Cascadia Poetry Festival 2025

October 9–12, 2025
Rainier Beach • Red Wing Café • Kubota Garden • Dead Horse Canyon

The Cascadia Poetry Festival returns to Seattle for its ninth year, inviting poets, artists, and culture-makers to explore what it means to create place-based poetry in a time of ecological urgency and cultural transformation.

Organized by Cascadia Poetics Lab, this four-day gathering brings together voices from across the bioregion for workshops, readings, panels, and performances rooted in the spirit of Cascadia—where the watersheds speak, the stories run deep, and the arts offer both refuge and revolution.

Whether you’re a practicing poet or simply Cascadia-curious, this is a rare opportunity to connect with literary leaders, deepen your craft, and engage in the collective imagination of this place we call home.

📅 Full Schedule Overview

Thursday, October 9

7:00–9:00pm
Margin Shift – Cascadia 2050
Location: TBA

Friday, October 10

📍 Rainier Beach Community Club, 6038 S Pilgrim St, Seattle, WA
(unless otherwise noted)

9:00–9:30am – Registration

9:30am–12:00pm – Morning Workshops

• Ekphrasis: Writing Inspired by Visual Art – Brenda Cardenas

• Writing Poetry: A Narrow Path to the Interior – Katie Sarah Zale

• Poetry as Interventionist Event – Roxi Power (@ Red Wing Café)

• Blooming Difference – Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs (@ Kubota Garden)

12:00–1:00pm – Lunch

1:00–3:00pm – Afternoon Workshops

• Eco Workshop – Brenda Hillman (@ Dead Horse Canyon)

• Investigative Poetry – Sharon Thesen (@ Red Wing Café)

• Open Churchyard: Lyric and Form – Robert Lashley

• Workshop TBA – Matt Trease

5:00–7:00pm – Dinner for Staff & Faculty

7:00–9:00pm – Keynote Reading
With: Robert Lashley, Sharon Thesen, Roberto Harrison, Brenda Hillman
Emcee: Matt Trease

Saturday, October 11

📍 All events at Rainier Beach Community Club

9:00–9:30am – Invocation

9:30am–12:00pm – Panels

• Panel 1: The Practice of the Self, Practice of Cascadia
  Featuring Jill Lapointe, Roberto Harrison, Alicia Hokanson, Lorin Medley, Brandon Letsinger, Robert Michael Pyle
  Emcee: Jason Wirth

• Panel 2: Resistance
  Featuring Roxi Power, Katie Sarah Zale, Brenda Cardenas, Brenda Hillman
  Moderator: Jason Wirth

12:00–2:00pm – Lunch

2:00–5:00pm – Carbonation Press Showcase
Featuring: Greg Bem, Zach Charles, Matt Trease, Theresa Whitehill, Paul E Nelson, Lorin Medley, Jim Dott, Katie Sarah Zale, Brenda Cardenas
Emcee: Matt Trease

5:00–7:00pm – Dinner

7:00–9:00pm – Cascadia Monopoem
One poem per poet, no introductions
Emcee: Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs

9:00pm–12:00am – Cascadia Unfiltered
An after-hours mashup with Greg Bem, Cascadia 2050 & Nadine Maestas
📍 @ Jude’s, 9252 57th Ave S, Seattle, WA

Sunday, October 12

9:00–9:30am – Cascadia Poetics LAB Introduction
Meet board members and volunteers @ Red Wing Café

11:00am–1:00pm – Kubota Garden Reading
With Roxi Power, Alicia Hokanson, Robert Michael Pyle
Emcee: Jason Wirth

12:00–1:00pm – Lunch

3:00–5:00pm – Winter in America (Again)
Poets respond to the 2024 Election
Emcee: Paul E Nelson

5:00–7:00pm – Dinner

🌊 Why Cascadia Poetry Festival?

This isn’t just a literary event. It’s a bioregional convergence—an invitation to deepen your connection to land, language, and lineage. The Cascadia Poetry Festival amplifies voices that matter, stories that heal, and truths that transform.

📝 Learn More & Register

Visit cascadiapoeticslab.org for updates, bios, and registration links.

Follow along at @CascadiaPoetics for sneak peeks and community highlights.