The monthly WordsWest Literary Series has something extra-special tomorrow (Wednesday) night – “A Kids’ Night of Invention and Adventure” with Sundee T. Frazier and Kazu Kibuishi, whose books should be instantly recognizable to many young readers and their families:

In case you hadn’t already seen it in our calendar, the official announcement:

“A Kids’ Night of Invention and Adventure” with Sundee T. Frazier and Kazu Kibuishi

Favorite Poem and Summer Reading Table by Jenny Cole, Co-Owner of Page 2 Books

Special time: 6 pm

At C & P Coffee Company, 5612 California SW

Yummy treats will be served!

Sundee T. Frazier is an ALA Coretta Scott King Award winner for Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything in It. Her heartfelt, entertaining stories address subjects close to her heart: ethnic identity, growing up in interracial families, and multi-generational dynamics. Her books have been nominated for twelve state children’s choice awards and been recognized by the Children’s Book Council, Oprah’s Book Club, and Kirkus Reviews (Best Children’s Books of the Year). Her latest is Cleo Edison Oliver in Persuasion Power about an irresistible 10-year-old entrepreneur. Cleo is one of ten books in Seattle Public Library’s 2017 Global Reading Challenge. Sundee lives in Renton.

Kazu Kibuishi is the writer and artist of the New York Times-bestselling AMULET graphic novel series, published by Scholastic. He is also the editor/art director/cover artist of the EXPLORER and FLIGHT Comic Anthologies, and is the cover illustrator of the Harry Potter 15th Anniversary Edition paperbacks from Scholastic. His debut graphic novel, Daisy Kutter: The Last Train, won a YALSA Best Books for Young Adults Award. Born in Tokyo, Kazu moved to the U.S. with his mother and brother when he was a child. He graduated from Film Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2000, and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. He currently works as a full-time graphic novelist. Kazu lives near Seattle with his wife and two children.

Every third Wednesday at C & P Coffee Company, WordsWest hosts literary events that range from readings by published local and national authors, to guided writing explorations. Each month we also host a community member to share his or her favorite poem as part of the Favorite Poem Project. WordsWest is curated by West Seattle writers Katy E. Ellis, Susan Rich, and Harold Taw.

Still some time to get over to Click! Design That Fits (WSB sponsor) in The Junction to meet West Seattle-residing, nationally acclaimed cookbook author and food educator Kim O’Donnel. Her newest book “PNW Veg” has just been published; she calls it her “edible love letter to the Pacific Northwest,” where she has lived for nine years. If you know that this is O’Donnel’s third book of vegetarian recipes – after “Meat Lover’s Meatless Celebrations” (2012) and “Meat Lover’s Meatless Cookbook” (2010) – you might guess she’s vegetarian. But you’d be wrong; she’s just living a “less meat” lifestyle. Until 9 pm, she’s at Click! (4540 California SW) signing books and offering tastes of highlights from “PNW Veg,” including desserts and potato/onion/stinging-nettle frittata as well as black bean and beet burgers.

On Wednesday night, instead of watching the third and final presidential debate – or, after watching the first half-hour or so – you are invited to explore “Literary Citizenship” at this month’s WordsWest Literary Series event. It’s at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), 7 pm Wednesday (October 19th):

In this season of electoral madness, what does it mean to be a citizen? What is ‘citizenship’– in all its perturbing and powerful dimensions– what does it means to be a literary citizen? On Wednesday, October 19th, WordsWest Literary Series presents award-winning poet Quenton Baker and cross-genre writer Lori A. May as they demonstrate the interconnections between citizenship, community, and writing. After the writers share their work, the audience will be invited to engage in a literary citizenship activity and learn a few tools from the writing toolbox — in both poetry and prose. This evening is partially funded by Poets & Writers, Inc.

*Quenton Baker is a poet and educator from Seattle. His current focus is the fact of blackness in American society. He is a 2015-16 Made at Hugo House fellow and a 2014 Pushcart Prize nominee. He is the author of This Glittering Republic, forthcoming from Willow Books in 2017.

*Lori A. May is the author of six books, including Square Feet and The Write Crowd: Literary Citizenship & The Writing Life. She writes across the genres and her work may be found in The Atlantic, Brevity, and other literary journals. Lori roadtrips an average of 30,000 miles each year and, on one of her infamous roadtrips years ago, she visited Seattle and said, “Well, wouldn’t this be a great place to live.” She now lives near Alki Beach and happily calls the Pacific Northwest home.

Every third Wednesday, 7 pm, at C & P Coffee Company, WordsWest hosts literary events that range from readings by published local and national authors, to guided writing explorations. Each month we host a community member to share his or her favorite poem as part of the Favorite Poem Project. On October 19, 2016, we welcome the West Seattle representative of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

WordsWest Literary is curated by West Seattle writers Katy E. Ellis, Susan Rich, and Harold Taw.

Carmilia’s in The Junction is home to a Little Free Library once more! Proprietor Linda Sabee sent the news, and the photo above, a month and a half after she reported the first one outside her boutique at 45xx California SW had been vandalized and then stolen. This one, like her first one, was built by family members including her dad Dale Hutchinson, who’s in the photo above. Linda notes, “The building of these libraries is a true family affair. My dad, my mom’s memory, my son AND my ex-husband!” Her mom, who’s been gone since 2007, was a teacher, Linda told us in March, “a lover of education, and a huge supporter of reading, books, and literacy.”

You have until 7 pm to get to Barnes and Noble/Westwood Village to celebrate the work of 14 young authors from Chief Sealth International High School and Madison Middle School, during this month’s edition of Words, Writers, West Seattle, presented by the Southwest Seattle Historical Society. Read more about the event on the SWSHS website.

(WSB photo, Sunday afternoon)

After a two-week closure, the Seattle Public Library‘s West Seattle (Admiral) branch will reopen tomorrow as scheduled, SPL’s official announcement:

The West Seattle Branch and book drop, 2306 42nd Ave. SW, will reopen at 10 a.m. Monday, August 31. The branch was closed for two weeks while the front steps were being replaced as part of a project to improve access to the branch.

Improvements to the branch include:

· Rebuilding front steps
· Redoing ramp from rear parking lot to main front entrance
· Redoing ramp from rear parking lot to lower-level meeting room
· Adding lighted handrails to ramps and steps
· Resurfacing parking stalls on north end of the lot

The project is expected to be completed in late September.

The project’s $430,000 cost is coming from Real Estate Excise Tax funds, according to this fact sheet. The branch is 105 years old and is a historic Carnegie Library.

Five notes about West Seattle writers – starting with an event tonight:

SARAH FOX @ WORDS, WRITERS, WEST SEATTLE: First Friday of the month means it’s the night that the Southwest Seattle Historical Society presents WWWS at Westwood Village Barnes & Noble. 5-7 pm, meet and hear from Sarah Fox, who’ll read from her book “Downwind: A People’s History of the Nuclear West.” (The clip above is her video invitation.)

ARLEEN WILLIAMS AT BPP: 3-6 pm Saturday (June 6th), stop by Beveridge Place Pub to join in the celebration of Arleen Williams‘ completion of her Alki Trilogy, explained on the second page of the event flyer:

BPP is at 6413 California SW.

WORDSWEST LITERARY SERIES – KIDS’ NIGHT! 6 pm Wednesday, June 17th, at C & P Coffee Company (5612 California SW; WSB sponsor), the next WordsWest Literary Series event will help young readers put together their summer reading list. And it’ll feature authors whose work they’ll want to read if they haven’t already – Sundee T. Frazier and father/daughter team Dr. Charles Johnson and Elisheba Johnson.

MEET AUTHORS AT MORGAN JUNCTION FESTIVAL: 10:30 am-6 pm on Saturday, June 20th, one of the new features at this year’s Morgan Junction Community Festival: Meet local authors! It’s a long list already, and you can see it in our calendar listing.

WEST SEATTLEITE’S COOKBOOK: Ron Merlin e-mailed to let us know he’s published a cookbook and has a signing event set for August 1st. Not in West Seattle, but this is enough lead time to plan! The signing will be at Victrola Coffee Roasters, 411 15th Avenue East. Merlin says, “I’m hoping folks will come and I would love to meet them, and provide them with a signed copy of my effort over the last six years.”

The monthly WordsWest Literary Series has already highlighted many talented local writers – but this month’s edition really has something they can crow about: A rare West Seattle appearance by best-selling author Lyanda Lynn Haupt. She and poet Allen Braden are reading this Wednesday (May 20th) at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor) in the next WordsWest event, as announced:

From backyard bestiaries to the farms of White Swan, nature slays us. From the intelligence of crows to the many chambers of a cow’s heart, we learn to look again at the commonplace life that surrounds us. For the May 20th, 2015 edition of WordsWest Literary Series, Washington poet Allen Braden and West Seattle naturalist Lyanda Lynn Haupt, will join us for a night of natural highs. This month WordsWest is again very grateful for a grant from Poets & Writers that allows us to pay our writers for their time and talent.

Allen Braden is the author of A Wreath of Down and Drops of Blood (University of Georgia) and Elegy in the Passive Voice (University of Alaska/Fairbanks). His poems have been anthologized in The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Poetry: An Introduction, Best New Poets and Spreading the Word: Editors on Poetry. He teaches at Tacoma Community College.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt is a naturalist, eco-philosopher, and speaker whose writing is at the forefront of the movement to connect people with nature in their everyday lives. Her most recent book is The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild (Little, Brown 2013). Her previous books include Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness (Little, Brown 2009), awarded the 2010 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award; Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (Sasquatch 2001), winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award; and Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent: The Importance of Everything and Other Lessons from Darwin’s Lost Notebooks (Little, Brown 2006).

Every third Wednesday, 7 pm, at C & P Coffee Company, WordsWest hosts literary events that range from readings by published local and national authors, to craft discussions and guided writing explorations for every experience level. Each month a community member from a local, independent business shares his or her favorite poem as part of the Favorite Poem Project. On May 20th, we welcome Eric Jordan of The Office Junction. WordsWest is curated by West Seattle writers Katy E. Ellis, Susan Rich, and Harold Taw.

C & P is at 5612 California SW.