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About Paul Nelson
Paul earned his M.A. from Lesley University in Organic Poetry, a study of North American poets writing (to different degrees) spontaneously, including Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Michael McClure, Robin Blaser and others. He’s specifically interested in writing that is created in the moment, but with tremendous discipline.
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He earned his B.A. in Communications in 1983 from Columbia College in Chicago, his hometown, and worked in radio for 26 years. During that time he produced over 450 original hours of whole-systems-oriented public affairs programs.
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SPLAB
Founder of the non-profit SPokenword LAB (SPLAB!), Paul has published a book of essays: Organic Poetry: North American Field Poetics (VDM, Verlag, Germany, 2008) and an epic poem re-enacting Auburn history, entitled A Time Before Slaughter (Apprentice House, 2009). His poems and essays have also appeared in: Golden Handcuffs Review, Jacket Magazine, Fulcrum, OlsonNow Blog, The Argotist, Raven Chronicles, Pacific Rim Review of Books and others.
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Paul has performed his poetry in countless venues in the Pacific Northwest, London, Brussels and his hometown of Chicago and has conducted more than 400 writing and performance workshops throughout the Puget Sound region. Venues included the Richard Hugo House, colleges, high schools, libraries, community centers, and correctional facilities. He has lectured on Open Form in American Poetry (and other subjects) at high schools and community colleges.
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Ferry to Orcas 2009
Paul and his wife, Meredith, live in the Hillman City neighborhood of Seattle and run SPLAB programming together with other SPLAB supporters.
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Paul writes at least one American Sentence every day.
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He was shortlisted for The Stranger’s 2010 Genius Award in Literature:
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They don’t get much more inventive than this: Paul E. Nelson’s A Time Before Slaughter is a book-length epic poem about Auburn, Washington. (Fun fact! Auburn was originally named Slaughter in honor of fallen U.S. lieutenant William Slaughter. Slaughter residents quickly got cold feet and changed the name.) It’s not the one long, boring spray of stanzas you’re picturing. Nelson split up his epic into dozens of smaller poems, varying in length and content. There are elegies, sonnets, prose poems, images, and even testy e-mail exchanges with easily outraged Auburn civil servants, forming a literary collage of a little city that usually escapes notice. Nelson brings a cacophony of voices together to form a chorus. That chorus sings the stories of dozens of men and women—full of regrets and muddled memories, complaining about traffic while piloting their SUVs, murdering and being murdered, feeling unseen and abandoned. In other words, he has built a city out of words. A city named Slaughter. And Auburn. It’s a brilliant achievement. Paul Constant
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Read Paul’s complete Curriculum Vitae here.
Hi,I am a recently inspired poet living in Columbia City. I have been writing a little my whole life, was an English major before becoming a teacher and am now a child and family therapist. I am interested in finding a critique group, or workshop, preferably in the C. City area. I have space for one to meet, either in my office in Columbia City or home in South Beacon Hill I have been searching for a while and not come up with anything. any direction you can send me in?
Thanks Like your work. Joe Chiveney
Joe,
Tuesday nights at the SPokenword LAB, we have a writer’s critique circle known as Living Room. Details: http://splab.org/ We hope to see you. Thanks for your kind words about my work.