March 6, 2019: Benjamin Schmitt
Benjamin Schmitt is the Best Book Award and Pushcart nominated author of three books, most recently Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, Fall 2018). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the Antioch Review, Hobart, Worcester Review, Columbia Review, Roanoke Review, 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 daughter.
Emcee: Von Thompson-Wynn April 3, 2019: Laura Lee Bennett
[Photo captions: (Left) The author in 1990. Photo: Laura Heller. (Middle) Savvy Dani. Sans Serif, 2015. Collection of the Artist. www.savvydani.com. (Right) Chapbook cover illustration: Crystal Edwards]
Laura Lee Bennett will perform a reading of her prose poem, Snake Medicine (First Step). Laura Lee received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon in 1982. Soon after, she discovered Red Sky Poetry Theatre in Seattle, and was embraced by that community. Today she actively supports written and spoken arts in her Eastside community, including past service as president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP). Recent contributions include poetry performances at “[R]evolution” (2015), an installation featuring five local artists/activists at Venues for Local Artists on the Eastside (VALA Eastside); poems for “Ekphrastic Assimilations” (2016), an interactive project that brought together visual artists and poets from China and the U.S; and collaboration with poets Elizabeth Carroll Hayden and Chi Chi Stewart on a retelling of the Persephone myth, I Am Not Cursed (2016). Snake Medicine (First Step) is Laura Lee’s first chapbook, drawn from a spoken word performance in the 1990s. Praise from the publisher: “in 1993 i had the pleasure of hearing this story with its passionate honesty poured from the author's mouth at the microphone of red sky poetry theatre. i was overwhelmed with its beauty and power, and wanted to see it in a book. times were busy and it didn't happen then. whenever i saw Laura Lee, i would speak of it, but the copies were lost for many years. toward the end of 2016 the manuscript was found and digitized, and we went to work. with help from two beautiful artists, we now have the book i wanted for so long.” ―margareta waterman, nine muses books Emcee: Pamela Denchfield 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: To Be AnnouncedWatch this space!
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. Visit Daniel at DanielEdwardMoore.com. Emcee: TBA October 2, 2019: Rose Alley PressMore details to come. Watch this space!
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 |
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