I’m honored to be giving a talk/reading on the subject of: Theodore Roethke and the Birth of Cascadian Poetry on May 12, 2026. I have been invited by The Friends of Roethke organization. https://www.friendsofroethke.org/events/2026nelson
The Friends of Theodore Roethke Present the 2026 Virtual Scholar Series
Every May, the Friends of Theodore Roethke Foundation (FOTR) presents an online series of speakers discussing the life and work of American poet Theodore Roethke. Each event this year takes place on a Tuesday night at 7 p.m. EST. Preregistration is required.
My talk will be given Tuesday, May 12 at 4pm PDT.
I am just finishing two workshops on the history of Cascadia poetry and we started with Theodore Roethke’s North American Sequence, which is where I think it starts. The visit by William Carlos Williams to the University of Washington in 1948, was organized by Roethke and it establishes this bioregion as a place where the concept of composition by field was present at the beginning of significant literary activity here. Roethke saw the development of 20th Century USAmerican poetry in a manner described by legendary BC poet George Bowering like so: “¡Cuba sí, Eliot, no!”
My talk to the Friends of Theodore Roethke will note that and also go into a “cover” of Roethke’s work that I managed to create during my most recent daysong, Imbolc 2026. I hope you’ll join us May 12.