This is my favorite kind of non-fiction book—a failure. Which is to say that it isn’t a biography of the influential mid-century poet Frank O’Hara, although it’s full of biographical detail and wise analysis of his life and work. It also doesn’t offer definitive answers about the fraught relationship between distant fathers and their underappreciated …
A beautiful collection of nature essays from an array of black essayists & poets– A Darker Wilderness is a literary treasure trove. As each writer sets about drawing upon an archival object to use as a portal for their own ruminations on the American natural world & memory, the sum of these personal histories & …
Portland author Ellen Notbohm interviewed Brittney Corrigan about her fifth poetry collection, Solastalgia (2023, JackLeg Press). Corrigan’s poetry and short stories have appeared in more than 100 literary journals including Watershed Review’s 10th Anniversary issue and other publications including Scientific American’s Science in Meter and Verse column. She appears frequently at poetry readings around the …
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a non-profit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. The Association produces educational and promotional events and materials for its members and offers literacy, free speech, and author promotional vehicles through its member stores. Since 1965, the PNBA Awards …
Following her award-winning collections Famous and Plume, former Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken returns with another stunning book. These poems navigate loss, fear, and growing older, and also examine white America’s romanticized view of the past. When it comes to difficult subjects, Flenniken doesn’t flinch. –Erin, Eagle Harbor Book Company, Bainbridge Island, WA Explore …
If you’re a poetry fan, you’ve likely already heard about Judas Goat, Seattle poet Gabrielle Bates’s debut collection. Bates is one of the voices on the Poet Salon podcast, and these last few years her poems have been appearing in some of the nation’s most celebrated literary journals. Judas Goat is thoughtful and foreboding, using …
This fall, I taught an online writing course meant to help poets put together and prepare their first poetry collections for publication. Though I’d designed the course to be about the practicalities of structuring, formatting, and submitting their manuscripts, by the third class meeting, our conversations had diverged to the role of surprise in poetry. …
The winners for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association 2023 Northwest Book Awards have been announced. The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a non-profit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska. Since 1965, the annual Book Awards have recognized such luminary figures in Northwest literature as Ivan Doig, Ursula K. Le Guin, …
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) is a non-profit association of independent bookstores from five Northwest states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska and British Columbia. The Association produces educational and promotional events and materials for its members and offers literacy, free speech, and author promotional vehicles through its member stores. PNBA’s Awards Committee is comprised …
Congratulations to Seattle’s “Poem Emporium,” Open Books, on their gorgeous new space in Pioneer Square in Seattle. The store’s physical reinvention is accompanied by a fantastic new website for online shopping. Click browsing categories like New & Noteworthy; Black Poets on Justice, Abolition & Black History; and Poetry for the Planet to discover treasures from …
