Seattle7 Writers: What’s That All About?

The Seattle7 group of writers has garnered national attention for their work contributing to literary and literacy communities. The attention has resulted not only in strengthening alliances among the writers working together but also in valuable promotion for their books and writing careers. Seattle7 member Kit Bakke, who has contributed several articles to Writing It Real, writes an account of the group’s beginnings, growth, and success. Her story contains links to projects and literacy groups that will resonate with you as a writer as well as helpful resources for artists’ non-profits and links to over 36 writers you’ll want to read about.

The Seattle7′s energy, dedication and success is sure to inspire you to see what is happening in your community, how you can join in, and create and add to efforts that will strengthen your community and your standing among writers. The Seattle7 is a group that went beyond the usual discussions of how writers might find audiences and whether traditional or self-publishing is the way to go; they started with grass roots projects that utilized their passions and skills in the service of others, and this fed right back into getting what all writers want — the publication of a book. Read on! – Ed.

In 2006, I gave a workshop with Joy Selak, a writing friend from Austin Texas, at Edmonds’ Write-on-the-Sound writing conference. We gave a class on the creative uses of calendar and clock time in fiction. We had way more material that we could cover in our allotted hour and fifteen minutes, but everyone seemed to have a good time. After the workshops, the organizers scheduled a slot for speakers to sell and sign their books. I sat down with my Miss Alcott’s E-Mail next to Seattle author Jennie Shortridge. We chatted about this and that, and she invited me to a monthly coffee she had started with a few other writing friends.

“We meet once a month to whine about the business — our agents, publishers, stuff like that.”

“I’m TOTALLY in!” I said, having discovered in my short ride as a published author that the publishing industry is a rat’s nest of complexity, silliness and hidebound traditions that made no sense at all. (This was 2006 — light-years have passed since then and the complexity and silliness is still rampant, but the hidebound part has been blown to smithereens.)

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