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.
Jaap Blonk in Seattle (Interview & Audio)
We caught up with Dutch sound poet and vocal improvisor Jaap Blonk before his Earshot Jazz Festival gig on Friday, October 26, 2012. (Kudos to John Gilbreath...
Russell Means, Dead at 72
Russell Means died on Monday morning, October 22, 2012, on his ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. I had the good fortune to be able to interview him in October 1995 when he...
Nate Mackey Interview Part 5
In part 5 of my August 24, 2012 Skype interview with poet Nate Mackey, he discusses his method of writing poetry, how it is not done from an outline and a notion from the book A Musical View...
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...
Feast on TISH & Cascadia
There is a great review of two door-stopping books of poetry in the new BC Booklook. The subjects are Daphne Marlatt and Fred Wah, two members of the legendary TISH group in Vancouver, BC, in the...
American Prophets Pre-Sales
SPLAB turns 25 on December 14, 2018, and we'll be celebrating in the town where SPLAB was founded, Auburn, Washington, the former Slaughter. I am asking readers of this blog and supporters of...
Tim McNulty Interview (Olympic National Park Natural History)
Interview with Tim McNulty on Olympic National Park: A Natural History 4th Edition. Recorded Sunday, October 28, 2018, at the home of Tim & Mary McNulty, Lost Mountain, WA There is something...
In Honor of David McCloskey “The Father of Cascadia”
David McCloskey passed away on July 3. In honor of his lifetime of work to create and spread a culture that was deeply connected to the Cascadian bioregion, Cascadian Prophets, which owes more than just its name to his work, we want to share this interview from October, 2013. Find it transcribed on our website.
To listen to the original audio of this interview, click here.
Check out more of what the Lab does here, and listen to more current and archival podcasts on Spotify or on our website.
In Honor of David McCloskey "The Father of Cascadia"
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.