Poetry Postcard Fest 2026
Early Bird Registration
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.
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
Diane di Prima (1934-2020)
Poetry Postcard Fest poet Margaret Mayer suggested linking my "Poet's Obituary" for Diane di Prima here on the Poetry Postcard Fest site and I figured it was a good idea because Diane was a postcard...
Mary Beth Frezon POPO2020 Afterword
Longtime Poetry Postcard Fest participant Mary Beth Frezon checks in with thoughts about her POPO2020 process: Excerpt: I’d been home since March 4, the first couple weeks of that with some illness....
Melanie Weldon-Soiset POPO2020 Afterword
A sweet take on her own POPO2020 participation comes to us from the blog of Melanie Weldon-Soiset: One excerpt: Sending postcards served as a practice of remembrance. The Poetry Postcard Fest gave...
Andrew Bell POPO2020 Afterword
AFTERWORD on the experience of August Poetry Postcard Fest 2020 (by Andrew Bell) Somehow, through no fault of anyone’s, but perhaps the tyranny of distance, I had drifted out of the Poetry Postcard...
Poetry Postcard Fest Love
Hi, Paul— I shared back in July that my dad died, and you posted that on the PoPo website. As a result, I was showered with love and kindness from so many PoPo folks that it overwhelmed me. I...
The Shadormas of Kerfe Roig
From the blog of Kerfe Roig, of New York: This year I participated in Poetry Postcard Fest the Poetry Postcard Fest–where the challenge is to send a different postcard with a poem you’ve composed...
The Fun Matters!
by Margaret Lee I keep signing up for the Poetry Postcard Fest every year, primarily because it’s the most fun I ever have when writing poetry. Besides, I always make marvelous new friends! But the...
SICA-USA Benefit Auction
SICA-USA is the cultural wing of Subud USA, a spiritual community to which I have belonged since 2004. Currently they are raising funds to support worthy projects like the Poetry Postcard Fest,...
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...
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