Seattle, WA 
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Sherman Alexie, 2007 National Book Award Winner (for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian), cooked up this program after Bumbershoot's invitation to do pretty much whatever he wanted at the festival (earned after 20 years of Alexie's successes in short stories, novels, poetry, performance, film, and even comedy). The result: a terrific variety show featuring some of the acclaimed writer's favorites: musician and longtime collaborator Jim Boyd; the literary band The West Marginals (singing country-tinged songs of heartache); illustrator/writer Ellen Forney; songwriter/author Sean Nelson, and Stranger editor Christopher Frizzelle. Alexie will orchestrate this literary spectacular, which he describes as "authors and songwriters sitting around telling new stories and singing new songs together." Rumor has it the show will include a tribute to Hall and Oates.