For the past six weeks, I have spent my Saturdays learning the business of writing as part of the EDGE Professional Development Program for Literary Artists.  I am grateful to Artist Trust for supporting my study with funds from the Latino/a Scholarship for Career Training. On Sunday, April 14th from 1 to 4 p.m., I and the other EDGE graduates gathered to read at The Elliott Bay Book Company at 1521 Tenth Avenue in Seattle, Washington,… Read More

I’ve turned to The Stranger for arts and culture events in Seattle since I moved here eight years ago.  So it was with unseemly amounts of satisfaction that I read Paul Constant’s kind endorsement of the Cheap Beer & Prose reading I gave on March 21st with Nicole Hardy, Anca Szilágyi and Corinne Manning at Richard Hugo House. We are, ahem, “an especially exciting lineup of fresh new faces in Seattle… Read More

I was so honored to benefit and highlight prison creative writing programs across the United States by joining in an evening of poems and stories with the theme WILDERNESS on Thursday, March 7th, during the 2013 AWP Conference in Boston. I was in stellar company — other readers included Matt Bondurant, Erin Celello, Lucy Christopher, Bronwen Dickey, Ann Wertz Garvin, Sarah Green, Daniel B. Johnson, Jill McDonough, Maggie Messitt, Jen Moore, Samuel Park, Suzanne Roberts, Liz Stephens and Matthew Zapruder.  For more details: www.literarywilderness.org. I first… Read More

Thank you to Dark Coast Press for inviting me to read at the 2012 Seattle debut of LitCrawl, a series of readings in bookstores and bars.  DCP Editor-in-Chief Jarret Middleton, Gabe Blackwell, John Hamilton, Elissa Washuta and Corinne Manning joined me at Spine & Crown Bookstore to prove that words are intoxicating. On Thursday, October 18th, many friends and unknown persons showed up to this tiny bookstore despite the rain.  We all carried… Read More

Anca Szilagyi is one of my favorite writers.  We met at the MFA program at the University of Washington, where she counseled me on the vagaries of workshopping a novel.  On August 1st, I was honored to help her read the title story of her collection More Like Home than Home, which she is polishing as a 2012-13 Made at Hugo House fellow. Along with Corinne Manning, Anca curates The Furnace… Read More

Castalia rocked Richard Hugo House on Tuesday, April 3rd.  Listen to me read from my novel Subduction by clicking here and choosing “Kristen Young” from the list.  I also recommend listening to Jean Burnet and Elizabeth Colen. The Castalia Reading series features a night of poetry and prose by students, faculty and alumni of the creative writing MFA program at the University of Washington.  Here’s the event listing from Castalia organizer… Read More

“Represent! 98118” Seeks Documentarians, Donors: Help Chronicle “A Day in the Life of 98118”   On October 5, 2011, scores of writers, photographers, filmmakers, artists and students will spend the day documenting life in America’s most diverse zip code in an event called “Represent! 98118”. Writer and Educator Nancy Rawles dreamed up “Represent! 98118” after she realized she didn’t know what it meant to live in 98118, which has been… Read More

Came one, came all to BOOKS, BOOZE & BLUEGRASS at Conor Byrne.  Dark Coast Press has two new books out –  Thirteen Fugues by  Jennifer Natalya Fink and Elynia by David Michael Belczyk — and they decided to throw their book party Ballard style.  I was lucky to read with Fink, Jonathan Evison and Sean Beaudoin and dance to the live “bluepunkgrassabilly” by Larry and his Flask! I was so happy to see… Read More

I am deeply honored to introduce inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander’s lecture, “Hearing America Singing: Multi-Vocal Cultures in America,” at the University of Washington on Tuesday, April 26th from 6:30-8 p.m. As Yale’s African American Studies Chair and a Pulitzer finalist, Alexander inspires me to finish my novel in plain, honest language while underpinning its plot with meticulous scholarship. The lecture will be held in Room 130 of Kane Hall, on… Read More

I am delighted to emcee a poetry workshop by poet and performer Elizabeth Austen on Sunday, April 10th, from 1 to 4 p.m. Elizabeth will teach a SPLAB @ Doe Bay workshop called Beyond the Page: Poems Aloud, Poems Alive. The pay-what-you-can workshop will be held at Doe Bay Resort on Orcas Island, truly one of Washington state’s most beautiful places. Following the workshop, Elizabeth will give a free reading… Read More