Cascadia Poetics Lab board member Adelia MacWilliam is a poet whose family settled on Salt Spring Island in the 1850s. Adelia has struggled with the settler amnesia and is part of what promises to be a fascinating talk on Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 2pm at the Salt Spring Library. We hope to see you there.
Seattle-based poetry nonprofit Cascadia Poetics Lab is engaged in multiple celebrations throughout the Cascadia bioregion to celebrate the release of their poetry anthology Cascadian Zen Vol. I, published by Watershed Press. After a successful event at Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle, WA on Monday December 4, 2023; the current calendar of launch events includes Peninsula College in Port Angeles, WA on December 7; Winekraft Wine Bar in Astoria, OR on December 8; Time Enough Books in Ilwaco, WA on December 9. All of these events are open to the public!
The Ridge is a poem in 20 parts, a meditation on a geological feature of Quadra Island, a large island in British Columbia, just north of the Strait of Georgia, and thus the Salish Sea. But the poem is also a meditation on what’s happening on the island and on the planet we share in what’s been described as devastating imagery. I would add that it’s a meditation on the human species as well, at this time in the early Anthropocene.
Robert Bringhurst is the author. Trained initially in the sciences at MIT, he makes his life in the humanities from his home on Quadra Island, where he’s worked in poetry, Native American linguistics and typography. An officer of the Order of Canada, former Guggenheim Fellow and winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. He’s our guest today to talk about The Ridge. Robert, thanks for your time and hospitality.
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Watch the CPF7 Empty Bowl Press Panel! On Saturday, October 7, 2023, we opened our second day of the 7th Cascadia Poetry Festival with an invocation by Jason Wirth. This was followed by panel on Empty Bowl Press. The panel featured poet and Empty Bowl editor Holly...
Sounds so interesting. Too bad it can’t also be zoomed for us far away folks.
I would love to be there and listen. I remember Salt Spring from my childhood and I put it into my novel – Alberta & the Spark. One day – I need to go back up there and see that it gets out and read on the Island. I would be happy to mail a copy to Adelia MacWilliam.
I would drive up and ferry over if my passport hadn’t been stolen.
Of course all poets are welcome here at my house in Astoria Oregon!