AN ENDURING

WE’RE BUILDING A

N E WHOME FORWORDSI N S E AT T L E

IN A GREAT CITY, WORDS DESERVE AN EXCEPTIONAL HOME: a particular place where they are revered, nurtured, wrestled with, and brought to life.

For nearly twenty years, Hugo House has been that home in Seattle.

It’s where passionate readers gather round tables to plumb setting and plot; where writers of all ages find quiet corners to hone their ideas and how best to express them; where communities converge to hear new talents and renowned literary stars. 

That work is timeless. But our beloved building is aging and has reached the end of its life.

SO WE’RE CREATING A NEW ONE.

Hugo House has a singular opportunity to secure a new – and permanent – home on the very site where we first opened our doors almost two decades ago. This new building will better accommodate our readers and writers, and allow us to maintain an honored literary institution in the Capitol Hill Arts District.

More important, it will allow Hugo House to foster a deep and sustaining love for literature and the practice of writing in Seattle for decades to come.

IDEAS

CREATIVE SPACE

WELCOMING

IT STARTED WITH

COMMUNITY PERSISTENCE

ANDREA

FRANCES

THREE WOMEN

LINDA

In 1996, Seattle’s literary world was buzzing. Novelist David Guterson had won the PEN/Faulkner Award; poet Denise Levertov was inspiring young writers with her work and activism; playwright August Wilson had moved to town. 

But something was missing. In this city of ideas, there was no central place for readers and writers to meet and build new audiences for their work. 

Three writers changed that.

Linda Breneman (Jaech), Frances McCue, and Andrea Lewis founded Hugo House as a home for those who prize the written word. They named it for Richard Hugo, who etched the Northwest in verse and who taught so many others how to improve their work. 

As the founders suspected, people came: to learn, to listen, to write. 

Since then, 125,000 writers and readers have passed through the Hugo House doors for readings, classes, residencies, and more.

AND THEY’RE STILL COMING TODAY, IN GREATER NUMBERS THAN EVER.

Seamus Heaney • Sherman Alexie • Amy Bloom • Billy Collins • Sharon Olds • Jonathan Raban • Dorothy Allison • Richard Bausch • 

Sheila Heti • Patricia Smith • Maria Semple • James Tate • Maggie Nelson • Roxane Gay • David Shields • Luis Alberto Urrea • Meg Wolitzer • Heather McHugh • Anthony Doerr • Pam Houston • Dean Young • Donald Hall • Nikki Finney • Jim Harrison • Galway Kinnell • George

Plympton

OUR MISSION TO SERVE HAS ITS ROOTS IN RICHARD HUGO’S OWN STORY. From an impoverished childhood in White Center, Hugo became the great poetic chronicler of overlooked people and places. He wrote about life along the Duwamish River, about people who lived in shacks on the city’s outskirts. He illuminated their lives and their struggles. 

AT HUGO HOUSE, WE SERVE EVERYONE COMMITTED TO GOOD WRITING. 

Walk through our halls and you might find a teen grappling with the right closing for her first poem, an essayist workshop-ping a piece for a magazine, or a packed room of people eager to hear a best-selling writer read her latest novel. 

You’re guaranteed to see staff and volunteers dedicated to peo-ple who are writing and those who are passionate about the written word.

ALL WRITERS ARE

WELCOME

“ Writing is a way of saying you and the world have a chance.”

RICHARD HUGO

SUPPORTING BETTER WRITING –

AND A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WRITING

Our programming brings people closer to the written word, and to each other. Writers strengthen their craft; readers deepen their appreciation. 

CLASSES

Our teaching staff – including eminent visiting writers as well as working novelists, poets, essayists, and memoirists – explore craft with students, from the basics (A Roadmap for Poets) to the master class (Novel Immersion).

EVENTS

We bring Pulitzer-Prize winners, poets laureate and other community favorites into Hugo House for discussions and readings. Some anatomize their influences. Others reveal works in progress. Still others may collaborate with musi-cians or visual artists. 

TEEN PROGRAM

Creative writing in schools today is a rarity. We offer many opportunities for teens to explore their creativity via the written word, from intensive Summer Scribes camps to free drop-in writing circles with caring and experienced mentors.“Hugo House is part of the village

that is raising our son to be a loving, engaged, confident, creative, and social justice-minded young man.”

– ELISSA BENSON, PARENT

2,125 students in 2014

(doubled since 2012)

112 teachers in 2014

125,000people at events since

Hugo House opened its doors

950youth participants

THE HEARTOF OUR LITERARY CITY

It’s no mystery why the Christian Science Monitor described Seattle as “book crazy.” We regularly rank in the top five most literate cities. Our former librarian has her own action figure. Seattle is on the path to becoming a United Nations City of Literature.

HUGO HOUSE PLAYS AN INTEGRAL ROLE IN OUR CITY’S SOCIAL FABRIC. We are the lively hub for authors, readers, teachers, publishers, booksellers, and more. 

It’s critical that Seattle has Hugo House – and equally critical that Hugo House is located on Capitol Hill. The Pike/Pine area is the densest arts neighborhood in the state. But Capitol Hill’s creative legacy is under threat. Space for arts organizations is hard to find or too expensive.

Hugo House and other organizations have worked with the City of Seattle in forming the Capitol Hill Arts & Cultural District, which will help preserve the neighborhood’s history and current vitality.

We are thrilled that our new permanent home will be built on the same ground where we’ve always been. WE’RE COMMITTED TO MAINTAINING SEATTLE’S LITERARY HEART IN A THRIVING CAPITOL HILL. 

READERS

“BOOK CRAZY”

HUB

NEIGHBORHOOD

MORE SPACETO SERVE MOREWRITERS & READERS

It’s our dream that every person, of any age, from any background, who wants to engage with the practice of writing will have a place to do it. Our new home brings us closer to that dream. 

More classrooms in our new building will allow us to offer 40 per-cent more adult classes throughout the year, and 60 percent more youth summer camp sessions. We’ll be reaching more people than ever. More people who will engage with words to celebrate, or to mourn. More people who will use writing to ask the questions our city needs to hear.

MORE PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES WILL CHANGE BECAUSE OF A NOVEL, A POEM, A MEMOIR.

Our new performance space will be free or deeply discounted for organizations who share our mission. And the whole building will meet ADA standards – so everyone can take part in our work, regardless of mobility. 

AND OUR NEW FACILITY WILL ALLOW US TO KEEP DREAMING. We’ve already begun envisioning new programs that will take advantage of the space, including an annual literary conference, one-on-one manuscript consultations, events with publishers and agents, and more. 

MORE CLASSROOMS

NEW PROGRAMS

NEW PERFORMANCE SPACE

WE NEED YOU TO HELP WRITE

THE NEXT CHAPTEREverything we’re most proud of in Seattle has been realized because of community action. That includes Hugo House. 

NOW WE HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST IN THAT MOST RARE AND TREASURED ASSET: A PERMANENT HOME.

Owning a larger, more flexible facility designed to meet Hugo House's needs means more stability and room for program expansion. By the second full year in the new facility, we will serve more of our community and strengthen the Capitol Hill Arts District by achieving the following goals:

• 31% increase in the number of adult classes offered;

• 50% increase in the number of Scribes youth camp sessions;

• 46% increase in scholarships offered to youth and adult students;

• An ADA-compliant space;

• New programs, school-year classes for teens, networking events forwriters, publishers, and agents, and more

JOIN US. HELP US BUILD AN ENDURING HOME FOR WORDS IN SEATTLE. 

For more information or to get involved, please contact Tree Swenson, Executive Director at tree@hugohouse.org.

LOVE FOR WORDS

FOR DECADES TO COMESUSTAINING

Phone: 206.322.7030Web: hugohouse.org

“You are someone and you have a right to your life…. A creative writing class may be one of the last places you can go where your life still matters.”

– RICHARD HUGO

E-mail: welcome@hugohouse.org