From North Carolina comes the electrifying new voice of Nicole Sarrocco, whose debut novel Lit by Lightning—first in the Occasionally Trueseries—is an intensely personal and strangely universal tale of finding grace in chaos, creating meaning from nonsense, and for heaven’s sake not making too much of a spectacle of yourself. A witty, hilarious, transcendent and disturbing tale of ghosts, manners, and the family we choose and the ones who choose us. “I could sweep together the dust of our hearts. The ashes of my grandparents’ house that didn’t burn. The complete fire that is death. The charred wood and the pulverized concrete and the souls of a million barbecued pigs. The dust in the corners of basements. Everything that isn’t the fire itself, the movement through the wires. All of it rolled up together and shot into the sky, into a firework—that’s a song you could sing out over the radio. The ones on the other side can hear us, then. If we can roll all of it together and name it out loud, send it out into space on transmitters or something—then they could hear us. If they can hear us, then we’d be able to hear them, too. That makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Lit by Lightning: An Occasionally True Account of One Girl's Dust-ups with Ghosts, Electricity, and Granny's Ashes (Occasionally True Novels)

Literature & Fiction

Sarrocco, Nicole

Literary

Chatwin Books

Illusions of Permanence: The Collected Poems of Ron Ellison

Ellison, Ron

Religion & Spirituality

"V is for Vashon" is Ingalls' painterly tribute to the island she calls home—a collection of 26 paintings showing the A to Z of this magical place. A true collaboration between friends Pam Ingalls and Tom Conway, this book is a beautiful, inviting, and vibrant gift to a special island and its unique people and places.This elegant paperback is one of the first in our art books series, the perfect gift for locals and visitors alike.

V Is for Vashon: Pam Ingalls' Abcs of Vashon Island

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

Discover the joys of desserts and luscious drinks made with culinary lavender. Sunny Savina, proprietor of Seattle's beloved herbalist shop The Hidden Alchemist, shares her favorite recipes. Her recipes are fresh, the results astonishing. The instructions are direct, with easy to follow directions.

For Love of Lavender: The Culinary Lavender Cookbook of Delicious Desserts & Luscious Drinks

Savina, Sunny

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Subject of a recent story on NPR's Here and Now, Our Table of Memories is an amazing book that pairs powerful, heartfelt poetry about their native foods by high school students who are refugees from conflict zones (part of a program Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project), with recipes by immigrant women working with Project Feast. This book is a must for schools, teachers, lovers of poetry and food. It will touch your heart. Our Table of Memories invites readers to consider the spicy, delicious connections between food, poetry and stories. The food-themed poetry and recipes are part of an exciting first-time collaboration between Project Feast and the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project. Both serve to help refugees and immigrants share their strengths and experiences, and by doing so, literally and metaphorically nourish the larger community. This book is an ideal resource for teachers, writers, food advocates, counselors and others who support young people and cross-cultural understandings.

Our Table of Memories: Food & Poetry of Spirit, Homeland & Tradition. a Collaborative Project with the Stories of Arrival: Youth Voices Poetry Project and Project Feast

Poetry

Sometimes, the walls can talk. And the stories they tell are usually the last thing you were expecting. For Nicole, whip-smart and happily married mother of two, the stories are everywhere--emanating from the old family land, leaping out of old photographs, trailing her in a field at midnight--and the trick is to sort out which ones need listening to and which ones just need a good telling-off. The bizarrely hilarious misadventures of one woman's sometimes ghostly experiences that began in "Lit by Lightning" continue in "Ill-Mannered Ghosts," and if it's possible, the tales just get stranger. Prompted by an out-of-the-blue phone call one autumn day, Nicole returns to the scene of a series of bizarre historical occurrences--her childhood home. What ensues is an adventure in mental spelunking that threatens to destabilize her whole family as they move "back to the old homeplace" to face down the demons of chaos and just plain weirdness. The second book in this unforgettable series is another disturbingly enjoyable journey to the madly brilliant world of North Carolina author Nicole Sarrocco. Family, spirits, and plain folks jostle for attention in a jarringly-real-meets-chaotically-dreamlike story that can only be called Occasionally True.

Ill-Mannered Ghosts: An Occasionally True Account of Hillbilly Stonehenge, Occult Cleaning Products, the Lady in the Picture, and the Bloodcurdling Tale of Crybaby Lane (Occasionally True Novels)

Candace Doyal has created a body of work that cuts you open with its honesty. Melding documentary, visual and written commentary, and fine art photography, Doyal painstakingly recreates scenes from her family's searing history of addiction and incarceration, often using her own body as a stand-in for her mother in scenes simultaneously remembered and re-imagined. With echoes of Nan Goldin and Duane Michals, Doyal's eerie and beautiful tableaux, coupled with her own writing that illuminates each image, will haunt you with their unflinching gaze into the heart of addiction, even as the photographer has laid her own road out, by the act of their creation. Doyal's images and texts are supplemented by actual letters sent from prison by her mother, which include incisive and poignant writing about the impact of addiction-fueled criminal behavior and incarceration on the parent-child relationship. This Thing is About to End is a work of anger and loss, heartbreak and sorrow, survival, endurance, and renewal. The creation of the work was integral to the artist's own escape from the cycle that had defined her youth. It is a work of power, a story that matters, and one that can make a difference.

This Thing Is About to End: Photographs and Stories from Life

Photography & Video

In Coffee &amp; Community: the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie in Words &amp; Photos, photographer Terry Donnelly captures this iconic community hub at its idiosyncratic best—offering up a mosaic of intimate moments from bustling to tranquil, from the neighborly to the sublime. Take home the feel of this truly unique crossroads of coffee &amp; community.Essays and anecdotes from Roasterie Regulars, who frequent the place and make it what it is, are woven throughout to bring Donnelly's lively black-and-white photographs to life. Two essays by local historians lend depth and context to the ongoing story of the Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie.

Coffee & Community: The Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie in Words & Photos

Opting Out: Early, New, and Collected Poems 2000-2015 (Chatwin Collected Poets)

The Chatwin Collected Poets series launches with Opting Out, by Maged Zaher, of Cairo and Seattle. Zaher's powerful, innovative voice has won wide accolades in recent years. We are thrilled to present his full range of work in this major collection. "Zaher is a proud Seattleite (by way of Egypt), and a substantial collection of his work is a big deal for the Seattle literary scene, even more so because he's being published by a Seattle press. Expect to hear a lot about this book in the next few months."(Seattle Review of Books)

Zaher, Maged

Many tribal elders fondly remember how their happiest times are ones where they gathered and prepared native foods with friends and family. This remarkable cookbook gathers know-how and culinary traditions surrounding 15 of the most beloved native foods of the Salish Sea region-foods that brought health to our Ancestors for millenia-and offers them to readers of all experience levels in an accessible blend of rich information and easy-to-follow recipes. A traditional Salish Diet includes many types of fish, wild game, berries, roots, bulbs, nuts, and seeds. Background about each plant or animal-including seasonality and harvesting tips-is paired with delicious recipes that highlight nutrition and wellness information, making this a valuable resource both for curious beginners and for seasoned chefs and harvesters. Filled with vibrant photographs and beautiful artwork by Salish artists, Feeding 7 Generations will help you to taste the seasons and develop a closer relationship with the culture and the land.

Feeding 7 Generations: A Salish Cookbook

Krohn, Elise

Segrest, Valerie

Regional & International

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