Tuesday lunch with Expedition Press

Expedition Press, in Kingston, Washington, creates gorgeous letterpress prints of poetry. On Tuesdays at 12:30pm, Myrna Keliher, the owner, artist, and pressperson at Expedition, offers a reading of a favorite poem along with some personal musings. Think of it as an amuse-bouche for your lunch hour. It’s free and live on Instagram or visit the Expedition Press website. The Poetry Lunch series continues every Tuesday through December 13, 2022.

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photo: Expedition Press 3x3ft linocut inspired by “The Crossing” by Jericho Brown and printed with a steamroller at Wayzgoose Kitsap

Thursday online

Tomorrow, Thursday, December 3, 2020, Edmonds Center for the Arts (Edmonds, WA) presents the first-ever WE SPEAK Festival, a virtual, evening-length celebration of spoken word poetry and storytelling. Featuring critically-acclaimed artists Jericho Brown, Andrea Gibson, Kealoha, Shane Koyczan, and Robin Sanders, alongside talented local youth chosen through a juried selection process, WE SPEAK seeks to embody the complex themes and concerns of the year 2020.

Admission is “Pay What You Can $5-$45” and the festival will be available for playback by ticket holders for four days after the live program.

Additional details in My Edmonds News.

poetry in your ears

If recent publications are any indication, poetry readers are also eager to listen. Several poets have issued audio versions of their latest books at the same time as the books themselves. For example,
Margaret Atwood, Dearly
Jericho Brown, The Tradition
Barbara Kingsolver, How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)
Aimee Nezhukumatathil, World of Wonders

In addition, here are some other places to find audio poetry:

• Audible – 10 Best Poetry Audiobooks for the Ultimate Lyrical Experience
• Audiobooks.com – poetry
• Book Riot – Rhyme and Rhythm: 6 Great Poetry Audiobooks
• Bustle – Poetry Audiobooks DO Exist — Here Are 6 Of Our Favorites
• Naxos AudioBooks – Collections of classical masterworks
• Overdrive/Libby – search for poetry audiobooks or by title
• Poetry Foundation – Audio Poem of the Day

Happy listening!

2020–2021 Lineup for Word Works

Hugo House has announced the lineup for Word Works: Writers on Writing 2020–2021. “Word Works craft talks focus on writing as process rather than finished product, examining how language works to inspire and provoke new ideas through lectures and live close readings of the writer’s own or others’ work.”

Each program features a different presenter and topic:

• Porochista Khakpour: Writing Toward & Against Identity – December 4, 2020
• Lauren Groff: Fiction’s Hidden Architectures – February 5, 2021
• Jericho Brown: Nonsense and Senselessness – March 5, 2021
• Melissa Febos: In Praise of the Confessional – April 9, 2021
• Joy Harjo: Our Songs Came Through – April 23, 2021
• Russell Banks: Memory, Abandonment, and Betrayal – May 14, 2021

All Word Works events this season will be held online. Series passes and single-event tickets are now available. See the Word Works page for details on the presenters, topics, and tickets.

festival season

The 2020 Tell It Slant Poetry Festival (formerly the Amherst Poetry Festival) is a free event that celebrates the poetic legacy of Emily Dickinson and the contemporary creativity of the Pioneer Valley (Massachusetts) and beyond. This year’s festival will be held remotely, and will take place September 14-20, 2020.

The schedule is out now and includes headliners Ada Limón, Jericho Brown, Kimaya Diggs, Franny Choi, Shayla Lawson, and as is tradition, the Emily Dickinson Marathon.

Space is limited, so make sure to sign up for individual programs in advance.

two poetry fundraisers

Two poetry organizations that are vital to Cascadia and to the wider world are holding virtual fundraising events and hope you will participate.

Tonight, Tuesday, June 23, 2020, at 6:00pm Pacific, the Skagit River Poetry Foundation presents Poemed and Uplifted, featuring poets Tony Curtis, Daemond Arrindell, Octavia Prosser, Olivia Elias, and Lucy Shainin. NOTE: “Due to a regional internet upload outage, we were unable to stream our live event. Thank you for your patience and I hope you will tune in on Sunday, June 28th at 6 PM for a re-broadcast of this event.”

Next Tuesday, June 30, at 5:00pm Pacific, Copper Canyon Press presents For the Future of Poetry, featuring Ellen Bass, Arthur Sze, and Jericho Brown, along with Editor-in-Chief Michael Wiegers.

Your generosity, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted.

Pulitzers

Pulitzer Administrator Dana Canedy has just announced the 2020 Pulitzer Prizes.

The finalists in poetry are:
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Only As the Day Is Long by Dorianne Laux
Dunce by Mary Ruefle

The 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry has been awarded to Jericho Brown. Congratulations!

Watch the video of the announcement and read the full list of winners on the Pulitzer site.

on poetry

 
 
“I’ve always said that you know you’re a poet when you type an em dash and you hit the delete button, and you type a colon and you hit the delete button, and you type an em dash and you hit the delete button, and you type a colon and you hit the delete button. If you can do that for about three hours straight, trying to figure out which one is the best one, if you can do that for three hours and call that a good time, then you’re probably a poet.”
Jericho Brown
(b. April 14, 1976)

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photo

new season!

The Seattle Arts & Lectures 2018/2019 season events are now posted and available for subscription.

The Poetry Series will feature

• Alice Walker – October 4, 2018
• Danez Smith – November 26, 2018
• Solmaz Sharif – February 11, 2019
• Ilya Kaminsky – April 1, 2019
• HERE: Poems for the Planet, featuring Kimiko Hahn & friends – April 25, 2019
• Jericho Brown – May 21, 2019

These events often sell out, and Poetry is just one of the series on offer. Visit the SAL Subscriptions page for more information.

listen up

Got five minutes? Spend it at PoetryNow, a new podcast partnership between the Poetry Foundation and WFMT in Chicago. Each five-minute audio segment features a poet reading and talking about a single poem. You can subscribe to receive the twice-weekly releases or wait for them to show up on the Poetry Foundation website. See the announcement and the full schedule of upcoming episodes or go directly to the first PoetryNow segment, Jericho Brown reading and talking about his poem “Herman Finley.”