Featured Poets 2023
​​January 2, 2023
Featured Poet: Everyone
An All Open Mic Evening
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​​January 9, 2023
Paul Hlava Ceballos
Paul Hlava Ceballos is the author of banana [ ], winner of the 2021 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, chosen by Ilya Kaminsky (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022). Order banana [ ] here.
His collaborative chapbook, Banana [ ] / we pilot the blood (3rd Thing Press, 2021), shares pages with Quenton Baker, Christina Sharpe, and Torkwase Dyson.
He has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Artist Trust, and the Poets House. His work has been published in Poetry Magazine, Pleiades, Triquarterly, Poetry Northwest, BOMB, and Narrative Magazine, among other journals and newspapers, has been translated to the Ukrainian, and nominated for the Pushcart.
He currently lives in Seattle, where he practices echocardiography.
Author photo by Tasha Nicole Uria.
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About the Book
banana [ ] reveals the extractive relationship the United States has with the Americas and its people through poetic portraits of migrants, family, and memory. The title poem is part poetry and part reportage that traces the history of bananas in Latin America using only found text from sources such as history books, declassified CIA documents, and commercials. The book includes collage, Ecuadorian decimas, sonnets, and a long poem interspersed with photos and the author’s mother’s bilingual idioms. Traversing language and borders, global and personal histories, traditional and invented forms, this book guides us beyond survival to love.
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The first poem in this book completely swept me off my feet. As pages of this book turn, one quickly realizes that the whole manuscript is filled with invention, passion, and skill. I love the restlessness and the attentiveness to language. But most importantly: the invention and lyric textures in this book aren’t here just for the show; they are setting to music the urgency of our time. That is a hard thing to do, and this poet does it again and again.
-Ilya Kaminsky, Donald Hall Prize guest judge and author of Deaf Republic
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January 16, 2023
Devany Kiah
Devany Robinett Is a born and raised Everett girl, she grew up on this street grand avenue her whole life house hopping with her real estate agent mom who had her at sixteen. Devany's poetry reflects coming of age, and the hardships that come with the fun of being young and in love. She is a wandering soul who values her elders and the technology of the past. Recently she began a pop up poetry shop on Hewitt with an underwood type writer from the early 50s, and loves spinning records featuring iconic women writers like Joni Mitchell and Lana Del Rey. She is connected with her community and takes pride in working for family owned locally loved establishments. We are excited to see where her writing will go as she gains more life experience.
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January 23, 2023
Brandon Pitts
Author Brandon Pitts, writing as Simon Occulis, was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Richland, Washington, then immigrated to Toronto, where he rose to become an influential force in the Gadist literary movement. Diaspora Dialogues cited him quickly as an "emerging voice" in the literary scene in Toronto. He has published three very successful books of poetry, Pressure to Sing, Tender in Age of Fury, and In the Company of Crows. Each book has received both popular and critical acclaim and enjoys a cult following.
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Photo by Brenda Clews at the Palmerston Library.
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About The Gospel of Now
An astounding and astonishing debut novel by Brandon Pitts writing as Simon Occulis. " Being a teenager in a Manhattan Project town forms the foundation of my art. When you grow up in a community where the people are proud that they made the plutonium flor the Nagasaki and trinity test bombs, you can't get away from it. I created The Gospel of Now and the companion artworks to document that surreal space of living in an isolated Manhattan Project town at the zenith of the Cold War, and its under-documented contribution, along with other rural Washington State communities, to the Seattle cultural explosion of the 90s." - Brandon Pitts "The day I quit taking Ritalin, I realized I was fucked. Eighteen, uneducated, and dependent on a drug I couldn't afford without my father's health insurance - I was already a loser. Could've tried harder, but what was the point? It was 1986, and my generation was the first in a century that wouldn't do as well as their parents. The music sucked, the clothes were shitty, and everything people valued seemed ridiculous. This is what happens when you elect a movie star as president. Life used to be different. I was a happy kid and felt good about myself. I was cool with Christ and enjoyed going to church until I was old enough to be called upon to read from the bible. That's when trouble began. My father sat like a despot, surrounded by darkness, one light over the table to save electricity, watching..." - Opening lines of The Gospel of Now Author Brandon Pitts, writing as Simon Occulis, was born in Los Angeles, California, grew up in Richland, Washington, then immigrated to Toronto, where he rose to become an influential force in the Gadist literary movement. Diaspora Dialogues cited him quickly as an "emerging voice" in the literary scene in Toronto. He has published three very successful books of poetry, Pressure to Sing, Tender in Age of Fury, and In the Company of Crows. Each book has received both popular and critical acclaim and enjoys a cult following. His latter two books, both published by Mosaic Press, have gone into multiple editions and he has performed his electrifying poetry recitals in Canada, the United States and Europe. These signature performances are available on youtube. The Gospel of Now is his debut novel writing as Simon Occulis and is the first of a series of projects under his new artistic identity. He now resides in Montreal.
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January 30, 2023
Julia Gaskill
Julia Gaskill (she/her) is a professional daydreamer hailing from Portland, Oregon. She has competed multiple times on national stages and has toured with her poetry across North America. Her work has been published through Vagabond City Lit, Nailed Magazine, Knight’s Library Magazine, and more, and she’s had her poetry featured on YouTube channels such as SlamFind, Write About Now, and Button Poetry. She was included in the 2020 anthology ‘In Absentia’ and will have work in forthcoming anthologies through FreezeRay Poetry and Alternating Currents Press. Julia is the author of four chapbooks, runs the mic Slamlandia out of Portland, and is the creator of the spoken word album, Stouthearted Bitch. Her debut full length collection, 'weirdo', came out through Game Over Books in October 2022. It goes without saying, she loves Muppets more than you. Find Julia at @geekgirlgrownup or facebook.com/jgaskpoetry
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February 6, 2023
Brendan McBreen
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Brendan McBreen is a writer, poet, and collage artist, a lover of art and nature, a collector of oddities and seashells. Brendan's poetry flows from science, news stories, gender dysphoria, zen philosophy, flights of fantasy, and an unusual sense of humor. Brendan's latest poetry collection, the memory of water, is available from MoonPath Press.
Reviews of The Memory of Water
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"Here we have poems of quiet reflection on the natural world of 'ladybugs and bees.' And too, poems with strange turns in which we get off the bus at what may be the wrong stop to find we have arrived at-Mars? Not to forget well-placed jabs against bigotry, plastic, guns, and mass shootings, along with 'radioactive dreams.' Brendan McBreen's The Memory of Water is a rich and gratifying read."
-Priscilla Long, author of Holy Magic and Crossing Over: Poems
"Brendan McBreen is a respected stalwart in the Puget Sound area poetry scene. They promote the work of many fine poets, of which they are one. This new collection, The Memory of Water, impressively demonstrates their ability to balance innovative craft, wry wit, and poignant resonance."
-David D. Horowitz, author of Slow Clouds over Rush Hour
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February 13, 2023
Kilam Telaviv
"While many poems come off like a lecture, or someone airing out their grievances, Kilam’s poetry is a relationship. His work grapples with the harsh realities of the world with caution, ferocity and honesty. He has been featured in the Seattle Times, the critically acclaimed book "Black Imagination '' and if you look REALLY hard, you might see his cameo in the 2022 film "KIMI". His latest chapbook "Failing Gracefully" is available at Barnes and Noble.
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February 20, 2023
Michael Dylan Welch
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Michael Dylan Welch curates SoulFood Poetry Night (now in its 17th year), is president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword, and served two terms as poet laureate of Redmond, Washington. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in more than twenty languages and have won first place is numerous poetry contests. Michael is also a director of the Haiku North America conference (cofounded in 1991), advisory board co-chair for the American Haiku Archives (cofounded in 1996), and director of the Seabeck Haiku Getaway (which he started in 2008). Michael also runs National Haiku Writing Month (www.nahaiwrimo.com), which he inaugurated in 2010, with the goal to write at least one haiku a day for each day in February, the shortest month for the shortest poetry. He is web manager for Haiku Northwest, and former vice president of the Haiku Society of America. Michael has published more than 75 poetry books, either as author or editor, including books of translation from the Japanese. His poems have been performed for the Empress of Japan and at the Baseball Hall of Fame, printed on balloons in Los Angeles, and chiseled in stone in New Zealand. He was also keynote speaker in Tokyo for the Haiku International Association annual convention and in 2012 one of his translations from the Japanese appeared on the back of 150 million U.S. postage stamps. More recently, thirty of his “Holiday Haiku” were projected nightly on the main stage at Redmond’s month-long “Redmond Lights” festival. Read more about Michael at his website, www.graceguts.com, where you can also explore numerous poems, essays, reviews, and many digressions.
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February 27, 2023
Raúl Sanchez
Raúl is the former City of Redmond Poet Laureate. He teaches poetry both in English and Spanish through the Seattle Arts and Lectures (WITS), and Jack Straw Cultural programs. He volunteered for PONGO Teen Writing at the Juvenile Detention Center.
He teaches creative writing through Path With Art since 2019. During the 2021 Pandemic he created the bi-weekly “Poetry in the Park”, a neighborhood Poetry event at the Meadowbrook Pond in NE Seattle, which used to be Theodore Roethke’s old neighborhood. The same year he installed and old curio cabinet now known as the “Poetry Box” on 39th. This year he served as a judge for the creative writing contest at the Holocaust Center for Humanity and he will be the judge for the Vancouver-Portland regional bus system: “POETRY on BUSES 2022” area served by C-Tran. His second collection "When There Were No Borders" was released by Flower Song Press, McAllen Texas July 2021
https://poetraulsanchez.com
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March 6, 2023
Barracuda Guarisco
BARRACUDA GUARISCO is a bi/pan polyonymous author of several books of poetry and hybrid works published with Spuyten Duyvil, Vegetarian Alcoholic Press, and Feral Dove Books. He has been nominated for Best Microfiction and The Elgin Award, and is the Editor-in-Chief of Really Serious Literature. In the past Guarisco curated for Da’daedal, Poetry Laboratory, Free Poetry, Ogopogo, and LIT Quake in both Seattle and Everett, WA. You can find him if you want to. His most recent book PEANUT BUTTER IS NOT THE SOLUTION (Alien Buddha) is out now.
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March 13, 2023
Renée L. Roman Nose
Renee Roman Nose, MAIS, citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, is an activist, artist, poet, photographer and cultural anthropologist. Author of Sweet Grass Talking, published by Uttered Chaos Press, Roman Nose is inspired by historical and contemporary issues. Her CD, The River of Life, a Spoken Word CD with noted Native flute player, Peter Ali, is available later this spring in person, on Spotify and Amazon. She lives, and thrives, in the Pacific Northwest. You can reach her on Facebook: Renee Roman Nose, Instagram: renee_roman_nose or at www.reneeromannose.net.
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March 20, 2023
Sati Mookherjee
Sati Mookherjee is a poet and lyricist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals and anthologies like Salamander, The Laurel Review, Comstock Review, Cream City Review, and Sonora Review. Her collaborations with contemporary classical composers have been performed or recorded by ensemble (The Esoterics, Contemporary Chambers and Players) and solo musicians (Hope Wechkin, Leaning Toward the Fiddler). Nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and recipient of an Artist Trust/ Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Award, she lives in the Pacific Northwest.
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Poet and Lyricist - SATI MOOKHERJEE
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Review
The poem cycle in Eye moves in exquisite orbits, beginning with the image of the eye, then radiating out, rippling with worldly details, coalescing finally with the appearance of his great-grandchildren, even one yet unconceived, continuing the circle. --Arlene Naganawa, author of Private Graveyard
Mookherjee’s graceful collection vividly charts his journey through an alchemy of details in which we see “ordinary things turned holy.”
--John Willson, author of Call This Room a Station
“The eye is the first circle,” says Emerson in the epigraph to this stunning first book by Sati Mookherjee, who in widening circles embraces continents and generations. --Robert McNamara, author of Incomplete Strangers
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March 27, 2023
Dayna Patterson
Dayna Patterson is a photographer, textile artist, and irreverent bardophile. She’s the author of Titania in Yellow (Porkbelly Press, 2019), If Mother Braids a Waterfall (Signature Books, 2020), and O Lady, Speak Again (Signature Books, 2023). Honors include the Association for Mormon Letters Poetry Award and the 2019 #DignityNotDetention Poetry Prize judged by Ilya Kaminsky.
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April 3, 2023
Katy E. Ellis
I grew up under evergreen trees and high-voltage power lines in my backyard in Renton, Washington, a wilderness suburb of Seattle. My passion for writing developed in high school and continued into my university years where I earned a bachelor of arts at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, and a masters of arts at Western Washington University.
In the past, I’ve had the good fortune of working in classrooms as a part-time writing teacher with Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. And from 2014-2019, I co-founded and co-curated WordsWest, a thriving, local literary reading series promoting high-quality writers of diverse race and cultural background and includes a night for children’s authors.
I’m grateful for poetry and stories in my life. I’m thankful that writing has always been a place for me to explore, examine, and find comfort whenever and however I go to it.
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April 10, 2023
Ronda Piszk Broatch
Ronda Piszk Broatch is the author of Chaos Theory for Beginners (MoonPath Press, 2023), and Lake of Fallen Constellations, (MoonPath Press). She is the recipient of an Artist Trust GAP Grant. Ronda’s journal publications include Fugue (2019), Blackbird, 2River, Sycamore Review, Missouri Review, Palette Poetry, and NPR News / KUOW’s All Things Considered. She is a graduate student working toward her MFA at Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop.
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April 17, 2023
Vincent Antonio Rendoni
Vincent Antonio Rendoni is the author of A Grito Contest in the Afterlife, which was the winner of the 2022 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets. Previously, he was a 2022 Jack Straw Cultural Center Fellow and winner of the 2021 Blue Earth Review Flash Fiction Contest. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions multiple times. His work will appear / has appeared in The Sycamore Review, The Vestal Review, The Texas Review, The Westchester Review, Quarterly West, Another Chicago Magazine, Hippocampus, Sky Island Journal, and So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.
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About A Grito Contest in the Afterlife
“I just love this voice to bits! This poet is unstoppable, adorably watchable, infectious and funny and deeply engaged with his world, and the worlds of the lives whirling around him. Distinct, singular, original voice, style, and language. A joy to read.”
—Dorianne Laux, Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Poetry
https://www.vincentrendoni.com/
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April 24, 2023
Sabrina Sobel
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In 2022 Sabrina Sobel aka Poesy Poison released her chapbook, The Fairness of Brussel Sprouts.
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May 1, 2023 - Rescheduled -
Heidi Seaborn
Heidi Seaborn is Executive Editor of The Adroit Journal and winner of the 2022 Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize in Poetry. She is the author of three prize-winning books of poetry: An Insomniac’s Slumber Party with Marilyn Monroe ([PANK] 2021), Bite Marks (Comstock 2021), Give a Girl Chaos (C&R Press 2019). Recent work in Blackbird, Beloit, Brevity, Copper Nickel, Cortland Review, diode, Financial Times of London, Penn Review, The Slowdown and elsewhere. Heidi holds an MFA from NYU.
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May 8, 2023
Randall S. Dills
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Randall Dills is a former academic and day laborer. He lives in a small cottage on a wooded farm on Fidalgo Island in the Pacific Northwest on land belonging to the Coast Salish People and the Swinomish Tribal Community. He lived and taught in the American Midwest and South before returning to the place of his birth near the Salish Sea in rural northwest Washington State. His academic work appeared in several publications. His poetry has appeared in CIRQUE, The Eastern Iowa Review and fiction in The WRITOracle. He is a member of the Red Wheelbarrow Writers and a supporter of San Miguel PEN.
HIs first collection, The Universe at the Point of Contraction, is forthcoming from FutureCycle Press in February 2023.
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May 15, 2023
Anna Schenck
In her first full length publication, Hurricane Girl, Anna chronicles her life of wild abandon, in a delicate but chaotic rhythm. Anna isn’t afraid to expose the truth of self-exploration and difficulty in maintaining self-acceptance. Anna will take you to the darkest hours of insecurity then to the sincerest moments of humility, all with a veil of cynical nurturing that only a woman who has lived a lot of life in a short time, can bring.
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May 22, 2023
Nila Phillips
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Hi there! I'm Nila Phillips, or Ami, I'm a coming on sixteen year old indie author and poet~ The poetry I write is all mental health based, targeted at students, young adults, and what's not spoken about enough. I hope to advocate for mental health in the future and encourage other young authors to follow their ambitions. I love writing, it's always been a passion of mine, so I'm more than thrilled to be able to show you my heart and soul in words.
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May 29, 2023
Joe Nasta
Joe (ze/zir) is a queer multimodal artist and writer who works in Seattle and writes love poems. Ze is one half of the art and poetry collective Eat Yr Manhood, head curator of Stone Pacific Zine, and a member of the team at Voice Lux Press. Zir work has been published in The Rumpus, Occulum, Peach Mag, dream boy book club, and others. Zir first book “I want you to feel ugly, too” was released as a handmade limited edition in 2021. Find Joe on Instagram as @jaynasty77 and @roflcoptermcgee
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June 5, 2023
Lennée Reid
Lennée Reid is a Creole, queer, disabled, poet, author, multimedia artist, activist, healer, and single mom on the spectrum, who doesn't like labels. They are published many places including her chapbooks, "Universal State of Mind" and "Qi Woo Mojo Juju". Lennée's spoken word albums, "The Second Coming of Matriarchy", "Crazy Thunder Medicine", and "Awareni", are available online. Lennée featured in "Artist's Among Us", "Dabbing with Washington Artists", and "Lean In Olympia". They are touring with UnityHenge, a social justice black light art installation that has shown at Luminata and numerous festivals. Follow @lenneereid and #TheQueenMystic online, and visit awareni.wordpress.com, for more information.
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June 12, 2023
Joanne M. Clarkson
Joanne Clarkson's sixth poetry collection, "Hospice House," was just released by MoonPath Press in January 2023. Her poems have been published in such journals as Poetry Northwest, Nimrod, Poet Lore, Western Humanities Review and Beloit Poetry Journal. She has received an Artist Trust Grant and an NEH grant to teach poetry in rural libraries. Clarkson has Masters Degrees in English and Library Science, has taught and worked for many years as a professional librarian. After caring for her mother through a long illness, she re-careered as a Registered Nurse working in Home Health and Hospice. See more at http://JoanneClarkson.com.
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June 19, 2023
Christopher Luna
Christopher Luna is a poet, editor, teacher, writing coach, and artist who served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. Luna has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. He is the co-founder, with Toni Lumbrazo Luna, of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He and Morgan Paige co-host the LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA, founded by Christopher in 2004. Christopher Luna’s books include Exchanging Wisdom: A Guide for Parents of the Autonomous (The Poetry Box, 2021 with Angelo Luna), Message from the Vessel in a Dream (Flowstone Press, 2018), Brutal Glints of Moonlight, and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978 (Big Bridge).
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June 26, 2023
Risa Denenberg
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Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic peninsula in Washington state where she works as a nurse practitioner. She is a co-founder of Headmistress Press; curator at The Poetry Café Online; and the Reviews Editor at River Mouth Review. Her most recent publications include the full-length poetry collection, slight faith (MoonPath Press, 2018), the chapbook, Posthuman, finalist in the Floating Bridge 2020 chapbook competition, and Rain / Dweller, finalist for the Sally Albiso Prize (MoonPath Press in 2023).
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July 3, 2023
Michael Hodges
Michael Hodges lives in Seattle, Washington. They are a two-time Rain City Poetry Slam Hoodie Slam winner and have represented Rain City at the National Poetry Slam and Individual World Poetry Slam. Originally from the South, they have also lived in Pittsburgh, where they taught at Winchester Thurston School and were a member of the 2018 Steel City Slam NPS team. Their work has appeared in Drunken Boat, Magma, Drunk Monkeys, Eye to the Telescope, the anthology In the Shadow of the Mic (Bridge and Tunnel Books), and elsewhere.
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July 10, 2023
Emma B
Emma B. is a poet, mother, and wife. She started her poetic career in Bellingham and eventually landed in Everett, where the dirty streets finally felt like home. The last 10 years, Emma has openly exposed the struggles of mental illness, grief, and motherhood through an honest lens of dark humor and humility. Emma’s previous works include: Open this Book and Let Me Bleed on You, Mother Culture’s Rebellious Stepchild, and Heroin Ashes Birth Children. She was also a cohost of the now defunct Everett Writer’s Workshop and Poetry Laboratory.
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July 17, 2023
Featured Poet: Everyone
An All Open Mic Evening
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July 24, 2023
Ricardo Ruiz
The son of potato factory workers, Ricardo hails from Othello, Washington and his works often draw from his experience as a first-generation Mexican-American. He is passionate about elevating the marginalized voices from rural communities and takes pride in being a conduit for cultural connection. His own struggles straddling cultures provide insight to the difficulties of the Mexican migrant worker and their families.
Ricardo holds a Associates Degree in Business and Accounting from Big Bend Community College where he was recognized as Student of the year in both Business and Economics and English Composition. He also holds a Bachelors of Art in English: Creative Writing from the University of Washington and is an Army Veteran. While in the military Ricardo was recognized as Distinguished Honor Graduate and Distinguished Leader during his Advanced Leadership Course.
Ricardo’s happiest moments are when he is spending time with his children, writing with his daughter, playing video games with his son, cuddling his dad’s dog Xena, and dancing in the kitchen with his wife-to-be. Ricardo takes pride in being a conduit for cultural connection and brings marginalized voices into the center of all conversations that he is in. His own struggles straddling cultures provide insight into the difficulties of the Mexican migrant worker and their families.
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About Ricardo Ruiz's book, :
We Had Our Reasons
We Had Our Reasons is a collection of poems created by Ricardo Ruiz in collaboration with other members of his Mexican farm community in Eastern Washington.
The poems, vivid and pointed, guide the reader through the thoughts and struggles that come with the decision to leave one’s home in Mexico, and travel to this remote, rural community of the United States. Through the book access is provided to readers; stories that have gone untold for generations are now shared, evoking conversation at home and within the community due to the commonality of experiences.
A glimpse into the multi-generational effects of migration is seen through the recounting of the stories of both parents and their children - both documented and undocumented. Ricardo’s raw and unapologetic style cuts right into the emotions of each moment divulged in short, punching, powerful pieces.
Biographies and transcripts follow the poems, showcasing the origins of the stories and the people in the book.
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July 31, 2023
Jed Myers
Jed Myers is author of Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award), The Marriage of Space and Time (MoonPath Press), and, due out in 2024, Learning to Hold (Wandering Aengus Press Editors’ Award). Out as of spring 2023 is his fifth chapbook, The Arcane Mechanics of Constant Lift (winner, Sheila-Na-Gig Chapbook Competition). Recent work appears in Rattle, The Poetry Review, RHINO, The Greensboro Review, Rust + Moth, Terrain.org, On the Seawall, Solstice, Nimrod International Journal, and elsewhere. Myers lives in Seattle, where he’s a psychiatrist with a therapy practice and Clinical Professor at the
University of Washington. He’s Editor of the journal Bracken.
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August 7, 2023
Leah Mueller
Leah Mueller is the author of ten prose and poetry books. Her work appears in Rattle, Midway Journal, Citron Review, The Spectacle, Miracle Monocle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, etc. It has also been featured in trees, shop windows in Scotland, poetry subscription boxes, and literary dispensers throughout the world. Her flash piece, "Land of Eternal Thirst" will appear in the 2022 edition of Sonder Press' "Best Small Fictions" anthology. Visit her website at www.leahmueller.org.
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August 14, 2023
Robert Arthur Reeves
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Robert Arthur Reeves taught philosophy and religion at the University of New Mexico and Central New Mexico Community College. After his retirement he moved with his partner, Sari Krosinsky, to Bremerton, Washington. A poet since 1965, he has self-published several poetry books, including Shadows on the Land: Collected Poems, Failed Windows: Selected Poems 2010-2019, Radiance, and his most recent, Here Below.
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August 21, 2023
Laura LeHew
& Roy R. Seitz
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Former girl scout Laura LeHew is obsessed with the creepy, creaky underbelly of life and whatever lies beyond. She lives in the realm of possibility, where anything can happen. She is constantly thinking of new ideas and themes to convey in my work. Her intent is to create works that are formally and aesthetically engaging while conceptually connecting with the everyday; to reify the ordinary into the extraordinary; to question realities—social, political and otherwise. Poetry is a way to explore and understand those ideas which frustrate and confront her.
Poetry forms itself, as a whole, in her head—title, form, line length, line break.
Laura received her MFA from the California College of the Arts, co-hosts the reading series, Poetry for the People, received writing residencies to Hypatia-in-the-Woods, PLAYA, MAR, and Soapstone. She owns and edits Uttered Chaos, a small press. Laura knows nothing of gardens or gardening but is well versed in the cultivation of cats.
Find her here:
utteredchaos.org
lauralehew.com
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ROY R SEITZ is a poet with no initials behind his name.
Catches reads now and then. Has been known to drive
the meek insane and the humble to to do whatever the
humble do when driven insane. Hearing his work is mandatory in his mind.
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August 28, 2023
Stephen Meads
Stephen Meads (he/him) is a writer and speaker currently living in Portland, OR. He has toured nationally performing on stages from Portland, ME to Honolulu, HI, and has even made a handful appearances internationally reading in Canada and via the World Wide Web! His work has appeared in print as part of NAILED Magazine, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, and Hawk & Animal: A Wrestling Poetry Zine, and in video form for Button Poetry, Slamfind, and Write About Now among others. He likes socks and milkshakes, but not sock milkshakes.
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September 4, 2023
Duane Kirby Jensen
"Duane Kirby Jensen is a painter and writer from Everett, Washington. He runs Everett Poetry Nite, where you will laugh a minimum of 100 times per show, even if they have to tickle you in order to meet that quota. For some reason there are always sea gulls howling in the background when you talk to him on the phone, which makes for haunting conversations. He enjoys reading Murakami and cooking gourmet meals, and runs a poetry press. He has an affinity for acts and words with shock value, so it is rare to be bored around him. He once had an imaginary cat named Pita Kitty, who used to travel space and time. Find his art here: artofduanekirbyjensen.com, and his heart on his sleeve."
- By Jennifer Faylor, Edison’s Ghost Machine
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September 11, 2023
​Grace D. Dagger
Grace Dager Biography
Evelyn Grace Dager, who goes by Grace, was born in California in 1962. She has lived in numerous states across the country, choosing the PNW as her home. In 1980 she was a scholarship recipient to the University on Miami for art and writing. She has also attended classes at the Corcoran Gallery School of Art in Washington DC. Dager received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in 1989.
Dager has had many 'one man' shows and has participated in many group showings. Dager does not limit expression to painting only and works in video, set design, and performance art. She has appeared and worked in film, including working with the renowned Karl Krogstad. Grace creates recycle art and loves making 'cut up' poetry. E Grace Dager was a Board Member at Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA) from 2012-2015. She has worked at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and taught art to terminal cancer patients.
E Grace Dager was listed in the 2017: Who's Who in Visual Art.
Dager currently lives in Everett, Washington. She hosts Gold E Lofts Gallery. Gold ELofts has resumed showings during the Third Thursday Everett Art Walk. Dager currently presents her works at Gallery '33 Stares leading up to her Little Bo’Teek store inside Gold ELofts.
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September 18, 2023
Sati Mookherjee
Sati Mookherjee is a poet and lyricist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in literary journals and anthologies like Salamander, The Laurel Review, Comstock Review, Cream City Review, and Sonora Review. Her collaborations with contemporary classical composers have been performed or recorded by ensemble (The Esoterics, Contemporary Chambers and Players) and solo musicians (Hope Wechkin, Leaning Toward the Fiddler). Nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and recipient of an Artist Trust/ Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Award, she lives in the Pacific Northwest.
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Poet and Lyricist - SATI MOOKHERJEE
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September 25, 2023
Steve Sibra
STEVE SIBRA is pleased to make his first public reading appearance in over two years, and happy for the opportunity to read among old friends at Everett Poetry Night. Steve has been a frequent reader at EPN over the past several years prior to COVID and now, with a brand new book of poetry out (SHOES FOR BABY from Swallow Publishing) there is a plethora of new material, to be read in public for the first time.
Steve grew up on a small farm in eastern Montana and furthered his education at the University of Montana. His work has appeared in dozens of literary journals over the past three decades, along with newspaper articles and trade publications associated with his lifelong career in the collectible comic book hobby. Recent publications have included work in Chiron Review, Flint Hills Review, Dead Skunk, Art: One, and Dead Fern Press, among others.
In the course of compiling work for his new book, Steve had the amazing good fortune to become associated with a burgeoning writer and artist named Ayesha Khan. Ms. Khan, from Bangalore, India, has become a close friend and spiritual muse for Mr. Sibra and her influence has added a new level of intensity to his work.
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October 2, 2023
Daniel Edward Moore
Daniel Edward Moore lives in Washington on Whidbey Island.
His work is forthcoming in Tar River Poetry Journal, Triggerfish
Critical Review and Watershed Review.
He is the author of two chapbooks, “Confessions of a Pentecostal Buddhist,”
and “Boys.” His book “Waxing the Dents,” is from Brick Road Poetry Press.
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October 9, 2023
Shane Guthrie
Shane Guthrie’s poetry has been alternatively called
‘devastating, humorous, radioactive and amusingly domestic’.
Popular topics include Dealing with Low Self-Esteem, Amusing anecdotes about childhood, why love is really actually pretty hard, why love is really actually pretty great. He resides Duvall, Washington most of the time.
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October 16, 2023
Greg Bee
Greg Bee is magic, art and kindness. They use the medium of love to help people connect. The poetry they write, and the words they speak on stage are a vehicle for this journey.
I’m also going to be playing at the Broken Mic in Spokane on 11/2 and Psanctum open Mic in Portland on 11/7 if you’d like to put that on the Wiki page!
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October 23, 2023
John Burgess
John Burgess grew up in upstate New York, worked on a survey crew in Montana, taught English in Japan, and now writes and draws in Seattle. His influences include 70’s punk, Montana bars, and haiku. He has six books of poetry from Ravenna Press, each with an increasing number of maps, graphs, and comics interwoven. His latest collection is Punk Poems Complete which collects 100 10-line poems. He's a co-instigator with the Band of Poets, a poetry and music collaborative. More at punkpoet.net.
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October 30, 2023
​Heidi Seaborn
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Heidi Seaborn is Executive Editor of The Adroit Journal and winner of the 2022 Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editor’s Prize in Poetry. She is the author of three prize-winning books of poetry: An Insomniac’s Slumber Party with Marilyn Monroe ([PANK] 2021), Bite Marks (Comstock 2021), Give a Girl Chaos (C&R Press 2019). Recent work in Blackbird, Beloit, Brevity, Copper Nickel, Cortland Review, diode, Financial Times of London, Penn Review, The Slowdown and elsewhere. Heidi holds an MFA from NYU.
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November 6, 2023
Lauri Langston
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November 13, 2023
C.R. Avery
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November 20, 2023
​Scott Ferry
I grew up in Huntington Beach, CA on a steady diet of swim workouts, shredded beef tacos, and skiing. Both of my parents taught high school, so I thought I should do the same. Not a sustainable career for me. My sister became a professor, and a damn good one. I moved to Seattle, became a Licensed Acupuncturist. Barely paid for itself, even though the ancient grid of Qi still informs my body. Lifeguarded for many years. Found nursing and never regretted it. I now work for the most worthy recipients of respect, our Veterans. I married a superior being and made a brilliant female sprig. They are both the reason and the reward.
I began writing poetry in high school to mostly try to communicate a lack of meaning and a yearning for depth. After college I began frequenting Laguna Poets, and other vital readings in mid-90s Orange County. This few years fed me, taught me. I began publishing in Blue Satellite, Spillway, Inevitable Press. My father passed away during this same time and colored the air with charcoal and opened a light around people. I may have had a spiritual awakening, or I may have slid off the visual plane for a bit. When I moved to Seattle I read in local readings and published in Seattle Review, Crab Creek Review, Poetry Superhighway, Pontoon, Bitter Oleander. I wrote hundreds of poems, some were actually decent. I married, divorced. Met my present and beautiful wife and we moved back to Huntington Beach for a long five years while she became a doctor and I became a nurse.
We returned to Seattle when our daughter was one. We bought a house with a sprawling yard and a view of the Olympics off our deck. I began writing again, publishing in Radius, Cobalt, Chaleur, Moon Tide, Pontoon, Slippery Elm, Cultural Weekly, among others. My chapbook Book of 24 streets was a semifinalist in the Floating Bridge contest in 2017. I was a finalist in the Write Bloody Poetry Book Contest in 2019. My collection, The only thing that makes sense is to grow is now available from Moon Tide Press. My second book, Mr. Rogers kills fruit flies, is now available from Main St. Rag. In 2020, my son was born the same day as my father, just 88 years later. I received a Pushcart nomination from Misfit in November 2020 for the poem “Dispersal.” My third book, These Hands of Myrrh, was published by Kelsay Books in Fall 2021. My minichap The Sea of Marrow came out in late 2021 and I have 2 more books upcoming for 2022: Skinless in the Cereal Aisle from Impspired and fishmirror from Alien Buddha. And I have this silly website, of course.
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November 27, 2023
Tennison Black
TENNISON S. BLACK is the managing editor of Sundress Publications and Best of the Net. They received an MFA at Arizona State University, and their work has appeared or is forthcoming in SWWIM, Hotel Amerika, Booth, Wordgathering, and New Mobility, among others. They live in Washington State.
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Review for Survival Strategies
The Sonoran desert, invoked through saguaros, scorpions, jackrabbits, coyotes, and cowboys, is nearly a character in these fierce poems, which chronicle the poet's return to a place that ‘has been trying to kill me since I was born.’ Recurring images of place, along with a unifying narrative, give Survival Strategies the texture of a repeating form on a large scale, as the boundaries between the landscape and one family living in it begin to dissolve. This oneness reaches its crescendo in an original fable, ‘The Mother and the Mountain,’ which begins: ‘My mother was a bajada. That is, an alluvial fan that settled at the base of a mountain.’ Alive with hard-earned understanding and affirmation, these poems are for everyone who ever tried to leave a formative place of pain but found that person and place could never be fully untwined. -- Adrienne Su ― author of Peach State
Tennison Black’s mesmerizing debut collection, Survival Strategies, is a searching exploration of the poet’s deep roots in southern Arizona’s 'cowboy culture,' which she witnessed from the inside as a child. Having rejected her origins in that 'scratchy way of living' that was her father’s working ranch in Yuma, Black returns to confront and exorcise the violence that traumatized her. With grace and grit, Black creates a stunning portrait of the ethos of a male dominance (of nature, animals, and women) that haunts us all today. The prose fable that concludes this brilliant collection has the largesse of a vision. This book augurs a major new poet! -- Cynthia Hogue ― author of instead, it is dark
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December 4, 2023
Stephen Roxborough
Stephen Roxborough is a native New Yorker transplanted to the Pacific Northwest via Colombia SA, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, British Columbia, Wisconsin, Ontario, Nevada, Florida, Missouri, and many points in-between. Rox is the author of five full-length poetry collections, a dozen chapbooks, and two CDs. His most recent CD, Poetica Dystopia, released this year, is a collaboration with indie legend musician Karl Blau. Most of the tracks were taken from his 2020 collection entitled I Feel Your Doughnut Pain. He’s a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Canadian and British swimming champion, solo cross-Canada 10-speed bicycle tourist, world traveler, fern whisperer, vegetarian, and meditating optimist who celebrates the Art Life in some way everyday. Currently, Rox is also an Editor and Creative Director for NeoPoiesis Press, an independent small publisher. He lives on an island in Puget Sound in a basement loft surrounded by art, books, music, Afghani carpets, and piles of paper he’ll one day organize or recycle.
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December 11, 2023
Thursday
R. Thursday (they/them) is an educator, historian, writer, and all-around nerd. When not subverting Middle School curricula, they can be found reading, playing video games, cooking spicy dishes, or writing about monsters, mental health, space, queerness, comic books, and on very good days, all of the above. They placed second in the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Rhysling Award for Short Poetry in 2021, and in the Bacopa Literary Review for Form Poetry in 2022. Since the start of the pandemic, they have run the Rain City Slam Writing Circle on Discord. Earlier this year, they edited a Frankenstein themed edition of Eye to the Telescope, and acted as contest chair for the SFPA annual poetry contest. They live in South King County, Washington, with the world's most copacetic cat.
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December 18, 2023
Iz White
Iz White is an enrolled member of the Snoqualmie Tribe in King County. He grew up homeless in Seattle, well below the poverty line, in the 1990’s. His tribe was federally recognized in 1999 and has continued to strengthen their efficiency and stability in financial development. That has given Iz both a unique perspective and breathing room to pursue his biggest obsession in life, which has always been to improve his craft of writing. He is an up-and-coming poet who speaks on social issues not only for his people, but all people affected by an ever-changing demographic in and around the greater Seattle area.
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