Poetry Postcard Fest

An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.

Poetry Postcard Fest 2025 Event Registration Banner

Poetry Postcard Fest

An annual 56 day self-guided workshop in spontaneous composition and community-building.

Poetry Postcard Fest 2025 Event Registration Banner

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.

A five week online (Zoom) workshop for first-time and continuing participants in the online 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 the first of three, five week courses to happen before next postcard season. Click to learn more.

Thursdays 2-5:00 PM Pacific Time
April 3 – May 1, 2025

Poetics As Cosmology Spring 2025

Poetics As Cosmology Spring 2025 Banner

Poetics As Cosmology Spring 2025

A five week online (Zoom) workshop for first-time and continuing participants in the online 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 the first of three, five week courses to happen before next postcard season. Click to learn more.

Thursdays 2-5:00 PM Pacific Time
April 3 – May 1, 2025

Poetics As Cosmology Spring 2025 Banner

Life as Rehearsal for the Poem Workshop

Life as Rehearsal for the Poem Spring 2025 Banner

A five week online (Zoom) workshop for first-time and continuing participants in the online 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 the first of three, five week courses to happen before next postcard season. Click to learn more.

Sundays 2-5:00 PM Pacific Time
April 6 – May 4, 2025.

Life as Rehearsal for the Poem Workshop

A five week online (Zoom) workshop for first-time and continuing participants in the online 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 the first of three, five week courses to happen before next postcard season. Click to learn more.

Sundays 2-5:00 PM Pacific Time
April 6 – May 4, 2025.

Life as Rehearsal for the Poem Spring 2025 Banner

Thinkingwith: writing strategies for reconnecting to earth

Thinking With Workshop with Matt Trease Web Banner

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.

This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.

Click to learn more.

Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025

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.

This lab will focus on writing strategies, applicable for poetry or prose, for breaking the spell that objectifies and cuts us off from the earth and from place and all the living beings that we (often) obliviously live in relationship with. We’ll do that by intentionally widening the socially-imposed conventions of “normal” perception via some minor alterations to our daily writing practices.

Click to learn more.

Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 23 – March 23, 2025

Thinking With Workshop with Matt Trease Web Banner

What Happened to August?

From PPF Committee member Judy Kleinberg: If you’ve ever changed your name, you will appreciate how difficult it is to get rid of your previous name. The Poetry Postcard Fest has been around since 2007, when Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers devised a plan for a month-long...

Postcards from Where I Have Never Been by Margaret Lee

From PPF Committee Member Margaret Lee:  Last year, my theme for the Fest was Postcards from Where I Have Never Been. I was tired of reality and ready for fiction. My 31 cards named unfamiliar or imagined places. Did I connect the picture on the front to the poem on...

Support the Poetry Postcard Fest!

The season for postcards is approaching, and Cascadia Poetics Lab needs your support for another year of postcards and poetry! The Poetry Postcard Fest is 56-day exercise in spontaneous poetry composition and a beautiful opportunity to exchange poetry and community...

Postcard Poet Maureen Kane Publishes Poetry Collection

Mycelium: Poetry of Connection published by postcard poet Maureen Kane Postcard poet Maureen Sandra Kane has published a new poetry collection, Mycelium: Poetry of Connection through Gray Matter Press. The collection is "an exploration of the human condition through...

Poetry Postcard Fest News

Lillian Kurosaka’s Note

Lillian Kurosaka’s Note

Group 3:  here are the cards I've received. So very grateful for your poems and images! I can't express how deeply you have moved me. FYI I've sent to everyone on group 3 list--last cards Labor day...

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Sept 13, 2020 Open Mic Video

The video is produced and online. The first Poetry Postcard Fest open mic happened via Zoom on Sunday, September 13, 2020 at 4pm PDT with your humble narrator as host. There were poetry reading...

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Sept 1 = End of Poetry Postcard Fest

Sept 1 = End of Poetry Postcard Fest

Happy September. The fest is over, except for the stragglers. Expect a few cards coming in these next few days and then maybe one or two a few weeks late. This year with 156 days rather than 56 due...

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Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic

Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic

Please join us for the first Poetry Postcard Fest Open Mic, via Zoom, Sunday, September 13 at 4pm PDT. We'll meet for 90 minutes, discuss our 2020 Poetry Postcard Fest experience and read a few...

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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 thinking it is summer.  I guess I am not too late...

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Amy MIller’s 2022 Postcard Fest Wrapup

Amy MIller’s 2022 Postcard Fest Wrapup

Turing 60's a bitch, but it's better than the alternative. Check out longtime postcard fest participant Amy Miller's fest wrapup. Excerpt: Serial and random I started out the Fest bent on seriality....

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Allegra Brucker Interview

Allegra Brucker Interview

On September 15, 2022 we caught up with Allegra Brucker and talked to her about her participation in the Poetry Postcard Fest. She learned about the fest via Diane di Prima and still has the...

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The Poetry Postcard Fest, initiated by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers in 2007, invites participants to create and send 31 original poems on postcards throughout August. The fest emphasizes spontaneity, with poems written in one take directly onto postcards for recipients worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1, and participants receive a list of fellow poets to exchange cards with. A $15 contribution supports the Cascadia Poetics LAB, and scholarships are available. For more details and resources on postcard poetry, visit How it Works or check out related essays and wrap-ups from past participants.

How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works

Abhaya Thomas Postcard

How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works

The Poetry Postcard Fest, initiated by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers in 2007, invites participants to create and send 31 original poems on postcards throughout August. The fest emphasizes spontaneity, with poems written in one take directly onto postcards for recipients worldwide. Registration opens annually on September 1, and participants receive a list of fellow poets to exchange cards with. A $15 contribution supports the Cascadia Poetics LAB, and scholarships are available. For more details and resources on postcard poetry, visit How it Works or check out related essays and wrap-ups from past participants.

Abhaya Thomas Postcard