Back in February of 2011 I was lucky enough to catch a show titled Brief Encounters at the Richard Hugo House on Capitol Hill. The show featured writers and musical acts on the same bill and prompted them to talk about brief encounters they'd had.

Writers in residence at Hugo House debuted some poetry, and read short stories, Matthew Simmons who's next collection of short stories is due out in May 2013 (pre-order here) spoke so eloquently I can still see him standing at the podium.

The musicians followed with brief sets. Jason Dodson (The Maldives) played a solo, sit down, acoustic set of new music (so fresh he brought the lyrics with him to read), Laura Love played her brand of folk/funk/bluegrass protest jams, and a then little more than local celebrity named Macklemore got up and did all of the above. He told a short story about waiting in line for a Kanye show in New Mexico, read some of his beat-meets-slam style poetry, then performed a set of songs he'd been working on.

This coming February the prompt is Strong Female Leads. On the bill is Seattle's own Bad Amazon Katie Kate, joining poet Arlene Kim, novelist Patricia Smith, and catoonist/zinester Kelly Froh, and if it's anything like the last Hugo House music-meets writing experiment, it's gonna be worth every penny. Seats are extremely limited in this place, but it's comfy, and comes highly recommended.

Tickets here.