Get ready (read-y) for the rainy season with a stack of books to keep you cozy through the winter. Join a delightfully bookish group of regional small publishers and book artists, presenting unique and important books for perusing and for sale. Give the gift of good reading to you and your beloveds! Support local publishing and small press innovation. Author readings throughout the day and book crafts for all ages.

Nourish the spirit and keep the craft alive. Featuring local and visiting Indie publishers and book artists, including:

Empty Bowl Press,
Winter texts,
Blue Cactus Press,
Snack Break Studio,
Anna Moore,
Stardust Press,
Entre Rios Books,
Jaiden Dokken

Free entry. All ages!

A reading from Be Broken to Be Whole in Santa Fe. 4:30 p.m. Collected Works Bookstore, 202 Gallisteo St., Santa Fe, NM. Hosted by Mary Judge, with readings of Tom Crawford’s poems by local writers and actors.

Join Sibyl James for a reading & tea tasting. Seattle Fair Trade, 6417 Roosevelt NE Seattle.

A reading from Be Broken to Be Whole, 6 p.m. Sacramento Poetry Center 1719 25th St. in Sacramento. Hosted by Gary Thompson.

Anna Odessa Linzer will give a reading featuring poems from Season Unleashed, published by Empty Bowl Press, discussion and reception after.

For tickets, use this link.

Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

550 Winslow Way East Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

Sibyl James will read from Plum Blossom Wine. Join us at the Seattle Chinese Garden, 6000 16th Ave. SW. Chan Education Center, Room 102 Seattle

Plum Blossom Wine, poems by Song dynasty poet Li Qingzhao translated by Sibyl James and Kang Xuepei, gives voice to an important female Chinese poet writing in a time when literature was dominated by men. James and Kang bring a contemporary sensibility to their translations, reading Li not as scholars but as modern women. They offer the reader an intimate glimpse into Li’s life, letting these poems full of wistful longing resonate across the centuries like a temple bell just rung.

Join us at the Port Townsend Friends Meeting House, 1841 Sheridan St. Port Townsend WA 98368 at 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:30.

Poet, birder, contemplative, and activist Tom Crawford, an integral part of the Oregon literary community in the 1990s, lived and taught throughout the western USA, and in China and South Korea. He published nine books of poems, including Lauds, The Temple on Monday, and The Names of Birds. He died in Santa Fe in 2018.

Be Broken To Be Whole, a handsomely designed and produced selection edited by his widow Mary Judge, with a foreword by David James Duncan.

On August 3, we'll celebrate the launch of the book at Passages Bookshop in Portland, OR, 1801 NW Upshur, Suite 660. Friends and others will read selections from the poems. Copies of the book will be available for purchase. Please join us!

This coming Saturday, June 29, Empty Bowl is hosting a gathering to honor the life and work of Clem Starck, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at the Friends Meeting House, 1841 Sheridan St., in Port Townsend.

Joseph Bednarik, Clem's literary executor and close friend, will lead off with a brief reflection on Clem's life & work. Long-time Empty Bowl poets Michael Daley, Tim McNulty, Finn Wilcox, and Bill Porter will share their Clem stories and favorite poems, then we'll open it up to anyone in attendance with stories or favorite poems of Clem's to share. We'll also share a few tributes from poets who knew Clem who can't join us.

May 19, 3 p.m. Walk to Memory’s Vault with artist Richard Turner and readings from the poems of Sam Hamill.

Meet at the Centrum Building #305 South Gallery at Fort Worden State Park.

Doors open at 2:45. Refreshments will be served.

Memory’s Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort Worden offers a retrospective look at a powerful piece of public art and a community’s responses to it. Join artist Richard Turner, Port Townsend poet laureate Connor Bouchard-Roberts, and others at the book launch celebrations, May 18-19.

May 18, 7 p. m. Artist’s Talk and Public Reading

Friends Meeting House  1841 Sheridan Street

520 Commercial, Anacortes

ANN SPIERS AND JESSICA GIGOT

We’re eager to share the exciting news that our first title for 2024 goes to the printer this week! Anna Odessa Linzer’s collection of poems, Season Unleashed will be released on April 9, with a launch celebration planned for April 19th at 7 pm at the Pope Building on the waterfront in Port Townsend.

VILLAGE BOOKS.     APRIL 8.       6-7PM. 

Readers include Tele Aadsen, Luther Allen, Jane Alynn, Michael Daley, Jessica Gigot, Georgia Johnson, Judy Kleinberg,Charles Chuck Luckmann, Bill Weissinger. 

For more infomation, see the Village Books website or check here.

The Bushwick Book Club will be performing music inspired by the anthology edited by Rena Priest, I Sing the Salmon Home, on March 16th at 7:30 pm at Town Hall in Seattle.

MADRONA SERIES POETRY READINGS

PELICAN BAY BOOKS

520 Commercial, Anacortes

Tele Aadsen, Luther Allen, Jane Alynn, Anne Basye, Deborrah Corr, Michael Daley, Steve Dolmatz, Judy Kleinberg, Adam Lafayette, Morgan Randall, Bob Rose, Cora Thomas, Bill Weissinger, Maggie Wilder, Georgia Johnson

Two Poet Laureates in Conversation! Seattle Civic Poet Shin Yu Paiand Port Townsend Poet Laureate Conner Bouchard-Roberts will discuss Shin Yu Pai's latest books and their respective roles as poet laureates. Join us Wednesday March 13 from 6 - 7:30 pm at the Jefferson County Library in Port Hadlock.

This event is in the community room at KSQM station in Sequim. Featured poets are:

Katherine Kennedy

Kate Reavey

Tom Harris

Eva McGinnis

Charlotte G. Warren

Laura Garrard

Alice Derry

Bill Ransom

Gary Bullock who will read his poem as well as one from Carol Anne Modena

The radio station is in the SE corner of Sequim Village Shopping Center, 609 W. Washington Street.

On Sunday, December 17, we’ll be holding a holiday pop-up sale at Finnriver Cidery in Chimacum. We’ll have an array of recent Empty Bowl books, lots of deals, and a Wandering Bard who will compose poems on the spot. We hope to see you there.

Please join Empty Bowl Press for a reading with two acclaimed poets and translators: Red Pine and John Brandi.

Port Townsend Friends Meeting House, 1841 Sheridan Street, Port Townsend, WA.

Join us for a reading & reception with acclaimed translator Bill Porter (Red Pine) and Haiku poet, artist, and translator John Brandi.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023 from 7 – 9 pm

Oberto Commons (second floor of the Sinegal Center)

On the Campus of Seattle University

901 12th Avenue

Seattle, WA 98122

For convenient parking, enter the SU campus at the intersection of 12th Ave and  East Marion Street, which is the main entrance. Sinegal Center is on your left, and a parking lot will be on your right. Oberto Commons is on the 2nd floor of the Sinegal Center. 

Contributors reading from I Sing the Salmon Home, with a viewing of returning chum salmon run after reading.

Timberland Library, Shelton, WA

Madrona Poetry Series

Pelican Bay Books, Anacortes, WA

Celebration/Reading for A Watershed Runs Through You

Mattole Community Center, Petrolia, CA

Launch/Reading for A Watershed Runs Through You: Essays, Talks and Reflections on Salmon, Restoration & Community by Freeman House, author of Totem Salmon: Life Lessons from Another Species

 Northtown Books, Arcata, CA

Join Us to Welcome the Salmon Home with a reading from I Sing the Salmon Home at Finnriver Farm & Cidery

Thursday September 14 2023 4:30 – 6 pm.

Reading will be:

Kelli Russell Agodon

Michele Bombardier

Ronda Piszk Broatch

Joanne Clarkson

Alice Derry

Alex Eisenberg

Tess Gallagher

Cathy Lear

Anne Murphy

Kate Reavey

Thena Westfall

Three local poets read from their books in this celebration of poetry and visual art. "She Who Walks the Earth," a new paperback book pairing poems by Kathryn Hunt with encaustic paintings by Loretta Libby Atkins, sparked this event. Hunt will read her poems; Kate Reavey will read from her new book "Curve," and Alice Derry will read from her poetry collection "Asking." Event-goers can also see Atkins' paintings up close. The reading will be held at the Cotton Building, 607 Water St., in Port Townsend.