Reading Local Seattle

In the last few decades, humankind’s relationship with the ocean has undergone a remarkable change. The environmental impact of commercial fishing and the advent of extensive fish farming have led to grave and widespread concerns about the uncertain future of wild fish. We are on the precipice of a cataclysm; there is a distinct possibility that our children’s children will never eat a wild fish that has swum freely in the ocean. Are we on the brink of fishing every edible species of fish into extinction? And if so, how can we prevent such a disaster?

Paul Greenberg, a journalist who writes regularly for the New York Times Magazine and National Geographic, fears that we’ve reduced the natural variety of fish we consume to just four species: bass, cod, salmon, and tuna—and that, as a result of this lack of imagination coupled with an insatiable thirst for protein, we are dangerously overfishing every one of them. In Four Fish, he deftly uses these fish as a lens to provide a state of the ocean; traveling the world from Alaska’s wild salmon runs to the massive fish farms of Vietnam, he explores the history of these four species as he examines where each stands at this critical moment in time.

In Four Fish, Greenberg seeks to determine whether we can bring these four beloved fish back from the edge of extinction. His conclusion? With government intervention, proper management, and above all, public awareness about the fish on our plate, there is hope yet that our troubled relationship with the ocean and the fish we find in it can be mended.

Prince of Storms: Finally in control of the Ascendancy, Titus Quinn has styled himself Regent of the Entire. But his command is fragile. He rules an empire with a technology beyond human understanding; spies lurk in the ancient Magisterium; the Tarig overlords are hamstrung but still malevolent. Worse, his daughter Sen Ni opposes him for control, believing the Earth and its Rose universe must die to sustain the failing Entire. She is aided by one of the mystical pilots of the River Nigh, the space-time transport system. This navitar, alone among all others, can alter future events. He retires into a crystal chamber in the Nigh to weave reality and pit his enemies against each other.
Taking advantage of these chaotic times, the great foe of the Long War, the Jinda ceb Horat, create a settlement in the Entire. Masters of supreme technology, they maintain a lofty distance from the Entire s struggle. They agree, however, that the Tarig must return to the fiery Heart of their origins. With the banishment immanent, some Tarig lords rebel, fleeing to hound the edges of Quinn's reign.

Meanwhile, Quinn's wife Anzi becomes a hostage and penitent among the Jinda ceb, undergoing alterations that expose their secrets, but may estrange her from her husband. As Quinn moves toward a confrontation with the dark navitar, he learns that the stakes of the conflict go far beyond the Rose versus the Entire--extending to a breathtaking dominance. The navitar commands forces that lie at the heart of the Entire's geo-cosmology, and will use them to alter the calculus of power. As the navitar's plan approaches consummation, Quinn, Sen Ni, and Anzi are swept up in forces that will leave them forever changed.

In this rousing finale to Kenyon's celebrated quartet, Titus Quinn meets an inevitable destiny, forced at last to make the unthinkable choice for or against the dictates of his heart, for or against the beloved land.

Mozart's Blood: As a young soprano in the eighteenth century, Octavia Voss was bitten by a vampire patroness during a sexual tryst with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and was imbued with the essence of his astonishing musical gifts. Since then, Octavia has enjoyed several careers as a celebrated soprano, taking on new identities to disguise her ageless beauty, and acquiring an assistant and companion in Ugo, a mysterious man who possesses a secret of his own. Together they travel the world for her performances at all the great opera houses. But during a run at La Scala, Octavia draws the attention of a secret vampire hunter who will do anything to make her talents his own.

Harper Blaine was your average small-time P. I. until she died-for two minutes. Now she's a Greywalker, walking the line between the living world and the paranormal realm. There are others who know about her new powers-others with powerful tools and evil intentions, and now that the man who "killed" her has been murdered, the police are also paying close attention. That means Harper has to watch her step while searching for the ghost of her "killer"-who could be a valuable clue in the puzzle of Harper's past and her father's death, as well as a key to figuring out who's trying to manipulate her new powers and why. But with her growing powers pulling her into the Grey, Harper might not be able to come back out...

Don Mee Choi was born in South Korea but now lives in Seattle and translates contemporary Korean women's poetry. Her first book of poems, The Morning News is Exciting, has just been published by Action Books.

Lacey Jane Henson earned an MFA from the University of Washington in 2006. Last year, her story "Trigger" won first-prize in the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction given by Nimrod International. Her fiction has also recently appeared in Third Coast, MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine, Vestal Review and other publications. She's working on a novel called Nobody Told Me, which is set in the small Midwestern town where she grew up.

Colleen O'Brien's fiction has appeared in North American Review, Sonora Review, and other journals, and her reviews have appeared in Time Out Chicago and Mother Jones. She has received a fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation and recently taught creative writing at the University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies. She lives in Seattle.

Matthew Nienow is the author of two chapbooks: The Smallest Working Pieces and Two Sides of the Same Thing. His work has appeared in Best New Poets, Cincinnati Review, Indiana Review, Passages North, Prairie Schooner, and elsewhere. He has been the recipient of an Individual Artist award from 4Culture, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize and the Lauren D. Milliman Fellowship from the University of Washington. He works as a Writer-in-Residence with Seattle Arts & Lectures.

Ian Sherman's fiction and critical work have appeared in Blithe House, Velvet Mafia, and the Tablet. He is vice president of Bent Arts, a queer based writing institute based in Seattle, and he teaches English and creative writing at Olympic College in Bremerton.

Elissa Washuta writes memoir. Her recently completed book, The Kindling Effect, is a memoir built on the bones of psych-med near disasters, fencing injuries, relationship revisions and modern Native American ethnic confusion. Elissa works as an office assistant, adviser and instructor for the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, knits compulsively, collects sneakers and blogs at http://washuta.net/blog/ about how much she doesn't love food. She was born in New Jersey.

The Off Hours Reading Series provides a space for writers with ties to the Seattle area to share new work. As its title suggests, the series is meant to embody the spirit of writers in the off hours, after a creative project has been realized, and the party ensues. Held quarterly, the readings are boozy, lively, and have a celebratory feel. Come and raise a glass to unexpectedness.

Kitty Goes to War: Kitty Norville, Alpha werewolf and host of The Midnight Hour, a radio call-in show, is contacted by a friend at the NIH's Center for the Study of Paranatural Biology. Three Army soldiers recently returned from the war in Afghanistan are being held at Ft. Carson in Colorado Springs.They're killer werewolves—and post traumatic stress has left them unable to control their shape-shifting and unable to interact with people.Kitty agrees to see them, hoping to help by bringing them into her pack.
Meanwhile, Kitty gets sued for slander by CEO Harold Franklin after featuring Speedy Mart--his nationwide chain of 24-hour convenience stores with a reputation for attracting supernatural unpleasantness--on her show.

Very bad weather is on the horizon

Discord's Apple: When Evie Walker goes home to spend time with her dying father, she discovers that his creaky old house in Hope’s Fort, Colorado is not the only legacy she stands to inherit. Hidden behind the old basement door is a secret and magical storeroom where wondrous treasures from myth and legend are kept safe unit they are needed again. The magic of the storeroom prevents access to any who are not intended to use the items.

Evie must guard the storeroom against ancient and malicious forces, protecting the past and the future even as the present unravels around them. Old heroes and notorious villains alike will rise to fight on her side or to undermine her most desperate gambits. At stake is the fate of the world, and the prevention of nothing less than the apocalypse.

Debut novelist Loretta Stinson's Little Green (Hawthorne Books) takes readers into the world of small, rainy Northwestern towns, truck stops, unexpected friendships, and invisible people. One of them, a teenage runaway trying to escape her drug-dealing, abusive boyfriend, finds her footing in a new job ... in a bookstore. "A road map charting the many turns and unexpected triumphs in the hard territory of men, Little Green is also a story about bad habits that can't be broken, the chief of which is love." - Gina Ochsner.