Calista Robbins 9/10/26 Calista Robbins 9/10/26

The Divided Line: Selah [Part 2]

Memory was a ruthless thing. It festered and enraged and filled the soul with longing, the grief of it capable of stealing his breath away, of leaving him gasping for air and clutching his chest in agony.

It was proof, too. Proof of joy and hope and the existence of good in all the places it was absent now.

Nina Alworth 8/17/26 Nina Alworth 8/17/26

Queers Sport Community at Pitch the Baby

Now is a moment like none other as women's sports are reaching uncharted levels of popularity in and beyond our fair city. So where does one go to find fellow fans here in Seattle? Allow me to introduce…Pitch The Baby.

Parker Dean 8/6/26 Parker Dean 8/6/26

Parker’s Pages: Hollow Kingdom

There’s one thing you should know about me: I LOVE birds. Can’t get enough of ‘em. Which you can tell by my many articles that I’ve written and shared here at the Echo. So when I found this lovely little gem, narrated by a self-assured little crow named Shit Turd (S.T. for short), I was all in.

Maxwell Meier 8/5/26 Maxwell Meier 8/5/26

Carkeek Park: The Psychic

The captain called her to the parking lot of Carkeek Park Beach around noon. An open field, cradled by a crescent of evergreens, had people sprinkled throughout. The grass quivered in the summer breeze as the sun bore down on everyone bobbing through the barricades and the towering trees.

“Missing child,” Captain Long stated.

Parker Dean 8/4/26 Parker Dean 8/4/26

Genesee Park: Wasp Nest

Buzzing around an unattended bottle of soda, Wasp #134—a.k.a Zippy—plotted for the domination of one such place known by the Humans as “S Bradford St Trl.” Though Zippy was not well versed in the ways of the Humans, he assumed these strange words to have a hidden message.

Zach Youngs 8/4/26 Zach Youngs 8/4/26

Volunteer Park: “Oh, it’s you.”

Colin always does this. He always arrives too early and even though he's on the outskirts of Volunteer Park, staring up at the monolith that is the old water tower, he's got over a half an hour until he's meant to meet Julian.

Calista Robbins 8/3/26 Calista Robbins 8/3/26

Discovery Park: Sisyphus

The ceiling leaked. Drops, thick and rhythmic, plummeting into the metal pail he had set beneath it. Outside, the waves pulsed and raged against the sandy spit like the heaving breaths of an ailing god.

Here, at the cusp of Neptune’s domain, Alfred kept watch, kept time.

Gray Harrison 8/2/26 Gray Harrison 8/2/26

Woodland Park: Sunrise

In the green space adjacent to the playground, someone was walking a lab whose tail was set to autowag. I crossed through the playground and entered the deserted parking lot of the Woodland Park Zoo, big pine boughs above me. Past the parking lot was a narrow dirt trail that skirted the northern perimeter of the zoo down to I-99 and then turned up the eastern perimeter before crossing a cement bridge. This bridge always felt like the entrance into Narnia, with two lampposts glowing at the far end.

Gray Harrison 7/22/26 Gray Harrison 7/22/26

Spooky Tales Traverse Seattle with ‘KAIDAN: Japanese Ghost Stories’

Japanese ghost stories are coming to Seattle in August. Za Trans-Pacific Productions and director Mimi Katano will present KAIDAN: Japanese Ghost Stories in August at locations around the city. Ghost stories go way back in Japan’s history. Kaidan, or traditional ghost stories of yūrei (ghosts) and yokai (supernatural beings) are steeped in literary and theatrical tradition.

Calista Robbins 7/21/26 Calista Robbins 7/21/26

Seattle Vice Revives Burlesque Series of Tenderloin Histories at Triple Door

“We liked exploring the ‘70s in particular,” said Mark Siano when interviewed, “because this is where the clubs started to spiral out of Frank’s control and started to take on a life of their own. We saw the emergence of Burlesque, Cabaret, Follies, and more Queer-oriented entertainment like what was happening at The New Paris Theatre in Pioneer Square (Seattle’s original gay neighborhood.)”

Calista Robbins 7/2/26 Calista Robbins 7/2/26

The Divided Line: Selah [Part 1]

Those enemies, Selah and his colleagues had learned of late, included them too. They’d hauled fifty workers off the grounds a week or so ago, shoved them in the back of black armored vans, and shipped them off to that prison across the sound. It’d been such a grand spectacle. A warning, really, to any others who thought to question the corpocratic reign.

Parker Dean 6/7/26 Parker Dean 6/7/26

Parker’s Pages: Dungeon Crawler Carl

Like clockwork, whenever I share what I do here at the Echo, specifically with this column, I am told that I must read and review Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman, a Puget Sound native and fantasy and sci-fi novelist. I must admit, it was the title that most intrigued me. I’d certainly played my own dungeon crawler once or twice, and I liked that there seemed to be humor and absurdism baked right into the title. So, after a long wait, I’m happy to announce I have finally cracked open the first book of this 8-book series (with two more on the way), and I am obsessed.

Calista Robbins 6/3/26 Calista Robbins 6/3/26

The Divided Line: Juno [Part 2]

She took a long breath, steadied herself, and veered off the main road as soon as the soldiers passed by her. After, it was a short yet steep walk to the hillside entry of the leisure district, a mockery of artistic curiosity. Bio-engineered trees stood in perfect symmetry on either side of the walkway. To the left, the movie theater and the music hall. To the right, the art museum. Each government-sanctioned and carefully curated.

Mary Adner 5/14/26 Mary Adner 5/14/26

Beyond Protests, Humanize MENA Lives with Intentional Arts + Culture

Across the street from the (in)famous Rickshaw Lounge lies the unassuming 1 Million Cafe. I’ve lived in the area for over a decade and never knew it was Yemeni and that their chai is homebrewed with love; my iced version with oat milk presented a homey, unadulterated flavor unlike any chai I’ve had in Seattle.

How many of us walk by establishments owned by Middle Eastern people and never try them? Is it fear? Racism? Flavors unknown?

Parker Dean 5/7/26 Parker Dean 5/7/26

Parker’s Pages: Project Hail Mary

Friends, please allow me to peel away from our Puget Sound authors to bring you my latest and greatest obsession: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Unless you’ve been living under a rock—or the spring fever haze here in the PNW—you’ve probably heard about Project Hail Mary (2026), the newest addition to Ryan Gosling’s filmography, and, in my opinion, quite possibly the best space movie of the last decade (sorry Dune). The film adaptation is spectacular (I watched it three times in theaters), and I definitely recommend you check it out when it starts streaming if you didn’t have the pleasure of seeing it on its big screen run.

Gray Harrison 5/6/26 Gray Harrison 5/6/26

Noveltease Illustrates Our Splendidly Fluid Selves with ‘Orlando’

I was obviously intrigued when I heard that Noveltease Theatre, Seattle’s literary burlesque company who blend burlesque, dance, and theater storytelling, were putting on an adaptation of Orlando. I was curious how Noveltease would interpret this dense literary text into visual language and choreography. And yet, speaking with the production’s director, Alyza DelPan-Monley, it quickly became clear how intuitive it was to make a burlesque version of the story.

Calista Robbins 5/2/26 Calista Robbins 5/2/26

The Divided Line: Juno [Part 1]

The Divided Line RETURNS.

It had come on suddenly, the sky cracking open with a bolt of electricity and a sharp clap of thunder.

And how fitting a night for it to strike. Nature’s encore of the bombs that’d burst mid-evening. Now the rain smothered the smoking debris and washed clean the bloodied rubble.

Juno tapped the screen of her phone to wake it, heart pounding with nerve-addled hope in the fleeting moments before it illuminated. Hope that Atticus’ name might be on the screen with two words trailing it.

Gray Harrison 4/27/26 Gray Harrison 4/27/26

Cadence Video Poetry Fest Inspires Interdependence with Blended Media

It was a warm and springlike day in Capitol Hill, but not even the good weather could deter the creative community from showing up for the Cadence Video Poetry Festival, which has been running yearly in Seattle during National Poetry Month since 2018. This was Day 3 of in-person screenings, and the event, titled proof that we were here, was about to begin.

Parker Dean 4/9/26 Parker Dean 4/9/26

Parker’s Pages: Schrader’s Chord

Author Scott Leeds lives in the Pacific Northwest, and just like many of the other authors I have covered before, his work perfectly encapsulated what it feels like to live and be in Seattle and its neighboring cities. There’s a certain way that writers from the PNW write about the rain, the fog, and the dark. Leeds is no different, and effortlessly brings Seattle to life.

Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26 Raegan Ballard-Gennrich 4/8/26

Noveltease Arouses, Enlightens with Intersectional Literary Burlesque

If you believe burlesque isn’t for you or you’ve never attended a show before, Noveltease offers an experience that highlights the intersection of literature, dance, music, and history in a small venue, creating an intimacy that provides multisensory entertainment. I left feeling good, emboldened, and creative. And though glamorous clothes were shed, the message of the evening—particularly within the selected poems—was that of reclamation, self-affirmation, and pleasure without shame or exploitation.

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