A HUGE thank you to everyone that attended CPF7!

On October 6-8, we hosted our 7th Cascadia Poetry Festival at Spring Street Center in Seattle, Washington, and we had a wonderful time! We are incredibly grateful for every poet and participant that celebrated the poetry of Cascadia and the release of Cascadian Zen Vol. I with us.

It was an honor to open the festival on Friday with readings by Robert Bringhurst, Jan Zwicky, Gary Copeland Lilley and Tim McNulty. We were delighted to feature insightful and engaging talks on Saturday with Michael Daley, Robert Bringhurst, Andrew Schelling, Holly Hughes, Tim McNulty, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs and Sara Marie Ortíz. The featured talks and classes with Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Robert Bringhurst, Theresa Whitehill, Tess Gallagher, Brenda Hillman, Andrew Schelling and Jan Zwicky all provided an insight to different aspects of literature and bioregionalism that are vital to practicing poetry and place. Many participants completed Saturday night by reading their poetry at our after party at Vermillion Bar, which was held by Eric Acosta, Matt Trease and Amy Hirayama.

Thank you to Jason Wirth for not only moderating a few of the panels, but also providing a beautiful and educational tour of Kubota Garden on Sunday morning. It was deeply moving to have Holly Hughes, Michael Daley and Theresa Whitehill read their poetry on that chilly morning at the garden, and a wonderful opportunity to practice place in Cascadia with each other. Following this, Theresa Whitehill and Felicia Rice showed their film On Heavy Lifting, which accompanies their book Heavy Lifting, which we had displayed throughout the festival. We finished the festival by honoring the poets that have passed on and hearing the impactful presence that each of these lives had on so many people.

Thank you deeply to the poets that traveled to Seattle to share their knowledge and work with the participants of the festival. Thank you to our emcees Cate Gable, David Griggs, Matt Trease and Simon Wolf for moderating the presentations and guiding everyone through the weekend. Thank you to the CPF committee Amy Hirayama, Eric Acosta, Simon Wolf and Matt Trease for assisting in the planning and operations of the festival. Thank you to Joe Chiveney and Cathy Visser for preparing delicious home-cooked meals for the volunteers and poets throughout the weekend. Thank you to our volunteers Sally Hedges-Blanquez, Zach Charles, Ricardo Ruiz and Bhakti Watts for helping with registration, housing and other tasks throughout the festival. Thank you to Greg Bem for filming the festival. Thank you to Spring Street Center for providing a space for us to hold our festival and house several of the poets throughout the weekend.

And a final THANK YOU to everyone that registered for the festival and joined us for our incredible weekend. This was my first poetry festival ever, and you all made it one to remember. We’ll begin reviewing, editing and posting video from the festival soon. Thanks Greg Bem for taking the video.

Registration for CPF8 is currently OPEN! If you enjoyed CPF7 as much as we did, we hope to see you at the next one.