Cascadia Poetics LAB logo

PAUL E NELSON

Cascadia Poetry Festival 8 Paul E Nelson at the microphone

Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski

Over the past decade or so, no one has done more for poetry in the Pacific Northwest than has Paul Nelson.– Sam Hamill

Eagle Harbor Book Company Canceled

Dear Faithful Blog Reader! The Winter in America (Again reading scheduled for tonight, Friday, July 11, 2025, has been canceled. The tour's last stop is tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, at 2pm at the...

read more
Poetry Postcards and Zen

Poetry Postcards and Zen

An amazing testimonial for the Poetry Postcard Fest though it was not intended to serve that purpose. It is from Kosho Itagaki of Temple Eishoji (where I sit three days a week.) He writes: 🚤...

read more

Matt Trease Interview The Outside

Matt Trease moved to Seattle, became a postcard poet, has long helped run the Margin Shift reading in Seattle, has been a board member of the Cascadia Poetics Lab for 8 years and is my good friend....

read more
Kosho, Basho, Sam, Michael

Kosho, Basho, Sam, Michael

If you did not know, I participated in the Jukai ceremony on December 11, 2023, under the direction of Kosho Itagaki, at Temple Eishoji in Rainier Beach. I took refuge in the Buddha, the dharma and...

read more
Announcing En*trance Journal

Announcing En*trance Journal

(Image: “Inga” (Detail) 65 x 85” acrylic on canvas, c.2012 © Frank Galuszka) I'm delighted to be an Editor-at-Large for a new journal out of Northern California called En*trance. It can be...

read more
Poetry at Cascadia BioFi

Poetry at Cascadia BioFi

Cascadia BioFi is happening Saturday May 17, and the Cascadia Poetics Lab will be presenting poetry with no admission charge at 7pm. The conference: "will bring together leaders at the edges of...

read more

Eagle Harbor Book Company Canceled

Dear Faithful Blog Reader! The Winter in America (Again reading scheduled for tonight, Friday, July 11, 2025, has been canceled. The tour's last stop is tomorrow, Saturday, July 12, at 2pm at the...

read more
Poetry Postcards and Zen

Poetry Postcards and Zen

An amazing testimonial for the Poetry Postcard Fest though it was not intended to serve that purpose. It is from Kosho Itagaki of Temple Eishoji (where I sit three days a week.) He writes: 🚤...

read more
Sam O'Hana April 16, 2025

The interview I conducted with Sam O’Hana, a Ph.D. student at CUNY, is immensely critical and immensely validating for the work we do at the Cascadia Poetics Lab. At its core, the discussion is about whether writing is for people of means, or if it can be people who have skill and something to say. It means the literary gatekeepers have failed us and have a role in perpetuating neoliberalism in North America which has paved the way for authoritarianism. The interview is available as a podcast here and as a YouTube video here. Below, I have pasted in the transcript and here is my introduction to Sam O’Hana and his topic.

Sam O’Hana on Opening Poetry to the Working Class

by Paul E Nelson