BY JACKIE FENDER for WEEKLY VOLCANO 12/19/25 |
Tacoma has a rich history of storytellers. Our literary scene is diverse, deeply rooted, and well supported by boutique publishers, community collectives, and long-running open mics that welcome both new and seasoned voices. Many publications have been born right here in the South Sound or shaped by authors who call this place home, using our familiar landscapes as the backdrop for stories that unfold between the pages.
Books matter. They are portals to other worlds: galaxies to explore, orbits unlike our own, mirrors that reflect who we are, and windows showing who we might become.
And while not everyone has a home library worthy of Beauty and the Beast, many readers turn to audiobooks, stories that travel with us while we drive, walk the dog, or tackle the ever-growing pile of dishes. Listening allows storytelling to return to its oldest form, oral tradition. Even the cavemen did it, and let’s be honest, they probably nailed it.
Here are a few locally crafted audiobooks, some narrated by the authors themselves, offering an added layer of intimacy and power to the experience.
Anatomy of My Mixed Body by Katherine Threat (Available on Libro.fm)
In Anatomy of My Mixed Body, Katherine Threat spins poetry that defies neat labels and rigid definitions. These poems explore identity, belonging, and place, treating body and land as intertwined landscapes of memory and meaning. Rather than offering tidy resolutions, the work embraces complexity, honoring how displacement and homecoming can coexist. The result is a meditative, eco-poetic listening experience that invites reflection on how our identities are shaped, fractured, and reassembled over time.
Thunder Song and Red Paint: The Ancestral Autobiography of a Coast Salish Punk by Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe (Available on Audible)
Sasha LaPointe’s audiobooks pulse with honesty, defiance, and heart. Drawing from family history, personal experience, and cultural research, LaPointe examines Indigenous identity in a world shaped by colonization, environmental change, and creative resistance. These works move effortlessly between the sacred and the everyday, showing how art, music, and community become tools for survival and self-definition. Listening feels less like consuming a book and more like being invited into a story told with fierce care and conviction.
The Equity Starter Kit by Lawrence Garrett (Available on Audible)
Designed as a practical blueprint, The Equity Starter Kit offers educators a framework for building inclusive, student-centered systems in high schools. Lawrence Garrett approaches equity as ongoing, intentional work, requiring strategy, reflection, and courage. Rather than theory alone, the audiobook emphasizes sustainable practices and leadership principles that can be applied in real school communities. It is a focused, accessible listen for anyone ready to turn values into action.
Cinder, Renegades, Heartless, Gilded, and more by Marissa Meyer (Available on Audible)
One of Tacoma’s most widely recognized literary voices, Marissa Meyer has captivated readers worldwide with her inventive reimaginings of fairy tales and classic tropes. Her audiobooks transport listeners into richly imagined worlds where familiar stories are turned on their heads, infused with science fiction, fantasy, and moral complexity. With multiple appearances on The New York Times Best Sellers list, Meyer’s work demonstrates how a Tacoma-based author can build global worlds while staying rooted in local beginnings.
Psychological Thrillers by Jessica Payne (Available on Audible)
Jessica Payne’s novels probe the unsettling edges of trust, obsession, and hidden motives. Her psychological thrillers are tightly paced and emotionally charged, drawing listeners into stories where nothing, and no one, is quite as they seem. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Payne balances dark explorations of the human psyche with sharp realism. With several novels already available and another forthcoming, her audiobooks are well suited for listeners who enjoy suspense that lingers long after the last chapter.
From poetry and memoir to fantasy, thrillers, and educational nonfiction, Tacoma and the South Sound offer something for every genre-loving listener. These selections highlight not only the breadth of local talent but also the power of hearing stories aloud.
Whether you are commuting, wandering, or winding down, listening local is an invitation to explore Tacoma’s literary landscape one voice at a time.
