Postcards from Mapes Creek on June 8! Join us on June 8, 2025 from 4-7 PM at Mapes Creek for a community poetry...
splab archive blog

Cascadia Poetics LAB was known as SPLAB prior to September 2021. Here you will find past SPLAB blog articles going back to 2009.
Sam O’Hana on How to Support Working Class Poets
When I said that what’s good for general society is also good for poets, I’m talking about a series of cultural opportunities where a much wider stretch of people are allowed to take the opportunity to become writers. I came back from a conference last week where I presented some research on the demographic aspects of the New American poets. The poets that were born and came to maturity in the early to mid-20th century were beneficiaries of broad national scale longevity gains. This [includes] things like pushbacks against tuberculosis, against polio, against poor nutrition and infant mortality. These are gains that were made by the medical and scientific institutions, but also by general prosperity, by making more food available to more people and making that food shelf stable for longer. So, when you talk about what might make it possible for poor people to do more creative work, you could start by saying well we should just give people more money, but the fact of the matter is that plenty of people already have the wealth they need, they just don’t actually have any time.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:28 — 81.7MB)
Winter in America (Again Audio from Seattle Feb 5, 2025
Audio from February 4 2025 Winter in America (Again at Seattle U with Jason Wirth, Paul E Nelson, Catalina Cantú, Stacey Jones, Zach Charles, Terran Campbell, Deborah Bacharach, Matt Trease, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs.
CPL Outreach on Long Beach Peninsula
A poetry reading at the Sou’wester on the Long Beach Peninsula, WA, by Cascadia Poetics Lab board members and local allies.
Fumiko Kimura’s Life & Art by David Berger
How to capture the soul of a subject, live your life dedicated to your own art, the process of discovery and even plan...
Michael Daley Interview (Romance with the Unexpected)
I had the good fortune on Sunday, July 17, 2022 to travel to the home of Michael Daley, on Fidalgo Island, to chat...
WAPL Call for Salmon Poems
Rena Priest, Washington State Poet Laureate, was just awarded a fellowship from the Academy of American Poets! As part...
New Ish River/Salish Sea Map
A new map of the Salish Sea/Ish River Ecozone by David McCloskey
Give Big 2022
Support Cascadia Poetics Lab with a contribution via Give Big. We want to increase awareness of our work
Earth Day Cleanup of Chinook Beach Park
It has the potential to be quite a place to experience Seattle at its best. Right on Lake Washington, with views of...
Workshop Registration Open
The next round of online workshops happen March 3 – April 7, 2022 with five Thursday sessions from 4-6pm. The workshops started during the pandemic and were geared for people who have participated in the Poetry Postcard Fest, or for those who wanted a better sense of the theory and practice of spontaneous composition.
Wah, Whitehill, Lashley
Video of the Imbolc 2022, Lunar New Year – Year of the tiger reading with Fred Wah, Theresa Whitehill and Robert Lashley.
Upcoming Founding Supporters Reading
CPL Founding Supporters reading, Monday, January 31, 2022 at 6pm with Fred Wah, Theresa Whitehill and Robert Lashley via Zoom. Also Sharon Thesen’s Zoom reading for SICA-International Zoomuse Poems for Peace, Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 11am PST.
Barbara Johns on Kenjiro Nomura
The paintings of Kenjiro Nomura are featured at the Cascadia Art Museum in Edmonds, Washington and a new book by art historian Barbara Johns, Kenjiro Nomura, American Modernist: An Issei Artist’s Journey, is the topic of discussion.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:16 — 74.5MB)
Fred Wah Interview (The Simple, MHT)
BC poet Fred Wah talks about his lecture The Simple, as well as the concept of serial poetry and his Music at the Heart of Thinking.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:06:38 — 91.5MB)
Cascadia Poetics Lab Supports Open Books
Open Books is moving to Pioneer Square and needs your support
Seriality (A 2022 Workshop:
In this workshop we take the methods and the organismic stance toward poetics (& life) and continue to investigate...
Sharon Thesen Testimonial
We had a remarkable and deeply soulful Founding Supporters reading last night, Friday, November 5, 2021. Huge thanks...

















