Glenna Cook Presents

Villanelle Workshop

Saturday, March 6, 2021

1:00 - 3:00 pm

contact: Alan Harvey at [email protected]

Look for other upcoming workshops. 

Puget Sound Poetry Connection release party for "ARIA 2020"

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Wright Park in Tacoma, when the members of the Puget Sound Poetry Connection gathered together to celebrate the release of our first collection of poetry from members only. The collection, entitled "ARIA 2020" is the brainchild of PSPC board member Micheal Magee, who collected, edited, and published the collection.

It was a wonderful opportunity for the members and guests to gather and share our best poems with each other.

There is nothing like holding the poems of your writer friends in your hands in a single volume.

The Puget Sound Poetry Connection is pleased to announce our distinguished reader for the month of March is David D. Horowitz. The reading will be on Friday, March 13th, at 7:00 pm.

David founded and manages Rose Alley Press, which primarily publishes books of Pacific Northwest poetry. His poems have appeared in Raven Chronicles; Terrain.org; Candelabrum; The Lyric; The New Formalist; The Asses of Parnassus; Here, There, and Everywhere, and many other journals and anthologies. His essays appear quarterly in the online journal Exterminating Angel. Through Rose Alley Press he has published seventeen titles, including his own latest collection, Cathedral and Highrise, and three poetry anthologies, the latest of which is Footbridge Above the Falls. He frequently organizes and hosts poetry readings in and around Seattle, and his website is www.rosealleypress.com.

Puget Sound Poetry Connection is proud to announce the distinguished writer for our February 14th open mic will be Shannon O'Donnell.

Shannon O'Donnell is an author who discovers stories in out of the way places. Sometimes poetry is the only way to describe them. After adventures in the classrooms of two different high schools, she moved on to work in Catholic parishes in Tacoma. Then she went to prison. She has been behind bars for twenty years. Currently serving time at the King County Jail as the Catholic chaplain, she also visits migrant detainees at the detention center in Tacoma.

Shannon is the author of Save the Bones, a memoir about her mother and Alzheimer's, written when "everything was a catastrophe and no one was talking about the funny stuff." Her latest book, Finding Grace Within, is full of the stories told by women and men who are waiting for court, for sentencing, for a release date. It's not a coincidence that time spent behind bars is marked by the word "sentence." There are so many of them.

Puget Sound Poetry Connection announces the distinguished poet for January is Mare Heron Hake.

Mare Heron Hake is a local published poet and editor, living and working in Lakewood. Her degrees include B.A.s from the University of Washington in both Creative Writing and in Literature, along with an MFA from NILA. She is the Poetry Editor, as well as co-Owner and co-Publisher, of Tahoma Literary Review, an independent literary magazine with international readership published thrice annually. Mare is also a co-founder and organizer of the Red House Writers, a biannual educational weekend. When not editing, writing poetry, or organizing, she reads across genres, tries to jog, and loves her complicated family including an older dog named Pinecone. Mare’s most recent work can be found in Gyroscope Review, Raven Chronicles, and Terrain.Org. 

Please come and join us on Friday, January 10th for a night of wonderful poetry.

Puget Sound Poetry Connection Announces the Featured Poet for December-- Distinguished Poet: Kay Mullen Friday, December 13th

Kay Mullen worked most her adult life as a teacher of grade school children. After earning her Masters of Education from Seattle University, she became an elementary school counselor. Following her work in schools, she became a certified mental health counselor.

Kay later earned an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University with a focus on poetry. She received a First Place in the Washington State William Stafford Award and was a Best of the Net nominee as well as a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee.

Her poems have appeared in many journals including Shark Reef, Crab Creek Review, Raven Chronicles and American Life in Poetry. Anthologies include Beginnings: What Makes a Woman, edited by Jill McCabe Johnson, and Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose About Alzheimer's Disease, edited by Holly Hughes.

Puget Sound Poetry Connection Announces the Featured Poet for November (Friday, Nov.8th): Bob Toohey, Federal Way, WA

Bob Toohey is a poet, essayist, and blogger (Falling Forward – Into the Hidden Ground of Life) living in Federal Way, WA. Bob is married with five children and six grandchildren.

A graduate with majors in both English and Biology from the University of Alabama, Bob has won the “Write On the Sound” regional writing contest for both poetry and essay, and his poetry has been selected for inclusion in the WA 129 anthology.

Bob has been a featured poet in regional poetry open mic groups.

Bob is regular spiritual retreat facilitator, a national featured speaker for employee workplace safety, and is an avid mountaineer and long-distance runner. Bob was a finisher in the 2019 running of the Boston Marathon.

Puget Sound Poetry Connection Announces the October Distinguished Writer

On Friday, Oct 11th, the Puget Sound Poetry Connection is pleased pleased to host Jennifer Boyden as our featured poet of the month.

Jennifer Boyden is the author of two books of poetry, The Declarable Future (awarded The Four Lakes Prize in Poetry) and The Mouths of Grazing Things (winner of The Brittingham Prize in Poetry), both with University of Wisconsin Press, as well as the novel The Chief of Rally Tree which was awarded the Siskiyou Prize for New Environmental Literature. Prior, Jennifer was a PEN Northwest Wilderness Writing Resident, which allows one writer to live and write for a year in unparalleled solitude in a remote region of the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Her work appears in multiple journals, including Basalt Magazine, Solstice Literary Magazine, and Gettysburg Review, among others.  

PUGET SOUND POETRY CONNECTION

DISTINGUISHED WRITER SERIES

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 13, doors open at 7 pm

FEATURED READER – ROBERT HASSELBLAD

Robert Hasselblad began writing poetry while a student at Pacific Lutheran University. He has been tinkering with language and imagery ever since. Recently retired from 43 years in the lumber industry, he lives in Tacoma and is a member of Puget Sound Poetry Connection as well as Striped Water Poets.

Robert has been published in many literary journals and anthologies. Current poems either appear or are forthcoming in riverbabble, Door is a Jar, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Big Windows Review, Avalon Literary Review, K’in and Saxifrage

PSPC Upcoming Readers

2019

Sep 13 Robert Hasselblad

Oct 11 Jennifer Boyden

Nov 8 Bob Toohey

Dec 13 Kay Mullen

2020

Jan 10 Mare Hake

Feb 14 Shannon O’Donnell

Mar 13 David Horowitz

Apr 10 Pat Dixon

May 8 Robert Ericksen

Jun 12 Pat West

Jul 10

Aug 14

Sep 11

Oct 9 Susan Landgraf

PUGET SOUND POETRY CONNECTION DISTINGUISHED WRITER SERIES

FRIDAY August 9th

FEATURED READER – C. W. Buckley

A fourth generation West Coast native, C.W. Buckley lives and works in Seattle with his family. Corporate by day, Catholic by faith, he graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Human Biology before earning an M.A. in Religion after spending two years as a chaplain resident at the Stanford and Packard Children’s Hospitals. His writing explores geek culture, conscience, faith, and fatherhood. Reading regularly at the Easy Speak open mic in that city’s northeast, his work appears in Camas: The Nature of the West, Image Journal, Catamaran Literary Reader, Timberline Review, Raven Chronicles Journal, Tiferet: A Journal of Spiritual Literature,

PUGET SOUND POETRY CONNECTION DISTINGUISHED WRITER SERIES

FRIDAY JULY 12

FEATURED READER – BENJAMIN OLSON

Our July distinguished writer for will be Benjamin Olson of Tacoma.

Ben has been writing and performing poetry since 2015, which he admits was a late start in life. “I have no regrets. My performance development was aided by open mics and poetry slams”. He has read with Old Growth Poetry Collective of Olympia, and also with Olympia Poetry Network.

April distinguished writer: Edward Harkness is the author of three full-length poetry collections, Saying the Necessary, Beautiful Passing Lives , and most recently, The Law of the Unforeseen (2018, Pleasure Boat Studio press). His poems can be found online in 2River, Atticus Review, Cascadia Review, The Good Men Project, Hinchas de Poesia, The Humanist, Rat’s Ass Journal, Raven Chronicles, Salt River Review, Split Lip Magazine, Switched-On Gutenberg and Terrain.Org., as well as in print journals including Chariton Review and Miramar . His chapbook, Ice Children, was published by Split Lip Press in 2014. He lives in Shoreline, Washington. To hear Ed read selected poems from The Law of the Unforeseen, including “Tying a Tie” and “Airborne,” the two winning poems of Terain.org’s 8th Annual Contest in Poetry (2018), go to https://www.terrain.org/2018/poetry/edward-harkness-2/

March distinguished poet Benjamin Schmitt is the Best Book Award and Pushcart nominated author of three books, most recently Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity. His poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Hobart, Worcester Review, Columbia Review, Roanoke Review, and elsewhere. A co-founder of Pacifica Writers’ Workshop, he has also written articles for The Seattle Times and At The Inkwell. He lives in Seattle with his wife and children

We had a wonderful time at our March reading, hosted by Glena Cook , featuring distinguished poet Benjamin Schmitt reading from his latest work "Soundtrack to a Fleeting Masculinity.

After Benjamin read from his work for 30 minutes, ten poets read their poems, with the theme of "Valentines Day'.

Our host Glena Cook took the prize for best valentines poem--a difficult, but also unanimous decision.

We were glad to see poets both new and veteran displaying their talents.

Come join us at our next open mic poetry meeting on Friday, April 12th.

On Friday January 11th, 2019, The Puget Sound Poetry Connection's Distinguished Poet's series kicked off in spectacular fashion. Current WA State Poet Laureate Claudia Castro Luna led us in an intimate reading of her beautiful, profound, and sometimes jarring poetry.

Given current politics and societal focus on immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers from Central America, her poetry resonates especially well. Born in El Salvador, she came as a child with family to the United States in 1981 to escape the civil war in her home country. Her ability to address the concerns and lives of individuals moving across borders into unknown and uncertain futures informs her beautiful poetry.

For those who observe the season of Epiphany, last Sunday’s gospel scripture recounted the Slaughter of the Innocents. In a similar remembrance, Claudia’s epic poetry collection Killing Marias gives voice to women and girls murdered in Juarez Mexico. One reviewer writes “each poem is a rosary bead (that) reveals a crack of light.”