Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
Paul Nelson’s ongoing honing of the Day Song poetry event has produced some of the most lively and consequential verse of our time. How else write about the calamities and demands and mental/emotional/political consequences of the materialist apocalypse upon us, than an ongoing poesis of awareness and participation the anti-form the Day Song provides? Truly a praxis of proprioception and of Olson’s demand to “keep it moving…
– Sharon Thesen, Cascadian Poet/Scholar from B.C.
Willie Smith on Spider F&^k and other stories from Nothing Doing
Willie Smith got his B.A. at Reed College (graduating Phi Beta Kappa) and is the author of Nothing Doing, a book that he claims is fictional. In an interview recorded at his Beacon Hill home on...
Happy 80th Michael McClure
Michael McClure turns 80 today, October 20, 2012. A leading USAmerican poet, playwright, essayist and novelist, he was born in Kansas, but spent some of his formative years in Seattle and is...
Haibun in Hambone
I can't tell you how honored I am to have five (5!) of my Haibun de la Serna poems published in the brand new edition of Hambone 20. Nate Mackey is the editor and this magazine has been publishing...
Nate Mackey Interview, Part 4
In part four of my August 24, 2012 interview with poet Nate Mackey, he talks about his practice of 2nd takes in his books Splay Anthem and Nod House, the allusions to Jazz suggested by such a...
Lit Crawl Thursday, Oct 18, 2012
Yes, yet another Lit Crawl, but this one is HUGE. On Thursday, Oct. 18, Lit Crawl Seattle kicks off City Arts Fest with 17 FREE events throughout Capitol Hill with 60+ readers and performers,...
Rainforest Writing Retreat, Part 2
Tuesday, October 7, I was almost set for starting the literary portion of my writing retreat. (For my first post on the rainforest writing retreat, click here.) Side trips to the Elwha Dam removal...
71. The Ambassador From Bakersfield
(Click on the poem to get the full text as a pdf.)
427. – Not Yet Muddy
427. to Ramon Hildreth, SeaTac, WA – Not Yet Muddy 9.26.12 Medora, ND, Ramon – Loaded w/ egg-salad and roast beast sangwiches, pass Oink Joint Rd. & Peace Pipe Vista to a ...
Rainforest Writing Retreat
Ever since I have essentially become a stay-at-home Dad for Ella Roque, I have been plotting opportunities to get away to write more of Pig War & Other Songs of Cascadia, as well as essays in...
Nate Mackey Interview, Part 3
I interviewed Nate Mackey a second time on August 24, 2012, via Skype. The first two segments of that interview are summarized here. In segment three, our discussion of his latest book Nod House...
August Poetry Postcard Fest 2019 Official Call
The August Poetry Postcard Fest was initiated in 2007 by poets Paul Nelson and Lana Ayers. 2019 marks the thirteenth year of the fest and this is the official call. It is the biggest annual...
APPF (Postcards Are Here Again)
The signup is already open for the 13th August Poetry Postcard Fest and opens EVEN EARLIER for 2020. (July 18, 2019!) In order to allow as many people as possible to participate in the joy of...
Sons & Daughters
Huge thanks to SPLAB Board Member and EasySpeak Seattle founder Peter Munro for tipping me off to a new journal named Sons & Daughters that seeks to publish work inspired by Charles Olson's...
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous collapse of so many systems — some being eviscerated by people in positions designed to protect such systems? Deborah Poe has some idea based on her submission to the upcoming anthology Winter in America (Still.
Deborah is the author of several books of poetry including keep, Elements, and Our Parenthetical Ontology, as well as a novella in verse, Hélène. Her visual works–video poems and handmade book objects–have been exhibited throughout the US. She lives on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
To get original poetry right in your mailbox this summer, check out the Poetry Postcard Fest.