Read with Pride Northwest was a nonprofit, volunteer-run initiative that ran from 2013 to 2017, hosted by the writing nonprofit Old Growth Northwest. During its five year tenure, RWP organized multiple events in Seattle, WA and Portland, OR to celebrate the awesomeness of LGBTQIA romance fiction and genre fiction. These activities included an annual conference held at the Seattle Public Library.

The goal of Old Growth Northwest’s Read with Pride Northwest initiative was to give writers and readers all over the region a chance to gather, meet, and discuss LGBTQIA romance fiction and genre fiction. This initiative included free public reading events, local reader meetings, and the annual conference Read with Pride Northwest, previously known as Gay Romance Northwest/GRNW. The first GRNW conference was held on September 14, 2013. The conference has since been held annually, with GRNW 2014 on 9/20/2014, GRNW 2015 on 9/26/2015, and GRNW 2016 on 9/24/16. In 2017, GRNW formally changed its name to Read with Pride Northwest, and held its fifth and final conference on November 4, 2017 at the Seattle Public Library.

 

 

RWP Around the Web

A collection of articles about our past activities:

Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up in Seattle: September 14, 2013 (Reviews by Jesswave, 6/2/13)

Gay Literary Fiction is Hawt! Gay City Hosts 3 Local Authors (Seattle Gay Scene, 7/17/13)

Seattle Reading Event and Irregulars Giveaway (Reviews by Jesswave, 7/20/13)

University Book Store to Feature Readings by Local Writers (The Seattle Lesbian, 7/23/13)

A Happily Ever After for All: Northwest Gay Romance Meet-Up (Lambda Literary, 8/11/13)

Monday News: Reporters beware, computers are writing your news now; Big books are back; Why I hate the strong heroine and more. (Dear Author, 8/19/13)

Love is Love: Four Authors who celebrate Gay Romance (Seattle Gay News, 8/30/13)

Seattle Conference Spreads the Love about LGBTQ Romance Fiction (Lambda Literary, 8/31/13)

Romantic Wednesdays: Gay Romance (SPL Shelf Talk, 9/4/13)

Love in black and white – Authors’ event offers an in-depth look at Gay romance writing (Seattle Gay News, 9/6/13)

Celebrating Love Stories at Seattle LGBTQ Romance Conference (Pride Foundation, 9/6/13)

The Sunday Post AKA What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 9-15-13 (Reading Reality, 9/15/13)

How to Get LGBT Romance Books into Libraries by Marlene Harris (Reviews by Jesswave, 10/4/13)

What I Learned While Running a Gay Romance Conference by Tracy Timmons-Gray (Reviews by Jesswave, 10/15/13)

BLOG TOUR & GIVEAWAY: Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up 2014 (Boys in Our Books, 8/13/14)

Dear Mr. Bezos: Pushing Queer Romance Forward with Community Action (Lambda Literary, 9/16/14)

Working in your Community to get the Word Out about Queer Romance (Queer Romance Month, 9/29/14)

Gay Romance Northwest Meet-Up – 2015 Recap (Boys in our Books, 9/28/15)

Where Do You Want the Queer Romance Genre to Go? Responses from Readers (Queer Romance Month, 10/29/15)

Read with Pride Northwest was proudly hosted by Old Growth Northwest, an arts nonprofit that seeks to cultivate a diverse cultural ecosystem in the Pacific Northwest through creative writing events, workshops, and other programs. To learn more about Old Growth Northwest, click here.