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
Mary Norbert Körte Interview Part 2
When I visited Mary Norbert Körte in October of 2019, we recorded interviews on consecutive days. On the second day we talked, among other things,...
Mary Norbert Körte Interview October 2019
I am so grateful Bhakti and I trekked to Willits, California in October 2019 to interview the poet and former nun Mary Norbert Körte. She died...
Cascadian Zen Anthology
The latest Cascadian Prophets podcast is about Cascadian Zen from the three co-editors of the book, Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Adelia MacWilliam and Paul...
Art & Poetry Talk: Adelia MacWilliam on Salt Spring Island
Cascadia Poetics Lab board member Adelia MacWilliam is a poet whose family settled on Salt Spring Island in the 1850s. Adelia has struggled with the...
Interview with Brainwashed Director Nina Menkes
Why are only 8% of Hollywood movies produced by women, down from 9% 20 years ago? One Hollywood film-maker says the “male gaze” reinforced by a...
Poetics As Cosmology Open Mic + Exercise
2023 marks the third year the Cascadia Poetics Lab has offered online workshops. Started as a pandemic necessity, it has become an alternative...
Sharon Thesen gives Olson Lecture
Self-described Cascadian poet Sharon Thesen will give the annual Charles Olson lecture Saturday, October 29 at 1pm EDT, 10am PDT at the Cape Ann...
The Cards I Got 2022
It does not feel like fall in Seattle where it has rained .5 inches in the last 120 days. Needless to say the air quality is horrid and I am still...
Pierre Joris on A Nomad Poetics
The Cascadia Poetics Lab was delighted to partner with the Seattle University Department of Philosophy and Open Books: A Poem Emporium to facilitate...
Cascadia Poetics LAB Blog
PPF 2026 Registration is open Now!
Register for PPF 2026! Registration for the 2026 Poetry Postcard Fest is open NOW! CLICK HERE to register for next year's summer of postcard poetry....
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...
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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.
Jerome Rothenberg Interview from 2001
Jerome Rothenberg was a legendary poet, translator and anthologist. His work on various poetry anthologies, including Poems for the Millennium were an inspiration for our Cascadian Zen series. He died on April 21, 2024 and we’re presenting this archive audio of the interview conducted in November 2001 as our latest Cascadian Prophets podcast. R.I.P. Jerome! Our introduction from 2001.
Podcast (prophets-podcast): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:05 — 64.7MB)
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"
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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.





































