meet the judges

Each year, the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest committee invites two esteemed poets to serve as contest judges. Separately and together, they carefully consider every poem and then make the challenging choices. This year, they will have the additional honor of selecting the winners of the George Drake Award for the best student poem and the Susan J. Erickson Award for the best adult poem.

We are pleased to introduce the judges for the 2024 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest:

Angela Belcaster is a lifelong supporter and maker of the arts. Her work has appeared in Florida Review, 580 Split, Tampa Review, Clover, Pontoon, and elsewhere. She believes that local written and spoken word are deeply important in nurturing individual lives and community strength. She finds that her work as medical director of Lake Whatcom Center grows her sense of service and connection to the Bellingham community and reinforces in her the belief that lives are like poems: things to be held loosely and loved, led by the heart, and supported by many.
 
 
 
 
Ryler Dustin grew up in Bellingham and, after falling in love with poetry at a local open mic, went on to represent Seattle in the Individual World Poetry Slam. He’s the author of Heavy Lead Birdsong from Write Bloody Publishing and his new collection, Trailer Park Psalms, features poems from his boyhood in Bellingham and was chosen for the University of Pittsburgh Press’s prestigious Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. He holds an MFA from the University of Houston and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his work appears in outlets like Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, and Major Jackson’s podcast The Slowdown. He lived in Spain, Michigan, Jack Kerouac’s former home, and a cabin in the Oregon wilderness before returning to Bellingham last fall.

Contest submissions open Friday, March 1, 2024.

an archive of the Underground

We’ve mentioned Poems on the Underground before (as far back as 2011!), along with other poetry projects that put poems onto buses, trains, and other transport.

These projects, typically run by a devoted local team in cooperation with various transportation agencies, bring poetry into daily life. Some projects display the words of well-known poets and others, such as Seattle’s Poetry in Public and Whatcom County’s Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest, draw on local writers of all ages and experience.

But who knows whether that high-school poet could be the next city or state poet laureate or that first-ever poem could lead to publication in magazines, anthologies, and collected works?

For perspective, look no further than Poems on the Underground. Since January 1986, poetry has been a part of the London Underground experience, bringing “poetry old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, to three million daily travellers on London’s Underground system.” The project’s archive “includes hundreds of posters, eclectic memorabilia and letters from some of the greatest poets of the past century” (“Nobel Prize winners Seamus Heaney and Louise Glück, former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, and Philip Larkin, among many other famous names from the world of poetry”).

The entire archive has now been donated to Cambridge University Library, where it is housed, catalogued, and “available for consultation at Cambridge University Library by anyone interested in seeing it.”

. . . . .
image: “The Weight of the World” by Seni Seneviratne
thanks to Roger Gilman for the heads up

planning for… National Poetry Month

Yes, it’s still February, but April will be here in a minute and there will be a plethora of delicious poetry on offer, so get out your calendar and start taking notes…

In Bellingham, Village Books is presenting the first Poetry Fest: a series of readings and workshops scheduled throughout the month. And of course poetry happens year-round at Village Books, so keep an eye on their Events page.

Wilcox and Daley in Bellingham

You’re invited to join Finn Wilcox and Michael Daley (pictured above in 1982 being ticketed in Portland, Oregon, for trespass on a freight train) as they read recent poems from their own books, Too Late to Turn Back Now (Empty Bowl) by Finn Wilcox and Reinhabited: New and Selected Poems (Dos Madres) and True Heresies (Červená Barva) by Michael Daley.

Wilcox and Daley will read at Honey Moon in Bellingham on Saturday, March 9, 2024, at 8:00pm, with jazz provided by Chuck Easton on guitar.

. . . . .
photo by Steve R. Johnson

TIME for poetry

Very exciting to see Ada Limón included among the 12 TIME Women of the Year.

Visit Ada Limón’s website to learn more about the poet, her projects, and her books. Congratulations, Ada Limón!

new books

Here’s a fresh list of poetry books that are making big impressions on readers:

• Electric Lit – 7 Poetry Collections About the Complexities of Black Womanhood
• The Guardian – The best recent poetry – review roundup
• Literary Hub – Faith, Witches, Grief, and Smoke: New Poetry Books to Read in February
• The Millions – Must-Read Poetry: Winter 2024
• read poetry – 5 February 2024 Releases That Will Make You Fall Deeper in Love with Poetry
• The Week – Kwame Alexander’s 6 must-read books about the art of poetry

Happy reading!

SpeakEasy returns!

Back in 2019, when Luther Allen, Susan Alexander, Bruce Beasley, Jennifer Bullis, and Dayna Patterson began writing a series of linked poems on spirituality, it seemed like the resulting poems would be presented as the next SpeakEasy, in early 2020. It wasn’t long before things went sideways, and, thanks to COVID, every aspect of the project became more challenging. Finally, a year after the poets began, the poems were presented as SpeakEasy 27 in a series of Zoom readings and conversations.

Now, at long last, SpeakEasy 27.5 will bring the poets together in person for the first time to read a selection from the series and to launch a book of the full collection, A Spiritual Thread (also available at Village Books).

This Sunday, February 25, 2024, at 4:00pm, SpeakEasy 27.5 will be the first event in a new poetry series, Strong Waters, at a new venue, Faith Lutheran Church, 2750 McLeod Road, in Bellingham, with special thanks to pastor/poet Jory Mickelson.

The event is free, with plenty of free parking. A Spiritual Thread and the poets’ own books will be available for purchase. Hope to see you there.

celebrating Jim Harrison

Copper Canyon Press is pulling out the stops for a free online evening celebrating Jim Harrison and his remarkable poetry. Hosted by Jim’s poetry editor, Joseph Bednarik, featured guests include Rebecca Solnit, writer, historian, and activist, who will be writing the introduction to The Theory and Practice of Rivers; Jamie Harrison, novelist and Jim’s eldest daughter; and Todd Goddard, author of Jim’s forthcoming biography.

The event will include stories, favorite poems, reflections, and never-before-heard archival recordings of Jim reading from The Theory and Practice of Rivers, which will soon be reissued.

Register now to join the event on Zoom on Thursday, March 7, 2024, at 5:15pm Pacific.

. . . . .
Photograph by Scott T. Baxter

on poetry

“Don’t worry about what everybody else is doing.”
Carmen Giménez Smith
(b. February 20, 1971)

. . . . .
photo credit: Jason Gardner
quote

Chuckanut Writers Conference 2024

Summer will be here before you know it, and that means the in-person return of the Chuckanut Writers Conference. This year’s CWC will be held June 28-29, 2024, at Sehome High School in Bellingham. Registration is now open and if you use the code EarlyBird now through March 15, 2024, you can save $100 off the registration price!