For almost two decades, has been a place for writers in Seattle. Now, a new documentary about the literary venue’s history — and the demolition of its original Capitol Hill home — is ready to make its public debut.

“” is a 58-minute feature-length film, four years in the making, produced by , a ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý senior lecturer in English, and directed by Ryan K. Adams, a filmmaker with .

The film will have its premiere screening at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21 at the , 1515 12^th Ave. in Seattle, as part of the annual , which showcases new works by Northwest filmmakers. are $13 for general admission and $10 for students. There will be a Q and A session with the filmmakers after the screening moderated by , writer, performer and host of the cable television program .

McCue is a well-known poet, teacher and self-dubbed “arts instigator” who cofounded Hugo House in 1998 with writers Linda Breneman and Andrea Lewis, served as its executive director and even lived there for a time. The film project began when she learned that the venue’s longtime home on 11^th Avenue in the Capitol Hill neighborhood — a Victorian-era building that was first a mortuary, then a theater — would be demolished to make way for a new mixed-use apartment building. McCue set about trying to capture what made the venue so special for writers and readers alike. Hugo House reopened in 2018 in the on its old site.

Its creators describe the film as an “experimental literary documentary”; it combines interviews with authors with archival footage, animation and original poetry to show, as production notes state, “how poetry and place intertwine.”

The creative team behind the film is a group that calls itself Team Demo Hugo — “a collective of geographers, archivists, planners, animators, filmmakers, writers, Seattleites, transplants, poets and literary geeks who came together to document the life of the life of 1634 11^th Avenue, the once and current home of Hugo House.”

The production staff also includes UW talents, including Ian Lucero and Luke Sieczek, the film’s editor and cinematographer respectively, who both work with Adams at Continuum College; and alumni Cali Kopczick, Ananya Garg and Claire Summa.

The venue’s namesake, , was a well-regarded poet and essayist who studied with poet at the UW and went on to teach for many years at the University of Montana. He died in 1982 at the age of 58; his papers are in the UW Libraries Special Collections Department.

“In the face of a city being erased and rebuilt around us, it’s important to remember just one place,” McCue said. She devoted her most recent book of poems, the 2018 “Timber Curtain,” to the project and said, “it became, in many ways, the ‘script’ for this docu-poem film.”

The film, she said, “was instigated at the UW and has the flavor of innovation and storytelling that we sometimes experience in great conversations and classes on campus. But such a film needed to head out into the community to thrive.”

“Where the House Was” received support from the Simpson Center for the Humanities and the UW Honors Program. It also will be shown at the at the Grand Cinema, 606 Fawcett Ave., in Tacoma.

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For more information, contact McCue at mccuef@uw.edu.

Follow the progress of “Where the House Was” on , or .

A novelist’s thoughts on storytelling, a geologist’s soil restoration strategy, an environmentalist’s memoir, a celebration of Latino music influences, a poet’s meditations on her changing city …

Yes, and a best-selling author’s latest work, a podcast reborn as a book, a collaboration of world-class violists and even tales of brave Icelandic seawomen — at this festive time of year, ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý faculty creations can make great gifts for the Dawg on your shopping list.

Here’s a quick look at some gift-worthy books and music created by UW talents in the last year or so — and a reminder of some perennial favorites.

Charles Johnson, “.” Johnson, National Book Award-winning author of “” and longtime professor of English, discusses his art in a book stemming from a year of interviews. “There is winning sanity here,” the New York Times wrote: “Johnson wants his students to be ‘raconteurs always ready to tell an engaging tale,’ not self-preoccupied neurotics.” Published by .

Marisol Berríos-Miranda, Shannon Dudley and Michelle Habell-Pallán, ““ An extraordinary exhibit at the Smithsonian and Seattle’s Experience Music Project (now Museum of Pop Culture) comes to life as a book, detailing Latino influence on American popular music from salsa to punk, Chicano rock to the Miami sound. Berrios-Miranda is an affiliate associate professor of ethnomusicology, Dudley an associate professor of music and Habell-Pallán an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies. It’s a dual-language volume — English on the right side, Spanish on the left. And as a bonus the authors have created an American Sabor on iTunes and Spotify; the book flags specific songs with a playlist icon. Published by ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý Press.

David R. Montgomery, “.” Montgomery, a professor of Earth and space sciences, won praise for his popular 2007 book “.” Several books later he returned in 2017 with this view of environmental restoration based on three ideas – “ditch the plow, cover up, grow diversity.” said Montgomery’s well-expressed views “will convince readers that soil health should not remain an under-the-radar issue and that we all benefit from embracing a new philosophy of farming.” Published by .

Margaret Willson, Willson is an affiliate associate professor of anthropology and the Canadian Studies Arctic Program. In her years working as a deckhand she came across historic accounts of a woman sea captain known for reading the weather, hauling in large catches and never losing a crew member in 60 years of fishing. “And yet people in Iceland told me there had been few seawomen in their past, and few in their present,” she said. “I found this strange in a country of such purported gender equality. This curiosity led to the research and all that came from it.” Published by .

Estella Leopold, “.” Leopold is professor emeritus of biology and the youngest daughter of , who wrote the 1949 classic of early environmentalism, “.” She returns to scenes of her Wisconsin childhood in this follow-up, describing her life on the land where her father practiced his revolutionary conservation philosophy. Published by .

David Shields, “.” Shields is a professor of English and the best-selling author of many books, starting with his 1984 novel “.” In 2017 he brought out this collection of essays that the New York Times called “a triumphantly humane book” and him “our elusive, humorous ironist, something like a 21^st century Socrates.” The paper’s praise continued: “He is a master stylist — and has been for a long time, on the evidence of these pieces from throughout his career. . . All good writers make us feel less alone. But Shields makes us feel better.” Published by .

Joseph Janes, “.” The year 2017 saw Janes’ popular podcast “” become a book under a slightly different title. Janes is an associate professor in the Information School who writes here about the origin and often evolving meaning of historical documents, both famous and less known. Some of his favorite “documents” are Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s fictional list of communists, the Fannie Farmer Cookbook and the backstory to what’s called the Rosie the Riveter poster. Published by .

Frances McCue, Well-known Seattle poet, teacher and self-described “arts instigator,” McCue is a senior lecturer in English. She was a co-founder of Hugo House, a place for writers, and served as its director for 10 years. Those experiences fuel this book of poems about the changing nature of the city. “This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” she writes. Published by .

Scott L. Montgomery, “.” Scientific research that doesn’t get communicated effectively to the public may as well not have happened at all, says geoscientist Montgomery in this second volume of a popular 2001 book. A prolific writer, Montgomery is a lecturer in the Jackson School of International Studies. “Communicating is the doing of science,” he adds. “Publication and public speaking are how scientific work gains a presence, a shared reality in the world.”  Published by .

Odai Johnson, “.” The true cultural tipping point in the run-up to the American Revolution, writes Johnson, a professor in the School of Drama, might not have been the Boston Tea Party or even the First Continental Congress. Rather, he suggests, it was Congress’ 1774 decision to close the British American theaters — a small act but “a hard shot across the bow of British culture.” Published by .

Here are some recordings from 2017 involving faculty in the UW School of Music:

Melia Watras, “.” Music professor Watras offers a collaboration from of world-class violists performing and sharing their own compositions with each other. Her own playing has been described in the press as “staggeringly virtuosic.” Richard Karpen, School of Music director, is among several guests. The title comes from the number of strings on the instruments used: two violas, one violin, and the 14-string viola d’amore. .

Cuong Vu 4-Tet, “.” A live collaboration between Vu, UW Jazz Studies chair, and renowned jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, who is an affiliate professor with the School of Music. Recorded in 2016 at Meany Theater, Vu and Frisell were joined by artists in residence Ted Poor on drums and Luke Bergman on bass. Released on .

Craig Sheppard, “.” Sheppard, longtime professor of music and a world-class pianist, plays sonatas and mazurkas by Frederic Chopin recorded live at Meany Theater in February 2017. The Seattle Times said of an earlier Chopin concert of Sheppard’s that his playing featured “exquisite details … it was playing that revealed layer after layer of music in each piece, as if one were faceting a gemstone. Released on .

Here are some other notable recent UW-authored books:

• Research on poverty and the American suburbs in “,” by Scott Allard, professor in the Evan School of Public Policy & Governance.
• Literature meets science to contemplate the geologic epoch of humans in “,” co-edited by Jesse Oak Taylor, associate professor of English.
• A popular science exploration of machine learning and the algorithms that help run our lives in “,” by Pedro Domingos, professor of computer science and engineering.
• A close look at four of America’s electoral adventures in “” by Margaret O’Mara, professor of history.
• A fully revised second edition of Earth and space sciences professor Darrel Cowan’s popular 1984 book, “.” This 378-page paperback is filled with details about Washington state geology.
• The story of a city’s transition from the Ottoman Empire to Greece in “” by Devin Naar, professor of history and Jewish studies.
• A city that “thinks like a planet” is one both resilient to and ready for the future that the changing Earth will bring, says Marina Alberti, professor in the College of Built Environments in “.
• Todd London, professor and director of the School of Drama, follows the professional theater experiences of 15 actors from the 1995 class of Harvard’s American Repertory Theater in “.”
• Dr. Stephen Helgerson, a UW School of Public Health alumnus and physician in preventive medicine for four decades, uses the novella form to tell of the influenza epidemic’s arrival in his state in “.”
• On the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exploration of faith that results in the common good in “,” co-authored by Steve Pfaff, professor of sociology.
• Calm down from holiday — and tech-induced stresses — by thinking mindfully with “” by communication professor David Levy.

Finally, still-popular and pertinent books from a few years back include the second edition of “” by Jeffrey Ochsner, professor of architecture; “” by Randlett with Frances McCue; “” by Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences; and the ever-popular “” by Bill Holm, professor emeritus of art history. All of these were published by , which has many other great titles.

“This is Seattle. A place to love whatever’s left,” writes UW faculty member in her new book of poetry, “.”

“(W)here new things are coming, shinier than the last / I’m the bust standing in the boom / the poet in the technology world / spread along the timber bottom” — from the poem “Along With the Dead Poet Richard Hugo.”

McCue, a well-known area poet, teacher and self-dubbed “arts instigator,” is a senior lecturer in the UW . She was a co-founder of Richard Hugo House, at 1634 11^th Ave. in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and served as its director from 1996 to 2006. The original Hugo House — a place for writers — was demolished in 2016; it now has a new temporary home at 1021 Columbia St. while the venue awaits new digs.

McCue also is producing “,” a documentary film memorializing that demolition, and the poems in “Timber Curtain” were written during the filming. Directed by Ryan K. Adams, the documentary is expected to debut in early 2018.

“‘Timber Curtain’ is a poetic exploration that begins with the tear-down of the old Hugo House and spins to the erasure of our city as we once knew it,” McCue said. The book, she said, “is mischievous and it reads like a novella.”

McCue undertakes a bit of editorial demolition — or renovation — in the collection as well: “Some of the poems are partially blacked out and appear in new versions while others are assemblages like the ones we see in contemporary architecture,” she said. By this she means the new building fronts “that are shoved into the façade of the old ones,” a combination McCue calls “façademies — rhymes with lobotomies.”

To imitate this in verse, she said, “I scooped out a previous poem in the collection, leaving only the first and last words. Then I inserted a skyscraper-looking poem inside the shell. You can read it down or across.”

McCue said that her mission is “to bring poetry into community life. Right now, the blurring skyline of Seattle, the loss of old places and the exciting new city are becoming fodder for poems.”

And the term “timber curtain”?

“I made it up,” said McCue.

She even gives it a two-part, Webster’s-like definition, the first being the lines of trees “strung along a road” to shield passers-by from seeing the drastic effects of logging clear-cuts. Her term “façademies” stands as the second definition: She adds, “See also ‘�󲹳�̧���徱����.'”

“Timber Curtain” was published in September by Seattle’s Chin Music Press.

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For more information about McCue or her work, contact her at Frances@francesmccue.com.

is a senior lecturer with the ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý and a writer in residence with the . She worked with well-known photographer to create a book featuring portraits of Northwest artists, writers and arts advocates. “” was published in September by . McCue answered a few questions about the work.

Q: How did this book come about?

A: Mary and I worked together on “,” my book about the poet Richard Hugo and the Northwest Towns that he wrote about. That collaboration came from a glint in the eye of Pat Soden, then the director of UW Press.

Pat said: “I want you to work with Mary Randlett. You two would get a kick out of each other.” Pat is a great artistic matchmaker. I loved working with Mary. The more I got to know her, the more I saw that the scope of her work was phenomenal. Then, Rachael Levay, the wonderful publicist at UW Press, suggested that I do this portraits book.

Mary likes working so it was easy to convince her. Sometimes, I’ve said that the whole project was an excuse to hang out with Mary. And, hang out we did — for two years in and in her garage, rifling through prints. We had a lot of half-finished sandwiches laying around.

Q: Several featured in this book are or were members of the UW community, including , , , , , , , and others. How did you decide who to include?

A: We had these criteria: 1) we wanted to focus on artists, writers and advocates of the arts; 2) we wanted the photographs to be compelling, exposing some essence of their subjects and 3) we wanted to include people whom Mary had loved and worked with or who provided a window into the range of work being done in this region.

Q: You wrote an essay to accompany each of the subjects of the book. Would you tell a bit about your research process? 

A: I spent a lot of time reading whatever articles, books, blogs and essays I could find about the people whom we chose. Then, I dug into the rich world of Special Collections — a place where Gary Lundell, reference specialist, and Nicolette Bromberg, visual materials curator, really helped me find some fantastic prints of Mary’s and letters to and from some of the people in the book.

Special Collections is a treasure trove; it’s a great hangout and the people who work there are immersed in the history of our region. Gary, for example, was a friend of ‘s and of ‘s — two artists whom I wrote about.

Then, there were the drives with Mary herself. To get her talking, you really have to be driving. She loosens up and tells great stories when she is on the road. So, I hung a tape recorder from the heating vent in the dashboard, and off we went. I love the material from those interviews and Mary’s quotes appear throughout the book.

Checking the facts, confirming memories — all of that happened with as many of the folks as I could reach and with a great assistant on the project, Shannon Foss. Shannon is an undergraduate in the Honors Program and a genius at collecting citations.

The last part, and one of the most important, involved my own speculations about the compositions of the photographs themselves. I looked and wrote and devised reactions and theories about the portraits as art.

And, I got some terrific help by asking Barbara Johns, the fabulous art historian, and Sheila Farr, one of our region’s great art critics, to peruse my work. As Richard Hugo once said, “A good teacher can save you 10 years.” Barbara and Sheila certainly saved me from years of flailing and I’ll be forever grateful to them.

• “Mary Randlett Portraits” also features an afterword by Nicolette Bromberg.

In the 1990s, Seattle-area activist Gary Greaves, interested in how the Northwest had changed since the 1962 World’s Fair, taped more than 100 interviews with civil rights and labor leaders and fellow activists.

Now, through a collaboration between ����Ӱ�Ӵ�ý Libraries and the , those interviews have been digitized and the is being made available to the public online.

Greaves conducted the interviews with the aim of compiling a book he tentatively titled “Seattle AD,” but he died in 2009 at the age of 57 with the project unfinished. The interview tapes sat in a basement until discovered by , Greaves’ widow, a senior lecturer in the UW and writer-in-residence in the UW Undergraduate Honors Program.

“He wanted to know a more truthful representation of Seattle’s history than the one typically heard in the media and classrooms,” McCue wrote in a statement about the collection. “But he was acutely aware that no such book existed, so he decided to write one.”

McCue found the tapes in an old suitcase and brought them to the attention of people at the Museum of History and Industry, where she worked as a consultant, and then UW Libraries.

John Vallier, head of distributed media services and the UW Libraries Media Center, oversaw the digitization of the interviews, which was accomplished by two of McCue’s former students, Sean Clancy and Sean Higgins. Deborah Mangold, a volunteer with the museum, secured signed releases from those interviewees still available. Former UW Information School student John George also assisted in the Media Center and wrote a grant for the project.

Clancy said the interviewees “described the daily affairs of social movements that I had only read about in books. … They addressed the dynamics of regional power and public opinion that ultimately resulted in today’s political climate and urban infrastructure.”

While work was under way on the interviews, it was discovered that the Museum of History and Industry already had an archive of 29 video and audio interviews Greaves conducted when a volunteer there. The two collections will now be combined at the UW.

The museum will hold a celebration of the interview collection, with McCue on hand, from 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, June 8, in the Microsoft Lakefront Pavilion.

• This article was adapted from a news release by McCue.