Writers' Room
The Eulalie and Carlo Scandiuzzi Writers’ Room, located on Level 9 of the Central Library, offers a space for writers to work on their projects and access Library resources. Use of the room is through an application process for the Writers’ Room Residency.
Writers' Room Residency
The Residency is intended to help individual writers with their projects while facilitating a supportive writing community. Writers’ Room Residents work in a variety of writing fields and genres, and are committed to using the space several days per month. We look for applicants who:
- Are currently pursuing a defined writing project
- Plan to use collections, reference and research assistance, and/or other resources available at the Central Library in support of their work
- Demonstrate commitment to the Library’s equity and inclusion goals through their work
- Have considered the nature of the space and if their own work style is compatible
- Can benefit from access to the Writers’ Room specifically with any challenges they face with working on their writing project
Writers granted a residency will have an orientation to the space, the Central Library, and Library resources available related to their projects.
About the Residency
How long does the residency last?
The residency lasts one year.
What does the residency include?
The residency includes:
- Access to a dedicated space on Level 9 of the Central Library during the library’s open hours.
- Two library-hosted resident-only gatherings.
- One public reading for residents to showcase their work.
- An optional biography feature on the Library’s website.
Are there deliverables, check-ins, or projects due as part of the residency?
No, the residency is a self-directed program intended to give writers space to grow and develop at their own pace, according to their own needs. Any participation in Library-hosted events is encouraged but optional.
Do Writers' Room Residents have after-hours or extra access to the Library or to its collections?
Residents have the same hours of access to the Central Library and to its collections as all patrons. Please note that the Seattle Room and the ZAPP Zine Room have special hours, and an appointment may be required to access materials in these collections.
Writers' Room Residency Application
Applications have closed for the 2026-2027 cohort. Applications for the 2027-2028 cohort will open in late Fall of 2026.
Current Residents
Adam Graham-Silverman
Phinney Ridge
Currently writing: A biography of the political strategist who pioneered last-minute smears and identity politics.
Past works: Political journalist; government and nonprofit communications; and middle-school teacher.
Adriana Gomez-Weston
Green Lake
Currently writing: Music journalism for The AuralisMag and as a freelancer. The AuralisMag has a special focus on music from the Pacific Northwest.
Alina Melnik
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: Debut fantasy novel about resilience and being unrecognizable.
Past works: collections of poetry, poetry comics, and short stories.
Amontaine Aurore
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: Novel set in 1960s and ‘70s.
Past works: Plays including Don’t Call it a Riot; The Ever-Expanding Moment; Legacies: A Ghost Story.
Amy Zhang
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: My Butcher: A Novel
Past works: Falling into Place, This is Where the World Ends; The Cartographers.
Amy Jean Bailey
Roosevelt
Currently writing: The Crow Party, full-length poetry book.
Amy Y.Q. Lin
Green Lake
Currently writing: A novel about tech
Past works: Short stories in Catapult and Fractured Lit; Literary criticism, essays, and interviews in The Rumpus, LARB, Electric Lit, One Story, and The Creative Independent.
Andrew Lee Creech
Georgetown
Currently writing: A hybrid history and workbook on Black American playwriting.
Past Works: Last Drive to Dodge, Golden (Concord Theatricals, forthcoming), Riverwood (1319 Press, forthcoming).
Astro Belacqua
North Seattle
Current Project: My C- Valentine, a queer YA romance and coming of age novel about grief, first love, and imagination.
@astrobelacqua (IG)
@astrobelacqua (Substack)
Audrey Auerbach Nelson
Ballard
Currently writing: Bylined (contemporary romance novel).
Past works: Room & Board (rom-com novel).
Brianna Martinez
Capitol Hill
Currently writing a collection of short horror fiction stories.
C. S. Rogers
Seattle
Currently writing: Re-imagined Wizard of Oz set in the modern-day “Emerald City” of Seattle, Washington.
Past works: New adult fiction, observational essays, and creative non-fiction.
Catherine Broadwall
Bridle Trails (Bellevue)
Currently writing: A yet-to-be-titled novel and a mixed-genre project on Iceland.
Past works: Aftermath (Girl Noise Press, 2026), Water Spell (Cornerstone Press, 2025), Fulgurite (Cornerstone Press, 2023).
Dayjha McMillan (they/she)
Columbia City
Currently writing: a memoir-in essays about memory as: dream magic, time-travel, geographies of Blackness, land, and childhood.
Past work: Abolition Feminisms Vol. 2 with Haymarket Books, the Faoileánach Journal, Substack, and forthcoming with CHUM news.
@93percentlesbian (IG)
@93percentlesbian (Substack)
Dino Kladouris
Madison Valley
Currently Writing: The Best of Nel West, a novel about a fictionalized Old Hollywood star struggling with borderline personality disorder and bipolar.
Dorcas Olatunji
Downtown Seattle
Currently writing Mother's Nest, a feature film project & a Proof of Concept short film title TBA.
E. L. Wafler
North Seattle
Currently writing: A novel about a modern rural town that believes the seizures affecting the women of the community are signs from God.
Elle Zi Dong
Wallingford
Currently writing: YA cosmic horror
Past works: They Must Be Angels (The Dark), Marionette (Tales to Terrify), and other YA novels.
Emily Pattyn
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: The Quiet Inheritance of Lovelessness - Novel exploring the legacy of lovelessness across three generations of women.
Past works: Two Months Gone - Novel tracing the unraveling of a whirlwind romance.
Emily Iris Degn
Mukilteo
Currently writing: A cli-fi novel that explores the link between climate crisis and identity crisis
Past works: Warmly, The Wild; dozens of published nature poems, ecofeminist essays, & short stories.
Emily Joy Oomen
Seattle
Currently Writing: Cover Girl (a debut
poetry collection of feminist poetics)
Past Work: Contributed journalism to Vice, BBC, and The Wall Street Journal. Poetry published in The Rumpus, Breakwater Review, and the Athens International Video Poetry Festival.
Erika Almanza Brown
Broadview
Currently writing: A novel about Texas Rangers in the 1920s & current day ICE raids; A collection of short bios of not-so-famous Americans.
Past works: Numerous articles and blog posts for Seattle magazine, Seattle’s Child magazine, and Seattleite.com.
Frank Abe
Mt. Baker
Current writing: No-No Boy, a play
Past works: We Hereby Refuse; The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration; John Okada
Galle Ascencio Baca
Lake Stevens
Currently writing: An impactful autofiction novel that confronts loss, death, transition, and disability head-on. Title yet to be determined. In Spanish.
Past Works: Various articles and chronicles from local media in Mexico.
Greg Salvatore
Wedgwood
Currently writing: Memories of a Foreign Land (novel), My Years of Solitude (novel), Substack, short stories, fanfic.
Past works: Maturation: Selected Poems, Digging Up the Past: Poetry from High School (1994-97), blog posts.
Jae Steinbacher
Central District
Currently writing: drafting/researching a second world fantasy novel.
Past works: Short fiction.
Jaime Evans
Bothell
Currently Writing: A novel about ambition, grandmothers, and flight attendants in space.
Past Works: ""Sign My Book?"" in Northern Light Vol. 8.
Jeremiah Henderson
Seattle
Currently Writing: Infallible, 2700 miles of Forest & Cooper, Everett takes the stage.
Julene Tripp Weaver
Seattle
Currently writing: A memoir about her experience being a long-term survivor living with HIV/AIDS, and her work in AIDS services.
Past works: Four poetry books, latest: Slow Now with Blue Skies.
Kara Uranga
Downtown Seattle
Current writing: Mato Sapa, Waste Win (A Good Woman is Hard to Find).
Past works: Los Leones, Judy's Turn to Cry.
Katura Reynolds
Green Lake
Currently writing: Round and Round, a children’s activity book exploring history, art and science via bicycle wheels
Past works: Essays and articles for the Los Angeles Times, Bitch Magazine and Taking the Lane zine.
Lauri Watkins
Capitol Hill
Currently working on: Godless Jack, a novel set in Seattle.
Past works: Essays & poetry in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, ParentMap, & The Seattle Star; creator of www.SeeANeedle.com.
Livvy Hall
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: IMMRAM, a text game about sailing a magical sea.
ManChui Leung 梁 文 珠
Renton, Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill
Current writing: Creative non-fiction on the interconnected flow of plants, wildlife and folks across three Seattle neighborhoods.
Past works: Poetry and creative non-fiction in The Brooklyn Review; Social science and health articles and edited books.
Marissa Lilli Nicole
Yesler Terrace
Currently Writing: Waiting for Words to Fly, Sunday After Next.
Past Works: Julius the Moodiest.
Mica Johnson
Everett
Currently Writing: Psychological horror/crime thriller focused on a serial killer and his relationship to his family, partners, and friends.
Nadir Hashmi
Roosevelt
Currently Writing: An auto-bio fiction/memoir set in the heart of Pakistan, about the heart of Pakistan.
Past Works: Miscellaneous poetry and short fiction.
Patrick Milian
Madison Valley
Currently writing: We Take You Now, a novel about recovery, resilience, and the radio.
Past works: Nighttown (Counterpoint Press, forthcoming), The Unquiet Country (Entre Ríos Books, 2024).
Robert Penley
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: Ali Ikeda and the Sky Painter, a horror novel, a graphic novel, a screenplay, some stage plays, and some short stories.
S. A. Chant
Magnolia
Currently writing: A sword and sorcery novel, a novella, and a graphic novel.
Past works: Peter Darling (novel), Caroline's Heart (novella), assorted short stories.
Shelby Handler
Mt. Baker in South Seattle
Currently completing a book of poems about grief, estrangement, kinship, and the General Jewish Labor Bund.
Sid Orlando
West Seattle
Currently writing: A Siculu-American family drama, the tail end of a punk rock murder mystery, side quest food essays.
Past works: Assorted poems, stories, essays, ghostwriting.
Steve Bryant
Downtown Seattle
Currently writing: Theatrical presentations of classical music, autofiction, short stories, biography.
Past works: Partners Newsletter for Gay and Lesbian Couples.
Taylor Andresen
Seattle
Currently Writing: A cancer memoir turned poetry collection centering queer love, disability, & learning to laugh with Death.
Past Works: Featured in poetry anthologies by Arcana Poetry Press (2025, 2026), 40 West Arts (2025), & Carbonation Press (2026).
Thorn Michaels
University District
Currently Writing: The Floor Beneath. Horror. A young fitness influencer inadvertently becomes the only tenant in a giant new apartment complex during pandemic lockdown.
About the Space
The Writers’ Room is a shared writing space on Level 9 of the Central Library available only to residents. It is a contemporary light-filled space with large windows looking southwest. There are six writing desks, each with an adjustable chair, light and outlet. Writers are free to use any open desk during a visit.
There is no ceiling, and ambient noise and occasional conversations can be heard in the space. Many of our participating writers bring headphones.
Room access is through a secured door with a code that is shared with the yearly cohort.
Level 9 can be reached by elevator, stairs or by escalator plus ramp or stairs. The closest restrooms are on Level 7 (accessible via stairs, elevator, or ramp). Covered beverages are allowed in the Writers’ Room and writers are permitted to bring snacks if care is taken to fully clean up.
While in the Writers’ Room, residents have access to all the resources and reference materials of The Seattle Public Library.
Other Spaces to Write at the Central Library
The Level 10 Reading Room is an excellent open space for research and writing. For more suggestions of places to write at the Central Library, please ask staff at one of the reference desks.
Questions about the Writers’ Room and the residency? Please send us an email via Ask Us.