Poetry Postcard Fest
2026-07-04 - 2026-08-31 | Anywhere!
The Poetry Postcard Fest is an annual 56-day experiment in spontaneity and community building. This literary event is a self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition where people sign up to send 31 original poems on postcards to folks on a participation list before the end of August. The fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul E. Nelson and Lana Ayers, and has grown to include poets participating worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1.
REGISTER HERE

Beaver Point Community Hall Reading
2026-08-14 16:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | WA
Venue
Beaver Point Community Hall
1361 Beaver Point Road, Salt Spring Island, BC
Schedule
Friday, August 14, 4-8 PM

Reading: 4:30-6 PM

Followed by a community potluck

Featured Readers

Robert Michael Pyle

James Dott

With Local Contributors to the Cascadian Zen Anthology

Peter Levitt

Shirley Graham

Adelia MacWilliam

Briony Penn

Lorin Medley

Ann Graham Walker

Ursula Vaira

Jason Wirth

Dan Clarkson

Cascadian Zen Volume One
Cascadian Zen Volume Two

Watershed Press Presents Cumberland 2026 Poetry and the Anthropecene
2026-08-15 15:30 - 21:00, 2026-08-16 15:00 - 17:30 | WA
Venue

The Masonic Lodge
2687 Dunsmuir Ave, Cumberland, BC

Schedule
Saturday 8/15/2026

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM | Talk by Jason Wirth on the poetry of Jan Zwicky. Jan Zwicky and Garth Martens will read “Say It” followed by a question period.

7 PM – 9:00 PM | Warm up readings by local contributors to the Cascadian Zen anthology (5 minutes each). Follwed by readings by Robert Michael Pyle and James Dott.

Sunday 8/16/2026

3 PM – 4:00 PM | Living room: Local poets share their work.

4 PM – 5:30 PM | Garth Martens will read from his new book: Who Else in the Dark Headed There. Robert Bringhurst reading and launch of Buying the Ghosts a Drink.

Readers

Robert Bringhurst

Robert Michael Pyle

James Dott

Jan Zwicky

Garth Martens

Jason Wirth

Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic Sept 1 5pm PDT
2026-09-01 17:00 - 18:30 | Paul’s Zoom, WA, 98118, United States
We’ll celebrate the 20th Poetry Postcard Fest on Tuesday, September 1, 2026, at 5:00pm PDT via Zoom. Come to listen or to talk about your experience and read a postcard poem or two you wrote in 2026. Festival organizer Paul E Nelson will attend and it will be recorded for those who can not attend live.

I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop September 26
2026-09-26 15:00 - 17:00 | Online (Zoom)
On Saturday, September 26, from 3 – 5pm, Cascadia 2050 will be hosting a workshop titled: I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How). Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
This will be the second workshop aiming to demystify the process of writing poetry, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…” In our first workshop, we learned a little from Brenda Hillman about what it means to be a poet. As she says, “to be a poet you only need 3 readers, and one of them can be a tree.” With the idea established that poetry is an expansive mode which includes metered and rhymed lyrics, but goes far beyond such formal forms, our next workshop will take us into the toolbelt of the poet. We will talk about what “form” really means for a poem, and how we can use things like enjambment and assonance to channel energy and create interesting pieces.
As previously stated, on a larger scale, a creative practice is a powerful personal antidote to the depressants of attention fracking, war-mongering, and climate crisis we are all exposed to right now. It can help build physical, emotional, and intellectual resilience. It can help build community. It can help build a culture that is based on humans, not corporations. And we Cascadia 2050ites want to share that with you! So if you, a friend, a family member, or an annoying coworker needs this kind of poetic energy in their life right now, please come, join us, and invite that person in your life!
Click here for registration information

10th Cascadia Poetry Festival
2026-10-09 08:00 - 2026-10-11 17:00 | Rainier Beach Community Club, 6038 S Pilgrim St, Seattle, WA, 98118, United States
The Cascadia Poetry Festival is a gathering of poets and bioregionalists, exploring poetry and its connection to environmental, political, historical, and sociological pursuits within Cascadia bioregion. The festival aims to consider how prioritizing natural and cultural boundaries, rather than arbitrary political ones, can address climate change and other issues.
Registration coming soon
LEARN MORE HERE

Brenda Hillman, Paul E Nelson Joint Book Launch
2026-10-23 18:00 - 20:00 | Zoom, Online, Your Town
Join Brenda Hillman and Paul E Nelson via Zoom as they talk about, read from and discuss their new books. Suggested donation ($10-$50) to benefit the Cascadia Poetics Lab. Register via email (splabman@icloud.com) for the link.
Brenda Hillman and Paul E Nelson Joint Book Launch & Discussion. Brenda’s new book is “Still House in the Desert: An Eco-Contemplation” (Wesleyan University Press) and Paul’s new books are “The Singing Bullets of Soft Secession: & Other DaySongs” and “Cascadian Sentences” (Carbonation Press.)
