July 5th, Honoring Banned Books & Writer’s Voices: Workshop - Reading & open mic at BookTree

Workshop with Robert Lashley, Writing that Informs & Teaches: 4:24 to 6pm;

Reading starts at 6:15; Featured and Spotlight Readings from Sybil James, Mariah Merino, Michael Hureaux and Robert Lashley followed by open mic. BookTree Bookstore, 609 Market St., Kirkland. Co- Sponsored by Raven Chronicles Press, 4Culture, and BookTree Bookstore.

Featured Reader Bios:

Sibyl James is the author of fourteen books--poetry, fiction and travel memoirs--including In China with Harpo and Karl (Calyx Books), The Adventures of Stout Mama (Papier-Mache Press), China Beats (Egress Studio Press), The Last Woro Woro to Treichville: A West African Memoir (StringTown Press), The Grand Piano Range (Black Heron Press) and most recently The Mother of Invention (a children’s book from Calyx) and Plum Blossom Wine (Empty Bowl Press). She has taught at colleges in the U.S., China, Mexico, and--as Fulbright professor--Tunisia and Cote As writer in residence, she has worked for the Washington State Arts Commission, the Seattle Arts Commission, Seattle Arts and Lectures, and the Seattle School District. Her writing has received awards from Artist Trust and the Seattle, King County and Washington State arts commissions.

Maiah A Merino, daughter of Humberto Saleeby Merino and Martha M Ramirez utilizes her bilingual voice to write about matters close to her heart: being a single mom, intergenerational trauma, cross-cultural issues and women’s issues. A middle-aged Chicanx Poet, mixed-genre writer and teaching artist through Path with Art and Seattle Arts & Lectures, Maiah recently published poems in In Xóxitl, in cuícatl: Flor y Canto, Antología de poesía, an international bilingual poetry anthology. She has poems forthcoming in Latinx Subjectivities: A Multi-genre Anthology, along with a creative non-fiction story in Weeping Women: The Haunting Presence of La Llorona in Mexican and Chicanx Lore. She is a 2021/22 “Writing the Land” Poet where her 3 poems will appear in “Writing the Land 2022” anthology. Her work appears in The Yellow Medicine Review, and The Raven Chronicles. Maiah shares her training as a narrative therapist to assist others in navigating and re-writing their own stories. She lives with her family y gatito in Seattle.

Michael Hureaux, formerly of Seattle, then in Alaska, now living in Des Moines—a veteran of the arts underground—is a poet/actor/musician and has been engaged in the struggle to restore civilization in the western world for decades. He has written three chapbooks of prosems now out of print—Black Dog Blues, Hallelucinations, and Fool Moon Rising—and a folk opera with musician Christopher Plumridge. He most recently appeared on stage as Dr Martin Luther King Jr in the Fairbanks Drama Association production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop. His latest collection is poesie and prose: The Accordion Man and other Poe Memes.

Robert Lashley is a writer and activist. He was a 2016 Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and a nominee for a Stranger Genius Award. He has had work published in The Seattle Review of Books, NAILED, Poetry Northwest, McSweeney’s, and The Cascadia Review. His poetry was also featured in such anthologies as Many Trails to The Summitt, Foot Bridge Above the Falls, Get Lit, Make It True, and It Was Written. His previous books include his debut acclaimed novel: I Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer (Washington State Book Award Finalist-2024); Poetry collections: Green River Valley (Blue Cactus Press 2021) THE HOMEBOY SONGS (Small Doggies Press, 2014), and UP SOUTH (Small Doggies Press, 2017). In 2019, The Homeboy Songs was named by Entropy Magazine as one of the 25 most essential books to come out of the Seattle area. Robert grew up in Tacoma and lives in Bellingham, Wa.