Upcoming Readers

June 1, 2022: Michael Dylan Welch

Michael Dylan Welch is a former poet laureate of Redmond, Washington, where he is also president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword and curator (since 2006) of the monthly SoulFood Poetry Night reading series. He is also founder and president of the Tanka Society of America, and a cofounder and director of the Haiku North America conference and the American Haiku Archives. In 2010, he also started National Haiku Writing Month, held every February (www.nahaiwrimo.com). Michael's poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in at least twenty languages, and he has published dozens of poetry books, and books of translation. Michael lives in Sammamish, and his website, devoted mostly to haiku and other poetry, is www.graceguts.com.

Emcee: Mary Crane

July 6, 2022:
Alexander Smith and Jeremy Robkin

ALEXANDER SMITH has lived in the Seattle area since 1989, having grown up in southern California. He is the proud father of three grown children and currently resides in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. His poetry dates from the mid-1960’s to present. A longtime participant and sometimes featured reader at open mic venues like North End Forum, Hugo House, EasySpeak Seattle, Poetry Bridge, Duvall Poetry and a sit-in with the 52nd Street Band, Alex plays harmonica and has developed a harmonica/poetry style to add to his spoken word. His poetry trends toward lyrical, ironic, self-referential free verse with inherent buried rhythms and rhyme.

JEREMY ROBKIN has dabbled in a variety of artistic pursuits over his 57 years on the planet. In music, he favors playing the vibes, in painting, watercolor, in theater, improv. With the written word, he favors poetry. He occasionally commits poetry to paper, but his first love is walking the tightrope of extemporaneous free verse. An experienced improvisational actor, he fuses his love of improv and poetry to create poems on the fly based on a single word provided by the audience. His listeners take a journey of unexpected connections and contrasts, celebrating the magic in little things, frivolous themes and precious moments. Whether the poem is remembered or forgotten, there is joy in knowing it lived once, it was heard, and it moved through us on its way to somewhere else.

Emcee: Mary Crane

August 3, 2022: Kathleen Stancik

KATHLEEN STANCIK grew up cooking burgers, leading trail rides, pumping gas, and cleaning guest rooms in a family-owned resort on Lake Cle Elum. She began writing poetry as an adult about eight years ago and is a member of the informal group, the Roslyn Poets, who organize and present the Roslyn Winter Poetry Series beginning in January each year. Her work has appeared in Cirque, Twenty-Fourth, Shrub-Steppe Poetry Journal, Ekphrastic Journal, Windfall, Typehouse Magazine (upcoming) and others. She was a featured poet at the Inland Poetry Prowl in 2017 and was awarded the Tom Pier Prize by the Yakima Coffeehouse Poets in 2018. Her work was included in the anthology Take a Stand:Art Against Hate, winner of the Washington State Book Award for Poetry in 2021. She loves dogs, books, chocolate, the ocean and her own backyard.

Emcee: Mary Crane

September 7, 2022: Cathy Ross

Cathy Ross has been writing poetry for thirty years and has read at many local venues in the Pacific Northwest. Her poems reflect a woman’s journey through the middle years and often reveal unexpected layers within an ordinary life. Her latest book, “What the Tulips Said,” was published in 2020. She is a member of Poets Table in Seattle.

Emcee: Pamela Denchfield

October 5, 2022: Lynne Ellis

Lynne Ellis writes in pen. Her words appear in Poetry Northwest, Sugar House Review, WA 129, and elsewhere, and she was awarded the 2021 Perkoff Prize in poetry by the Missouri Review. Her book--In these failing times I can forget (Papeachu Press)—considers the human cost of rapid economic growth in a prosperous American city.

Emcee: TBA

November 2, 2022: Benjamin Schmitt

Benjamin Schmitt is the author of four books, most recently The Saints of Capitalism (New Meridian Arts, November 2021) and Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Sojourners, Antioch Review, The Good Men Project, Hobart, Columbia Review, Spillway, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Pacifica Writers’ Workshop, he has also written articles for The Seattle Times and At The Inkwell. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children.

Emcee: TBA

December 7, 2022: Rena Priest

Rena Priest became the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate on April 14, 2021, and her term will run until March 31, 2023.

Priest’s literary debut, Patriarchy Blues, was honored with the 2018 American Book Award, and her most recent work is Sublime Subliminal. A member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation, she is the first Indigenous poet to assume the role. She succeeds poets Claudia Castro Luna (2018-2021), Tod Marshall (2016-2018), Elizabeth Austen (2014-2016), Kathleen Flenniken (2012–2014), and Sam Green (2007–2009). Learn more about past laureates here.

Priest’s work can be found in Poetry Northwest, Pontoon Poetry, Verse Daily, Poem-a-Day at Poets.org, and elsewhere. She has taught Comparative Cultural Studies and Contemporary American Issues at Western Washington University and Native American Literature at Northwest Indian College. Priest holds a BA in English from Western Washington University and an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Bellingham, Washington.
Each laureate puts their own unique focus on the position, and Priest focuses on two primary goals during her term: celebrating poetry in Washington’s tribal communities, and using poetry to increase appreciation of the natural world and the threats facing it.

Read Priest’s blog at wapoetlaureate.org, and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

This event is sponsored & co-hosted by:
- Duvall Cultural Commission
- Duvall Poetry
- Humanities Washington

Emcee: TBA