Redmond celebrates

In Redmond, Washington, the holiday season literally comes to light with the month-long celebration of art and light known as Redmond Lights. Redmond’s Downtown Park is illuminated every night from 5:00pm to 11:00pm, December 1, 2022, through January 4, 2023, accompanied by a variety of gatherings, parades, festivities, and contests.

Art/light installations by sixteen artists are featured in the downtown display, including “Holiday Haiku” by Michael Dylan Welch, shown above in pre-event test mode. The five-minute video of Welch’s haiku will be projected on the Buoyant Pavilion stage throughout each evening’s celebration. See the light, starting tomorrow.

a few more local connections

Last week we posted an admittedly incomplete list of books published in 2022 by poets with Cascadia connections. There’s no consolidated site for such information, so any list is bound to be an artifact of memory and happy accident. Herewith, a few more titles that have shown up for your gift shopping possibilities:

• Jeanne Heuving – Brilliant Corners (Chax Press)
• K. Van Petten – for someone (Hello America Stereo Cassette)
• Luther Hughes – A Shiver in the Leaves (BOA Editions)
• Maria McLeod – Skin. Hair. Bones. (Finishing Line)
• Matthew Dickman – Husbandry (W.W. Norton)
• Michelle Poirier Brown – Intimacies (Jack Pine Press)
• Michelle Poirier Brown – You Might Be Sorry You Read This (University of Alberta Press)
• Miranda Mellis – The Revolutionary (Albion Books)
• Nancy Holmes – Arborophobia (University of Alberta Press)

If you have titles to add, please leave a comment!

poetry music

The first Poet Laureate of Washington State, as voted by the Washington State Federation of Women’s Clubs in 1931, Ella Rhoads Higginson was a prolific poet, novelist, and short story writer. She settled in Bellingham, Washington, in her 20s and remained there for the rest of her life, writing and actively promoting education, women’s rights, and the arts.

On Friday, December 2, and Saturday, December 3, 2022, Vox Pacifica and Choir of the Salish Sea will perform music set to Ella Higginson’s sonnet, “The Opal Sea” (among other works). Choral conductor and composer Duncan Tuomi composed the music for “The Opal Sea” as his “musical love letter to this gorgeous region.”

The performances will be at the First Congregational Church in Bellingham. You can find ticket information here and more on Ella Higginson here.

job opps

Hugo House, in Seattle, is one of the most influential literary centers in the region. If you have the interest and qualifications, you could be part of the Hugo House story as it continues through ongoing changes. Hugo House is currently doing job searches for Executive Director, Development Director, Finance Director, and Operations Supervisor, as well as instructors in all genres. Have a look at the Hugo House Jobs & Internships postings.

shopping season

If the season includes gift-giving, here’s a suggestion: support your local poet. While this list is definitely not comprehensive, it includes some of the poets who have a Cascadia connection and whose books were published in 2022.

• Alice Derry – Asking (MoonPath Press)
• Alicia Hokanson – Perishable World (Pleasure Boat Studio)
• Alycia Pirmohamed – Another Way to Split Water (Birlinn)
• Andrew Gottlieb – Tales of a Distance (Wandering Aengus)
• Anne Pitkin – But Still, Music (Pleasure Boat Studio)
• Brendan McBreen – The Memory of Water (MoonPath Press)
• Brittney Corrigan – Daughters (Airlie)
• Carmen Germain – Life Drawing (MoonPath Press)
• Claudia Castro Luna – Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press)
• Connie Soper – A Story Interrupted (Airlie)
• Daniel G. Scott – Travels with Athóma (Aeolus House)
• Janae Johnson – Lessons on Being Tenderheaded: Poems (Write Bloody)
• Jennifer Reimer – Keşke (Airlie)
• Jenny Liou – Muscle Memory (Kaya Press)
• Jessica Gigot – A Little Bit of Land (OSU Press)
• Joanne M. Clarkson – Hospice House (MoonPath Press)
• Kate Reavey – Curve (Empty Bowl)
• Leanne Grabel – My Husband’s Eyebrows (The Poetry Box)
• Lee Meier – Circus Machinery
• Leslie Wharton – She Votes
• Michael Daley – Reinhabited (Dos Madres)
• Michael Daley – True Heresies (Červená Barva)
• Michael Daley – Telémachus (Pleasure Boat Studio)
• Michael Schmeltzer – Empire of Surrender (Wandering Aengus)
• Mike O’Connor – Old Growth (Empty Bowl)
• Rhona McAdam – Larder (Caitlin Press)
• Ricardo Ruiz (& others) – We Had Our Reasons (Pulley Press)
• Ryler Dustin – Something Bright (Green Linden Press)
• Sati Mookherjee – Eye (Ravenna Press)
• Sherry Rind – The Store-House of Wonder and Astonishment (Pleasure Boat Studio)
• Susan Rich – Gallery of Postcards and Maps (Salmon Poetry)
• Suzanne Edison – Since the House Is Burning (MoonPath Press)
• Taneum Bambrick – Intimacies, Received (Copper Canyon Press)
• Tāriq Malik – Exit Wounds (Caitlin Press)
• Yvonne Blomer – The Last Show on Earth (Caitlin Press)

Check with your local independent bookseller, a distributor (such as SPD), or the publisher.

We’re sorry to leave out all those 2020 and 2021 orphans, but if we missed your 2022 book, please leave the poet’s name, the book title, and the publisher (and/or a link) in a comment.

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books, books, books!

Pretty soon we will start seeing the annual best-of lists, but for the moment we still have plenty of book recommendations jumping off the shelf. Here’s another batch:

• BookPage – 2022 gift ideas: Poetry is the best present
• Book Riot – Poetry to Get You Through the Winter
• The Bucknellian – Best poetry reads for November 2022
• Ereads – 12 Best Modern Poetry Books (2022)
• Goodreads – Best Poetry: Opening Round Nominees
• The Guardian – The best recent poetry – review roundup
• The New Yorker – The Best Books of 2022 So Far
• The Washington Post – The 5 best poetry collections of 2022
• Year-End Lists – National Book Award: Poetry 2022

halfway

We’re halfway through November (how’d THAT happen!?), which means NaNoWriMo writers should be well on their way. Are you (officially or unofficially) one of them? We’d love to hear how you’re using NaNoWriMo to boost your writing practice, whether you’re focused on a novel, poetry, memoir, or other literary form. Leave a comment!*

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*Comments are monitored and may not appear until tomorrow.

plaques

The Walk Award winning poems from the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest have now been installed on the Poetry Walk in front of the Bellingham Public Library, 210 Central Avenue, downtown. They will remain in place for about a year. Take a stroll on the Poetry Walk and stop in to see the beautifully remodeled library (now open Sundays).

on poetry

“A teacher can teach almost anybody to write a good poem. That is, one that follows the old rules of rhetoric, tone, structure, symbolism. They’re laboratory poems. They look very like the real thing, as artificial flowers do. What they lack is life.”
Karl Shapiro
(November 10, 1913 – May 14, 2000)

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new open mic

Third Place Books, Lake Forest Park, is hosting an open mic night for Washington writers of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Local Author Open Mic happens on the third Monday of each month, except December. So mark your calendar for Monday, November 21, 2022, 7:00pm, and come try out your words on a new audience. Guidelines here.