Kathy Acker in Seattle
The late Kathy Acker’s residencies in Seattle in 1980 and 1989 were brief but important to the development of this influential literary artist. While residing in Seattle’s Belltown arts community in 1980, she was completing work on her signature novel, Blood and Guts in High School, and beginning to write Great Expectations, which includes passages about her experiences there. She returned in 1989 for a residency sponsored by Seattle’s Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA), which inspired Kathleen Hanna to form Bikini Kill and gave momentum to the Riot Grrrl feminist movement.
In September 2019, the Kathy Acker in Seattle Symposium presented a series of exhibitions, panels, readings, and research opportunities. The symposium featured regional, national, and international artists, authors, curators, and scholars examining Acker’s lasting legacy in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. This book documents those proceedings. Through oral histories, dissertations, and contemporaneous documentation, Kathy Acker in Seattle provides valuable insight into this fascinating artist.