October 10, 2025, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
2021 Jack Straw Writers Abi Pollokoff and Daniel Tam-Claiborne and 2015 Writer Laura Da’ read from their new books published this year, joined by 2022 Writer Erin Langner.
Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and The Institute of American Indian Arts. She has served as Poet Laureate of Redmond, Washington and Poet Planner for King County, Washington. Da’s books include, Tributaries, winner of the American Book Award, Instruments of the True Measure, winner of the Washington State Book Award, and Severalty, forthcoming in 2025. Da’ is Eastern Shawnee and she lives in Washington with her family.
Erin Langner writes about art, architecture and identity. She is the author of the essay collection Souvenirs from Paradise (Zone 3 Press, 2022). Her writing has also appeared in Electric Literature, The Drift,
Abi Pollokoff is a writer, editor, and book artist. Her debut poetry collection is night myths • • before the body (Red Hen Press, 2025). TriQuarterly nominated her work for a Pushcart, and her poems can also be found in The Seventh Wave, Denver Quarterly, and Radar, where she was a finalist for the Coniston Prize. Abi has been supported by the Jack Straw Cultural Center, Hugo House, The Seattle Review of Books, and other organizations. She has taught writing and poetry at the college level, and she is the former events manager for Open Books: A Poem Emporium, content director for Killer Visual Strategies (now Material), and associate editor at Pelican Publishing Company. She now serves as the managing editor for Poetry Northwest Editions and works in publishing. Abi holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Washington and a BA in English, French, and Italian from Tulane University.
Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial writer, multimedia producer, and nonprofit director. His debut novel, Transplants (Simon & Schuster, 2025), was a finalist for the 2023 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction. He is the author of the short story collection What Never Leaves, and his writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, HuffPost, Catapult, Literary Hub, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Poets & Writers, Bread Loaf, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, and others. Daniel holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
