49: In Residence—Kathleen Alcala with Donna Miscolta

Apr 26, 2018

Mexican-American author Kathleen Alcala explored the indestructible link between a people and their land in her novels and nonfiction work. With a deep interest in the forces of history that shape an individual’s experience and worldview, Kathleen creates characters that reflect the evolution of society as it has changed from traditional to modern. To lend us a unique glimpse of her perspective, Alcala took our stage to discuss the role of archives and historical research in the process of the writer and artist. She was joined onstage by fellow writer Donna Miscolta.

Together, Alcala and Miscolta explored the author as researcher, helping us to understand our connections to history and geography—and how this connection can inform a broader understanding of one’s creative work and the greater social fabric of history. More than just an intellectual exercise or even an emotional or spiritual journey, Alcala and Miscolta invited us to participate in a remarkable conversation that conspires with antiquity to approach timelessness, tying the writer back to history as a whole.

Kathleen Alcala is the author of a short-story collection and three novels set in the Southwest and 19th-century Mexico—as well as her latest book The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island.

Donna Miscolta is an author currently based in Seattle whose writing has been featured in over a dozen journals, including Seattle Magazine, America’s Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, and others. She is the author of the story collection Hola and Goodbye and the novel When the de la Cruz Family Danced.

This event is curated by Shin Yu Pai, Town Hall Seattle’s 2018 Inside/Out Artist-in-Residence representing the Phinney/Greenwood neighborhoods. Shin Yu is a poet, cross-media artist, and curator for the collaborative global exploration project Atlas Obscura.

Recorded live at Taproot Theatre by Town Hall Seattle on Friday, April 13, 2018.