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2 weeks ago | 
seattlemet.com | Troy Osaki |Eric Olson |Naomi Tomky |Kunwar Khuldune Shahid
Escape to Wine Country in Washington, Oregon, and Canada. Plus: Best things to do with kids in Seattle, Microsoft’s 50th birthday, the Basque side of Boise, and our favorite salads.
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2 weeks ago | 
seattlemet.com | Eric Olson
When the serial killer Ted Bundy was 7 years old, in 1953, he lived under an abhorrent black plume consisting of 630 annual tons of arsenic and a couple hundred more of lead. The plume emanated from the 562-foot-tall stack at ASARCO’s Ruston smelter, once the largest such emissions tower in the world, perched on the flanks of Commencement Bay some four miles northwest of downtown Tacoma.
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2 weeks ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
When the folk musician Michael Hurley died in Portland this April at the age of 83, shortly after playing his final gigs in Tennessee and North Carolina, the Pacific Northwest lost a local legend that many — even many keyed into music — were unaware of. Hurley was a cult hero who never set foot near the mainstream.
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3 weeks ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
The Crocodile might’ve waddled a few blocks north, but opposite the old venue at Second Avenue and Blanchard Street, a new music night is taking shape in the heart of Belltown. In the summer of 2024, cocktail bar Provisions began hosting a rotating cast of jazz and funk musicians on Wednesday evenings. Those shifting lineups have now coalesced into a heavy-hitting Seattle trio of D’Vonne Lewis on drums, RL Heyer on guitar and Osama Afifi on bass. All are staples of the Northwest jazz scene.
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3 weeks ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
Thirty years ago, a Spokane reporter named Jess Walter wrote a full-length investigation of the standoff at Ruby Ridge in Boundary County, Idaho, an arrest-turned-shootout that killed a U.S. marshal and two civilians. Much has changed in the three decades since. Walter is no longer known as a reporter but as the celebrated author of bestsellers including “Beautiful Ruins” and “The Cold Millions.”And armed civilian groups, he says, have proliferated in the public eye.
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1 month ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
What happens when a book by a local author wins one of the most prestigious awards in American literature? Seattle librarians and booksellers are still figuring that out. On the heels of the May 5 announcement that Seattle writer and illustrator Tessa Hulls had won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for memoir or autobiography for her debut graphic memoir “Feeding Ghosts,” members of the literary community scrambled to prepare for an onslaught of demand and interest.
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1 month ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
In a glassy display case on the second floor of the University Book Store in Seattle’s U District, a trove of newspaper clippings recounts the shop’s history. “Work Begins on U Book Store Expansion” reads a 1957 article, explaining that University of Washington student enrollment — then at 15,000 — was predicted to expand to 25,000 by 1965. “New Children’s Book Dept. Opens” reads one from 1958.
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1 month ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
Talk with longtime Seattle Public Library Book Bingo players — the popular summerlong program kicks off its 10th anniversary this month — and you might be reminded of the “super-readers” from a 2024 Washington Post article. These are folks who, even with the time constraints of jobs and families, manage to read hundreds of books in a single year.
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1 month ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
Teaching English in China’s rural Taigu District from 2009 to 2011, Seattle author Daniel Tam-Claiborne made an uncanny discovery: There was an entire spectrum of foreignness surrounding his job.
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1 month ago | 
seattletimes.com | Eric Olson
Kassa Overall, the Grammy-nominated drummer, producer, singer, rapper and Garfield High School alum, has been named one of six recipients of the 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, one of the nation’s largest annual prizes supporting performing artists in theater, jazz and dance. Each of this year’s selected artists is awarded $525,000 in unrestricted funds over seven years to further their individual creative practice, as well as an incentive of up to $25,000 to save for retirement.
