Library Podcasts
Each year the Library hosts readings, lectures, and discussions by authors and other public figures. You may watch video recordings of recent programs on our YouTube channel. Our archive of audio recordings goes back more than 10 years and includes thousands of memorable Library events.
Quick search for podcasts
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Poet C.D. Wright: 'Rising, Falling, Hovering'
Award-winning poet C.D. Wright read from her new collection, "Rising, Falling, Hovering" June 4, 2008 at the Central Library. Deeply personal and politically ferocious, "Rising, Falling, Hovering" addresses, as Wright has said elsewhere, "the commonly felt crises of [our] times"-from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of empire to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human relationships.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 49 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Firoozeh Dumas: 'Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad'
Firoozeh Dumas, bestselling author of "Funny in Farsi," read from her new memoir, "Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of an Iranian American, at Home and Abroad" May 21, 2008 at the Central Library.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 53 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Alexandra Fuller: 'The Legend of Colton H. Bryant'
Alexandra Fuller discussed her latest nonfiction work, "The Legend of Colton H. Bryant" on May 14, 2008 at the Central Library. Fuller tells the tragic story of a young man who fell to his death on an oil rig because the oil company failed to spend $2,000 on safety rails.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 55 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Tan Twan Eng: 'The Gift of Rain'
Tan Twan Eng read from his debut novel, "The Gift of Rain," May 13, 2008 at the Central Library. Tan's debut epic novel, nominated for the Man Booker Prize, tells the story of a young man's perilous journey through the betrayals of war and into manhood.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 34 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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2008 Seattle Reads Main Event: An evening with Dinaw Mengestu
Dinaw Mengestu spoke on "Exile, Imagination, and the American Dream" for the main event of the 2008 Seattle Reads series on May 9 at the Central Library. Set in a poor neighborhood in Washington, D.C., Dinaw Mengestu's award-winning novel tells a story of the African immigrant experience through three main characters: narrator Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant, who runs a small corner grocery store, and his friends, Joseph, from the Congo, and Kenneth, from Kenya. The Washington Center for the Book at The Seattle Public Library invites everyone to take part in Seattle Reads "The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears," a project designed to foster reading and discussion of works by authors of diverse cultures and ethnicities.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 67 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Alice Hoffman: 'The Third Angel'
Alice Hoffman reads from her new novel, "The Third Angel," on April 29, 2008 at the Central Library. Hoffman weaves a story that charts the lives of three women in love with the wrong men. At the heart of the novel is Lucy Green, who blames herself for a tragic accident she witnessed at the age of twelve, and who spends four decades searching for the Third Angel, the angel on earth who will renew her faith.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 36 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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2007-2008 Seattle Poet Populist: Cody Walker
Readings in celebration of Cody Walker's 2007-2008 term as Seattle Poet Populist at the Central Library on April 20, 2008. Along with Cody Walker, the following poets read their poems: Eric McHenry, B.T. Shaw, Jason Whitmarsh, and Catherine Wing.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 68 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Jhumpa Lahiri: 'Unaccustomed Earth'
Jhumpa Lahiri read from her new work of fiction: "Unaccustomed Earth." eight stories that travel from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as they enter the lives of sisters and brothers, fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, friends and lovers. Lahiri spoke at the Central Library on April 14.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 48 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Pat Mora: Sharing Bookjoy
Author Pat Mora spoke about promoting a love of reading among children at the Central Library on April 7, 2008. This program is part of a series commemorating Día de los niños/Día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day), an annual celebration of children, families, and reading founded by Pat Mora in 1996 and now celebrated in libraries and schools throughout the country.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 45.6 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]
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Jodi Picoult: 'Change of Heart'
Jodi Picoult read from her new novel, "Change of Heart," Tuesday, April 1 at the Central Library. "Change of Heart" is about a death row inmate who wants to donate his heart, post execution, to the sister of his victim. Picoult challenges readers to consider hard-to-answer questions about organized religion and the death penalty.Listen to Audio (mp3) [file size: 49 MB] [Play time: 0 hr 00 min]