Force Field

The schedule for the Cascadia Poetry Festival continues to come together. The kickoff reading is Thursday, May 1, 7:30p, the Force Field reading, featuring poets from the first all women anthology of British Columbia poets in 34 years. Judith Roche is emcee. Poets include: Joanne Arnott (Richmond), Yvonne Blomer (Victoria), Jen Currin (Vancouver), Kim Goldberg (Nanaimo), Heidi Greco (White Rock), Daphne Marlatt (Vancouver), Renée Sarojini Saklikar (New Westminister) and Ursula Vaira (Lantzville, BC) at Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring. Open Books will be selling copies of the anthology at this reading.

There is still room left for the Friday, May 2, 9a-1p, Daphne Marlatt Workshop: In a Word, or Many: Where Language meets Terrain. Limited to 15 participants. This poetry workshop (which does not exclude prose) will investigate the ways words come to us in the act of writing when we situate ourselves on the threshold between our outer and inner worlds, with language as the sill for that threshold. We will look at how perception works linguistically, moving through lexicon and syntax, and relationally, within the locale, creatures and persons that sustain us. There will be writing time in the workshop as well as time for discussion and exchange. ($80 and not included in the Gold Pass.) Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring. Hear an interview with Marlatt on her new book and the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference here.

Anyone can read at the Living Room. The first one is Friday, May 2, 3-5p. A free and open democratic reading where people read their own work and listen to others in a circle format. Spring Street Center, 1101 15th in Seattle at the corner of 15th & Spring.

And the Small Press Bookfair starts Friday at 6p. 30 small presses from around the bioregion display their wares and introduce you to poets from around Cascadia. Runs through the weekend in Paccar Atrium at Seattle U. Confirmed participants include: The Common Acre, Headmistress Press, 826 Seattle, Pageboy Magazine, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Ravenna Press, Cascadia Now, StringTown Press, the LiTFUSE Poets’ Workshop, Rose Alley Press and Louis Collins Books.

Register for your weekend Gold Pass (or for any Festival event) at: http://cascadiapoetryfestival.org/contact