We are thrilled and gobsmacked, flabbergasted and awed to announce that the Ghosts of Seattle Past anthology is a finalist for the 2018 Washington State Book Award!!!!
The news dropped yesterday, via the Washington Center for the Book website, placing the Ghosts anthology alongside such nonfiction heavy-hitters as Langdon Cook, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, David R. Montgomery, Jonathan White, David B. Williams and Jennifer Ott, as well as the Staff of HistoryLink. We couldn’t be more amazed than to be in such talented and thoughtful company.
Being considered for this award completely blew us away, but it also says a great deal about what is deemed valuable. In this moment, perhaps for the first time, personal histories are being amplified and championed, even in the face of severe institutional oppression. Women’s voices, black and brown voices, queer and trans voices, youth voices, homeless voices, incarcerated voices, refugee and immigrant and undocumented voices are much more frequently being legitimized. Heard. Raised up. We believe that all stories and cities have layers, and that representation is the first step toward equity.
I have felt incredibly privileged to have a small part in the midst of this synergy, to be at the center of collecting stories of a city much loved by so many and rapidly changing for all. To give your lost places permanence, at a time when nothing is certain, and little seems lasting, has been my great honor.
We would like to thank Chin Music Press for their devotion to our vision of a polyvocal time capsule, atlas, art exhibit, and truth-telling vehicle. Thank you to Short Run Comix & Arts Festival for the initial platform and support we needed to get this project off the ground. We very much appreciate the many (*many*) Seattle nonprofit, community and arts organizations that amplified our call and put us in touch with key storytellers.
And most of all, a big walloping thank you to our contributors—almost 90 of you!!—who offered us your words, your ideas and memories, your art, your lost spaces, your hearts. You are the lifeblood of Seattle; we love you all so much.
– Jaimee Garbacik, Curator/Editor, Ghosts of Seattle Past
P.S. If you want to be there on the big night when *all* of the Washington State Book Award winners are announced, hit up the Seattle Central Library first floor auditorium at 7pm on Oct. 13. We will be there, shaking in our boots!