Seattle Reads + KUOW Book Club: Celebrating National Poetry Month with local voices

The Seattle Public Library is gearing up for another volume of its citywide book group, Seattle Reads, and this year, the KUOW Book Club is getting involved.
SPL announced Monday that the 2025 Seattle Reads pick is "You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World." In partnership with SPL, the KUOW Book Club will read "You Are Here" in April, which is National Poetry Month.

"You Are Here" is a poetry anthology that was edited by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón. The collection features 50 American poets who were invited "to observe and reflect on their local landscape." Among them are Seattle-area poets Laura Da' and Cedar Sigo.
"Whether or not you think of yourself as a 'poetry person,' all Seattle readers will find something to love in this accessible collection that invites us to consider our relationship with nature," SPL's Literature and Humanities Program Manager Stesha Brandon said in the library's announcement.
In an interview on NPR in 2023, Limón announced her plans for "You Are Here," which was her signature project as poet laureate. Like the Seattle Reads program, Limón wanted to bring people together — through the book and through nature.
"When you recognize where you are — that you are on a planet, that you are in an ecosystem — you recognize that there is no way that you're alone," she said. "You are part of something more vibrant."
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In addition to print and e-book copies of "You Are Here," SPL also has unlimited copies of the e-audiobook version through the Always Available collection. Plus, the library will have limited copies available through SPL's informal borrowing program, in which readers can take books without officially checking them out and return them when they're done reading.
SPL will kick off this year's Seattle Reads programming at the Central Library on March 26.
Then, join the KUOW Book Club and SPL on April 24 for a reading and discussion with Da' and Sigo. More details will be shared via the KUOW Book Club newsletter, which you can subscribe to here, and when we officially announce the April pick and our reading schedule. (Seattle Reads participants don't have to follow our schedule — that's just for folks who want to stick to our Book Club's calendar.)
Seattle Reads will wrap up on May 16 and 17 at several community events featuring Limón, who's visiting Seattle to discuss the book.
Seattle Reads began in 1998 with the goal of bringing the community together through a shared reading experience and community programs. According to SPL, it was the first "One Book, One City" program, and it inspired similar initiatives across the country and the world.
Previous picks have included "Parable of the Sower" by Octavia Butler, "The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett, and "The Sweet Hereafter" by Russell Bank, which was the first Seattle Reads selection in 1998.