Presented by Jack Straw Cultural Center & Raven Chronicles Press, on January 7, 2021, 7:00-8:30 pm (PST) , Moderator: Holly J. Hughes; Readers: Kathleen Alcalá, Ronda Broatch, Mike Dillon, Ed Harkness, Anna Odessa Linzer, Jed Myers, and Carletta Carrington Wilson .
In a time of destruction, create something: a poem, a parade, a community, a school, a vow, a moral principle; one peaceful moment.
—Maxine Hong Kingston
Bios of readers: Holly J. Hughes (moderator) is the author of Hold Fast, Sailing by Ravens, coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of the award-winning anthology, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her fine art chapbook Passings received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017.
Kathleen Alcalá: is the author of six award-winning books that include a collection of stories, three novels, and a book of essays. Her work embraces both traditional and innovative storytelling techniques, and Raven Chronicles Press will reissue her first novel, Spirits of the Ordinary, A Tale of Casas Grandes, in 2021.
Ronda Piszk Broatch, poet and photographer, is the author of Lake of Fallen Constellations (MoonPath Press, 2015). Ronda was a finalist for the Four Way Books Prize, and her poems have been nominated several times for the Pushcart prize.
Mike Dillon, retired publisher of Pacific Publishing Company, grew up on Bainbridge Island. His most recent book is Departures: Poetry and Prose on the Removal of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese Americans After Pearl Harbor (Unsolicited Press, April 2019).
Ed Harkness is the author of three poetry collections, Saying the Necessary, Beautiful Passing Lives, and, most recently, The Law of the Unforeseen, from Pleasure Boat Studio Press. He lives in Shoreline, Washington.
Anna Odessa Linzer lives on Dabob Bay, where she writes poetry and fiction, is adapting her play from her novel A River Story into a film, and where she swims year around. Her novel Ghost Dancing received an American Book Award in 1998; three of her other novels were published as a limited-edition trilogy Home Waters by Marquand Books.
Jed Myers is author of Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award), The Marriage of Space and Time (MoonPath Press), and four chapbooks. His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, Rattle, Poetry Northwest, The American Journal of Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Greensboro Review, and elsewhere.
Carletta Carrington Wilson is a visual and literary artist. The form and formation of language is integral to the work she creates by exploring the “texts” of textiles. Her installation, letter to a laundress, was exhibited at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, the University of Puget Sound’s Kittredge Gallery, and Seattle’s King Street Station.
NOTE OF CORRECTION: Holly J. Hughes read a poem from the anthology, “Word of the Day,” by Penina Ava Taesali. We regret mispronunciation of her name and mistaken ethnic heritage.
From Penina: “Thank you for including my poem, Word of the Day in the January 7th reading. I wanted to let you know that my name is Penina Ava Taesali - pronounced Paw-nina Ava (as in awe-va) Taesali (Tye sal lee). And I am Samoan American. My name is Samoan. I hope we could correct my pronunciation and my heritage.”