazim Ali, Rose Andersen, Margaret Lee, Claudia Rowe)
Lindy West & Jane Wong in Conversation, Sponsored by Seattle Arts & Lectures
(Jane Wong, Lindy West, Rebecca Hoogs)
Motherlode: The Tripwire of Writing Real Family
(Kelly McMasters, Joanna Rakoff, Sonora Jha, Rebecca Woolf, Jane Wong)
Redefining Power: Indigenizing the Hybrid Poem
(Mary Leauna Christensen, Halee Kirkwood, Tacey Atsitty, Annie Wenstrupt, Casandra Lopez)
Cambodian Poetry, Prose, and Translation Today
(Sharon May, Sokunthary Svay, Putsata Reang, Trent Walker, Greg Santos)
PR in a (Nearly) Post-COVID Age
(Courtney LeBlanc, Jennifer Martelli, Susan Rich, Kelli Russell Agodon)
Two Decades of Modern Love
(Miya Lee, Nicole Hardy, Nicole Comforto, Shin Yu Pai, Denny)
Indigenous-Aboriginal American Writers Caucus
(Rena Priest, Kimberly Blaeser , Deborah Taffa)
Saturday, March 11Beyond BTS and Squid Game: Korean Contemporary Poetry in Translation
(Jeanine Walker, Marci Calabretta Cancio-Bello, Stine An, E. Bok Lee, Emily Jungmin Yoon)
From Poe and Plath to Meds and Co-Pays: Poetry and Mental Illness
(Emily Pérez, Eugenia Leigh, Kate Hanson, Diannely Antigua, Kayleb Rae Candrilli)
Babaylans, Griots, and Culture Keepers: Memoir as Collective Storytelling
(Jen Soriano, Sasha LaPointe, Anastacia-Renee, D.A. Navoti, Joyce Chen)
Weeping Women: La Llorona’s Presence in Modern Latinx and Chicanx Lore
(Mark Esperanza, Tamara Mitchell, Elizabeth Jimenez Montelongo, Nic Toledo Shump, Kathleen Alcalá)
Sustaining Seattle: Literary Leaders in a Time of Reckoning
(Susan Meyers , Juan Carlos Reyes, Joyce Chen, Kimberly Wilson)
Experiments across Genres: Writers and Artists of Color Celebrate Possibility
(Emgee Dufresne, Stalina Villarreal, Tonya Foster, Aliah Lavonne Tigh, Ching-In Chen)
Get Lit on Campus: Developing Lit Mags in the Community College Classroom
(Susan Rich, Elissa E. Minor, Megan Savage, Tobin F. Terry, James B. De Monte)
Wanting: Women Writing about Desire
(Margot Kahn, Sonora Jha, Rena Priest, Kristen Arnett, Nicole Hardy)
Mutant, Monster, Misfit, Myself: Writing the Disabled / Chronically Ill Body, Sponsored by AWP
(Sandra Beasley, Paul Guest, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Jenn Givhan, Jeannine Hall Gailey)
Your Best Book Launch: Publicity for Poets (and Other Small Press Writers)
(Nancy Reddy, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Caelan Nardone, Catherine Bresner, Julia Borcherts)
Girl, Writer, Crone: The Creative and Professional Value of Community
(Kristen Millares Young, Patricia Henley, Puloma Ghosh, Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, Kelly Sundberg)
Tin House Poets Reading
(Gabrielle Bates, Megan Fernandes, Jayme Ringleb, Leslie Sainz)
The post Jack Straw Writers and Artists at AWP 2023! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
This year’s Writers Program Curator, 2009 Jack Straw Writer Priscilla Long, has selected the 2023 Jack Straw Writers! We’re thrilled to welcome our new writing fellows: Jim Cantú, Hana Choi, Brian Dang, Geri Gale, Stephen Reed Griggs, Garfield Hillson, Nancy Mburu, David Rea, Carla Shafer, Sumu Tasib, Kaitlyn Teer, and Julene Tripp Weaver.
Our writing fellows will be hard at work for the next few months writing and training at Jack Straw. Join us on the first three Fridays in May for their public debut as Jack Straw Writers!
The post Congratulations to the 2023 Jack Straw Writers! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Priscilla Long is the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program Curator! Priscilla is a Seattle-based writer of poetry, creative nonfiction, science, history, and fiction, and a long-time independent teacher of writing. Her seventh book is Dancing with the Muse in Old Age (Coffeetown, 2022). Her two poetry books are Holy Magic (MoonPath Press) and Crossing Over: […]
The post Announcing the 2023 Jack Straw Writers Program Curator appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
THE JACK STRAW ARTIST RESIDENCY PROGRAMS offer established and emerging artists in diverse disciplines an opportunity to explore the creative use of sound in a professional atmosphere through residencies in our recording studios and participation in our various presentation programs. Artists may apply to only one program per year. Writers Program Deadline: Monday, October 31 […]
The post Apply now for the 2023 Jack Straw Artist Residencies! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Join us in person or online, as the Jack Straw Reading Series continues for the 26th year, with a series of readings featuring new poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction from the 2022 Jack Straw Writers. Poet and program curator Michael Schmeltzer will host three readings with the writers, in person in the studio and streamed […]
The post The 2022 Jack Straw May Reading Series appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Jack Straw has awarded residencies in the 2022 Artist Support Program to 18 artists and artist teams spanning multiple disciplines and genres. Eight artists/teams were awarded 20 hours of recording and production time with an engineer in our studio. Ten additional artists/teams will receive matching awards. All artists are provided with training, events, and other […]
The post Announcing the 2022 ASP and Gallery Artists! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Curator Michael Schmeltzer has selected the 2022 Jack Straw Writers! Our fellows this year are Helen Anderson, Ally Ang, Carrie Beyer, Julie Feng, Jessica Gigot, Danielle Hayden, Erin Langner, Jory Mickelson, Emily Parzybok, Vincent Rendoni, Ruth Schemmel, and Katharine Strange. Our writing fellows will be hard at work for the next few months writing and […]
The post Announcing the 2022 Jack Straw Writers! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Today is the last Bandcamp Friday of 2021 – the day when Bandcamp waives their fees, so artists receive more of the funds from each purchase. We shared some links to Jack Straw artist projects on Bandcamp last summer, and here are some more recent projects you should check out: James Falzone: Fallow Ran Park: […]
The post Buy Music from Jack Straw Artists this Bandcamp Friday appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
If you missed the November group reading with E.J. Koh and our 2021 Jack Straw Writers, our friends at Seattle Public Library have made it available for you to watch whenever you want, right here: Enjoy! And thank you, as always, to our brilliant curator E.J. Koh and the wonderful 2021 Jack Straw Writers.
The post Jack Straw Writers SPL Reading on YouTube! appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Please help our essential programs for artists thrive for years to come! “Participating in this cohort has allowed me to see a wider view of the world that I’ve been so intimidated by, find my place in it and feel like I belong.” –Ebo Barton, Jack Straw Writers Program 2020 We’re launching a campaign today […]
The post Please give to support the next year of our Artist Residency Programs appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
If you missed our Fall Artist Showcase when it happened – or if, understandably, you’d just like to relive the magic – you’re in luck! We have posted the full video of all six sets from arx duo, Tekla Waterfield, Benjamin Hunter, Ebo Barton, EarthtoneSkytone, and Atrocity Girl on YouTube in this handy playlist. Enjoy!
The post Full video of our Fall Artist Showcase appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
Jack Straw and the Bushwick Book Club Seattle are once again teaming up to create new music inspired by the work of the Jack Straw Writers! For the second year in a row, the Bushwick Book Club and Jack Straw will share a new video every couple weeks featuring a reading from one of our […]
The post Jack Straw Writers and Bushwick Book Club 2021 appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.
We are thrilled to announce Michael Schmeltzer as the 2022 Jack Straw Writers Program Curator. Michael is a biracial author originally from Japan. He currently lives in Seattle where he serves as Editor-in-Chief of Floating Bridge Press. His forthcoming poetry book Empire of Surrender is the winner of the 2021 Wandering Aengus Book Award. Along with Meghan […]
The post Announcing 2022 Writers Program Curator Michael Schmeltzer appeared first on Jack Straw Cultural Center.