Poetry Postcard Activations
Free Poetry & Community Events in Rainier Beach!
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology 2026 Workshops
A five week online (Zoom) workshop best suited for continuing participants and more experienced poets (open to open form) in workshops facilitated by Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest Co-Founder Paul E Nelson. Participate in reading and discussion of foundational essays, interviews, listening and other assignments, as well as spontaneous poetry composition exercises. In Winter 2026, we’ll explore a short history of Cascadian poetry, touching on:
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- Theodore Roethke
- Fred Wah
- Daphne Marlatt
- George Bowering
- Mary Norbert Kõrte
- John Olson
- Phyllis Webb
- Stephen Collis
- Sharon Thesen
- Barry McKinnon
- Cedar Sigo
- George Stanley
- Robin Blaser
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem (LARFP)
- Sundays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 29, April 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2026
Poetics as Cosmology (PAC)
- Thursdays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 26, April 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Register for the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival!
9th Cascadia Poetry Festival Oct. 10-12 What does it mean to be here? How does one connect more deeply to a place, and how does this manifest in...
Sharon Thesen “…off on an angle”
The 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival is happening October 10-12th, 2025 at the Rainier Beach Community Club. One of the featured poets is Sharon Thesen,...
PPF Poet Eleanor Keisman Publishes Novella
Poetry Postcard Fest poet Eleanor Keisman is publishing a climate fiction novella entitled New Animal through Broken Tribe Press. Congratulations...
Your Blues Ain’t Mine: Winter in America (Again Virtual Workshop
On August 9, 2025 from 12-2 PM MST, Winter in America (Again co-editors Paul E. Nelson, allia abdullah-matta, Katie Sarah Zale and Roxi Power will...
A Writing Exercise for Postcard Poets!
We’re in the thick of it now! The Poetry Postcard Fest has gotten off to a great start, and we’re starting to see the postcards roll in- but for...
19th Poetry Postcard Fest Stats
19th Poetry Postcard Fest Statistics Registration for the 2025 Poetry Postcard Fest is now closed! We hope all participants have enjoyed the first...
Writing Resistance: Winter in America (Again Contributors
The outrages, for any person of conscience in the United States in the trump 2.0 era, almost come hourly. Many warned of a constitutional crisis...
Postcards at the Olympic Sculpture Park
On July 13, 2025, Cascadia Poetics Lab hosted a postcard collage table at the Olympic Sculpture Park. 60 Seattle residents and park goers joined us...
Winter in America (Again Tour Highlights!
Winter in America (Again Tour! Last week, the Winter in America (Again editors and contributors embarked on a mini book tour of Western Washington....
Two versions of what will be basically the same workshop to discuss the concept of the daysong, how to accomplish one and what it means to the poet who pulls it off.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Monday, January 26, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Workshop Cost: Free, with optional donation of $20-$100.00 (On Zoom)
Daysong Workshops 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Trevor Carolan on Making Waves: Reading BC and PNW Literature
In this edition of Cascadian Prophets, Trevor Carolan talks about Making Waves. If artists are the antennae of the race, then the poets and writers...
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers
Dragon Tongues: The Origin of Atmospheric Rivers from David McCloskey, designer of the Cascadia bioregion map. Learn more about David's work at the...
CPF9 Winter in America (Again Reading VIDEO!
CPF9 Winter in America (Again Reading VIDEO On October 12, 2025, we closed off the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a reading Winter in America...
Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
The Poetry Postcard Fest is an annual 56-day experiment in spontaneity and community building. This literarary 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.
A Salish Perspective on Wellness with Beaver Chief
Hear a Salish perspective on wellness with Beaver Chief. Fred Beaver Chief Jamison was a spiritual leader who brought out the traditional teachings of the Northwest Coast (Native American) Salish people. He discussed his heritage, the songs and stories that are part of the Shaker Indian Doctor tradition, his collection of medicine songs on a C.D., and some of the differences between his culture and “settler” culture, such as concepts of land ownership.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:10 — 60.7MB)
thinkingwith: writing strategies for reconnecting to earth
Our current media landscape seems hooked on a doom loop, an apocalyptic dream of human self-annihilation from collapsing nation states and anarchy to climate change to AI terminators, to genocidal warmongering. In order to avoid going down with that ship, we, as humans, are going to need to flip the script, to learn to think differently.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
thinkingwith: writing strategies for reconnecting to earth
Our current media landscape seems hooked on a doom loop, an apocalyptic dream of human self-annihilation from collapsing nation states and anarchy to climate change to AI terminators, to genocidal warmongering. In order to avoid going down with that ship, we, as humans, are going to need to flip the script, to learn to think differently.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
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We recognize that our home office is on the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Muckleshoot and other Coastal Salish tribes. Our dedication to bioregionalism is to co-exist on this land in the sacred manner as practiced by the traditional ways of these indigenous people.
Statement on Ahimsa by Board Member Jason Wirth
January 20, 2021
The (Poetry Postcard Fest) and the Cascadia Poetry Festival (are) connected… When you’re writing poetry… part of poetry is the craft… rules (to be understood) in a variety of contexts… (Craft is…) a necessary but not sufficient condition. You’re also… experiencing your mind, at a very deep level. And that mind as you experience it more deeply, is not in a vacuum… It’s now and here… rooted in the socio-economic and ecological conditions that make it possible. And participating in… the spiritual exercise of these postcards, is already entering into… a deep bioregional awakening and conversion. In a way we’re trying for something like a spiritual revolution, and that poetry is not just an interesting thing that you can do, if you like. It’s a fundamental exercise of being here in a less harmful way… it’s a deep ahimsa, a deep practice of non-harming and cultivation. And so, it’s all connected… And… our ambition is… trying to have a mind that would be capable, of being in this place in a better way… We’re going to live or die, by how we come down on these issues going forward.