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.
Planet Drum on Cascadia
The premier organization dedicated to the concept of bioregionalism is the Planet Drum Foundation, founded by Peter Berg and Judy Goldhaft. Their latest newsletter is out with a special offer that...
Wanda Coleman 2002 Interview
Going through the SPLAB (IPiPP) audio archives thanks to 4Culture, I came across this interview I'd forgotten I had. Wanda Coleman from January 2002, first aired in February 2002. In it she talks...
George Bowering 2005 Interview
I first met George Bowering at the Victoria School of Writing Summer School in 2005. It was the tenth anniversary of that summer school and since then has ceased operations. I had taken a weeklong...
Poetry with Purpose
In planning for the Becoming Cascadian weekend May 31-June 3, 2018, the model used by my spiritual community (Subud) for its annual kejiwaan gathering is key. A very democratic affair in which there...
Sam Hamill’s Last Book
After Morning Rain will be released tomorrow (Tuesday, May 15, 2018.) It is the last book by renowned poet, translator, editor and founder of Copper Canyon Press, Sam Hamill and there will be a...
Anne Waldman, Andrew Schelling 2001 Interview
From the archives: Northwestern Exposure #336 for 4/22/01 - 55:00 Subject: The Poetic Activism Legacy of Allen Ginsberg Guests: Anne Waldman & Andrew Schelling Contact: Naropa University Date...
Postcards in Twisp
Thursday and Friday, (5.10 & 5.11.2018) I will be the Methow Valley for events that involve the August Poetry Postcard Fest. Fest registration starts in less than two months and this is the...
Paul Hunter 2004 Interview
Poet/Publisher Paul Hunter was the guest on a Global Voices Radio program which was recorded in September 2004. The subject was his book Breaking Ground and his own letter press, Wood Works. Paul...
Andrew Schelling and Left Coast Culture
When I was in California in summer of 2017, among my stops were with two poets who were reading a book about the life of Jaime de Angulo (pronounced dan GOO low) who was "a cowboy, cattle rancher,...
732. Varney’s Nada
I have a practice of reading my journal entry from the same day of the previous year and love when poems I'd forgotten I'd written show up and still have some potency. Sam always warned me not to be...
Sam @ 80 (w/ audio from Doe Bay reading)
Sam Hamill would have been 80 today, May 9, 2023. He has been gone 5 years now, but he is in my head daily. Anytime I drink saké, eat sushi, look at my altar and often when I am engaged in reading...
Last of the Brenda Hillman Workshops
It has been a magical 10 week ride so far, examining Brenda Hillman's new book In a Few Minutes Before Later. In the last five week workshop we'll look at the last third of the book, examine...
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.



