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.

Poetry Postcard Fest News

2015 Poetry Postcard F.A.Q.’s

A few random questions posed by participants, or would-be participants, in the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. By the way, this is your last call for registration as that ends July 27 at 12:01...

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Why a Postcard Fee This Year?

I got an unsigned email this morning about the postcard fest: hello paul wondering - why is there a fee for participating now?  what is done with  over $4000 you would collect if over 400 sign up...

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The Owner of the Red Wheelbarrow

Being a William Carlos Williams fan, this story was a natural for me. A scholar by the name of William Logan, a professor at the University of Florida, (with help from a local historian) did the...

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The Joy of Postcards

I'm back in that mode again, a time of year when poetry gets right to the front of my daily consciousness. Some who know me would argue that it is that way anyway, but during the annual August...

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Postcard Update, Independence

First an update on the 2015 August Poetry Postcard Fest. We have 70 signups in the first 44 hours and the first two groups are complete. Lists have been sent out to groups 1 & 2. Participants in the...

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Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit

Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit

Thanks mainly to the work of two postcard people, Kristen Ryberg and James Gaynor, we'll have a launch for the Online Poetry Postcard Fest Exhibit on Sunday, March 28, 2021, from 4-5pm PDT. Here's...

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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 web banner

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

Poet as Radio web banner

Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn

Banner Robert Duncans HD Book 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

Banner Robert Duncans HD Book Michael Boughn

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

  1. Whitman & Dickinson
  2. WCW & Lorine Niedecker
  3. Olson & Levertov
  4. McClure & di Prima
  5. 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 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