Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series
Celebrating new books by our Writers Program Alumni
The Jack Straw Writers Program is still going strong in its 28th year, and we are proud of the work our program alumni continue to produce. The Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series is a chance to catch up with some of our poet alumni and celebrate their recent books.
We are amazed – and yet not surprised – by how prolific our poets continue to be: this six-reading series doesn’t even include everyone. We hope you will join us for as many of these readings as you can, in April, June, August, October, and November. Every reading promises to be an exciting, varied, and moving celebration of poetry.
Hosted by Kathleen Flenniken, Jack Straw fellow (2002), curator (2019), and board member.
Read on for information on each reading in the series. Artist links include each writer’s bio, information on their new books, and excerpts of their work.
April 24, 2024
Jeannine Hall Gailey: Flare, Corona, BOA Editions, May 2023
Mercedes Lawry: Vestiges, Kelsay Books, November 2022; Small Measures, ELJ Editions, 2024
Larry Laurence: Thought Despairiments, Dos Madres Press, 2023
Vincent Rendoni: A Grito Contest in the Afterlife, Catamaran Literary Reader, December 2022
Judith Skillman: Subterranean Address—New & Selected Poems, Deerbrook Editions, 2023
Carolyne Wright: Masquerade: a Memoir in Poetry, Lost Horse Press, 2021
Monday, June 3, 2024, 7pm
In-Person Reading at Jack Straw Cultural Center
Wendy Call: How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, by Mikeas Sánchez, co-translated from Spanish and Zoque by Wendy Call and Shook, Milkweed, 2024; Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater, by Irma Pineda, translated from Spanish and Isthmus Zapotec by Wendy Call, Deep Vellum, 2024; In the Belly of Night and Other Poems, by Irma Pineda, translated from Spanish and Isthmus Zaptoec by Wendy Call, Pluralia / Eulalia, 2022
Kevin Craft: Traverse, Lynx House Press, January 2024
Erin Malone: Site of Disappearance, Ornithopter Press, October 2023
Anastacia-Renee: Side Notes From The Archivist, HarperCollins/Amistad, 2023; Here In The (Middle) Of Nowhere, HarperCollins/Amistad, 2024.
Jeanine Walker: The Two of Them Might Outlast Me, Groundhog Poetry Press, 2022
Julene Tripp Weaver: Slow Now with Clear Skies, MoonPath Press, 2024.
Wednesday, June 12, 2024 7:00 pm
In-Person Reading at Jack Straw Cultural Center
Laurie Blauner: Come Closer, Bitter Oleander Press, 2023
Leanne Dunic: One and Half of You, Talonbooks, 2021; Wet, Talonbooks, 2024
Michael Magee: Budapest After Dark, Open Sesame Gallery Books, 2024; Terra Firma Sacred Ground (Poems 1970-2022), MoonPath Press, 2022
Shin Yu Pai: No Neutral, Empty Bowl, 2023; Less Desolate, with Justin Rueff, Blue Cactus Press, 2023
Sylvia Byrne Pollack: Risking It, Red Mountain Press, 2021; What Lasts, Red Mountain Press, 2023
Molly Tenenbaum: The Arborists, MoonPath Press, 2023
Wednesday, August 14, 2024 7:00 pm
In-Person Reading at Jack Straw Cultural Center
Suzanne Bottelli: American Grubble, Ravenna Press, 2022
Sharon Hashimoto: More American, Grid Books, 2021
Ann Hursey: Field Notes to Maya Lin’s Confluence Project Landscapes, Salmonberry Press 2022.
Raúl Sanchez: When There Were No Borders, Flower Song Press, 2021
Carletta Carrington Wilson: Poem of Stone & Bone: The Iconography of James W. Washington Jr. in Fourteen Stanzas and Thirty-One Days, Raven Chronicles Press, 2023
Deborah Woodard: The Dragonfly /La Libellula, Entre Rios Books, 2023
Monday, October 21, 2024, 7pm
In-Person Reading at Jack Straw Cultural Center
John Burgess: Punk Poems Complete, Ravenna Press, 2023
Bill Carty: We Sailed on the Lake, Fonograf Editions/Bunny Presse, 2023
Claudia Castro Luna: Cipota Under the Moon, Tia Chucha Press, 2022
Denise Calvetti Michaels: North Creek, Cave Moon Press, 2024
Susan Rich: Blue Atlas, Red Hen Press, 2024
Katharine Whitcomb: Habitats, Poetry Northwest Editions, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024 (time tbd)
Online reading
Lana Hechtman Ayers: The Autobiography of Rain, Fernwood Press, August 2024
Jamaica Baldwin: Bone Language, YesYes Books, 2023
Danielle Bero: Schooled, Ghost City Press, 2021
Sharon Carter: Quiver, Tebot Bach, 2022
Larry Crist: Alibi for the Scapegoat, Avtograf, Chelybinsk, Russia, 2021
Jory Mickelson: All This Divide, Spuyten Duyvil Press, May 2024
Emily Pérez: What Flies Want, University of Iowa Press, 2022
Art and Heritage Partnerships
20 Years of Jack Straw Writers READ MORE >
Summit Sound at the Seattle Convention Center READ MORE >
Sonolocations: A Sound Works Series READ MORE >
TeenTix READ MORE >
Lelavision READ MORE >
Descriptive Tours at the Olympic Sculpture Park READ MORE >
Lake Union Oral History Project READ MORE >
Asian Festivals of Washington State READ MORE >
Jack Straw, Northwest Folklife, and Somali Youth and Family Club: Until We Meet Again READ MORE >
Women and Whales First: Poetry in a Climate of Change READ MORE >
Opening Doors READ MORE >
Common Field READ MORE >
Safarini In Transit : Music of African Immigrants READ MORE >
Traditional Artist Support Program READ MORE >
Native American Stories of Washington READ MORE >
Coast Salish Culture Projects by Gregory Fields READ MORE >
Spirit of the First People READ MORE >
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Centennial Radio Project READ MORE >
Extraordinary Ordinary People: American Masters of Traditional Arts READ MORE >
Gritos Del Alma READ MORE >
1962 Seattle World's Fair READ MORE >
Vexations Live at Jack Straw READ MORE >
Salmon in the City READ MORE >
