The Cascadia Poetics Lab, a Seattle-based poetry nonprofit, is gearing up to host the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival from November 1-3, 2024. This three-day event promises to be a celebration of the rich poetic heritage of the Cascadia bioregion, featuring an impressive lineup of prominent poets and academics from across the region and the United States.
The festival will take place at various venues throughout Seattle, including the Richard Hugo House, Spring Street Center, Seattle University, and the Neukom Vivarium at the Olympic Sculpture Park. Attendees can look forward to a diverse program of writing workshops, panel discussions, readings, and celebratory events that showcase the unique literary voice of the Cascadia region.
A highlight of this year’s festival will be the launch of ‘Cascadia Zen: Bioregional Writings on Cascadia Here and Now, Volume II’. This anthology, published by Watershed Press (a project of the Cascadia Poetics Lab), is edited by Tetsuzen Jason Wirth, Paul E. Nelson, and Adelia MacWilliam. The book explores the intersections of bioregionalism, poetics, and Zen through the works of artists, writers, and cultural workers from the Cascadia bioregion.
The festival boasts an impressive roster of participating writers and academics, including C.A. Conrad, Fred Wah, Koon Woon, CS Giscombe, Jami Macarty, Jill Lapointe, Sharon Thesen, Stephen Collis, Robert Lashley, Carletta Wilson, Daphne Marlatt, Robert Michael Pyle, Samar Abulhassan, Sharon Hashimoto, Claudia Castro Luna, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Meredith Quartermain, and Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, among others.
The event kicks off with a festival preview hosted by Margin Shift on October 31, followed by a series of workshops and panels at various locations from November 1-3. Notable workshops include ‘Poetry as Walking and Mapping’ with Jami Macarty and Meredith Quartermain, and ‘Writing and Meditative Openness: How They Interact’ with Daphne Marlatt and Fred Wah.
A unique feature of this year’s festival is the Floricanto Cascadia, a free event on Saturday afternoon at the Hugo House. This ‘symphony of voices’ will showcase Indigenous American poets, with a focus on Mexican-American, Chicana/o, and Latinx poetry from throughout Latin America present in Cascadia. The event coincides with Día de los Muertos weekend and will include the construction of an altar by poets and CPL Board Members Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs and Lorna Dee Cervantes.
CPL board member Lorna Dee Cervantes describes the Floricanto Cascadia as fulfilling a prophecy about the coming together of ‘The People of The North (Eagle) and The South (Condor)’ in ‘Aztlan’ (Place of Herons) for peace and understanding. She emphasizes the importance of sharing ancestral knowledge through poetry to help heal the Earth.
The Cascadia Poetry Festival is made possible through the support of numerous sponsors, including 4Culture, WESTAF, National Endowment for the Arts, Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, ArtsFund, Poets & Writers, Humanities Washington, the Seattle Art Museum, Spring Street Center/Subud Greater Seattle, ArtsWA, and the Kimberly Miller Charitable Fund.
This festival represents a significant gathering for the literary community of the Cascadia bioregion, offering a platform for cultural exchange, artistic
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