Poets Laureate and Community Read

Poets Laureate, in parallel poetry readings, converge on Vashon Island on May 4th and May 5th.
 
Saturday, May 4th, at the Land Trust Building, there will be a Community Read (open mic) for community poets, interspersed with poets reading from The Weird World Rolls On (2012) by Jean Davies Okimoto, featuring mostly Vashon poets, from 2:00 until 4:30. Hunter Davis is organizing the reading by the "Weird" poets. Community poets must sign in at the door.
 
Concluding the reading, the new 2013-2015 Vashon Poet Laureate will be announced, and new this year, the 2013-2015 Vashon Youth Poet Laureate. Ann Spiers, reigning Vashon Poet Laureate, wrote in a letter to the selection committee, "I became publically proud to represent a community that values poetry so it names a Poet Laureate."
 
On Sunday, May 5th, the Vashon Branch of King County Library hosts poet Kathleen Flenniken, Washington State’s Poet Laureate at the Land Trust Building. Ms. Flenniken, a former civil engineer and hydrologist at the Hanford Site in eastern Washington, will read her poetry from 2:00 until 3:30. She will precede her reading with a workshop "to generate new poems and poetry", noon until 1:30, at the same location.
 
Flenniken published her first poetry book, Famous (University of Nebraska, 2006), which won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Her second collection, Plume (University of Washington, 2012), was selected by Linda Bierds for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series.
 
All events are free. Please contact the library for any additional information regarding the workshop and Ms. Flenniken’s presentation at 206.463.2069.
 
Questions regarding the Community Read can be sent to
vashonpoets@gmail.com.