Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
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.
How it Works
The fest is a self-guided 56 day workshop in spontaneous composition and community. Click to learn more about How it Works.
Poetry Postcard Fest News
Poetry Postcard Fest 2023: Statistics, People, and Peace
When I flex my muscle of empathy, I am capable of hearing not only your words, but also your humanity -- Paul K. Chappell, Founder and Executive Director, Peace Literacy Institute Confluence: my...
Confessions of an excessively organized postcarder (Judy Kleinberg)
I wouldn’t say I’m obsessive, but I definitely trend toward organized. So when it comes to the annual Poetry Postcard Fest, I like to stay ahead of the chaos. My methods work for me. They would...
The Windfall (Zach Charles)
It happened! As the Poetry Postcard Fest begins, the universe has bestowed me with a gift. The winter ‘97 issue of The Kenyon Review, produced from an unlabeled cardboard box of mostly chewed up...
Crackers, Carbs, & Postcards…
From Sally Hedges-Blanquez: I just opened some empty boxes, flattened them, & chopped away with my old school paper cutter. Instead of 3 boxes bound for the recycle bin,I’ve got 6 postcards and...
Postcard Fest Open Mic (Short Version)
Poetry Postcard Fest Open House edited by Veronica Martinez
Holding Meaning Lightly
In 2017 the great Zen poet Norman Fischer had this Facebook post: Poems are not necessarily supposed to do you any good. People think that poems have some meaning embedded in them and that the...
Zach Charles Mid ’24 PPF
From PPF Committee Member Zach Charles: Yet again, while reflecting on the Poetry Postcard Fest, I am drawn to the way the project can reveal the power of the accident. This year, unrelated to the...
This Fest is For the Birds
This Fest is For the Birds From PPF committee member Margaret Lee: I arose this morning before the full moon had set. Driving west and then south en route to Deep Fork, my shifting vantage showed me...
18th Poetry Postcard Fest Stats
Updates and Stats for the 18th Poetry Postcard Fest We hope you are all enjoying the 18th Poetry Postcard Fest! This year, we celebrate a RECORD BREAKING amount of participants! We are so grateful...
A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with a wide variety of experience with poetry and with a keen interest in spirituality and the occult. This course is more than a workshop; it’s a journey into the unknown, where you’ll discover hidden messages and ideas both from within yourself and the outside world. Through chance, divination, games, and ritual, you’ll learn to trust your intuition and let your spontaneity guide your writing.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
September 7 – October 5, 2025
Poet as Radio: Writing from Intuition
Poet as Radio: Writing from Intuition
A 5-week online poetry workshop designed for folks with a wide variety of experience with poetry and with a keen interest in spirituality and the occult. This course is more than a workshop; it’s a journey into the unknown, where you’ll discover hidden messages and ideas both from within yourself and the outside world. Through chance, divination, games, and ritual, you’ll learn to trust your intuition and let your spontaneity guide your writing.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
September 7 – October 5, 2025
Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn
We will read The H.D. Book together over 5 weeks. It’s a big book, so that’s a lot of reading, but he’s a joy to read, so it’s not exactly onerous. I will probably talk a bit at the beginning of each session and then open it up to the participants. I wrote the introduction. You should read it first. We can talk about that as well. The goal here is to let Duncan lead us into an encounter with the marvelous as we follow his encounter with H.D. as it led him into the depths of history, mind, and soul.
Wednesdays 5:30-7:30 PM Pacific Time
September 17 – October 15, 2025
Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn
We will read The H.D. Book together over 5 weeks. It’s a big book, so that’s a lot of reading, but he’s a joy to read, so it’s not exactly onerous. I will probably talk a bit at the beginning of each session and then open it up to the participants. I wrote the introduction. You should read it first. We can talk about that as well. The goal here is to let Duncan lead us into an encounter with the marvelous as we follow his encounter with H.D. as it led him into the depths of history, mind, and soul.
Wednesdays 5:30-7:30 PM Pacific Time
September 17 – October 15, 2025
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology 2025 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 Fall 2025, we’ll explore a short history of Projective/Outside North American Poetry, focused on:
Whitman & Dickinson
- Whitman & Dickinson
- WCW & Lorine Niedecker
- Olson & Levertov
- McClure & di Prima
- Daphne Marlatt, Brenda Hillman, & Nate Mackey
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem (LARFP)
- Sundays, 3-5 PM PDT
- November 2, 9, 16, 23, and 30, 2025
Poetics as Cosmology (PAC)
- Thursdays, 3-5 PM PDT
- October 30, November 6, 13, 20, and December 4, 2025
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard