“I’ve been to many poetry festivals over the years, and the Cascadia Festival is one of the best at combining literary energy with explorations of environmental, political, historical, and sociological pursuits with a general celebration of poetry. The invited poets offered a wonderful representation of the diversity of our bioregion—as did the poetics of the works shared. There were youth events, Veteran events, “living room readings” (that featured festival poets and anyone from the community could share work in). The WA historical piece embodied by the celebration of Richard Brautigan, the consistent return to thinking about poetry and the environment, the involvement of young poets, older poets: really, I cannot articulate how generous and egalitarian and stimulating the festival is. Truly, The Cascadia Poetry festival is a great thing for Humanities WA and Arts WA to be a sponsor of—to put it simply, The Festival repped well and did both organizations proud! I was glad to be there for it and am eager for the next one.”

– Tod Marshall
Washington Poet Laureate