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Hugh & Jane
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Join Humanities Washington and Nancy Pearl (pictured below) for the 2009 Bedtime Stories author event in Seattle on October 2. The event, now in its 11th year, features Northwest authors reading original works composed on a selected theme. This year the selected theme is In Your Dreams. Past participants include August Wilson, Tom Robbins, Charles Johnson, and David Guterson.

Emcee Nancy Pearl is the author of Book Lust and More Book Lust earning her the moniker “lusty librarian” from the Los Angeles Times. She’s the former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book and helps bibliophiles in Washington and across the country figure out what to read next.

Pearl will be joined by author and Bedtime Stories co-founder Charles Johnson, poet Samuel Green, author Margot Kahn, and author Bharti Kirchner.

The Authors

Charles Johnson is a former board member of Humanities Washington, a 1998 MacArthur Fellow and a Professor of English at the University of Washington. He is the author of several books, including Faith and the Good Thing, and winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Middle Passage. He has read at every Bedtime Stories event and has a collection of his works composed for the event entitled Dr. King's Refrigerator.

Margot Kahn - The story of a Wyoming cowboy and the transformation of his American West is the subject of Margot Kahn's first book, Horses That Buck, a finalist for the 2009 Spur Award and a nominee for the PNBA, MPIBA, Lyon, Jackson and High Plains awards. Margot received her MFA from Columbia University where she was a Hertog Fellow, and in 2005 received the Ohioana Library Association’s Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant for a promising writer under 30. She has worked professionally as a local journalist, financial editor and political speechwriter. She currently curates creative writing programs for kids and teens at Richard Hugo House.

Samuel Green is the first Poet Laureate of Washington State. He is a native of Washington and resides on remote Waldron Island. A distinguished poet and author of ten poetry collections, including The Grace of Necessity (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008), his work has appeared in numerous publications. For more than thirty years, he has served as editor of a small press focusing on the work of Washington poets. Green has served as a visiting poet in a wide range of settings, including universities, public schools, libraries, mental health centers, correctional facilities and poetry festivals. He has been a visiting poet and poetry teacher at Seattle University for several years and has been active with the Skagit River Poetry Festivals.

Bharti Kirchner is the author of eight books, four of which are critically acclaimed novels. Her first novel, Shiva Dancing, was chosen by Seattle Weekly to be among the top 18 books by Seattle authors in the last 25 years. Her fourth novel, Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries, was selected for the Summer Washington Reads program. Her most recent publication is a short story in Seattle Noir, a just released anthology of mystery short stories set in Seattle. Bharti’s work has been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Thai, and other languages. Twice she has won Seattle Arts Commission’s literature grants. An award winning cook, Bharti is also the author of four popular cookbooks. She has written numerous articles and essays for various magazines and anthologies, and book reviews for newspapers.

At Bedtime Stories 2008, held on October 24, we raised $46,000 for our family reading program Motheread/Fatheread and for the purchase of children's books for families throughout Washington. This support enables us to place our programs in economically under-served and geographically remote populations throughout the state and to continue to enhance Motheread/Fatheread.

Bedtime Stories is our annual literary gala and fundraiser for Humanities Washington. Enjoy an evening of original stories from celebrated Northwest authors and help support statewide cultural and educational programs that promote literacy, lifelong learning, and spread cultural insight.

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Each year at Bedtime Stories, we invite Northwest authors to read original works composed on a selected theme. Past participants include August Wilson, Tom Robbins, Charles Johnson, and David Guterson.

For our 10th anniversary event, authors Daniel Orozco, Teri Hein and playwright Keri Healey shared their original stories; Charles Johnson returned for his 10th appearance; and Bedtime Stories 2007 author Jess Walter returned as emcee. The evening’s theme was Nighthawks.

Thank you to our underwriter Northern Trust

and our sponsors: McEachern Trust  •  Ken and Marleen Alhadeff Charitable Foundation  •  Woods and Associates  •  Hugh and Jane Ferguson Trust  •  Foundation for Early Learning  •  Foster Pepper LLC

Charles Johnson is a former board member of Humanities Washington, a 1998 MacArthur Fellow and a Professor of English at the University of Washington. He is the author of several books, including Faith and the Good Thing, and winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Middle Passage. He has read at every Bedtime Stories event and has a collection of his works composed for the event entitled Dr. King's Refrigerator.		Daniel Orozco's work has appeared in the Best American Essays, Best American Short Stories, Best American Mystery Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies, and in Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, Zoetrope and other magazines.  He is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.  He teaches in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Idaho.
Teri Hein is the Founding Executive Director of 826 Seattle, a writing lab for children in Seattle. Her memoir, Atomic Farmgirl, was on the Booksense 76 list.  Her work has appeared in such places as A Road of Her Own, a book of women’s travel essays, Seattle Metropolitan Magazine and on NPR’s "All Things Considered."  She is currently working on a book about chickens.		Keri Healey is a playwright, director, and actor living in Seattle. Her work includes the plays One Twelve, Cherry Cherry Lemon, and Penetralia. Cherry Cherry Lemon was cited as Best Production in Seattle’s The Stranger’s “Best Seattle Theatre” list of 2001. In 2004, she was chosen by Seattle Dramatists as one of its five inaugural Principal Playwrights. In 2005, she was selected by The Stranger as “One to Watch” in their annual Genius Awards issue.

And Master of Ceremonies...
Jess Walter is the author of four novels, including The Zero, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Pen USA Fiction Award and winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. His previous novel, Citizen Vince, was a Washington Post best book of the year and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel.