Lit Lounge: The People’s art
March 21 2025
“We are each other’s harvest”
— Gwendolyn Brooks
Special thanks to Danny Ngan Photography
What People Are Saying
“The show was amazing! Thank you for organizing and blessing us all with your own work. Already excited for next time”
— ENJOLI
“After a decade in Seattle, I found the event I was looking for. Community, great music, dancing and poetry. Give me more, inject it in my veins!”
— Morgan
“The best event I have ever attended in 32 years of living in Seattle…”
— Julie B.
"I moved to Seattle a year ago and have tried to find my people. I came to the first Lit Lounge in February - and there they were. The intellectuals, the poets, the beautiful people of color, all converged on one space to share laughs, tears, and community. What an important space for community wisdom in our town.”
— megha
“Attending Lit Lounge reminded me of the magic of hearing writers perform their words to a live, wildly enthusiastic audience. It’s something that can only be experienced in person.”
— Julie P.
Hospitality
hannah nishimoto
zaliYa MoRRIS
sophia som
Pearl zhou
sheena camagong
READERS
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anastacia-renee
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e.j. koh
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luther hughes
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READERS - anastacia-renee - e.j. koh - luther hughes -
anastacia-renee
Anastacia-Reneé (She/They) is a queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, playwright, former radio host, TEDX speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of (v.) (Gramma/Black Ocean), Forget It (Black Radish); Sidenotes from the Archivist (HarperCollins/Amistad, ), and Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere (HarperCollins/Amistad). Side Notes From The Archivist was selected as one of “NYPL Best Books of 2023,” and, The American Library Associations (RUSA) “Notable Books of 2024.” Anastacia-Reneé is a recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award and, she was selected by NBC News as part of the list of "Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021's Must See LGBTQ Art Shows," for “(Don’t Be Absurd) Alice in Parts” an installation at the Frye Art Museum. Anastacia-Reneé served as Seattle Civic Poet (2017-1019) during Seattle’s inaugural year of UNESCO status.
Reneé was also Hugo House Poet-in-Residence, and Jack Straw Curator. Reneé was the 2021 Distinguished Visiting Writer In Residence at Seattle University and has been a visiting guest writer at The University of Washington, Western University, New York University, Parsons, James Madison University, Seattle Pacific Lutheran College and Tacoma University. Her work has been anthologized in: The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics and Superhero Poetry, Home is Where You Queer Your Heart, Furious Flower Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Joy Has A Sound, Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays on Being in the World, Spirited Stone: Lessons from Kubota’s Garden, and Seismic: Seattle City of Literature.
Reneé’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in, Superstition Review, Underbelly, Inkwell, BOMB, Prairie Schooner, Evergreen, Hobart, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, The Fight and The Fiddle, Alta, Torch, Cascadia Magazine, Bellingham Review Ms. Magazine and others. They have received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, 4Culture, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency.
Sharing my work on the Lit Lounge stage was like coming home to the family gathering and seeing family plus new faces and friends all gathered for the WORD. What a buffet of literary magicalness, of community of books!
— Anastacia-Reneé
E.J. Koh
E. J. Koh is the author of the novel The Liberators, which won The New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her memoir The Magical Language of Others won the Washington State Book Award, Pacific Northwest Book Award, Association for Asian American Studies Book Award, and was longlisted for the PEN/Open Book Award. Her poetry book A Lesser Love won the Pleiades Editors Prize for Poetry. Koh is a translator of Yi Won’s poetry collection The World’s Lightest Motorcycle, which won the Literature Translation Institute of Korea’s Translation Grand Prize. Her work has appeared in AGNI, The Atlantic, Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, POETRY Magazine, Slate, Teen Vogue, and World Literature Today. Koh earned her MFA at Columbia University in New York for Creative Writing and Literary Translation and her PhD at the University of Washington in English Language and Literature studying Korean American literature, history, and film. Koh has received National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and American Literary Translators Association fellowships.
"There is nothing more vital and life-giving to our humanity than being together, right now, in communion with our words and language to bring us to the very eloquence and liberation of our lives."
— E.J. Koh
luther hughes
Luther Hughes (they/them) is the author of the debut poetry collection, A Shiver in the Leaves, (BOA Editions), listed as best books of 2022 in The New Yorker, and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018), recommended by the American Library Association. They are the founder of Shade Literary Arts, a literary organization for queer writers of color, and co-hosts The Poet Salon podcast with Gabrielle Bates and Dujie Tahat. Their honors include the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Rosenberg Fellowship, the 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize, Cascade PBS’s Black Arts Legacies honoree, and named Most Influential by Seattle Magazine. Their writing has been published in The Paris Review, Orion, American Poetry Review, and others. They’ve been featured in The Seattle Times, Forbes, Essence, KUOW Public Radio, The Slowdown, and more. Luther lives in Seattle, where they were born and raised.
