Cozy reader winter: Join KUOW Book Club, Seattle Public Library for live author talks

The KUOW Book Club is partnering once again with The Seattle Public Library to present a series of live author talks at the Central Library.

Everyone who turned out for our summer series last year showed us this community is eager to engage with local and regional writers, so we're bringing you more literary conversations this winter.

We'll be featuring four fantastic Pacific Northwest authors from February to May. All library events are free and open to the public, but registration for each of these events is required. Get tickets and more details at the links below.

And don't forget to sign up for the KUOW Book Club newsletter here.

We're kicking off this series in February with author and historian Coll Thrush. We'll be talking about his new book, "Wrecked: Unsettling Histories from the Graveyard of the Pacific." Thrush's latest work is a haunting and deeply researched look at the Northwest Coast, where more than 2,000 shipwrecks reveal powerful histories of place, people, and survival.

Thrush is a professor of history and associate faculty in critical Indigenous studies at the University of British Columbia, and the founding co-editor of the "Indigenous Confluences" book series at the University of Washington Press. Raised in Auburn, in the treaty territory of the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, he is the author or editor of four books that examine the intersections of Indigenous and colonial histories, often through the lens of place and memory.

Join me in conversation with Thursh at the Seattle Central Library on Feb. 26 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Attendees will have an opportunity to ask Thrush — and all of our featured authors — questions.

Register for free here.

We'll also post the recorded interviews for everyone who can't make it to the live events. Look out for links in the KUOW Book Club newsletter and our homepage.

We'll continue in March with writer and artist Sasha taqwšəblu LaPointe and her celebrated essay collection, "Thunder Song." Blending the personal and the political, LaPointe writes with power and lyricism about Indigenous identity, resilience, and community, weaving together stories of trauma, healing, and creative expression.

A member of the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes, LaPointe is the author of three books and a distinctive voice of the Pacific Northwest. Her work explores everything from her great-grandmother’s Lushootseed language revitalization to the punk rock scene, Twin Peaks, and the ongoing reclamation of Indigenous identity in Coast Salish territory.

LaPointe and I will be at the Central Library on March 23 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Register for free here.

In March, we're featuring Seattle-based writer Molly Olguín, author of "The Sea Gives Up the Dead," winner of the 2023 Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction. In this imaginative and haunting debut collection, Olguín reimagines myths and fairy tales through a queer lens, exploring the borders between fantasy and reality, love and loss, and the monstrous and the human.

Olguín’s fiction has appeared in Redivider, The Normal School, River Styx, Quarterly West, and more. She is the co-creator of the queer sci-fi audio drama "The Pasithea Powder," a 2025 Jack Hazard fellow, and a passionate educator who teaches English and creative writing in Seattle.

We'll talk about what it means to queer the classic fairytale on April 23 at the Central Library from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Register for free here.

Finally, we'll wrap up in May with our first return author: the incredible Sonora Jha. We'll be discussing her latest novel, "Intemperance," in which a middle-aged woman starts a firestorm when she holds a contest, based on an ancient Indian ritual, in which men must compete to win her affections.

Jha is the author of four books, including "The Laughter," which won the 2024 Washington State Book Award for Fiction and was named one of the Best Books of 2023 by the New Yorker, NPR, and others. It also won the AutHer Award for Fiction and was long-listed for the 2024 Aspen Words Literary Prize.

Her memoir, "How to Raise a Feminist Son" (2021), has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Her debut novel, "Foreign" (2013), was a finalist for the Shakti Bhatt Prize and the Hindu Prize and was long-listed for the DSC Prize. After a career in journalism in India and Singapore, Jha is now a professor at Seattle University and lives in Seattle.

Jha and I will close out this series at the Central Library on May 21 from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Register for free here.