The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water with Harold Rhenisch

Our new workshop, The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water with Harold Rhenisch, begins THIS SATURDAY, January 10! Learn about the origins of Cascadian language through this series of workshops, expanding on the linguistic origins of Chinook Wawa and the relationships between the ancient languages of the Columbia and its new languages, French and English. To do so, the workshop draws in American, Canadian, Wawa and North European poetries, with a concentration on opening doorways.

This 5-week workshop will take place via Zoom on Saturdays 3-5 PM PST from January 10 – February 7, 2026. CLICK HERE to register. Registration is $125, with scholarships available. Contact us HERE to inquire about scholarships. 

About Harold Rhenisch

Harold Rhenisch’s 13th full-length book of poetry, The Salmon Shanties: a Cascadian Song Cycle, is a series of long poems about the salmon of Cascadia and the people who call to them, written as a companion to Ezra Pound’s Cantos. It was short-listed for the 2025 Purdy Prize. Harold’s 22 other books include three bioregional memoirs in the style of Barry Lopez and Annie Dillard and work on four environmental photography books (with photographer Chris Harris), including Motherstone (on central-Cascadian volcanoes) and Spirit in the Grass (on the last pristine grassland, in central Cascadia.) He has worked as editor and mentor for decades, and has taught writing at both the Victoria School of Writing and Vancouver Island University. He writes the blog Okanaganokanogan.com, and lives in Vernon, British Columbia.