SUBDUCTION named a staff pick by The Paris Review

SUBDUCTION is a staff pick in The Paris Review. It’s a real joy in a hard time thanks to West Coast editor Christian Kiefer, who read my novel like a writer and valued my book’s explorations. I have *always* wanted to be part of The Paris Review.

I’ll be frank. With more than a third of my 35 event tour cancelled, one third deferred and the last third in limbo, I have been feeling like a fraction of myself. I spent a year planning those panels, readings, performances, signings, conversations, engagements…planning to be present, to converse in person, which is what I do best.

But this is a bright moment, and so I want to honor the generosity of another writer who made space for me in a fraught season. It satisfies my heart and gives me a deep gladness that my book has been seen for its complexity. What a gift to be listed alongside Carl Phillips, Rosalía, Ina Garten and Fred Hersch.

You can buy SUBDUCTION by clicking on the cover image below.

Buy now!

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Seattle Magazine Celebrates the New Hugo House

Many thanks to Seattle magazine’s Gwendolyn Elliott for sharing news of Hugo House’s grand opening in September. I will have an office and teach classes at the new building, located by Cal Anderson Park in Capitol Hill.

“The new Hugo will also house a writer’s salon, a 150-seat performance venue and staff offices to serve a student population that’s nearly doubled since 2012…The center’s growing student body will also be served by Hugo’s next writer-in-residence, Columbia City’s Kristen Millares Young, who changed course from an award-winning career in journalism (for outlets such as The New York Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Guardian and Time) to pursue the craft of personal essay, fiction and creative nonfiction. As she puts it, “current events forced me to get personal.” She now writes about feminism, cultural identity and justice, and her debut novel, which she describes as “a lyric retelling of the troubled history of encounter in the Americas,” is due to be published in 2020 by Red Hen Press.

“In a world that rewards cruelty,” Millares Young says, it’s places like Hugo House and a love for literature and stories that bring “us back to the hopes we formed before experience tried to teach us to dream smaller.”

Hugo House Grand Opening. Saturday, September 22. 5–10 p.m. Free. Hugo House, Capitol Hill, 1634 11th Ave.; 206.322.7030; hugohouse.org“

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Writers Resist: A Celebration of Free Speech

There comes a time when we must stand for our beliefs.

On Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, I joined thousands of writers around the world to celebrate the ideals of a free, just and compassionate democracy. More than 100 readings took place in small towns and global cities on Sunday, January 15th, all part of an international artistic uprising called Writers Resist.

Our Town Hall Seattle reading drew 850 people for a fiery night in the best traditions of the First Amendment, according to the Seattle P-I. The Seattle Review of Books interviewed me and Sam Ligon about co-organizing Seattle’s celebration of free speech in support of the ACLU of Washington, which is holding the front lines. Get involved.

I felt changed by being in a room with so many people who care about democratic ideals, including fellow readers Daniel James Brown (The Boys in the Boat), G. Willow Wilson (The Butterfly Mosque), Jess Walter (Beautiful Ruins), Elissa Washuta (My Body is a Book of Rules), Robert Lashley (The Homeboy Songs), Jane Wong (Overpower), Samuel Ligon (Wonderland), Bruce Barcott (Weed The People), David Laskin (The Children’s Blizzard), Claudia Castro Luna (This City, Seattle’s Civic Poet), Tod Marshall (Bugle, Washington State Poet Laureate), Angel Gardner (Seattle’s Youth Poet Laureate) and Doug Honig (On Freedom’s Frontier).

Town Hall Seattle recorded our performances of works by Malcolm X, Primo Levi, Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, Michelle Alexander, MLK, Umberto Eco, Jill McDonough and William Butler Yeats, to name a few. NPR station KUOW 94.9 FM broadcast our performance on their Speakers Forum series, where it is available as a podcast. In tribute to Dr. King, I read from Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem.

ACLU founder Roger Baldwin was right when he wrote, “No fight for civil liberties ever stays won.” Speech must remain free so we can defend what we hold dear. As Writers Resist founder Erin Belieu said, “This is only the starting point in raising our voices in defense of democracy.”

Many thanks to Ana Cristina Alvarez for making this poster, to Erica Sklar for seeing the need and having them printed, to Kirsten Lunstrum, Erin Sroka and Erica for helping me post them all over town, and to Philip Shaw for designing the programs for the reading.

Most of all, thanks to my co-organizer, the inimitable Sam Ligon, a mentor I am lucky to call my friend, and to Town Hall Seattle for giving civic discourse such a stage.

KMY at Seattle Writers Resist.jpeg

News

2014: The Year of Jack Straw

Before I told the world that I wanted to be an author, I didn’t know there were people who would put together a podcast of my thoughts and work, who would write a song based on my book and invite me to sing, and who would plan dozens of readings to give my writing a platform and an audience. I didn’t think the central branch of the Seattle Public LIbrary — a place I have visited with awe and joy — would feature me as a reader and record my performance.

In the seven years I have spent researching and writing my first novel (now in its seventh draft), I finally mustered the courage to disclose my hopes. So many good folks, like the crew at the Jack Straw Writers Program, have sustained my daily dedication to this dream. Thank you.

I am grateful to Jack Straw curator Felicia Gonzalez, who took time from her own writing to bring a diverse group together for a yearlong series of performances from Portland to Vancouver, including major Seattle venues such as the University Book Store, Elliott Bay Book Co, the Jack Straw Cultural Center and Richard Hugo House. I was in good company with Laurel Albina, Claudia Castro Luna, Margot Kahn, Loreen Lilyn Lee, Susan Meyers, John Mullen, Michelle Peñaloza, Gigi Rosenberg, Raúl Sánchez, Anastacia Tolbert and Jane Wong.

With the generous support of Jack Straw executive director Joan Rabinowitz and administrative coordinator Levi Fuller, we honed and shared our writing all year long. 2015 holds many more such collaborations: please check my events page for details.

News

NYT’s Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek

Beginning in April 2012, I conducted research for The New York Times’ multimedia narrative feature entitled Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek. I am proud to be a small part of the team that produced the December 2012 story, which was written by John Branch.

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Kristen Millares Young

Author & Journalist

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