The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka At the community pool, obsessive lap swimmers adhere to a strict, unspoken social code. They stick to their lanes and keep an eye out for each other–especially Alice, who has been swimming laps here for 35 years. Her dementia doesn’t seem as big of a deal when she’s at the … Read more
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. FRUIT, RUM, SUGAR, spices — their mother Eleanor’s black cake is a family tradition that runs throughout Benny and Byron’s childhoods, tying them to their Caribbean heritage and to one another. When Eleanor passes away, she leaves her children one final black cake to share, along with a mysterious recorded … Read more
Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin. Our lives are shaped by our memories. They influence our understanding of the world, and through them we develop our sense of self. But what if you could excise a piece of your past? At Nepenthe, memory erasure is big business, allowing clients to eliminate snippets of recall … Read more
Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian Long before President Biden declared Russia’s Ukraine war “genocide,” and long before the word was first coined during World War II to describe Nazi Germany’s actions toward European Jews, the Ottoman Empire’s ruling Committee of Union and Progress systematically implemented the mass murder of approximately 1 million Armenians in what … Read more
The Salt Fields by Stacy D. Flood In spare prose with haunting images, Stacy D. Flood’s novella, “The Salt Fields,” tells of a Black man’s train journey north, leaving South Carolina with its ghosts and grief for a fresh start in the northern steel mills. Set just after World War II during the beginning of … Read more
Murder at the Mission: A Frontier Killing, Its Legacy of Lies, and the Taking of the American West by Blaine Harden Whether you’re a “Whittie,” know someone who attended Whitman College, or have never heard about early Washington pioneer Marcus Whitman, you’ll still find much to learn by reading veteran journalist Blaine Harden’s deeply researched … Read more
Of Blood and Sweat: Black Lives and the Making of White Power and Wealth by Clyde W. Ford Over his distinguished writing career, Bellingham author Clyde Ford has entertained and challenged readers with his works of fiction and nonfiction alike. His previous book, “Think Black,” is a vivid portrayal of the intersection between technology and … Read more
Writer in a Life Vest: Essays from the Salish Sea by Iris Graville As the first-ever writer-in-residence for the Washington State Ferries System, Iris Graville’s office was a booth on the passenger deck of the MV Tillikum, the inter-island ferry that threads San Juan, Orcas, Shaw and Lopez islands. Her beat was the Salish Sea, … Read more
Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of A Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqwšeblu LaPointe An Indigenous artist from the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian tribes, Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe, shares her story of trauma, healing and the search for home in “Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk,” a vulnerable and luminous debut … Read more
Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl Move over llamas, foxes and rainbow unicorns — this is the year of the gnome. The fuzzy, pointy-hatted fellows are everywhere, on coffee mugs, tea towels, garden statuary and more. So it would be understandable if, at first glance, you mistook the rosy-cheeked character … Read more