Early registration deadline: August 30

Haiku Northwest welcomes all poets to attend its first haiku retreat, at the Seabeck Conference Center on Kitsap Peninsula. Visit Haiku-Northwest for complete information about the retreat, including location and facility photos.

Featured guests included master haiku poet and translator Emiko Miyashita, visiting from Japan, as well as workshops and presentations by Christopher Herold, Alice Frampton, Michael Dylan Welch, and more.

Weekend activities include a haiku scavenger hunt, writing and sharing haiku, anonymous and guided workshops, time to explore the woods, lagoon, and tidal waterfront, and much poetic camaraderie. The discounted cost (good until August 30) is $139 for a full weekend, including accommodations and six meals. After August 30, the cost is $149.

Also available is a day rate for Saturday only ($36 through August 30, then $46 after that). To register, see the registration form.

For more information, please contact Michael Dylan Welch.

Explore the art of performance poetry, engage in critique and analysis of past and present performers and poetic styles through text, video and audio samplings, find, develop, and refine your own voice through writing exercises and take written poems on the journey to become spoken word pieces/performance poems. Taught by Daemond Arrindell, Slammaster of Seattle.
 
October 18 –November 22                   $250 Tier I
Saturdays, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm          $300 Tier II

Tiers based on income and household numbers.  For more information, go to www.freeholdtheatre.org  or call 206-323-7499.

Daemond Arrindell is the Seattle Slammaster and producer of the longest running weekly show in Seattle - the Seattle Poetry Slam. Daemond is a 5-time coach of the Seattle National Poetry Slam Team, currently ranked 6th in the nation. Workshop facilitator, community organizer, advocate and poet - he holds strong to the belief that poetry is a grand tree with a vast array of branches that all contribute to the complexity of the art form and it is the challenge of the artist to continue to push him/herself to grow within it.  Daemond's love for the craft of poetry and the art of spoken word and their ability to alter the emotional state of a listener knows no bounds.      

To register: www.freeholdtheatre.org or call 206-323-7499.

Join Michael Dylan Welch for Haiku Targets, a one-day workshop, learning about haiku poetry.  Many misperceptions of haiku persist, due to superficial and sometimes incorrect instruction in schools and textbooks, and because of the proliferation of joke haiku on the Internet. But there's also a profound literary tradition, especially in Japan, but also in the English language. Michael will walk you through the characteristics and expectations of literary haiku.  In this interactive workshop you also will learn how to use kigo (words denoting seasons) and kireji (cutting words) as well as practicing various techniques such as the development of objective sensory imagery. Through the writing exercises you will develop skills that will enhance your writing of any kind of poetry.  There will be an opportunity to write your own haiku and have it evaluated.  Register today for this inspiring and informative workshop, by contacting Welch at WelchM@aol.com.
 
Haiku Targets will be held on October 18, from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. at

Kings Books
218 St Helens
Tacoma, WA.

The cost is $25 for adults and $20 for students.  Pre-registration is recommended with payment at the door but walk-ins are welcome.  The workshop will continue through the lunch hour, so brown bag it, or get details about box lunches from Stadium Thriftway Deli by writing to Maggie at PoBizProd.@harbornet.com.
 
Michael Dylan Welch is a longtime vice-president of the Haiku Society of America, and is the current coordinator of the Haiku Northwest group. Michael co-founded the Haiku North America conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996. He is editor of Tundra: The Journal of the Short Poem, and publisher of Press Here haiku and tanka books. His haiku and longer poetry have won numerous awards and have been published in hundreds of journals and anthologies (including two Norton anthologies) in more than a dozen languages. Michael is also a board member of the Washington Poets Association.

Two fine Northwest poets who have honed their art for decades, Michael Daley and Tim McNulty, make an appearance at

The Elliott Bay Book Company
101 South Main Street
Seattle, Washington 98104

For more information, see: Author Events at Elliott Bay Books.

Tieton Arts & Humanities presents the 2nd annual LitFuse: A Poets' Workshop, in Tieton, Washington (west of Yakima). Most of the events take place Saturday and Sunday.

Featured poet: American Book Award winner Lorna Dee Cervantes.

Other faculty: Central Washington University professor emeritus Mark Halperin, Washington State Poet Laureate Sam Green, KUOW poetry commentator Elizabeth Austen, Firesign Theatre member David Ossman, Blue Begonia Press publisher Jim Bodeen, Yakima Valley Community College professor Dan Peters, poetess of Green Lake AK Allin, Artist Trust Fellowship recipient Felicia Gonzalez, Meditation/Feldenkrais teacher Carol Trenga, Marquand Press master printer Amy Rabas, and El Dia De Los Muertos expert Raul Sanchez.

Lorna Dee Cervantes is offering a special writing workshop on Friday, October 31, from 1:00 – 4:20 pm. Cost is $55. If interested, please register online and send 5 pages of work to litfuse@mightytieton.com Registration for LitFuse not required.

LitFuse registration is available online. Also, take a look at the LitFuse video.

The cost is $120 for the weekend, including Saturday banquet, but this is discounted to $110 for registrations prior to Oct. 10th. Scholarships are available to ensure that LitFuse is affordable to all. Housing with local poets and arts supporters can be arranged by request.

As a special feature to take advantage of the Marquand Press print shop in Tieton, we are offering a hands-on letterpress demonstration for $45. Registration for LitFuse is required. You will participate in producing a letterpress broadside of your own work. Please register here.

More information: Michael Schein

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with W.S. Merwin.

A student of R.P. Blackmur and John Berryman. A tutor for Robert Graves' children. Selected by W. H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Friends with Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. Pulitzer and Lilly Prize, as well as Lannan Lifetime Achievement and National Book Award winner. Translator. Buddhist. Environmentalist.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Donald Hall.

Former Poet Laureate, his most recent volume is White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946-2006.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Jane Hirshfield.

Award-winning poet and translator; collections include After and Given Sugar, Given Salt.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Yusef Komunyakaa.

Pulitzer Prize winner, editor of The Jazz Poetry Anthology; Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part I is his most recent volume of poetry.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Simon Armitage.

Prolific British poet, playwright, and screenwriter; Tyrannosaurus Rex vs. the Corduroy Kid is his latest work.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Naomi Shihab Nye.

A Palestinian-American, 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East celebrates
her heritage.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.

Seattle Arts & Lectures presents an evening with Gary Snyder.

Poet/essayist of history, wilderness, and wild mind; a meditator on memory; Pulitzer Prize and 2008 Lilly Poetry Prize winner.

For more information, see the Seattle Arts & Lectures web site.