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

Denny Stern: Taiwan Etudes

From Postcard Poet Denny Stern: Taiwan Etudes Series Visiting Taipei in March we stumbled upon a post card intensive solo exhibit by Taiwanese artist Apex Lin, Pang-Soong. I estimated there to be between 1700 & 1800 hand drawn and written postcards by the artist...

Give BIG PPF & Your Postcard Testimonials!

Support Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest May 6-7 Thank you for being a postcard poet! We are gearing up for another summer of postcards and postcard events, more information on the way! A lot of tireless work goes into these events, and it's always so...

Postcard Reflections by Zach Charles

From PPF committee member Zach Charles: I recently had the privilege and honor to interview Paul E Nelson, Founder of the Cascadia Poetics Lab and co-founder of the Poetry Postcard Fest with Lana Ayers, about the Postcard Fest. Our conversation ranged from cards he...

Postcards in Rainier Beach

Happy spring! We're gearing up for another exciting summer of postcard poetry, and have some great opportunities for connecting with postcard poets and spreading the love for postcard poetry soon! Postcards at Walk the Block On May 24, 2025 from 11 AM - 6 PM PST,...

Poetry Postcard Fest News

Alice Glover Interview

Alice Glover Interview

Alice died today, December 23, 2023 so we are re-posting this interview as Alice heads to postcard heaven. Goodbye dear poet. The 2022 fest is winding down and registration for 2023 begins on...

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Giving Tuesday 2023

Giving Tuesday 2023

Throughout the year, we organize events designed to foster a community of like-minded people centered around organic, open-form poetry, and an ecological philosophy that emphasizes a connection to our bioregion, its history and the indigenous people that lived here long, long before colonization. We aim to expose our supporters to ideas about art as an art-of-living practice, inspired by the spiritual practice of understanding the bioregion surrounding us: soil, air, water, flora, fauna, and weather. In 2023, we hosted a successful Poetry Postcard Fest and the 7th Cascadia Poetry Festival, along with launching Watershed Press and publishing our anthology Cascadian Zen Vol. I. This is all thanks to donations from people like you!

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PPF 2023 Open Mic Video

PPF 2023 Open Mic Video

Watch the 2023 PPF Open Mic Video! On October 1, 2023, the poet participants of the 2023 Poetry Postcard Fest met on Zoom for the first post-fest gathering! With Paul Nelson serving as the emcee,...

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Postcard Fest ’23 Wrap Up

Postcard Fest ’23 Wrap Up

From Zach Charles: Good Autumn Postcard-ians and non-Postcard-ians alike,I wanted to share a few thoughts on this summer’s fest and, finally, the final product of the tidal chart! Here is my...

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Postcards From Mapes Creek

Postcards From Mapes Creek

Postcards From Mapes Creek Join us next to Mapes Creek at 4:30 Sunday, July 14, 2024, as Tim Mateer, of Austin, TX, Abhaya Thomas of Portland, OR, and Colette Dutton of Yellville, AR, talk about...

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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