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
56 Days of August (The August Postcard Fest Anthology)
From Ina Roy: The yearly August Postcard Poetry Festival has become an international event. To celebrate the 10th year of the Fest and the community that has developed around it, we will be creating...
Are You Stockpiling Postcards?
The 10th August Poetry Postcard Fest begins on July 4. Registration begins that day here: Buy tickets for Poetry Postcard Fest And poems from this year's fest can be submitted for the 1st Poetry...
Elizabeth Woods Postcard Interview
Elizabeth Woods checks in from Down Under with a Postcard Fest interview. An excerpt: EW-The festival is now in its tenth year, what are some of the notable aspects a changes you have seen along the...
2016 August Poetry Postcard Fest is Coming!
The call for the tenth year of the August Poetry Postcard Fest will be released on July 4, 2016, and tickets go on sale at that time. Like last year, as soon as 32 participating poets get signed up,...
536. Jupiter in Virgo
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image used for this latest 2015 August Poetry Postcard and one of the shortest 2015 postcard poems mostly because of the glossy stock and the difficulty in the actual...
535. Green For Red
Another Georgia O’Keeffe image, this latest August Poetry Postcard Fest poem was sent as prayer for a postcarder in the middle of summer wildfire hell.
Earlybird Registration Ends June 4!
Hard to believe it is one month until the start of the 2022 Poetry Postcard Fest. Registration is OPEN NOW and earlybird registration ends June 4. On Saturday, June 11 at 9am PDT, join fest...
The Poetry Postcard Fest: Black Mountain Style
A year ago postcard poet Margaret Lee and I collaborated on an essay about the Poetry Postcard Fest and how it's origins are indebted to the Black Mountain School of poetry. It was published by the...
Epic Post-Fest Prompt Workshop
Get your five page handout loaded with links, prompts and inspirations if you register for this one day workshop before June 10. Take a look inside our current workshop group that started after the...
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
The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water
A 5-week online Cascadian poetry workshop, on zoom.
This is a workshop in poetic fusion. Cascadia began with a language that united cultures: Chinook Wawa. This series of workshops expands its gift of integration between the ancient languages of the Columbia and its new languages, French and English. To do so, it draws in American, Canadian, Wawa and North European poetries, with a concentration on opening doorways.
Click this link for more information about the workshop The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water
Saturdays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
January 10, 17, 24, 31 & February 7
Cost: $250.00
The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water
A 5-week online Cascadian poetry workshop, on zoom.
This is a workshop in poetic fusion. Cascadia began with a language that united cultures: Chinook Wawa. This series of workshops expands its gift of integration between the ancient languages of the Columbia and its new languages, French and English. To do so, it draws in American, Canadian, Wawa and North European poetries, with a concentration on opening doorways.
Click this link for more information about the workshop The Poetics of Cascadian Land and Water
Saturdays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
January 10, 17, 24, 31 & February 7
Cost: $250.00
Two versions of what will be basically the same workshop to discuss the concept of the daysong, how to accomplish one and what it means to the poet who pulls it off.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Monday, January 26, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Workshop Cost: Free, with optional donation of $20-$100.00
Daysong Workshops 2026
Daysong Workshops 2026
Two versions of what will be basically the same workshop to discuss the concept of the daysong, how to accomplish one and what it means to the poet who pulls it off.
Thursday, January 22, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Monday, January 26, 2026 3-5 PM PDT
Workshop Cost: Free, with optional donation of $20-$100.00
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.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
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.
Click this link for more information about the workshop Thinkingwith: Writing Strategies for Reconnecting to Earth.
Sundays 3-5:00 PM Pacific Time
February 15, 22, March 1, 8, and 15, 2026
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem and Poetics as Cosmology 2026 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 Winter 2026, we’ll explore a short history of Projective/Outside North America Poetry, focused on:
-
- George Bowering
- Fred Wah
- Daphne Marlatt
- Michael McClure
- Mary Norbert Kõrte
- John Olson
- Phyllis Webb
- Stephen Collis
- Sharon Thesen
- Barry McKinnon
- Cedar Sigo
- George Stanley
- Robin Blaser
Life as Rehearsal for the Poem (LARFP)
- Sundays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 29, April 5, 12, 19, and 26, 2026
Poetics as Cosmology (PAC)
- Thursdays 3-5 PM PDT
- March 26, April 2, 9, 16, and 23, 2026
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard
How the Poetry Postcard Fest Works
Abhaya Thomas Postcard