EXPERIENCE POETRY ON THE SALISH SEA
Artistic Curator
Kathyrn Hunt
Kathryn Hunt is a poet and nonfiction writer and makes her home on the coast of the Salish Sea. She is author of two poetry collections, Long Way Through Ruin and Seed Wheel and two chapbooks, The Country I Come From and She Who Walks the Earth. Her poems have appeared in the Orion, Radar, Poetry Northwest, Missouri Review, and Narrative, among others, and she is the recipient of residencies and awards from Ucross, Hedgebrook, Artists Trust, and Joya AIR (Spain). She is the artistic curator of Centrum’s Poetry on the Salish Sea, a series that hosts poets from around the Pacific NW and beyond to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. She’s recently completed a memoir, Nocturne, a mother-daughter tale.
Poets featured at Free Public Readings
Janeen Armstrong
February 14, 2026 Reading
Janeen Armstrong has a BA from University of Washington. She studied with Lidia Yuknavitch and Gary Copeland Lilley, among others. She is the Reader Services Manager at Copper Canyon Press.
Jennifer Chang
December 13, 2025 Reading
Jennifer Chang’s most recent book, An Authentic Life, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Her other honors include the William Carlos Williams Award, the Virginia Literary Award in Poetry, the Levinson Prize from Poetry, and fellowships from the Elizabeth Murray Artists Residency, MacDowell, and Yaddo. …
Leila Chatti
December 13, 2025 Reading
Leila Chatti is a Tunisian-American poet and author of Wildness Before Something Sublime (Copper Canyon Press, 2025) and Deluge (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), winner of the 2021 Levis Reading Prize, the 2021 Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and longlisted for the 2021 PEN Open Book Award, as well as four chapbooks.…
Jenny George
December 13, 2025 Reading
Jenny George is the author of After Image (Copper Canyon Press, 2024; PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry finalist) and The Dream of Reason (Copper Canyon Press, 2018). She is also a winner of the Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize and a recipient of fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Lannan Foundation, MacDowell, and Yaddo.…
E. A. Greenwell
February 14, 2026 Reading
E. A. Greenwell is a writer, conservationist, and community organizer. A former PEN/Northwest Wilderness Writing Resident, his work has appeared in Boston Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Terrain.org among other periodicals.
Nanya Jhingran
February 14, 2026 Reading
Nanya Jhingran writes, teaches, and edits poetry, longform criticism, and nonfiction on Coast Salish lands in Seattle, WA. She is the author of the chapbook Into Our Personal Weather.
Ted McMahon
February 14, 2026 Reading
Ted McMahon, a retired pediatrician, now devotes his remaining time to music, poetry, and political activism. He lives in Seattle with his wife, artist and musician Rosanne Olson.
José Enrique Medina
March 14, 2026 Reading
José Enrique Medina earned his BA in English from Cornell University. His poetry collection Haunt Me won the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize. His second book, Man Without a Skirt, was selected by Ellen Bass as the runner-up in the 2025 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize.…
Sati Mookherjee
February 14, 2026 Reading
Sati Mookherjee is the author of Eye (2022), Ways of Being (2023) and the forthcoming collection Deś. She is Vice President of the Board of CASCADIA International Women’s Film Festival.
Abby E. Murray
February 14, 2026 Reading
Abby E. Murray’s (they/them) first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize, and their second book, Recovery Commands, released by Ex Ophidia Press in June 2025, won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Prize and has been nominated for the National Book Award. …
Dawn Pichón Barron
Afternoon Workshop Faculty
Dawn Pichón Barron is currently the academic director/faculty of the undergraduate interdisciplinary Native Pathways Program at the Evergreen State College. She writes across borders and genres, while dreaming of ripe lemon sunrays at the southern tip of the Salish Sea–on the lands of the Medicine Creek treaty tribes and bands—with her wingman and Chihuahuas. Her chapbook, ESCAPE GIRL BLUES, was published by Finishing Line Press, 2018.…
Tamarah Rockwood
February 14, 2026 Reading
Tamarah Rockwood: Harvard graduate, founder of Bainbridge Island Press, and PhD candidate at University of Birmingham, UK. Organizes western Washington poetry communities. Lives on Bainbridge Island with her family.
Thena Westfall
February 14, 2026 Reading
Thena Westfall is a poet. She lives and works in Port Angeles WA.
Haines Whitacre
February 14, 2026 Reading
Haines Whitacre is a poet, book artist, and near-shore sailor who lives in unceded Duwamish land a short walk from the Duwamish River.
Lisbeth White
February 14, 2026 Reading
Lisbeth White is an enchantivist writer based in the Pacific Northwest. She is the author of American Sycamore; the elemental memoir, A Most Natural Thing; and co-editor of Poetry as Spellcasting.
Michael Wiegers
December 13, 2025 Reading
Michael Wiegers has been editing books for Copper Canyon Press since 1993, and currently serves as the Press’s Executive Editor/Editor in Chief. He has edited two anthologies covering the history of Copper Canyon Press poetry: A House Called Tomorrow: 50 Years of Poetry and Come Shining: More Poems and Stories from Fifty Years of Copper Canyon Press.…
Free Public Readings
- December 13, 2025 – MORE INFORMATION
- February 14, 2026 – MORE INFORMATION
- March 14, 2026 - details TBA
- April 11, 2026 – details TBA
- October 21, 2026 – details TBA
- December 12, 2026 – details TBA
2026 Autumn Poetry Workshop
More information coming soon!
2026 Autumn Poetry Workshop Faculty
October 2026 Workshop Faculty
Rick Barot
Rick Barot was born in the Philippines and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. His fourth book of poems, The Galleons, was longlisted for the National Book Award. His collections include The Darker Fall, Want (a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and winner of the 2009 Grub Street Book Prize), and Chord, all from Sarabande Books. …
Kathryn Hunt
Artistic Curator
Kathryn Hunt is a poet and nonfiction writer and makes her home on the coast of the Salish Sea. She is author of two poetry collections, Long Way Through Ruin and Seed Wheel and two chapbooks, The Country I Come From and She Who Walks the Earth.…
Melissa Kwansey
Melissa Kwasny is the author of seven collections of poems, including The Cloud Path, Where Outside the Body Is the Soul Today, Pictograph, and The Nine Senses.…
