My new office. No internet, no distractions!
Happy news for the writer in me: on Monday I began a writing residency with Seattle7Writers! This means that I have my own office in Ballard for the next four months.
I will use the space to focus on a short story I’ve been developing. This story is set in Boulevard Park, a neighborhood located south of Seattle, just north of the Sea-Tac Airport. I feel drawn to the place because my mother and father grew up there before the airport expanded. The Port of Seattle bought entire streets of family homes and demolished them back in the 80s. All that’s left is a park with overgrown fruit trees and the broken teeth of foundations poking through the grass. If you have any news or stories about Boulevard Park, do share them with me. Detail and drama can only help!
Next I’ll turn to transforming one of my dissertation chapters into an academic article. (See this earlier post on Germano’s From Dissertation to Book.) In my PhD thesis I investigated the 16th and 17th century linguistic colonization of the Americas, and discovered in proto-linguistic texts historical events obscured by their non-narrative structure. Word-lists recorded by colonizers reveal interactions with Native Americans that are not a part of the historical account. To tell it in language we can all understand: sometimes a grocery list tells us a lot about the shopper.
Seattle7Writers is an organization that promotes the literary arts and literacy in the Seattle area. They host literary events, support local writers, and donate books by the truck load. The founders include such amazing writers as Erica Bauermeister and Garth Stein, and among the seventy-plus writer members is the brilliant Timothy Egan. It is an honor to be included among their ranks. To respect the program’s goals and to realize my own literary aspirations, my time with the Seattle7Writers will be one of intense narrative exploration and production.
Now, back to my office, where there’s no internet to distract me!