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
Interview with Bill Porter on Dancing with the Dead
Here is the video version of my March 25, 2024 interview with Bill Porter on "Dancing With the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation." We talked about his life, the movie and the film which...
Zoom Interview with Nicholas Gulig on Lorine Niedecker
Imagine growing up a poet in a state like Wisconsin and having to travel to Colorado to learn about the work of Lorine Niedecker, and furthermore to have one’s own consciousness changed by...
Typewriter Poems on Request at SAM’s Remix (Crush)
With my friend, the poet Samar Abulhassan, I'll be typing spontaneous poems on demand for people attending the Seattle Art Museum's popular Remix, Friday, March 29, 2024 from 7-10pm. Really, this...
Lesley University COS 24 Talk
Lesley University COS 24 happens March 29, 2024 and I will give a talk on my graduate education and what has developed since then. COS stands for Community of Scholars and I am proud to be one,...
Red Pine Documentary
The last time we reported on Bill Porter (aka: Red Pine) we had traveled to his Port Townsend home for an interview. See: https://paulenelson.com/2019/10/14/red-pine-bill-porter-interview/ Now he's...
Poetics as Cosmology at Holden Village
Thanks to poetry hermano Raul Sanchez, I'll be facilitating my Poetics as Cosmology this summer in the North Cascades and you are welcome to hang out. The place is Holden Village. "Over the course...
Tessa Hulls Interview (Feeding Ghosts)
Tessa Hulls and I met when she donated a poster for the 2013 edition of the Allen Ginsberg Open Mic Poetry marathon. On February 20, 2024 I caught up with her on Zoom to discuss her first book, a...
Article on Cascadia by a Writer in London
The notion of bioregionalism and Cascadia has spread at least to London. I was interviewed on the subject of Cascadia by Gus Mitchell, a London-based free lance writer and was delighted to see my...
Pie & Poetry @ C&P on Valentine’s Day
Poetry Bridge is celebrating 14 years of community mic readings at C&P Coffee Company in West Seattle on Wednesday, February 14, 2024. 6:30 it's time for pie and signups. 7pm a reading that will...
Colleen McElroy Interview
In the wake of the death of Colleen McElroy on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, we are re-posting this interview conducted in 2016. This interview will be part of the next book of transcribed interviews...
Sharon Thesen July 2025 Interview
What an honor to interview Sharon Thesen. Of all the people I know, she is in the 99th percentile regarding poetry perception. She has informed my own aesthetic, uses poetry as a tool to make...
rain shadow poetry festival
I'm delighted to be going back to Cumberland, BC, to participate in the rain shadow poetry festival. This is August 22-24, 2025, and is based on the work Adelia MacWilliam did in that part of the...
Paul @ Bradner Gardens with Jim O’Halloran
Jim O'Halloran, the flute player and Subud brother with whom I have collaborated for at least sixteen years, wrote this yesterday: I’m delighted to be returning to Bradner Gardens Park again this...
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.