Postcards from Here and Postcards from Mapes Creek Highlights!

On July 14, 2024, we hosted our first IN PERSON Poetry Postcard Fest events: Postcards from Here and Postcards from Mapes Creek! Long-time postcard poets Tim Mateer of Austin, TX, Colette Dutton of Yellville, Arkansas and Abhaya Thomas of Portland, Oregon, joined us in Seattle, WA to talk about their techniques for postcard poetry and share the postcard poetry love!

In the morning, we gathered at the Olympic Sculpture Museum, where we had a plethora of postcard making material. Tim, Colette and Abhaya, with the help of PPF committee members Sally Hedges-Blanquez and Zach Charles, assisted Seattle residents with postcard making and shared their different techniques for the beautiful art they include on their postcards! We were able to meet and share Poetry Postcard information with so many wonderful members of our Seattle community. These gorgeous photos from the event were taken by Zach Charles’ partner Savannah! 

After this event, we hosted a poetry postcard reading at Mapes Creek, located at Be’er Sheva Park in Rainier Beach, Seattle. Postcard poets from around Washington state joined us to read their poems and share their process for writing postcard poems! Readers/presenters included Paul Nelson, Shannon Waits of the Rainier Beach Link2Lake project, CPL board members Jason Wirth, Lorna Dee Cervantes and Matt Trease, Zach Charles, and postcard poets Abhaya Thomas, Laura Gamache, Raymond Ussery, Alison Eisinger, Greg Bem, Stacey Jones, Denny Stern, Colette Dutton, Bonnie Wolkenstein, Roy Kindelberger, Dorothy Lemoult, and Tim Mateer! Photos from this event taken by Paul Nelson. Pictured: Lorna Dee Cervantes, Tim Mateer, Raymond Ussery.

We have the deepest gratitude for Tim Mateer, Abhaya Thomas and Colette Dutton for traveling to Seattle to be a part of these events. Thank you to every postcard poet that attended and shared their work. Thank you to the Poetry Postcard Fest committee for their assistance with these events and with PPF. Thank you to Seattle Department of Neighborhoods for funding the Mapes Creek event, and to the Engage, Educate & Discover Mapes Creek Project for all the work they are doing for Mapes Creek.

Thank you so so much to everyone that attended these events! We had an incredible time sharing postcard poetry in person with our communities, and we look forward to doing more events like this in the future. Registration for the Poetry Postcard Fest is STILL OPEN, but will close soon! Be sure to tell your friends and family to register ASAP!