Cascadia Poetry Festival 10
The 10th Cascadia Poetry Festival is set for October 9-11, 2026, at the Rainier Beach Community Club and other local venues. CPF is a gathering of poets and bioregionalists, exploring poetry and its connection to environmental, political, historical, and sociological pursuits within the Cascadia bioregion as defined by David McCloskey. The festival aims to consider how prioritizing natural and cultural boundaries, rather than arbitrary political ones, can address climate change and other issues. Cascadia Poetics LAB Founders Circle Members will be given the first opportunity to purchase an all-access Gold Pass.
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…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday September 26, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How): A Cascadia 2050 workshop
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…”
Click this link for more information about the workshop I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How)
Saturday September 26, 2026, 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
Cost: free, suggested donation $25.
A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with any/no level of experience with poetry and with an interest in non-religious spirituality and the occult.
Click this link for more information about the workshop: Poet As Radio: Writing From Intuition
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
October 15 – November 15, 2026
Cost: suggested donation $125.
Poet as Radio: Writing from Intuition
A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with any/no level of experience with poetry and with an interest in non-religious spirituality and the occult.
Click this link for more information about the workshop: Poet As Radio: Writing From Intuition
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
October 15 – November 15, 2026
Cost: suggested donation $125.
Explore practices that help keep consciousness attuned to the realities of the world – and discover how poetry can emerge from that depth. In this five-week workshop, Paul E. Nelson guides participants through readings, interviews, journaling, and writing exercise rooted in the Cascadia bioregion. All levels are welcome; openness and a commitment to the practice are all that’s required.
Learn more about Poetry as Neuro-Resilience →
Suggested donation: $130–$275
Saturday Cohort
Saturdays 3-5 PM Pacific Time
November 21, 2026 – December 19, 2026
Sunday Cohort
Sundays 3-5 PM Pacific Time
November 22, 2026 – December 20, 2026
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Winter in America (Still Submissions Open!
Submit to Winter in America (Still We invite poets and artists to contribute to the Winter in America (Again sequel anthology Winter in America...
CPL at the Rain Shadow Poetry Festival!
The weekend of August 21-24, Paul Nelson and 3/4 of the Cascadia 2050 crew embarked on a journey to Cumberland, British Columbia for the Rain Shadow...
Postcard Poem Inspiration from Robert Duncan
Are you looking for inspiration for you next poetry postcard? Take a page from Robert Duncan, a devotee of Hilda "H.D." Doolittle and a key figure...
Interview with El Habib Louai at Desolation Peak
On the morning of Wednesday, August 14, 2013, Habib and Paul Nelson awoke before 6A and were hiking with full packs up to “Jack’s Shack." But after...
Poetry From Journalism Exercise
Poetry From Journalism Exercise The news is chaotic and constant these days, but this week we bring you an exercise that can help you harness it for...
To AI or Not to AI (Definitely Not)
To AI or Not to AI? (Definitely not.) From Postcard Poet Kathy Paul: I’ve loved participating in the summer Poetry Postcard Fest since I first heard...
Personal Universe Deck Poetry Practice
Last week we brought you some inspiration from our 2024 Life As Rehearsal For the Poem and Poetics As Cosmology course, and this week we have...
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,...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
Rain Shadow Poetics Lab Society
The Rain Shadow Poetics Lab Society is building on the momentum of last August's events in Cumberland, BC with a workshop by Sharon Thesen and...
Lorin Medley On the Way to Kluusms
On the Way to Kluusms is the first poetry chapbook to be published by Watershed Press, a bioregional press based in Seattle, but with strong...
Bob Pyle and Jim Dott in Seattle
Two Cascadian Zen poets from central Cascadia are in Seattle, Friday, March 20, 2026, at 6:30 at Arundel Books. You can listen to our 2024 interview...
Help bring conversations with poets, authors, Indigenous leaders, and other culture workers to listeners around the world.
major sponsorship – $5,000 annually
Receive sponsor recognition at the beginning and end of each podcast episode produced during your sponsorship year. Those acknowledgements remain part of the recordings permanently.
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.
Bill Barillas on Theodore Roethke
In this edition of Cascadian Prophets, we hear Bill Barillas on Theodore Roethke. Bill Barillas is the editor of A Field Guide to the Poetry of Theodore Roethke and serves on the board of The Friends of Roethke Foundation.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:18 — 73.2MB)
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
Listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
!
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.







































