Judith Roche

On December 24, 2019, the Seattle Times published its obituary for Judith Roche. An excerpt:

“My basic thing is that poetry is approaching the holy and it’s a translation of the sacred and it says the unsayable,” said Roche in a 2015 interview. “It’s an impossible task you take on saying the unsayable. To approach those feelings of sacred and try to bring them into language, but that’s the project of poetry.”

There are three events dedicated to honor the memory of this legendary Cascadian poet, teacher and literary arts organizer.

1) Sunday, January 5, 2020, at Jack Straw Cultural Center, 4261 Roosevelt Way N.E., Seattle, at 1 p.m. All are welcome to attend the event at which local writers will share memories of Jud, as some will read poems written by, or inspired by her.

2) Sunday, February 23, 2020, at the Richard Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave.
Seattle, at 3 p.m. (Judith left her personal library to Hugo House.)

3) Monday, March 30, 2020, at the Wedgwood Alehouse, 8515 35th Ave NE
Seattle, at 8pm, as part of the Easyspeak Seattle open mic series. The signup to read poems, or short prose, starts at 7:30pm. That Judith co-founded the legendary Red Sky Poetry Theater makes this event especially appropriate.

See also: https://paulenelson.com/2019/11/14/judith-roche-rest-in-power/

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