Not every city is blessed with a literary non-profit center like the Richard Hugo House. If ever there existed a starting point for aspiring NW poets, it’d be here, with a Hugo House reading, class or workshop. At Dark Sky Magazine — our upcoming poetry interviews will center on Seattle’s place on the literary map — we’re presenting poets when they arrive, and watching them when they go next. Recently we jumped into the fray, and talked shop with Richard Hugo House staff member, Kate Lebo. — Lori Huskey

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Dirty Rotten Intellectuals

We love thrash — noun and verb, ideally. Especially since, once upon a time, when scouring the Internet for interviews with thrash gurus was our forte, we came across a guitarist who wished there were more hours in the day. At the time, we didn’t understand. Perhaps it was summer; perhaps we enjoyed ignoring our responsibilities. Now, though, things have changed. Today we blink back against our heavy eyelids. Granted, some days the only reading we do comes from bumper stickers — those ever-dangerous ideological narratives — but can you imagine if someone tried putting the entire text of Julius Caesar on bumper stickers? Surely it’s not Shirley Dent; she just wants people to stop publishing slangish books. Speaking of bad writing, Jonathan Littell won the Bad Sex in Fiction award. The BBC milks the subject, asking authors if it’s difficult to write about the good old holymoly. Word on the street is that gender equality in the art world is still a long ways away, which makes our segue from books on sex to books on war inevitable. When we return, it’s back to Pop Culture, a place where Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills always rank higher than anything the treasury can spit out. Thrash on! – Andrew Geer
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