The anthology 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards is out in the world and the three co-editors were among the poets reading from the book and discussing their practice of creating, composing and mailing poetry postcards. Ina Roy-Faderman, Judy Kleinberg and your humble narrator joined Joanna Thomas, Matt Trease, Eugenia Hepworth-Petty and Carolyn Adams last night at King’s Books in Tacoma for the first event in the 5th Cascadia Poetry Festival.

One delight was hearing the poems in the voices of the poets who wrote them, and another was meeting poets who have only been known as correspondents for as long as the eleven years the August Poetry Postcard Fest has been happening.

Paul E Nelson (Photo by Ina Roy-Faderman

The book will be available at the fest, via the website: https://www.56daysofaugust.com/ and through the IndieGoGo campaign which features perks from Brenda Hillman, Michael McClure, Sam Hamill, George Stanley, original cover art and other items:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/56-days-of-august-poetry-postcard-anthology-art/x/342878#/

Other festival events today:

Friday, October 13, 2017

9am-2pm – Youth Poetry Day (presented by Write253): A day of workshops, community building, and open mics. Free and open to middle/high school students in Pierce County. Lunch is provided. For information on how to bring a group from your school, email Michael Haeflinger at michael@write253.com. (location, tba)

3-5pm – Living Room: a free, democratic reading for poets to read their original work in a circle format with other poets. Limit 40 participants. Host Connie Walle of the Puget Sound Poetry Connection. (State History Museum Auditorium.)

7:30 Main Stage: Readings featuring scheduled poets: Patricia Smith, Bruce Weigl, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Lucia Misch and Philip Red Eagle.  MC – Jared Leising.

10pm – Tribute to Grunge, featuring Gretta Harley, dan raphael, Jennifer Robin, David Fewster, Heidi Fosner and others, hosted by Hamish Todd. (Harmon Barrel Room, 1938 Pacific Ave, Tacoma, WA.)