SEATTLE, WA.- The Frye’s New Works Reading Performance program, a four-part series in which renowned Northwest writers explored the stylistic relationships between visual art in the Frye Collection or special exhibitions and the literary arts, culminates on Thursday, March 12, with two final readings and a signing of the book that grew from the series.

At 7 pm, writer Rebecca Brown and Mary Jane Knecht, the Frye’s manager of adult programs and publications, present Looking Together: Writers on Art, a book they co-edited for publication by the Frye in partnership with the University of Washington Press. Author Melinda Mueller reads new poems inspired by the art of Sigrid Sandström, which was exhibited at the Frye in 2006, while Jack Nisbet reads his short story “Tracklines” in response to Pieter van Veen’s painting First Snow. Both writings are included in Looking Together.

The New Works Reading Performance series grew out of a 2006 reading in the Frye galleries by Brown, who was responding to Robyn O’Neil’s detailed charcoal drawings, which were then on view. (Brown, a nationally acclaimed writer and educator based in Seattle, has published a dozen books.) Encouraged by the standing-room-only audience’s enthusiastic reception and the subsequent requests for copies of Brown’s short story, the Frye programmed a series of gallery readings by Northwest writers, and planned a book—Looking Together: Writers on Art—to include those writings.

The book pairs the work of 12 visual artists—including Gabriel von Max, Franz von Stuck, Tim Eitel, Robin O’Neil, and Sigrid Sandström—with writings by Northwest authors Ryan Boudinot, Rebecca Brown, Christine Deavel, Adrianne Harun, Lesley Hazleton, Frances McCue, Stacey Levine, Jack Nisbet, Peter Pereira, and Jonathan Raban. Also included is Richard Hugo’s poem “One by Twatchman at the Frye,” from an earlier collection by the great Northwest poet.

“This exciting collaboration between two of our region’s major cultural institutions supports our mission to publish the finest work in the literary and visual arts,” says Pat Soden, director, University of Washington Press.

“We are thrilled to see this important project come to its fruition,” says Midge Bowman, director of the Frye Art Museum. “It’s so enlightening to read such unique responses to beloved works from our collection or that we have exhibited.”

Admission to the March 12th New Works Reading Performance and Book Launch, and to the Frye Art Museum, is free, however an RSVP is requested no later than Friday, March 2, by calling (206) 622-9250, ext. 289 or rsvp@fryemuseum.org. Program seating is limited. The new book Looking Together: Writers on Art, is available for purchase and signing at the event, and also in the Museum Store, for $18.95.

About the Contributing Writers:

Ryan Boudinot is the author of The Littlest Hitler (Counterpoint, 2006), a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2006, and Sperm and Egg (Grove Press, forthcoming fall 2009). His work has appeared in McSweeney’s, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Black Book and elsewhere. He lives in Seattle, and teaches at Goddard College’s low-residency M.F.A. program in Port Townsend, WA. Boudinot’s short story “Empty Room” was inspired by Tim Eitel’s painting The Empty Room, which was included in the exhibition Life After Death: New Liepzig Paintings from the Rubell Family Collection.

Christine Deavel is a poet and co-owner of Open Books, a poetry-only bookstore in Seattle. Her chapbook, Box of Little Spruce, was published by LitRag Press in 2005, while other works have appeared in American Letters & Commentary, Fence, Golden Handcuffs, Volt and other magazines. She is a graduate of Indiana University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her poetry/prose work “Of the Bird’s Wing, There are Tracts of Feathers” was inspired by Dario Robleto’s art, which was on view at the Frye last year.

Adrianne Harun is the author of The King of Limbo (Houghton Mifflin, 2002), a Sewanee Writers’ Series selection and a Washington State Book Award finalist. Her fiction and essays have appeared in numerous magazines, have won awards from Story and the Chicago Tribune and have been noted in Best American Mystery Stories. A longtime resident of Port Townsend, WA, Harun teaches in Pacific Lutheran University’s MFA program. Her prose piece “The Darger Episodes” responds to the art of Henry Darger (exhibited at the Frye in 2006).

Lesley Hazleton, a former psychologist and political journalist with roots in both Judaism and Catholicism, reported from Israel for Time magazine, and has since written feature articles on Middle East politics for publications including the New York Times, Esquire, Vanity Fair and The Nation. Her books include Jezebel: The Untold Story of the Bible’s Harlot Queen (Doubleday, 2007), and, forthcoming in fall 2009 Karbala: The Enduring Saga of the Sunni-Shia Split (Doubleday). British-born, Hazleton lives and writes in Seattle. Her prose piece “A Christian Martyr” is included in Looking Together.

Richard Hugo was an eminent American poet and essayist who lived in the Northwest, worked at Boeing, and later became the director of the creative writing program at University of Montana. His books include Making Certain It Goes On: The Collected Poems of Richard Hugo (Norton, 1984); The Real West Marginal Way: A Poet’s Autobiography (Norton, 1986); The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing (Norton, 1979); and a mystery novel, Death and the Good Life (St.Martin’s, 1981). Hugo received the Theodore Roethke Memorial Prize and was twice nominated for the National Book Award. He died in 1982.

Stacey Levine is winner of the 1994 PEN/West fiction award. In addition to her award-winning collection, My Horse and Other Stories (Sun & Moon Press, 1994), she has published two novels, Dra— (Sun & Moon Press) and Frances Johnson (Clear Cut Press); short stories; and criticism in numerous international venues. Her short story collection The Girl with Brown Fur wil be published in 2009. Included in Looking Together is a short story inspired by the art of Patricia Piccinini, whose hyperrealistic sculptures of customized life forms were featured in the special exhibition Hug (2007).

Frances McCue is a poet, essayist, reviewer and founding director of Seattle’s Richard Hugo House, Her book of poems, The Stenographer’s Breakfast, was published by Beacon Press in 1992. The Northwest Towns of Richard Hugo is forthcoming from University of Washington Press, as is her memoir, Chasing Richard Hugo. A recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship, McCue is currently living in Marrakesh, Morocco. In the performance series, she reflected on Franz von Stuck’s Sin, one of the Frye’s most intriguing works, which is on view in the current exhibition The Munich Secession and America.

Melinda Mueller teaches high-school biology, biotechnology and evolution studies at Seattle Academy. Her most recent book, What the Ice Gets (Van West & Co., 2001), an epic poem recounting Ernest Shackleton’s final attempt to reach the South Pole, received a Washington State Book Award as well as a Notable Book Award from the American Library Association. Included in Looking Together are poems in response to Sigrid Sandström’s artworks.

Jack Nisbet, a Spokane-based teacher and naturalist, writes often about the human relationship to place in the greater Northwest. His publications include Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson across Western North America (Sasquatch Books, 1994), which received the Murray Morgan Prize; and Purple Flat Top (Sasquatch Books, 1996). Nisbet’s forthcoming book, The Collector: David Douglas and the Naming of the Pacific Northwest, will be published this fall. Included in Looking Together is “Tracklines” in response to Pieter van Veen’s First Snow, a work in the Frye Collection.

Peter Pereira, a family physician and founding editor of Floating Bridge Press, won a 1997 Discovery/The Nation Award. He is the author of three collections of poetry including, most recently, What’s Written on the Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2007). Pereira lives in Seattle, where he provides primary care to an urban poor population at High Point Community Clinic in West Seattle. Included in Looking Together are poems in response to Willie Cole’s artworks (on exhibition at the Frye in 2007).

Jonathan Raban has written nine travel books and novels including Bad Land (1996), Passage to Juneau (Picador, 1999) and Surveillance (Pantheon, 2006), and he edited The Oxford Book of the Sea (1992). Raban has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heinemann Award for Literature, the Thomas Cook Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the PEN/West Creative Nonfiction Award, among other accolades. In the performance series, Raban read a monologue about the 19th-century landscape painter Albert Bierstadt, whose work is included in the Frye Collection and is on view in the current exhibition, The Munich Secession and America.

About the Editors:

Rebecca Brown is the author of American Romances, a collection of essays due from City Lights in spring 2009. Her titles in the United States and abroad include The End of Youth (City Lights Books, 2003), The Last Time I Saw You (City Lights Books, 2006), The Gifts of the Body (HarperCollins, 1994), and Woman in Ill-Fitting Wig (Pistil Books, 2005), the latter a series of prose poems accompanying paintings by Nancy Kiefer. A frequent collaborator, Brown has written text for dance, stage, and opera. She lives in Seattle and teaches at Goddard College in Vermont.

Mary Jane Knecht is Manager of Adult Programs and Publications at the Frye Art Museum where she develops interdisciplinary programs and publications related to the Frye Collections and exhibitions. Prior to joining the Frye in 2004, Knecht worked for in literary publishing and programming with Copper Canyon Press; Seattle Arts & Lectures; Van West & Company, Publishers; and other Pacific Northwest nonprofit arts organizations.