Poetry Postcard Fest
An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.
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
Fourteen Countries, 46 States, 4 Provinces
The 15th Poetry Postcard Fest is on and registration is in its final two weeks. 14 different countries are represented, along with 46 U.S. states (+DC), 3 Australian states and 4 Canadian provinces....
Poetry Postcard Orientation
We had an excellent time talking poetry postcards on Juneteenth, June 19, 2021. Over 30 people joined the Zoom affair as Poetry Postcard Fest Co-Founder Paul E Nelson talked about the origin of the...
Postcards by Ellsworth Kelly
Postcarder Sally Hedges-Blanquez alerts us to: Ellsworth Kelly: Postcards will present a comprehensive survey of Kelly’s postcard collages, with 150 works on view. Many postcards reveal specific...
Postcard Orientation
Join us Via Zoom, Saturday, June 19, 2021 at 10am PDT for a Poetry Postcard Fest orientation. If you have never participated before, here's your chance to see how it works. If you HAVE done the fest...
Poetry Postcard Fest: Black Mountain Style
I was delighted to team up with postcarder (with a new book!) Margaret Lee for an essay that has been published in The Journal for Black Mountain College Studies, Volume 12. (pdf) Postcard poets...
2021, Year 15, Tribute to di Prima, McClure
Have you seen the gorgeous Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit yet? Thank you Kristen Ryberg and James Gaynor for making it a reality. On that site you can read that the 15th year of the Poetry...
Register now for PPF 2024!
Register now for Early Bird access to 2024 Poetry Postcard Fest! We had an absolute blast with the 2023 Poetry Postcard Fest, and we hope you did, too! If you have anything you'd like to share...
PPF Companion Piece
From Laura Gamache: Reading through my 2023 POPO poems, I notice the joy. I wrote about quail twice, about the lake moving, and the moon. There were a lot of birds -- LBJ's, as my mom called them, ...
2023 Post-Fest Party and Open Mic
October 1: Save the Date! 2023 Post-Fest Party and Open Mic From Dr. Ina Roy-Faderman, PPF Board Chair:Based on social media posts and my experience, this year's Poetry Postcard Fest is a gift...
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
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
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