May 1, 2019: Donna James
By the time Donna James started writing poetry seriously, she was already old. After long years of academic writing, she returned to the genre that was her first literary love, and is now an emerging poet at age 71. Last year she got serious about sending out her work. Soon, three hands-full of her poems will be in journals and books, a promising start.
Donna has spent thirty-five years meeting individuals and couples in the intimate confines of her psychotherapy consulting room. Her poetry gives voice to the stories of idiocy, affliction, spasms of hope, and resilience that are peculiar to the human psyche. Donna spends her money on art, clothes, and food. And books—she always has at least five of them going at once. Her one other art form is ikebana, Japanese flower arrangement. Dating back to the 7th century, it’s a meditative practice akin to the Japanese tea ceremony. She’s attracted to its ephemeral nature and how it teaches her to prune and simplify line and mass, great skills to apply to the writing of poetry. Emcee: Mary Crane June 5th: Cheryl Latif
Originally from Southern California, Cheryl Latif attended a Seattle poetry conference in 2000, during which she fell in love with the area. She emigrated to the Northwest in 2001 and has never regretted the move.
Growing up with a mother busy acquiring a PhD in English, that home was much like her own private university. Writing poems since she was about 12 years old, she kept her writing to herself, though her mother found some of it and wrote her a wonderful note praising her work. Her poetry was first published in Between Sheets, a Cal State Stanislaus literary magazine (1978). It was her first ever submission (prompted by her mother, of course), and she swears it was simply beginner’s luck. She didn’t submit again for many years. Now her poems can now be found in a variety of local, regional and national publications such as New Millennium Writings, The Comstock Review, Spillway, How Luminous the Wildflowers, Magee Park Poets and others. While living on Bainbridge Island (where she originally landed), she participated in several annual public arts poetry projects which featured poems of hers in storefronts and hanging in the ferry terminal (these banners were up for more than two years). Cheryl served as curator/host of a popular weekly poetry reading in San Diego featuring poets from across the nation and across the pond. Hosted in a wonderful coffee house, the reading quickly grew to over 100 attendees each week. She has served as a judge for several local and regional poetry contests. Her poetry manuscript, body series, was a semi-finalist in The Word Works annual contest and continues to be a work in progress. A copywriter by trade, Cheryl relishes fooling with words and feels blessed that his passion fills her days. Emcee: Mary Crane July 3, 2019: Ken Osborne
Ken Osborne was born and grew up in the UK. A disruptive child he walked out of school on his 16th birthday and ran away to sea (actually the ferries to France). After a working trip to New Zealand he bummed around England, eventually lied his way into a job in a large retail company and worked his way up to senior executive. He retired for health reasons. Ken has been writing poetry since he was 9 yrs old. He had a booklet and a number of poems published in magazines and won several competitions in the UK. He also ran the Cambridge Poetry Group for many years. His recent book ‘Within Without’ was produced by Third Place Books and his website kenspoetry.com includes recordings of many of his poems. He also writes and plays music and produces the occasional oil painting.
Emcee: Von Thompson-Wynn August 7, 2019: Kathy Paul
Kathy Paul is a survivor of many things, including cancer and downsizing. Her poems have appeared in Ekphrasis; Lunch Ticket; The Ekphrastic Review; Hospital Drive; Words Dance; The Fem; Stirring; and the Poetry on Buses Writing Home collection. In 2017, her poem Instructions for Daughters was nominated for Best of the Net and Best New Poets. She lives in Mukilteo, Washington.
Emcee: Pamela Denchfield September 4, 2019: Daniel Edward Moore
Daniel lives in Washington on Whidbey Island. His poems have been in Spoon River Poetry Review, Rattle, Columbia Journal, Under A Warm Green Linden and others.
His poems are forthcoming in West Trade Review, Duende Literary Journal, The Inflectionist Review, Magnolia Review, Isthmus Review, Glass Mountain Magazine, Columbia College Literary Review, January Review, Yemassee, Cumberland River Review, Burningword Literary Journal and The Meadow. His books, “This New Breed: Gents, Bad Boys and Barbarians” an Anthology, and "Confessions of a Pentecostal Buddhist," can be found on Amazon. His first book, 'Waxing the Dents,' was a finalist for the Brick Road Poetry Book Prize and will be released in April 2020. Visit Daniel at DanielEdwardMoore.com. Emcee: TBA October 2, 2019: Rose Alley PressMore details to come. Watch this space!
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November 6, 2019: C.W. Buckley
A fourth-generation West Coast native, C.W. Buckley lives and works in Seattle with his family. Corporate by day, Catholic by faith, he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology before earning an M.A. in Religion after spending two years as a chaplain resident at the Stanford and Packard Children’s Hospitals. His writing explores geek culture, conscience, faith, and fatherhood. Reading regularly at Easy Speak Seattle in that city’s northeast, his work is forthcoming in Catamaran and Image Journal and appears in Timberline Review, Raven Chronicles Journal, Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature, Rock & Sling | a journal of witness, Lummox Journal, POESY Magazine, and the Bay Area Poets Coalition Anthology 23. He is the author of BLUING, a chapbook from Finishing Line Press. You can follow him as @chris_buckley on Twitter.
Emcee: Mary Crane December 4, 2019: Jillian Ingram
Jillian Ingram is a singer/songwriter, poet and activist from Albuquerque New Mexico. She earned her degrees from UW in mass media communications and sociology of law, politics and social policy in 2003 on the Marty Wilson memorial scholarship. Jillian worked in television and radio production and script development, and was an assistant producer on the Emmy nominated documentary film "Perfect Illusions: Eating Disorders and the Family." Frequently asked if she regrets choosing her music and poetry over "using her degrees" at this point in her life, she states that sociologists are people who study the world and document their findings, which is exactly what good poets do. She has published two books of poetry, and has been featured in books such as "Everett's Finest Poetry Anthology" as well as the literary magazine "Labor of Love" out of Toronto. Her band, Rare Birds and Rosemary, has created two demo albums followed by their first professionally produced record "Dollar Store Unicorn", which was released in 2017. She has been a featured poet at Everett Poetry Night, and is currently working on a project to draw attention to and end stigmatization and the abuse of mental health patients by hospitals in Washington State, using poetry as a tool to create that change. Jillian is much more skilled at the art of self-expression than she is at staying silent in the face of prejudice and ableism. Poetry for her is about shared humanity. It is impossible to write and consume large amounts of poetry and stay ignorant about ourselves or others. Poetry is an act of compassion for her.
Emcee: Von Thompson-Wynn Jan. to March 2020: To Be AnnouncedWatch this space!
April 1, 2020: Rayn Roberts
Rayn Roberts studied American and British Poetry under legendary poet and professor Dr. Lee Gerlach and Dr. Betsy Walsh at the University of San Diego. He is published in Anthologies: Illuminations, Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience (Celestial Arts an imprint of Ten Speed Pres, 2006), The Book of Hope (Beyond Borders Press, 2002), The World Healing Book (Beyond Borders Press, 2002) -- Journals: City Works, Rattle, Retort Magazine, The Seattle Star, San Diego Poetry Annual, The Pedestal Magazine, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Thunder Sandwich, Void Magazine and many others. He has traveled extensively and taught English in Japan, S. Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, Hawaii, Spain, Canada and the U.S. He is heard on Radio KSER 90.7 Everett in Washington State; has read all over the nation and the west coast. In 2003, he toured various libraries, coffee houses, art centers and bars in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and Brockton, Massachusetts. Currently, he hosts a well-established reading at the Green Lake Public Library in Seattle for PoetsWest featuring some of the best poets in Washington, Oregon and California along with an open mic. Find books and poems online or at his blog, “Poetry, Etc.” & Poets & Writers. He did a reading tour in the fall of 2018 of Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales where he was invited to read by Geoff Haden at the birthplace of Dylan Thomas on the poet's birthday October 27th. He has two books in print and is currently in the final stages of a third which will be out this year 2019.
Emcee: TBA May 6, 2020: To Be AnnouncedWatch this space!
June 3, 2020: Sibyl James
Sibyl James is the author of twelve books--poetry, fiction and travel memoirs--including In China with Harpo and Karl (Calyx Books), The Adventures of Stout Mama (Papier-Mache Press), China Beats (Egress Studio Press), The Grand Piano Range (Black Heron Press) and, most recently, Hard Goods & Hot Platters (Last Word Press). She has taught at colleges in the U.S., China, Mexico, and--as Fulbright professor--Tunisia and Cote d'Ivoire. Her writing has received awards from Artist Trust and the Seattle, King County and Washington State arts commissions.
Emcee: TBA July 1, 2020: To Be AnnouncedWatch this space!
August 5, 2020: Savannah Slone
Savannah Slone is a writer, editor, and English professor who currently dwells in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in or will soon appear in Glass: A Poetry Journal, Crab Creek Review, FIVE:2:ONE, Pidgeonholes, decomP magazinE, Crab Fat Magazine, Pithead Chapel, Hobart Pulp, and elsewhere. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Homology Lit and the author of Hearing the Underwater (Finishing Line Press, 2019). She enjoys reading, knitting, hiking, and discussing intersectional feminism. You can read more of her work at www.savannahslonewriter.com.
Emcee: TBA |
