Celebrating… soon
August 17, 2018
It’s nearly here: the grand re-opening of Hugo House. Mark your calendar and join the festivities on Saturday, September 22, 2018, 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM, to see the 10,000 square foot space for writers and readers, and to enjoy readings, performances, installations, music, and more. It’s all at 1634 Eleventh Avenue, on the corner of Eleventh and East Olive, in Seattle. See the full line-up and RSVP.
Meanwhile, the Hugo House Fall Catalog is now online and registration will begin soon (with Early Bird pricing August 20 through September 3).
Here comes Cirque
August 16, 2018
Bothell, Portland, and Bellingham will celebrate the launch of CIRQUE #18 and two poetry collections from the newly established Cirque Press at a series of readings by current and past contributors. Join the celebration:
Friday, August 17, 2018, 7:00pm, at Tsuga Fine Art, Bothell, Washington
Friday, August 25, 2018, 7:00pm, at Taborspace, Portland, Oregon
Tuesday, August 28, 2018, 7:00pm, at the Mount Baker Theatre Encore Room, Bellingham, Washington
Meanwhile, submissions to Cirque #19 are open through September 21.
more awards
August 15, 2018
The Washington Center for the Book (a partnership of The Seattle Public Library and Washington State Library) has announced the finalists for the 2018 Washington State Book Awards. Categories include poetry, fiction, biography/memoir, history/general nonfiction, and several categories of youth books.
The finalists in poetry are:
- Thresholds by Glenna Cook (MoonPath Press)
- Killing Marias: A Poem for Multiple Voices by Claudia Castro Luna (Two Sylvias Press)
- Timber Curtain by Frances McCue (Chin Music Press)
- Mary’s Dust by Melinda Mueller (Entre Rios Books)
- Trazas de mapa, trazas de sangre / Map Traces, Blood Traces by Eugenia Toledo, translated by Carolyne Wright (Mayapple Press)
- Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha (Red Hen Press)
See the complete list of finalists on the WCB website and mark your calendar for the awards celebration on Saturday, October 13, 2018, at the Seattle Public Library. Congratulations to Washington’s terrific writers.
Congratulations!
August 14, 2018
It’s pretty exciting when there are names you know on lists of winners, and that’s the news today as Bellingham’s own Rena Priest is named an American Book Award winner for her book Patriarchy Blues (MoonPath Press). Congratulations to Rena and all of The 2018 American Book Award Winners!
Women of the World Qualifier #1 and open mic
August 13, 2018
Tomorrow, Tuesday, August 14, 2018, Re-bar Seattle will host a Seattle Poetry Slam open mic (open to all poets), and the first Women of the World Poetry Slam Qualifier. The WOWPS competition is open to those who identify as women or gender non-binary. Poets must have three poems: 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 4 minutes, with a ten-second grace period. The 1st and 2nd place winners will move onto Women of the World Seattle Finals to compete against 8 other poets hoping to win the chance to represent Seattle Poetry Slam in 2019.
Ringed Light on Freshwater Swamp*
August 12, 2018
2018 Walk Award
By Nancy Canyon
Wooden oars slosh cutting lazy eddies
through narrow channel low water
turns swampy orange flicks and
flashes sunfish circling murky shoal
fins wag to cacophony of insect buzz
green stalks curl and arch chirp plop
frog-kick dive deep under mirrored
surface reflects cirrus streaks of
spilled milk above rippling tea below
stems refract at water break black lily
roots twist gold marbled surface laps
red-winged blackbirds trill dragonflies
flit past grandpa’s green rowboat.
. . . . .
*Copyright 2018 by Nancy Canyon. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.
Reasons to go to… Chicago
August 11, 2018
Currently on view at the Poetry Foundation, in Chicago, is a free interactive poem and poetry exhibit: “On Visiting the Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens” by Khaty Xiong. In the exhibit, readers/viewers are invited to respond to Xiong’s poem with lines of their own (pictured). The installation will continue through Friday, September 14, 2018.
