A Memoir Reading on Mental Health and Resilience

Hugo House and Seattle Office of Arts & Culture present Janée J. Baugher who’ll read excerpts from her newly completed memoir, “Suicide in the Mirror,” in which she examines her lifelong depression and suicidality from the inside/out. Through confessional storytelling that explores healing the self, destigmatizing mental illness, and the power of writing-through-trauma, Baugher shines light on illness, hope, and the lived-experience. This special community event invites all to listen, reflect, and engage in frank conversations about mental health, death, and life. To foster awareness about suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention, the event will include an audience Q&A with NAMI-Seattle (National Alliance on Mental Illness).

Content Warning:

This event will include firsthand accounts of depression, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, which may be distressing for some attendees. Caring for yourself before, during, and after the event is encouraged. Not appropriate for children under 16.

Other details:

· This is a sober event. The HH bar will be closed.

· Resources on mental health support and community outreach will be available.

· Signed copies of The Body’s Physics: Poems ($10) and The Ekphrastic Writer: Creating Art-Influenced Poetry, Fiction and Nonfiction ($35) will be available for purchase (cash, Venmo).

Janée Baugher

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture awarded fourth-generation Seattleite Janée J. Baugher a 2024-2025 CityArtist grant to complete her illness memoir. For her third full-length poetry collection, The Andrew Wyeth Chronicles, she won Tupelo Press’s Dorset Prize (March 2026). She’s also the author of the only craft book of its kind, The Ekphrastic Writer (McFarland, 2020). Baugher’s writing has been adapted for the stage and set to music at venues such as University of Cincinnati, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Dance Now! Ensemble (Florida), Otterbein University, and University of North Carolina-Pembroke. Baugher has been a featured poet at Bumbershoot, on Seattle Channel TV, and at the Library of Congress.