visit!
October 20, 2018
After months (years?) of architectural renderings and construction photos, the latest e-newsletter from Hugo House has an actual photo of the interior (above).
As Tree Swenson, Executive Director, says, “We are still unpacking boxes, but already thousands of people have visited, fall classes are underway, and we have been presenting a fantastic stream of events…. If you have not yet visited, please come explore this place. Thanks to the support of our devoted community, this small nonprofit now owns our ground-floor space — making this Seattle’s permanent home for everyone who believes in the power of words.”
We know you believe. Visit Hugo House, soon. And to get the latest HH first, sign up for the newsletter.
opportunity
October 19, 2018
Here is an opportunity for short-fiction writers at an almost unheard-of price. It’s a new Kahini program in short fiction designed for those writers who want the absolutely highest level of craft but are on a bit of a budget or unable to afford a traditional MFA program. The bi-weekly Studies in Short Fiction program focuses on the work of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Alice Munro, Gabriel García Márquez, and William Trevor. Facilitated by Jordan Hartt, the year-long online program begins November 8, 2018. Read the complete description and register soon!
planning your WriMo
October 18, 2018
Two weeks. That’s how long you have to get your verbs in order. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts November 1, and whether you plan to write the first draft of a 50,000-word novel or put your 50,000 words to work on poetry, it’s a great opportunity to be really productive.
2018 marks NaNoWriMo’s “20th year of encouraging creativity, education, and the power of the imagination through the largest writing event in the world.” Last year, NaNoWriMo involved 394,507 participants on six continents, and more than 58,000 of them met their 50,000-word goal. Will you be one this year?
Learn more on the NaNoWriMo website and on Facebook. Mark your calendar. Make the commitment. It could change your life.
Saturday workshops!
October 17, 2018
In case you haven’t yet signed up, there are still a few spaces available in the two poetry workshops that will be offered this Saturday, October 20, 2018, in downtown Bellingham.
From 10:00am to Noon, Jory Mickelson (top left) will present Spectacular, Wild, Precarious! The workshop will use Yellowstone National Park as lens and inspiration, “as metaphor and structure to reinvigorate and let a little wildness in to our writing.”
From 1:00 to 3:00pm, Laura Read and Maya Jewell Zeller (middle and lower left, respectively) will present The American Character & The Personal Pronoun, a workshop that “will help you generate writing that explores your own individual lives as artifacts of our current national landscape.”
The workshops will be held upstairs at Mindport, 210 W Holly Street, Bellingham, Washington. Registration is required and all fees benefit the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest: $30 for one workshop or $50 for both workshops offered the same day, paid by check or cash at the workshop.
Register (soon!) by sending an email to boyntonpoetrycontest@hotmail.com indicating the workshop(s) you wish to take and including your name and a phone number. Please bring writing materials.
See the full workshop descriptions and instructor bios (as well as information about the two November workshops) on the Workshops page.
a serving of poetry
October 16, 2018
The Poetry Society of America (PSA) has just launched Poems on Wheels, a collaboration with Citymeals on Wheels, which provides meals and companionship to New York City’s homebound elderly, delivering over 2 million meals each year.
Each season, PSA will select a poem for inclusion with meal deliveries. This fall, the poem “Autumn Dusk” by Sara Teasdale will be included in Emergency Food Packages, which are delivered to over 18,000 meal recipients to ensure they have food on hand should hard winter weather delay regular deliveries.
the creatures are stirring!
October 15, 2018
Can you hear the yowls and yaps, the squeals and chirps? That growling sound, the one that makes you clutch one another in your tent… that’s the sound of SpeakEasy 22: Animal Beast Creature.
The SpeakEasy poetry series returns to Bellingham on Saturday, October 20, 2018, as poets Jennifer Bullis, Elizabeth J. Colen, Paul Hunter, Jeffrey Morgan, Bethany Reid, Kimberly Roe, Ely Shipley, and Sheila Sondik explore the power of animals — persona, myth, spirit, science, and a deep wildness. The program is free and begins at 7:00pm in the Encore Room of the Mount Baker Theatre. Village Books will be on hand to sell the poets’ books. Event info on Facebook.
SpeakEasy is an occasional poetry series that emphasizes themed, audience-friendly presentations of quality poetry by Cascadia-region writers. It is produced in Bellingham, Washington, by Luther Allen, author of The View from Lummi Island, and Judy Kleinberg.
Come experience the animal magnetism.
I leapt*
October 14, 2018
2018 Merit Award
By Jacob Murphy, grade 12
Against all odds, I’m here, leapt from
Incoherent haphazardness and desolate parenthood.
Pardoned from hell, set out to breath clean air.
I leapt. Free from motel hopping
With empty bags derived
from Walgreen shopping.
Free from pitching a tent
Momma pressured from rent
And yet I still leapt from my last cent
To bring you flowers
I leapt. From the path forged from fire and wrath,
and one hell of a left hook
To light, love and one hell of a hug
I leapt. Free from the yellow brick road,
free from training wheels
love to the world
Free from chains, dancing as we twirl
Free from sadness, laughing till stomachs curl
I’m free.
I leapt. Free from following orders, break ’em bosses
9 to 5 on the weekends, making their mac sauces
This time around I’ll be in no one’s footsteps
They are stuck in a 10 1/2 size box
My step is endless.
I leapt.
. . . . .
*Copyright 2018 by Jacob Murphy. Broadside illustrated by Kim Wulfestieg.
