Seattle Arts & Lectures

One of the nation’s leading literary arts organizations, Seattle Arts & Lectures was founded in 1987 and launched its first season in 1988.

SAL makes significant investments in the literary arts community by supporting locally and globally celebrated writers. Through conversations and craft talks by dynamic, nationally-acclaimed authors, as well as free community programs like Summer Book Bingo, launched in 2015, and the SAL/on air podcast, launched in 2018, our Public Programs present opportunities for our community—of writers, speakers, students, teachers, readers, listeners, and more—to come together and feel challenged, connected, and inspired.

Our nationally-recognized Writers in the Schools (WITS) program, founded in 1994, [...]

One of the nation’s leading literary arts organizations, Seattle Arts & Lectures was founded in 1987 and launched its first season in 1988.

SAL makes significant investments in the literary arts community by supporting locally and globally celebrated writers. Through conversations and craft talks by dynamic, nationally-acclaimed authors, as well as free community programs like Summer Book Bingo, launched in 2015, and the SAL/on air podcast, launched in 2018, our Public Programs present opportunities for our community—of writers, speakers, students, teachers, readers, listeners, and more—to come together and feel challenged, connected, and inspired.

Our nationally-recognized Writers in the Schools (WITS) program, founded in 1994, matches local professional writers in K-12 with public schools and hospitals to elevate the expressions of all students as they discover and develop their authentic writing and performance voices. SAL’s Youth Poetry Fellowship (YPF) program, launched in 2015, serves a cohort of young writers committed to poetry, performance, civic and community engagement, education, and equity across the Puget Sound region. One of the fellows, the Youth Poet Laureate, publishes a poetry chapbook that is released annually by Poetry NW Editions.

SAL has stayed true to our mission, yet responded to a changing world, by producing all programs in-person and online, and by offering $10 tickets to all events. In 2022/23, over 30,000 SAL attendees had accessible, meaningful experiences with the foremost writers and thinkers of our time; nearly one-quarter of those tickets were free or provided at very low cost to community members. In 2022/23, over 5,100 students worked with a WITS Writer-in-Residence in 234 classrooms at 33 public schools and hospital-based programs.

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