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
Frank Abe on The Literature of Japanese-American Incarceration
“A few months after the entry of the United States into World War II, the Government of the United States without a shred of evidence of misconduct...
Share your PPF poems!
Share your PPF postcard poems! Thank you so much for another incredible, record-breaking Poetry Postcard Fest! We'd like to give you the opportunity...
Sherri Olson’s Postcard Books
How Sherri Olson organizes her postcards From PPF participant Sherri Olson: Nan’s cute binder made me think I should share my solution. Years ago at...
Register for Fall 2024 Workshops!
Register for Fall 2024 Workshops! Registration for Cascadia Poetics Lab Fall 2024 workshops is OPEN NOW! This fall, we welcome Matt Trease, poet...
CPF8 to be hosted at the Richard Hugo House
CPF8 at the Richard Hugo House! This year, we are excited to be working with fellow Seattle literary arts organization The Richard Hugo House to...
Register NOW for the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival!
Register now for Cascadia Poetry Festival 8! The 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival will be held November 1-3, 2024 at the Richard Hugo House, Spring...
Barry McKinnon Interview (from July 2015)
Barry McKinnon died in Prince George, BC, on October 30, 2023. Your humble narrator drove to Prince George in July 2015 to conduct an interview with...
REGISTER NOW FOR PPF 2025!
Early bird registration for PPF 2025 is open now! We sincerely hope every postcard poet had an enjoyable 2024 Poetry Postcard Fest. Early bird...
A Poetry Postcard Fest Reflection from Sally
From PPF Committee member Sally Hedges-Blanquez: It's not September, but it feels like Fall. The cooler air, the shorter days. My cards have been...
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)
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
CPF9 Friday Night Keynote Reading VIDEO
CPF9 Keynote Reading Video! On October 10, 2025 following concurrent breakout workshops, we started the 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival with a keynote...
An Implicate World, Unfolding…
An Implicate World, Unfolding...by David McCloskey A 2017 philosophical-poetic meditation by David McCloskey, creator of the Cascadia map. To learn...
Postcards from Elya Braden
Postcards from PPF 2025 Poet Elya Braden! Below are gorgeous postcards and poems created by 2025 PPF poet Elya Braden. Thank you so much for sharing...
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.
An interview with Jewell James
An interview with Jewell James, Master Carver and Director of the Sovereignty and Treaty Protection Office with the Lummi Nation
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download ()
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.


































