'An invisible recession' is hitting Seattle's Hugo House

When poet and podcast host Ronit Plank began taking classes at Seattle's Hugo House in 2009, she found that it wasn't just about sitting in a room with other writers. It was also about breaking down barriers.

"And shyness, and that insularity that you can have as a writer," Plank said. "You're there collaborating and listening to people's voices that are different from you own. When you go to a dedicated place like Hugo House, I feel like you're announcing yourself as a writer and a creative. You're saying you belong in this place."

The nonprofit writers center has not only been a place to practice her craft. She found her voice.

But Hugo House's future as a incubator for such emerging writers is precarious.

Hugo House Executive Director Diana Delgado previously told The Seattle Times that the organization is financially struggling and weighing the option of closing for good.

Delgado says that when she took on her role in May 2023, she inherited an organization "in great need of financial, cultural as well as administrative stability."

At the beginning of the pandemic, Hugo House was able to pivot from in-person classes to a variety of online options. But as more people have returned to in-person events, demand for classes has dipped.

"I've spoken about this with many people, both internally and externally around this idea around an invisible recession — that literary institutions are feeling that ripple," Delgado said.

Expenses like rent, bills, and software for online classes may not be visible to Hugo House students, but the costs have piled up for Delgado.

"I think that's something that kind of moves away from us; this idea that yes, we are not-for-profit, but we are responsible for a budget. And the budget in some ways doesn't lie," Delgado said. "And we can bring poet math as often as we can to the table to creatively imagine what we can do. But I think that is sort of the ship that we have to kind of sail from."

Earlier this year, the Hugo House board approved an "organizational restructure," which included layoffs.

When it comes to weighing whether more layoffs are on the horizon, Delgado doesn't provide a definitive answer, but says leadership is focused on building "stabilization."

"It's really an opportunity for us to really reconfigure in the best way forward, so that we can have Hugo house for another 25 years," Delgado said. "And we're looking at it with a genuine understanding of the human impact. But at the same time trying to evaluate it in a fair way."

Listen to the full interview with Hugo House Executive Director Diana Delgado by clicking the play button at the top of the story.