What an honor to interview Sharon Thesen. Of all the people I know, she is in the 99th percentile regarding poetry perception. She has informed my own aesthetic, uses poetry as a tool to make herself more human and is proud to be identified as a Cascadian poet. We sat down in my Zoom room on July 18, 2025 for the Cascadian Prophets podcast and the video is below. Here is how I introduced her:

The 9th Cascadia Poetry Festival is happening October 10-12th, 2025 at the Rainier Beach Community Club. One of the featured poets is Sharon Thesen, who is a legendary BC poet who considers herself a “Cascadian poet.” She says poetry is “a bit off on an angle” and one reviewer says that is the direction she prefers for tracking the invisible world of transmission.” Author of more than 14 books of poetry, editor and retired professor, Sharon Thesen was born in 1946 in Tisdale, Saskatchewan and lives in Lake Country, British Columbia.

Enormous thanks to Sharon for her time and her lifelong dedication to poetry. Thanks to Zach Charles for his production wizardry.

If you want to follow up on her investigation of the literary relationship of Charles Olson and Frances Boldereff, click here.

And one astute commenter there said:

Impeccable research, perception and delivery Sharon Thesen! A needed reminder of how ideas are generated, how complex human beings are, how difficult love can be as practiced by humans in this word created by ordinary humans. To have a deeper sense of what in part made Olson “Olson” and how that would not have been the same without Frances Boldereff is so essential. That Frances’ daughter was there to hear your talk was wonderful. Thank you for this gift, for the care with which you prepared it and the skill with which you delivered it. Thank you Gloucester Writers Center and Cape Anne Museum.