job?

We don’t often post job openings here, but this one seemed too good to pass by.

Literary Arts, often seen on these pages, is a dynamic “community-based nonprofit with a mission to engage readers, support writers, and inspire the next generation with great literature.”

Based in Portland, Oregon, Literary Arts is currently seeking a full-time Senior Executive Assistant, reporting to the Executive Director. The application deadline is October 31, 2021, so if you’re interested visit the Open Positions page and follow the link for complete details.

Some poems to watch

A handful of poetry films, listed alphabetically by poet (watch films for additional credits):

Safia Elhillo “Application for the position of Abdelhalim Hafez’s girl”

Mary Elizabeth Frye “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep”

Fiona Tinwei Lam “PlasticPoems”

Alice Oswald “Shadow”

Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias”

Eduardo Yagüe “Los caballos están tristes” / “The horses are so sad”

on poetry

“For me, it’s less a matter of inspiration and more a matter of process. I carry a little notebook in my pocket and throughout the day I overhear things, remember things or think of things and jot down notes and then every morning before it gets light, I have an appointment with myself and take out my notebook and pick something that caught my attention and find out what it wants to be.”
Kim Stafford
(b. October 15, 1949)

. . . . .
photo by Brooke Herbert
quote

live and in person: haiku

Seabeck Haiku Getaway, the annual haiku retreat sponsored by Haiku Northwest, will take place live and in person, Thursday, October 28, through Sunday, October 31, 2021, at the Seabeck Conference Center. Registration is still open and all the details are available on the Haiku Northwest Seabeck Haiku Getaway page.

recommendation roundup

Here’s a new batch of recently recommended poetry books from a variety of sources:

• 49th Shelf – Most Anticipated: Our Fall 2021 Poetry Preview
• The Guardian – The best recent poetry – review roundup
• Independent – 11 best poetry books to get inspired by this National Poetry Day
• Orion – Eleven Poetry Recommendations for Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month
• She Reads – Best Poetry Collections of 2021
• The Telegraph – The 9 best new poetry books to read in 2021
• Waterstones – 2021’s Best Poetry Books

Beat news

In case you missed the announcement from the National Beat Poetry Foundation, or didn’t even know there was a National Beat Poetry Foundation, the NBPF has appointed new Beat Poets Laureate for the 2021-2022 year. Pilar Rodríguez Aranda is the new International Beat Poet Laureate and Ron Whitehead is the new National Beat Poet Laureate USA. Sadly, the Cascadia region is unrepresented among the U.S. Beat Poets Laureate present and past.

Find out more on the NBPF website and on Facebook.

hooray for rain!

About five years ago, we did a post about a Mass Poetry project in Boston that used a Seattle-based product, Rainworks, which makes words or images appear on the sidewalk when it rains. Since then, rain-inspired sidewalk poetry has appeared in many places, including Oklahoma City and Adelaide, AU, Newcastle and Vancouver, WA, as well as Worcester and Methuen, Massachusetts. Ed Madden, Poet Laureate of Columbia, South Carolina, used the product to display the words of local poets around the University.

Now that it’s officially rainy season, you may be inclined to add some poetry to your sidewalk, too. The good news is that Rainworks is now water-based and non-toxic (“You still shouldn’t drink it though,” the website warns, and “Rainworks Invisible Spray will not make you invisible.”). Get your poetry on the Rainworks map and let it rain!

The Madrona Project

On Friday, October 15, 2021, at 7:00pm, please join Village Books, the North Cascades Institute, Humanities Washington, and ArtsWA for a group reading from The Madrona Project Vol. 2, No. 1, featuring Holly J. Hughes and Rena Priest.

For this issue of THE MADRONA PROJECT, editor Holly J. Hughes invited sixty-four women writers and artists from the Northwest to reflect on what it means to live and write in the Cascadian bioregion at the end of 2020, a year that challenged our resilience on every level. Reaching out to national and regionally acclaimed poets and essayists from Alaska to Oregon, as well as new and emerging writers, she brings together a diverse chorus, including Indigenous voices and some who work the land or sea. The voices gathered here remind us that our lives in Cascadia are still interwoven with fir and cedar, salmon and kingfisher, heron and eagle, raven and crow’ perhaps even more so as we face an uncertain future together, turning to the natural world for signs of resilience and hope. Throughout this powerful collection, writers and artists bear witness to the hard truths not only of our history but of ongoing inequities laid bare by the pandemic and the consequences of centuries of colonialism and exploitation, inviting us to consider the urgent question of our time: how to move forward into a future that’s socially just and sustainable, that honors all our voices and stories. With a moving preface by Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest of the Lummi Nation, this collection affirms the beauty, strength, and resilience of Cascadia and her people, and how our fates have always been deeply intertwined and interdependent, now more so than ever.

Advance registration is required.

ten poems

“JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways.”

JSTOR Daily draws on JSTOR’s digital library of academic journals, books, images, primary sources, research reports, and other materials to provide background for understanding the world.

Today, JSTOR Daily offers 10 Poems for National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 – October 15). Enjoy.

OPA Conference: Saturday!

The annual conference of the Oregon Poetry Association will be held this Saturday, October 9, 2021, all day and all online. Registration is required.

This year’s theme, bearing witness, will be addressed by keynote speaker Emmett Wheatfall and there will be four workshop sessions with two workshops each, plus a virtual book room.

Full details, including access links, will be provided with registration. You can find a link to a sample schedule and registration on this page.