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(vibrant upbeat music) - On this episode of "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," we're heading to the Evergreen State.

- [Lauren] Washington has shaped some of America's most iconic voices, from sci-fi visionaries like Frank Herbert, to Raymond Carver's powerful short stories, and John Okada's groundbreaking "No-No Boy."

The Pacific Northwest doesn't just inspire writers, it transforms them.

- [Fred] Hear from Washington writers of today who refuse to stay in their lane.

From Jess Walter's dark comedies and Donna Barbra Higuera's sci-fi rooted in Hispanic heritage, to Timothy Egan's gripping historical narratives.

Sasha taqwseblu LaPointe's, Coast Salish memoir, and Frank Abe's powerful graphic novel about Japanese American incarceration during World War II.

- Join PBS books, the Library of Congress, and the Washington Center for the Book on a literary adventure through Washington.

This is "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip."

(screen whooshing) (gentle music) - Hello and welcome, I'm Fred Nahhat here with Lauren Smith from PBS Books, - We are exploring America's storied past, and spotlighting the voices shaping the literary scene today.

Be sure to like, share and subscribe right now, so you never miss an episode of "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip" here on PBS books.

- [Fred] Today we visit the Pacific Northwest.

From the lush green landscape of the Hoh Rainforest inside Olympic National Park, to the bustling city of Seattle, Washington is a state drenched with stories waiting to be told.

- Washington isn't just about misty forests and dramatic mountains, it's a state where the landscapes and people are widely diverse.

But don't just take our word for it.

(screen whooshing) - Washington State is an incredible place for book lovers, because we are just swimming in libraries and independent bookstores.

- Seattle is also one of only two American cities that are UNESCO cities of literature.

- Even obscure poets are treated like rock stars.

I mean, you can go any gloomy, rainy Wednesday winter night to a bookstore, and every seat will be filled.

And that goes to the other thing that makes it unique, the weather.

- I think Washington State has a reputation of being really, really rainy all the time, and that just isn't the case.

Yeah, we have a lot of overcast and drizzly days, but it's not as rainy as people think it is.

- We truly have the most beautiful summers, like mindbogglingly beautiful.

The weather is gorgeous, and we have all of these beautiful lakes, rivers, and waterways to like swim in, and we have mountains to hike in.

- I think one thing that actually would surprise people might surprise people about Washington, the State of Washington, is that Eastern Washington and Western Washington have almost totally different landscapes.

- You can start in a tropical rainforest in the Olympic Peninsula, and then, you know, drive through the metropolis of Puget Sound and the small coastal towns on Puget Sound, there's 2,500 miles of coastline, and that's even before you've crossed the cascade.

I would think there's more diversity of region and people here than almost anywhere else.

(screen whooshing) (airy music) - From powerful poets to futuristic worlds, and even deep reflections on our nation's history, Washington is a state humming with stories shaped by rain, rugged coasts, and restless imagination.

Here are just a few that stand the test of time.

(screen whooshing) - Well, Frank Herbert is a very famous sci-fi writer from Washington, from Tacoma.

He was born and raised there, lived there till he was 18.

And "Dune," of course, is a very famous apocalyptic tale about the destructive consequences of extractive colonization.

And it was inspired in part by the historic lead and copper smelters in Tacoma.

- The thing that I always loved about Frank Herbert, he said he came from a family of Utopians.

He was a conservationist and an ecologist at heart, but also a Republican at a time when those things weren't in conflict, so, you know, when conservative meant to also conserve resources.

- His books really focus on philosophy and religion and ecology, it was something that he saw around him in the Pacific Northwest, and even the title of Dune was with his experience with the sand dunes near the ocean in the Pacific Northwest.

- I know many people have read it and seen the movie.

I would say, even if you've seen the movie, read the book.

(screen whooshing) (meditative music) - I love science fiction, and I write science fiction for children, so I was so excited to think of some of the names of science fiction writers who are from my state.

I am probably Octavia Butler's biggest fan, (chuckles) at least I think I am.

She influenced my writing a lot with "Parable of the Sower," "Parable of the Talents," "Kindred," some short stories, "Blood Child" and other stories.

She often explores themes of survival.

- I know that Octavia Butler moved to Lake Forest Park, like moved to North Seattle in her later life, but we still kind of get to claim her.

And "Parable of the Sower" is one of the best sci-fi speculative fiction works of all time, I think.

- Which is a fantastic novel, it's written in 1993, that predicts a world in 2024, when America falls apart due to climate change and income inequality and corporate greed.

And she predicts that there is, in 2024, a newly elected president who becomes an authoritarian.

You know, we admire her because she persisted in a field that was white and male dominated.

So she is, in the literary circles, you know, regarded as a real folk hero of Seattle writing.

(screen whooshing) - Tom Robbins is another novelist from Washington State known for his serial comedies, which basically means funny dramas.

"Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" is one of his very famous stories.

- And Tom Robbins lived and wrote (calm upbeat rock music) mostly in Le Connor, Washington, which is about an hour north of Seattle, and it's really a kind of arty community.

- I mean, Tom Robbins was a favorite, especially when I was a young reader, I loved, you know, just how adventurous and playful his writing could be.

And so if you ask yourself like, was there a hippie Tolstoy, I think in many ways you might land on someone like Tom Robbins, because you know, that playful spirit just rises up.

He could be philosophical and experimental, but he was never showy, he was always, you know, you could always grasp the thing he was writing, it could be funny and sensual, and he was challenging the mores of of America at the time, but doing it in a way that didn't take itself too seriously.

- Those books had a big impact on me.

I mean, "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues" is maybe my favorite, but, "Still Life With Woodpecker" was so important to me because it was set against a backdrop of what was so familiar to me, right?

You know, the Northwest, Washington, Seattle.

- Wonderful, imaginative, quirky writer who was from Virginia originally, who famously once said, "I came here for the rain."

(screen whooshing) - So Raymond Carver was one of the great short story writers, he was also a poet, and he was known for his minimalist kind of writing.

- His 1983 short story collection is definitely one of his most famous, "Cathedral," it was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

So among Raymond Carver's many jobs, along with being a writer, was also being a library assistant.

- Carver is probably the Washington writer whose work affected me the most, partly because the time I came up, but also our backgrounds I think are similar.

And so, that blue collar world that he wrote about is one that I think of as Washington.

And I know the houses he wrote about, I know the parties that he wrote about, I know the stoic choked-off emotions that he portrayed.

A whole generation of writers who studied creative writing read Carver stories in school.

- It's in like less than five minutes, you can read one of his short works and it will change you, and it's such a special gift that he had, and I don't think many writers have that.

- He was a laborer, and bounced around, and fought alcoholism, and didn't have any money, and had hard a scrabbled life, but he's short stories are like studied by academics now trying to figure it out.

And he was a great gift to our state, and a great gift to the world.

(screen whooshing) (gentle music) - John Okada is the author of a 1957 novel called "No-No Boy," about a Japanese American who refuses to serve the country that incarcerated him.

Okada was from Seattle, and attending the University of Washington when World War II broke out.

And he was himself a public librarian at one time as well.

- During World War II, under Franklin Roosevelt's executive order, took Japanese Americans, most of whom were citizens, rounded them up and put 'em in concentration camps.

They were very loyal Americans, some of them later fought for the US against the Nazis, and John was one of 'em, and wrote this classic book about the experience in "No-No Boy."

- He sits down 10 years after the end of the war, after the end of World War II, and writes the great Japanese American novel, one that captures the suppressed rage and anger of a people who were forcibly removed and incarcerated for no other reason than sharing the same race as a wartime enemy, people denied due process of law.

- And then the book wasn't really celebrated during this time, it was really after his death that the book became a classic.

- Shawn Wong rediscovered it in the 1970s.

- They saw the importance of it as depicting a time and a place, and really a situation, and how important it would be to have this book more widely read.

And so, they went to the University of Washington Press, which ended up publishing it, and so the addition that we have today, which is required reading in many, many English classes, literature classes, history classes, what we have today is that edition from the University of Washington Press.

(screen whooshing) (gentle music) - John Okada's "No No Boy" has experienced a remarkable resurgence, becoming essential reading in classrooms nationwide.

Carrying that torch forward is Frank Abe, whose work honors Okada's legacy, while continuing to illuminate the Asian American experience.

(screen whooshing) - So, Frank Abe was the lead author on "We Hereby Refuse," which was a Washington State Book Award finalist in creative nonfiction.

And he won an American Book Award for "John Okada: the Life & Rediscovered Work of the author of 'No-No Boy.'"

And most recently, he's the editor of the Penguin Classic Collection, "The literature of Japanese Incarceration."

- My work has been centered around the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans.

"We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance To Wartime Incarceration," which tells the story of three young people who took different paths to refuse government edicts and orders in order to stand for a principle of due process and equal protection and protest.

And that has struck a chord, I think, with readers.

What I hope readers see, in reading my books and others, is that in World War II, Japanese Americans had no allies.

No one really stood up and said no.

What I hope readers see is, you know, that what's important in moments like this is the importance of allyship, and that is something we didn't have in World War II.

And as Japanese Americans, you know, we have always felt a moral authority to talk about our own experience, which in turn gives us, I feel a moral responsibility to stand in allyship with others.

And so I'm pleased to see that not only our community, but all communities are standing up to say, no, this is not right, and we will not let it happen again.

That's the impact I hope our work has.

(screen whooshing) - While Frank Abe focuses on the Asian American experience and histories, Timothy Egan takes a broader look at some key events in our nation's history with a compelling narrative approach to his nonfiction novels.

- Timothy Egan is a writer of incredibly propulsive narrative nonfiction.

It's always a great pleasure to hear him speak about his research process, because it is so deep and detailed.

(gentle upbeat jazz music) He's won both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for his work.

- I've always wanted to be a writer, and I thought early on that the best place to be a writer in this country was our state.

But how do you become a writer?

You don't just wake up one morning and say I'm gonna crank something out.

I mean, journalism for me was that path, those things that you experience as a journalist gave me experience as a writer.

And I've always loved history too, and my nonfiction I try to write in a novelistic way, I try to bring these characters to life, I have dialogue going back and forth.

The best thing anyone ever says to me when I go and do one of my talks, readings or lectures somewhere, is that, God, I didn't know history was this interesting, because I see drama, I see people coming of age, losing everything, gaining everything, I see a clash of ideas, I see all the elements of fiction, of good fiction, I should say, you know, a rise and a fall, falling in love, falling in hate, all these things that are good fiction, I see in history.

And I always say to people, I said, "I actually don't think there's anything such as bad history, there's just badly told history."

It's a living thing.

It's not a past thing, it's a living thing.

It's part of our DNA, it's part of how we understand ourselves as people, and why we do bad things, and why we get out of bad things.

There's a blueprint in the past that could be used for the future.

(screen whooshing) - Timothy Egan illuminates history through meticulous research.

Another author to spotlight is Spokane novelist Jess Walter, who wields the past as a mirror to reflect the absurdities of today.

(quirky music) - Jess Walter is a novelist that reminds me a lot of Kurt Vonnegut.

I always expect humor, never punching down, and decency with a capital D, if that makes any sense.

His novel before last was "The Cold Millions," and that won the State Book Award.

- It's funny, I guess I don't really notice I'm blending genres until readers tell me that I am.

And I'm sort of shocked that these categories exist.

You know, I read all kinds of things, and so it makes sense to me, I would wanna write all kinds of things.

But I think, you know, I've written historical fiction like "The Cold Millions," which is, you know, set in the Northwest during that labor period of the early 1900s, and I've written novels, yeah, that sort of are literary fiction blended with suspense, but I think the things that always show up in my work are a sense of poignancy and a sense of humor.

And if there's a regional aspect to that, it's that when I was growing up, I had this atlas of literary places in my mind.

New York to me was what J. D. Salinger painted in "Catcher in the Rye," the California of Joan Didion, you know, was implanted in me in some way, the South of Faulkner and Eudora Welty.

And so, to help create an atlas of the place you're from, and to have readers close their eyes and be able to picture the Spokane of "The Cold Millions," or neighborhoods in Seattle, I think that's an amazing thing to be able to bring to writing about the place you're from.

- From darkly comic thrillers to speculative fiction with heart, our next author also refuses to be confined by genre boundaries, Donna Barbra Higuera.

(screen whooshing) - Donna Barba Higuera is a superstar of the kid lit World.

Everything from picture books to epic novels like "The Last Cuentista," winner of the Newberry and the Pura Belpre Award.

(cheerful music) She likes to write about funny, sad, creepy and magical things.

And, she has a pet frog.

- I started writing books for children about 15 years ago.

A lot of my books are a little strange, and I do like to go a little bit dark and deeper, and so I like to write things that children can ponder, and I think that's because I loved those books as a child.

If you ask most adults what book it was the most pivotal in your life, a lot of them will not quote a book that they have read as an adult, they will go back to something that they read as a child.

And I think that that is because those books are where they're discovering themselves and who they become, and so I wanted to write those books.

So, many of the books that I write do draw upon culture and my background.

And some are contemporary, some have, you know, mythological elements.

Some of the storytelling within my novels that are sci-fi, it is from bits and pieces of things that I heard as a child.

But I think it's because it allows people to ask themselves, do I have those stories?

Do I have folklore and mythology within my own family, or within my own culture, within my own environment, my own city, my own state, my own school?

And so, it's asking those questions, and I think that you don't have to share the same cultural background, you don't have to share the exact same family structure to be able to connect with others.

And if we all just slowed down and asked each other questions, and sat down and had a meal with one another, we would all get along much better.

(screen whooshing) - It's fascinating to explore how Higuera weaves heritage into futuristic sci-fi.

And Ry Sasha, Sasha taqwseblu LaPointe carries forward another important tradition, honoring ancestral stories and transforming them into powerful reflections for today.

(upbeat music) - Sasha taqwseblu LaPointe's books, "Red Paint: the Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk," and "Thunder Song: Essays," both have such vivid sense of place, the good, the bad, and everything thing in between in our region is very much a part of these books.

- I come from storytellers.

As, you know, a Coast Salish woman living in Washington in the Pacific Northwest, I had the privilege of growing up with our oral tradition and our stories.

And I thought that this was normal, you know?

I thought that every kid got to sit around the campfire and listen to, you know, Kaya grandma tell stories.

And as an adult, I look back on that and realize just how privileged I was.

And I think that story, specifically our tribal stories, really informed my work.

My first book, "Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk," was a memoir that also honored and celebrated the women of my lineage, the women who came before me, my ancestors.

And I spent a lot of time writing that book, researching their personal lives, what they endured, what they, you know, survived, and I looked to them for strength.

And so "Red Paint" was, sure, a memoir, but I don't feel like it's solely my story, it's their story, and also our story as Coast Salish women, being very connected and tied to this land.

"Rose Quartz" is just red paint, but told in a different language, in the language of poetry.

And so in "Rose Quartz," there's a lot of this landscape, there's a lot of that same story, that narrative, but it's just told in a different modality.

I feel like everybody in Washington should connect with and know the tribal history here, the Indigenous presence here, the stories that we have, I think that that's really important and really beautiful.

(screen whooshing) (calm music) - Well, they say to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader.

And with so many fantastic libraries across Washington, it's no wonder the state's residents share a love for both.

(screen whooshing) - So, Washington has so many amazing libraries across our state.

We've got big, beautiful cutting edge buildings like Seattle Public, Spokane Public, and the new Mount Vernon Library Commons, but also wonderful small one-room libraries and historic buildings and rural communities.

And I think that what makes them the most special are just the people who work in them, who care so much about service to their communities, and connecting readers with the books and information, and entertainment, story times that they're looking for.

And also just sharing opportunities for community members to tell their own stories as well.

- The new jewel of Seattle Public Libraries is the Seattle Central Library, which really is an architectural marvel designed by architect Rem Koolhaas.

It's a big glass and steel structure.

It's got a spiral staircase inside that goes four levels at the heart of the library.

- And if you go up high, I think the top room is the Northwest room, and that's where they have one of the complete sets of Edward Curtis's, all his photos he took, "North American Indian," which is what it was called.

Only about 200 places in the world have that.

- So one of the beautiful libraries in our state is the very new Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Library & Cultural Exhibit.

And that is a beautiful building that includes, of course the library, and a theater, and an exhibit room that shares the history of the tribe.

And the collection in the library itself also centers on Indigenous writers and creators.

- I mean, I'm always going to rep and cheerlead for tribal libraries, tribal spaces, but this one is so, so stunning, and such a cool space, and right on the bay, like out in Sequim.

And I think supporting tribal communities and small libraries like that is really important.

- My favorite library is the Suzzallo Library on the University of Washington campus, because it's like a library from my childhood but much, much, much bigger.

The modernness has been, not hidden, but adapted, so it hasn't taken away from the grandeur of the building.

- To gothic structured high ceiling, you know, with a light streaming in.

And my first three books, I not only did almost all of the research that is the sort of paper research, the documentary research, because I just love being around all these dead voices of all the books.

- The Spokane Public Library is a really beautiful building, very modern, with lots of huge areas for kids to play in, as well as really cool tech for folks to learn and play with.

- The Spokane Library has the best view of our gorgeous set of waterfalls of any building, and they put on events overlooking the falls, and it has a great tribal name.

- [Sara] They've got recording studios where community members can record music or podcasts, also learn how to use that equipment.

They've got an amazing circulating collection of musical instruments, and they even do free music lessons.

- Now that I live on the Kitsap Peninsula, the Kitsap Regional Library System, my local library in Poulsbo is wonderful, and they have rooms that you can rent, and I will go sit in the library and write pretty frequently.

Sometimes when I'm on a deadline, I will try to rent one of the little private rooms, you can reserve them and go sit and write.

And the people, I think we forget about, sometimes we look at the location, but a lot of times our libraries and bookstores become the people who are within them.

(screen whooshing) (calm music) - Washington's literary culture extends beyond its libraries, the state posts a thriving independent bookstore scene.

And not just in Seattle, though the city has dozens worth exploring.

(screen whooshing) - So, much like our libraries, Washington is also swimming in independent bookstores, and so many amazing stores to choose from all across the state, many of whom obviously work very closely together with their libraries.

For instance, we've got author visits, it's generally the local bookstore showing copies at the event.

- So probably the best known bookstore, certainly the oldest, is Elliott Bay Book Co.

- [Frank] Which is now housed in a large space in Capitol Hill, but it was started in Pioneer Square.

- It it's a terrific bookstore, you know, that does a great job both with events and local writers, but also just any book you want is going to be there.

- I mean, they sort of were one of the stores around the country that set the template for what a bookstore should be like.

And welcoming authors, every single night of a week, there's a new author reading at Elliot Bay.

I read my very first book there, and it was a dream come true, and I will read until I no longer have a pulse at Elliot Bay, love it.

- Seattle and its bookstores, we could go on for hours.

And I mentioned Third Place Books earlier that has three different locations.

Lake Forest Park, which is the one that I would typically go to, maybe because I wanted to be close to where Octavia Butler was.

There's Seward Park in Ravenna.

The Third Place Bookstore in Lake Forest Park is also connected to these wonderful restaurants, so you can go get a book, sit and read and have a meal.

The children's book section there is magical, and so it was a place that I ended up quite a bit.

- If I weren't talking to you this morning, I'd probably be at Third Place Books, having my morning coffee and having a seat in the cafe, which adjoins the bookshops.

- Another great bookstore, there's a bookstore in Spokane, Auntie's, which I've always loved.

Oh, we're going to Auntie's, she has a bookstore, you know?

- [Timothy] Has been there welcoming authors to packed houses for generations, cultural icon.

- [Frank] Beautiful two-story bookstore in a classic historical building.

I've launched every one of my books there with an event, and so it's especially important to me.

- Coming to you from the Eastside of Tacoma on the reservation, I have to rep Tacoma hard.

One of my favorite bookstores is King's Books here in Tacoma.

- [Frank] You can take a ferry to a bookstore.

And so, Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island, I've taken the ferry, gotten off, walked to the bookstore and had events.

- [Donna Barbra] And again, really magical children's book section, and I love the booksellers there, they have become friends.

- You know, there are just some great out-of-the-way bookstores, and much like libraries, they really are the centers, the cultural centers of a lot of these smaller towns.

(screen whooshing) (chill music) - Whether you're drawn to ancestral stories or the wild landscapes that fuel the imagination, Washington has literary landmarks you won't wanna miss.

Here are just a few.

(screen whooshing) - So, for lovers of the "Twilight" series, many make a pilgrimage to a small town in the Olympic Peninsula, in our rainforest, called Forks.

There are maps on line that can show you, you know, where all the sites are for a great visit.

- Lovers of "Dune" should definitely, and Frank Herbert, should go to Ruston Way in Tacoma and go see the Frank Herbert Park, because it's a really beautiful thing as a writer and lover of books and stories to sit there and know that he was looking out at the same water writing "Dune," you know?

- Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma has a Frank Herbert Trail, and there are medallions along the way containing quotations from the author, as well as sand worm statues.

- There's a famous hotel here called the Davenport Hotel, which is right in the middle of Spokane, and Dashiell Hammett lived there when he wrote, and he set a scene in the Maltese Falcon there.

Jack Kerouac used to drink there.

Every writer who comes through Spokane has stayed at that hotel all the way back.

And Carolyn Kaiser, who I spoke of, she first really discovered poetry when Spokane hired a poet laureate named Vachel Lindsay and put him up at the Davenport Hotel.

So it has this long literary history.

If there are any ghosts there, I think they're all probably writers at the Davenport.

- Hugo House on Capitol Hill, which is named for Seattle poet Richard Hugo.

But Hugo House is a nonprofit literary center that offers writing classes, workshops, and other programs, reading series and fellowships.

- So you can go listen to readings from writers, you may show up and there might be a writer who's doing a reading that night that you feel like you hit the lotto that you get to hear them in real life.

But it's a great way to connect with the literary community in Seattle as well.

- Other literary landmarks in Seattle that are my favorites.

August Wilson Way, behind the Bagley Wright Theater of the Seattle Rep, dedicated to the memory of one of Seattle's great playwrights, August Wilson.

- I say, if you want to go to a literary landmark in Washington State, take a ferry up to the San Juan Islands and see where Dave Guterson's book "Snow Falling on Cedars" took place.

Come here on a winter day, a gloomiest possible kind of day, yet get on a ferry or go take a stroll.

Better yet, through the Olympic Rainforest, which is accessible year round, you know, it's inspired a lot of science fiction writers, I would say our landmarks are not houses or plaques, they're the living outdoor environment.

You know, Mount Rainier, Puget Sound, the islands, the interior West, the mountains, those are our landmarks, that's what moved people, great writers to come here, and that's what moved great writers who were born here to try to have books, stories to match the setting.

(screen whooshing) (calm music) - Today's journey through Washington's literary landscape is part of a bigger celebration.

As America approaches its 250th birthday, we're exploring the stories, authors and books that define each corner of this nation, in partnership with the Library of Congress and local Centers for the Book.

- You might know that the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, but what you might not know is, they've established a local Center for the Book in all 50 states and six territories.

Their mission, to make the Library of Congress and its resources even more accessible to all Americans.

(screen whooshing) - I'm Leanne Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is the congressional library, and the national library of the United States, and the largest library in the world, with more than 181 million items, from photographs to maps, from motion pictures to sound recordings, from newspapers to manuscripts and more.

Oh, and yes, there are books, millions of them.

In this series, "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," you will hear about many books and authors and poems and short stories and more, and how together, they make up our nation's literary heritage.

As you do, I hope you will keep in mind that while they are all unique and come from different parts of our vast country, they all have something very important in common.

They all live in the collections of the Library of Congress.

We'll also hear about the library's affiliated Centers for the Book.

There is one in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These centers promote reading, libraries and literacy, and they celebrate and share their state or territory's literary heritage through a variety of programs that you'll hear about in this very special series.

(screen whooshing) (tranquil music) - Today we're joined by the Washington Center for the Book in Olympia, where the state capital's thriving art scene provides the perfect backdrop for literary work.

(screen whooshing) - So the Washington Center for the book exists to promote a love of books, reading and libraries.

The Washington State Zine Contest is currently in its 11th year, and it's a partnership between the Washington State Library, the Washington Center for the Book, the Timberland Regional Library, which has an amazing zine collection themselves, and also Seattle Public and King County Library Systems.

And it's a contest for all ages, our categories start at pre-fourth grade, and goes up through adults of all ages.

And it's just a really fun, creative outlet for folks to come together and work on these little publications that represent themselves.

The Washington Center for the Book is an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the book, which means we get to partner with the Library of Congress on all sorts of cool programs.

And one of the projects we got to do was working with the PALABRA Archive.

And for those who don't know, palabra means word in Spanish.

And we helped connect them with a bunch of our state's wonderful Latine authors, including Kathleen Alcala, former poet laureate of the state Claudia Castro Luna, Carlos Gil, Donna Miscolta, and Christine Miralles Young.

It's a really great project that we're really proud to have contributed to.

(screen whooshing) (vibrant upbeat music) - If you'd like to learn more about their zine writing contest, explore book award recipients for your next TBR pick, or simply want to learn more, visit them online at washingtoncenterforthebook.org.

(screen whooshing) - Well, today's scenic stop in Washington is definitely one for the books.

Thank you again to the Library of Congress and the Washington Center for the Book for partnering with PBS Books as we journey across the country, exploring books, authors, and places that define America's story.

- Have you had a chance to visit any of these places?

Or if you're a local, tell us your favorite spots that out of town book lovers should visit in the chat or comments.

- And if our reading road trip has sparked your curiosity about the landmarks, authors and literary treasures in your own state, the Library of Congress is a great place to start.

Visit in person in Washington D.C., search its Vast digital collections online, or connect with your local Center for the Book.

- [Lauren] For more information on the authors, institutions and places featured in this episode, visit us at pbsbooks.org/readingroadtrip.

(screen whooshing) - And don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss an exciting episode from PBS Books.

And be sure to share this video with all of your friends to start planning your next reading road trip.

- Until next time- - [Both] Happy reading.

(vibrant upbeat music continues) (delicate piano music)