This summer we hosted a Passport to Washington Libraries activity (some may say “competition”) to encourage people to visit new libraries as they travel around the state. We asked people to stop by a new library, take a photo, and post that photo along with something they learned about that library on our Passport map. We added extra incentives –…
Last year The Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Library decided to join forces on the Washington Center for the Book (WCB). Each organization brought an existing program to the partnership, however we have also been working busily all year to lay the groundwork for new programs. One of the changes that was important to all of us was…
Congratulations to the finalists in the 2018 Washington State Book Awards Fiction: This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, of Seattle (Flatiron Books) The Cold Eye by Laura Anne Gilman, of Seattle (Simon & Schuster) The Other Alcott by Elise Hooper, of Seattle (HarperCollins) Solar Reboot by Matthew D. Hunt, of Clearview (Matthew D. Hunt) George and Lizzie…
Do you ever reminisce about your summer reading days when you were a kid? Maybe trips to the library to load up on books were a regular part of your weekly (or daily) routine? And maybe you loved tracking what you read and seeing the titles stack up? Well, here’s a chance to relive the glory of summer reading by…
Each year a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book during the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. We are delighted to announce the Washington Center for the Book’s 2018 selection to represent Washington state: A…
We are very pleased to announce that Washington’s Level 2 champion, Riya Sharma, has been selected as a National honor award winner for the letter she wrote about the book “The Confidence Code.” Riya is an 8th grade student at The Overlake School in Redmond. Honestly we were not one bit surprised by her recognition, though the question this year…
Books to explore this month include these titles by Washington authors: So Lucky by Nicola Griffith – FICTION From the author of Hild, this new novel is the profoundly personal and emphatically political story of a confident woman forced to confront an unnerving new reality when in the space of a single week her wife leaves her and she is diagnosed…
Here are just a few of the amazing books published in April by Washington state authors. BOOKS FOR ADULTS Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison – FICTION Mike Muñoz is a young Mexican American not too many years out of high school–and just fired from his latest gig as a lawn boy on a landscaping crew. Though he tries time and…
What do you get when you combine books, students, writing and a National contest? You get hope – hope for the future, hope for the country, hope and the knowledge that we are all in good hands with the next generation. Washington state has participated in the Letters About Literature contest (LAL) since 2005 and it impacts everyone who has…
It’s been a busy month for authors in Washington State. Fiction: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah: In 1974 a former POW, comes home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: he will move wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni north, to Alaska, where they will live off…