You know that Seattle is made of stories—that’s one of the reasons we’re a UNESCO City of Literature. Now we’re telling these stories with a literary map of the city. Explore the interactive digital map below, pick up a copy at your local indie bookstore or library branch, or download a PDF of the map here.

How to Use This Map

Toggle the different category layers on and off by clicking the boxes in the upper right corner of the map, then scroll in to get a closer look at each neighborhood. Click on any icon to learn more about it. The icons mean:

 

Spotlight on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian-led
Literary Organizations

Seattle’s literary community cannot thrive without the important work of many cultural organizations, particularly Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian-led, who support and nourish writers, readers and other literary institutions.
Here are a few of the organizations that enrich our City of Literature.

BIPOC Community
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African-American Writers' Alliance

The African-American Writers' Alliance is a diverse and dynamic collective of Seattle-area writers of African descent that provides an informal and supportive forum for new and published writers.

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Densho

Densho documents the testimonies of Japanese Americans who were unjustly incarcerated during World War II before their memories are extinguished. They offer these irreplaceable firsthand accounts, coupled with historical images and teacher resources, to explore principles of democracy and promote equal justice for all.

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La Sala

La Sala is a Seattle-area organization that creates and catalyzes opportunities for Latino/a/x artists and arts organizations. Their work provides artists with access to professional education, art spaces, institutional connections, expanded audiences, and commissioned creative opportunities.

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Northwest Native Writers Circle

A gathering of like-minded Native writers. The group hosts and promotes programs with Native writers.

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Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts

Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts was founded in 2006 to promote Filipino American writers and artists. They launched their first reading at the Pagdiriwang Festival. Since then, writers such as Oliver de la Paz, Rick Barot, Geronimo Tagatac, Peter Bacho, Tess Uriza Holthe, Marianne Villaneuva, Toni Bajado, Oscar Penaranda, Donna Miscolta, Ben Gonio, Rebecca Mabanglo-Mayor, and Angela Martinez Dy have been featured.

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Seattle Escribe

Seattle Escribe is the largest group of Spanish-speaking writers in the northwestern United States.The organization offers classes, events, online programming, and more. They recently co-sponsored a Spanish-language residency at The Mineral School.

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Seattle Urban Book Expo

Seattle Urban Book Expo helps the BIPOC community navigate the self-publishing industry by offering writing & promotional services.

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Shade Literary Arts

Shade Literary Arts is a literary organization focused on the empowerment and expansion of literature by queer writers of color. They are the publisher of The Shade Journal, started in 2016.

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South Seattle Emerald

Founded as a platform that authentically depicts the dynamic voices, culture, arts, ideas, and businesses that fall within South Seattle’s borders, the Emerald is news as it was originally intended to be: not as business, nor as a forum for propaganda, but as a service to the community it chronicles.

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Tasveer

Tasveer’s mission is to inspire social change through thought- provoking South Asian films, art, and storytelling. They host a film festival and a literary festival every year.

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Wa Na Wari

Wa Na Wari builds on a legacy of Black resilience and self-determination.They center Black creativity through free art exhibits, film screenings, performances, and workshops. They also organize for Black-led, arts-based solutions to displacement & economic vulnerability and build meaningful economic pathways for Black artists and homeowners.

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We the Indigenous

We the Indigenous was a year-long virtual reading series curated by multidisciplinary storyteller D.A. Navoti, in partnership with Hugo House.

Neighborhood Spotlights

 
 

Don’t see you favorite literary landmark here?

Let us know!

 

Some things to consider as you think of suggestions:

What has been the long-term impact on the community?

What has been the long-term impact on Seattle’s profile as a literary city and/or the regional literary scene?

If suggesting an author, did they reside in Seattle for substantial amount of time? ( In order to keep the list manageable, we’re only considering deceased authors at this time.) 

 
 
 

This poetry grid was a project of Seattle’s first Civic Poet, Claudia Castro Luna. It traces the city in the voices of its citizens, from folks new to expressing themselves in poems to well-established and beloved writers. Click through to see the map and click on each dot to read a poem.

 
 

Acknowledgements

Territory Acknowledgement: This map is drawn on the traditional unceded territories of the Suquamish, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, and other Coast Salish signers of the Point Elliott Treaty. We honor their elders past, present, and future, and thank them for their stewardship of this land.

“Maps have behaved throughout history as pieces of literature or devices of expression used to advance particular agendas. The image of a physical place, seen from above, gives a sense of wholeness, of truth. Maps have the power to give a physicality to places and things that do not exist”
— Apoorva Tadepalli

Seattle City of Literature acknowledges the colonial roots of mapping as a world-building endeavor. Maps tell one story of a place. This can be, and has been, used for harm. But it can also be a way to reshape the narrative of a place. At its most essential, this map strives to tell the story of Seattle’s stories.

Credits

Graphic design by Erin Shigaki
Map design by Gregory Woolston
Copy by Seattle City of Literature

Thank you to all of the community members who identified people and places to include, and helped make this map happen. We’re particularly grateful for the input of these individuals and organizations:

Frank Abe (Author), Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine (University of Washington), Jim Cantú (El Centro de la Raza), Claudia Castro Luna (Author), Jill LaPointe (Lushootseed Research), Tim Lennon (LANGSTON), Jolene Haas (The Duwamish Tribe), Elisheba Johnson (Wa Na Wari), Stephanie Johnson-Toliver (Black Heritage Society of Washington), Rosemary Jones (The National Nordic Museum), Karen Maeda Allman (Elliott Bay Book Company), Miguel Maestes (El Centro de la Raza), Christina Roberts (Indigenous Peoples Institute, Seattle University), Jazmyn Scott (Arte Noir)
Tracey Wickersham (Visit Seattle), Inye Wokoma (Wa Na Wari).

Thank you to Our Funders

Funding for this project was provided by Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture, the Amazon Literary Partnership, 4Culture, the Neighborhood Matching Fund from the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods*, and generous community donors.

*This project has been funded in part by the Neighborhood Matching Fund Program of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. The information contained herein does not necessarily reflect the policies, plans, beliefs, conclusions, or ideas, of the City of Seattle. The City does not warrant the accuracy of any of the information, ideas, conclusions, or information, contained in this document.