Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
“Paul formally received the Mahayana precepts of Zen Buddhism in 2023, becoming a lay practitioner within the tradition, but I believe he had long lived in accord with them. His poetry, in its sensitivity, its humility, and its deep listening, embodies practice-realization — the understanding that practice and awakening are not separate. His writing was his zazen. This collection, FLEXIBLE MIND, is more than a book. It is a continuation of that practice. A testament to a man who lives by attention, who bows to language but does not cling to it, who seeks what lays beyond words by walking straight into them.”– Kosho Itagaki, Soto Zen Priest
Paul E Nelson’s Interviews by Jason Wirth
It was a very humbling experience for me Friday, December 14, 2018, to hear very intelligent and considerate people talk about different aspects of SPLAB's 25 years in existence, with a special...
Open Books Interviewing Workshop
I am delighted to be celebrating the release of American Prophets by way of doing interview workshops in and around Cascadia for the next few months. A workshop happens at Open Books: A Poem...
#SPLAB@25
The non-profit organization I founded on December 14, 1993 turns 25 tomorrow and we are going to celebrate. SPLAB started as It Plays in Peoria Productions and had a mission of creating radio...
One Mind (Impersonal)
The launch of AmericanProphets, my book of transcribed interviews mostly taken from the years of the syndicated radio show I hosted and produced between 1993 and 2004, has been not only a cathartic...
Unconventional Nelson
10.20.2018 - I told the UPS clerk my Mom’s first name was unconventional. #AmericanSentences When Bhakti and I were in Chicago last September, my Ma, Lesbia Nelson, was having lower back pain and so...
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...
Elizabeth Cooperman, Thomas Walton, The Last Mosaic (Interview)
Interview with Elizabeth Cooperman and Thomas Walton on their book The Last Mosaic, published by Sagging Shorts, a division of Sagging Meniscus. Recorded Sunday, October 7, 2018, at the home of...
Deep in Cascadia
Huge thanks to Adelia MacWilliam, Danika Dinsmore, Dominick DellaSala and all the attendees and participants at the first Deep in Cascadia Poetics Retreat in Cumberland, BC. Special thanks to Andrew...
Heavy Lifting Art Book
I am delighted to present an interview about the art book Heavy Lifting, a collaboration by Felicia Rice of Moving Parts Press and the poet Theresa Whitehill. Recorded Friday, March 25, 2023, via...
AWP Off-Site Events
The AWP Conference is in Seattle again (March 8-11) and 10,000 writers are expected to be in Seattle for the proceedings. (Come say hello to the Cascadia Poetics Lab at the bookfair table T1427.) We...
I Sing the Salmon Home
I'm delighted to have work in the new anthology curated by the outgoing Washington Poet Laureate Rena Priest. A postcard poem from 2022 was selected and I got this note from the publisher, Empty...
The interview I conducted with Sam O’Hana, a Ph.D. student at CUNY, is immensely critical and immensely validating for the work we do at the Cascadia Poetics Lab. At its core, the discussion is about whether writing is for people of means, or if it can be people who have skill and something to say. It means the literary gatekeepers have failed us and have a role in perpetuating neoliberalism in North America which has paved the way for authoritarianism. The interview is available as a podcast here and as a YouTube video here. Below, I have pasted in the transcript and here is my introduction to Sam O’Hana and his topic.