We’re a book-hugging, library-loving, list-topping literary city, and no matter how much New York comes calling, we are proud that so many writers call us home. Like so many of the artists we’re celebrating in this issue, these literary wizards do more than merely spill their lifeblood and life stories on the page, they’re individuals who have proven pivotal in building and nurturing our cultural communities from the ground up, as booksellers, mentors, activists, and educators. They’re unafraid to start a conversation, and they refuse to let the literary arts become a solitary pursuit conducted in an ivory tower or the basement.  Jodi-Ann Burey Credit: Sylvie Rosokoff One night in March, I squeezed into a standing-room crowd at the Royal Room to experience the sixth iteration of Lit Lounge: The People’s Art. The prose and poetry salon, founded by Jodi-Ann Burey, draws readers from around the country—novelists, memoirists, and poets dripping with awards, from Pulitzers to PENs. It feels like more than your run-of-the-mill reading event: the excitement is as buzzy as a concert, and a buffet-style spread awaits guests. Burey takes the stage and instructs attendees to turn to strangers and strike up a conversation. On one side of me was a poet; on the other, a book rep from one of the Big Five publishers. Finding the sweet spot where beautiful words intersect with real life is one of Burey’s gifts. The Jamaican-born, New York–raised Seattle writer, speaker, and cultural critic tackles race, culture, health equity, and the politics of work with a mix of sharp humor and intimacy. She can also write about art in a way that’ll bring you to your knees. Burey’s interest in public health began academically—she holds a degree in the subject—and grew through years of corporate and nonprofit work. It became deeply personal in 2018, when she was diagnosed with a spinal tumor. Her treatment and recovery pushed her work toward the intersections of health, identity, trauma, and systemic inequity, including her podcast Black Cancer. In her 2021 TEDxSeattle talk, “The Myth of Bringing Your Full, Authentic Self to Work,” Burey unpacked the common corporate demand that employees—particularly those from marginalized groups—bring their “authentic selves” to work, challenging the idea that authenticity is inherently liberating and can magically fix inequity. The talk became the foundation for her first book, Authentic: The Myth of Bringing Your Full Self to Work, published last year. A 2026 Washington State Book Award finalist in the category of creative nonfiction/memoir, Authentic showcases Burey’s dexterity as both storyteller and cultural critic, weaving memoir, interviews, criticism, and research into a piercing interrogation of superficially progressive corporate language. Though Burey has a stubborn love for NYC and calls it her forever home, we’re happy to claim her as our own—even if, for now, it’s mostly the snowboarding keeping her here. AMANDA MANITACH Charlie’s Queer Books Credit: brooke fitts There is not much that is more precious to me in this destitute world than queer people, books, or the intersection thereof. Charlie’s Queer Books has made that intersection their life’s work. The business is one of only a handful of exclusively LGBTQ+ bookstores currently operating in the US. As Stranger contributor Lindsey Anderson detailed in a profile in 2024, literature helped owner and bookseller Charlie Hunts get through an injury that left him bedridden for over a year. While working in print and marketing, he began to collect all the LGBTQ+ books he could get his hands on, especially ones that reflected his experience of being trans. In the summer of 2023, he debuted a sparkly disco-tiled mobile book cart, which received such an enthusiastic reception that he and his wife, Madeline Burchard, opened a brick-and-mortar in Fremont that November. The shop is an inviting pink and purple haven stacked with queer books of all genres, for readers of all ages—Hunts told The Stranger in 2024, “​​We’ve had people brought to tears in our kids’ nook because they wish they had those stories when they were kids, or they find them just so healing.” In addition, Charlie’s provides a much-needed queer third space that caters to all ages and doesn’t revolve around alcohol, hosting events like book clubs, craft nights, and drag queen story hours. They also hold donation drives for the Seattle-based nonprofit Books to Prisoners. In a time when LGBTQ+ stories are increasingly endangered in America, the urgency of Charlie’s mission can’t be overstated. The American Library Association reported that of the 4,235 unique book titles banned in 2025, 39 percent concerned LGBTQ+ people and people of color. This fabulous little bookstore’s work is truly essential, and I hope it continues to bolster our community for years to come. JULIANNE BELL Taha Ebrahimi Credit: Kelly O Yes, trees are lovely, but did you know they are also little outposts of meaning on our city’s streets? Each one has a story, in terms of both its botany and its history, whether it’s the Japanese snowbells near my QFC in West Seattle or the monkey puzzle trees near Volunteer Park. In fact, I only just five minutes ago, after admiring their snowy blossoms all spring, figured out what those Japanese snowbell trees were when I saw them on the Trees with Taha Instagram page. As for those monkey puzzle trees, they may date to the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, when monkey puzzle saplings were given out as party favors. I know that last fact because of the handsome little green book Street Trees of Seattle: An Illustrated Walking Guide. The book grew out of a passion project that Taha Ebrahimi began during the pandemic when, like many of us, she took long neighborhood walks and began appreciating our tree canopy anew. Despite not having a background in botany or illustration, she grew frustrated with the city’s street tree data and took it upon herself to enrich and expand it in a way that ledto this book. Somehow, she’s managed (in her social media and tree walks as well as the book) to make street trees feel extra special, not by focusing on them as abstract concepts we need to “preserve,” but by focusing on their fascinating idiosyncrasies and contributions, whether that’s in the form of shade, flowers, bark, nuts, or something else, like the many health benefits they provide. We’re very lucky to have such a treed city, and lucky to have a tree expert as alive as her subjects. BESS LOVEJOY Nisi Shawl In 2017, I was invited to a literary event at University of Washington Bothell that included the speculative fiction/Afrofuturist writer Nisi Shawl. At that point, I had no idea that they lived in Seattle and had not read any of their work. As thousands of crows descended on a forest next to the school’s auditorium, Shawl read a short story or an excerpt from a novel. I was mesmerized by the quality of their writing and imagination. It was of the first order. In 2013, the Genius Award for literature went to Neal Stephenson, also a writer of speculative fiction. Shawl is of the same caliber as Stephenson. His 1992 masterpiece Snow Crash is matched by Shawl’s 2016 masterpiece Everfair, which is an alternate history of 19th-century Congo that blends steampunk and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. A line from Everfair: “Color crept into the sky, blue soaking through the black. Then the sun appeared to rise out of the east—at first silently, but soon accompanied by a faint, droning hum. Louder, louder. Blinded by the dawn, they couldn’t see the aircanoe until it had come so near that many of its details were also suddenly visible: brown mottling the swelling red sides of what looked like a giant gourd…” This is superb stuff. The depth, the density, the poetry, the timing, the vividness, the vision. Writers like this are not a dime a dozen. And there are times when reading their work feels like you’re looking at an abstract African sculpture made with machine parts, and this is no accident. Shawl is closely associated with Afroturism and has written essays on its key figures, Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler. As for the latter, Shawl edited Bloodchildren: Stories by the Octavia E. Butler Scholars. This work is indispensable for those who, like myself, treasure serious examinations and rich encounters with a Black science fiction writer whose last world happens to be Shawl’s present world: the Pacific Northwest. CHARLES MUDEDE Jane Wong Credit: gritchelle fallesgon The years the Genius Awards have been away mean there’s a long line of incredible art makers that have been overdue for recognition, and Jane Wong is certainly one of them. To cover some of the basics, she has a PhD and an MFA; she teaches at two universities; and she is the author of three books, two poetry (Overpour and How to Not Be Afraid of Everything) and one nonfiction (Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City). For the release of her memoir, she created wongmom.com, then picked up a Washington State Book Award in 2024, but the thing about Wong is there’s little she hasn’t won. She’s a Fulbright Scholar, winner of a Pushcart Prize, and a TEDx speaker, and there’s hardly a prestigious publication, residency, or workshop to which she hasn’t been invited. Wong is also a prolific visual artist. She is food- and fruit-obsessed and makes beautiful pottery in the shape of persimmons and lychee; dumplings and pieces of Napa cabbage; and also tiny plates, beautiful bowls, and vases, all of which you can see if you look up Restaurant Baby Ceramics. If you’ve been in Seattle since 2019, you probably will never forget her installation of altars, sculptural poems, and personal effects at the Frye, After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly, a product of her receiving the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists. Her bio is so impressive and extensive, but it must also be said that Wong is a passionate supporter of other writers and artists. Her other project, the Poetics of Haunting, holds up a slew of poets. Everything she does is at the highest level, so when she’s on your side, you’re in good hands. Wong is a light in this city, and literature in Seattle wouldn’t be what it is without her. Keep an eye out for her next poetry collection. KATIE LEE ELLISON Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore Credit: Dorothy Edwards This singular talent has written or edited 14 books, most recently Terry Dactyl (discussed in an interview with me for The Stranger in November 2025), as well as Touching the Art, The Freezer Door, and Sketchtasy. She’s the new editor at BUNNY (an imprint of Fonograf Editions), with her first project coming from Corinne Manning for release in early 2027. Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore has poured herself into this city, and participated without fanfare in many rooms where young or burgeoning Seattle writers were chosen; she’s also spoken loudly, powerfully, and hilariously into microphones and on pages next to other luminaries like Alexander Chee, Dean Spade, and Maggie Nelson. She’s a friend to writers in this city, and she’s also been featured, reviewed, interviewed, and generally adored by Lambda Literary, Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, the Seattle Times, Brooklyn Rail, and countless other institutions, publications, and editors of note and of lore. She’s also an activist and organizer, and that work comes through in her writing, fiction or not. If you don’t see her at the protest, know she was there for ACT UP in the early ’90s, Fed Up Queers in the late ’90s, Gay Shame, and many other movements that have defended the health and freedoms of our queer communities. There isn’t a color she can’t or won’t wear. This artist dances in our parks, communes with our trees, and can tell a story better than anyone I know. I hope to see her get all her flowers in the coming years. KATIE LEE ELLISON  Return to the 2026 Genius Awards page. The post Short List: Literature appeared first on The Stranger. ...read more read less