Jun
26
7:00 PM19:00

Unpoetry at Jack Straw: Night 3

Jack Straw artist Eric Acosta brings his multidisciplinary event series Unpoetry to Jack Straw for a series of three events. Performers will share their work in multiple spaces at Jack Straw, in conversation with the New Media Gallery installation we being so.

Mosaic Mirage, Emily J Mundy, Redisforlove, Justine Chan, Julieta Alexandra, Teresa Hayes, Allison Lee, Ally Ang, Olivia Anderson, Sullivan Forderhase, and Till The Teeth | Eric M Acosta.

For more information, click here.

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Jun
28
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Sullivan Forderhase, Shelby Handler, and Dujie Tahat

Other People’s Poems is a monthly poetry open mic and reading series celebrating readers and lovers of poetry. Hosted by Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel at Open Books: A Poem Emporium, each reading consists of an open mic, in which anyone can read up to five minutes of poetry written by someone else, followed by three featured readers who will read poems by their literary influences and community.

Masks required.

June’s featured readers are Sullivan Forderhase, Shelby Handler, and Dujie Tahat.

raised in tennessee but rooted in seattle, sullivan forderhase works in the spine of poetry through word and movement. they are interested in desire, shame, dream spaces, the knife of grief, and the resistance of joy. they choose the question over the answer every time, allowing curiosity and tenderness to move them. you can connect with them on social media via @softservesully

Shelby Handler is a writer, translator, and organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace.

Dujie Tahat is the fifth Seattle Civic poet and author of three poetry chapbooks: Here I Am O My God, selected for a Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship; Salat, winner of the Tupelo Press Sunken Garden Chapbook Award and longlisted for the 2020 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection; and Balikbayan, finalist for The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest and the Center for Book Arts honoree. Along with Luther Hughes and Gabrielle Bates, they cohost The Poet Salon podcast.

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May
29
7:00 PM19:00

A Microscope Within: a night of inhabitory in-sights

Get a break from the dreary dampness of early Juneuary in Seattle with some verdant and insightful verse! MarginShift is excited to welcome the talented, Palouse-based poet, Linda Russo, to our cozy Hugo House lounge to share eco-poetic experiments in re-inhabitation.

Joining Linda will be an incredible lineup of local voices, including  Sarah Mangold, whose highly potent collages-in-verse of women visionaries like Hilma af Klint are sonically and visually invigorating, Samar Abulhassan, whose polyvocal prose-poetic meditations are both visceral and deeply insightful, and the dynamic Ally Ang, whose lush lyric invocations call forth a vibrant, invigorating world.

Get ready for an evening filled with thought-provoking poetry that will awaken the world around you!

RSVP here.

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May
24
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Joyce Chen, Amy Hirayama, and Diana Xin

Other People’s Poems is a monthly poetry open mic and reading series that celebrates readers and lovers of poetry. Hosted by Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel, each event starts with an open mic in which anyone can sign up to read 5 minutes of poetry written by another person, then three featured readers will each read 10-15 minutes of other people’s poems. Free event, masks required.

May’s featured readers are:
Joyce Chen
is a writer, editor, and community builder who draws inspiration from many coastal cities. She was the most recent Hugo House writer-in-residence, and was a 2019-2020 Hugo House Fellow. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone, Poets & Writers, Lit Hub, Narratively, and Slant’d, among others, and she contributes book reviews to Orion and Hyphen magazines. She has received support through Hugo House, VONA, Tin House, Artist Trust, Vermont Studio Center, Centrum, and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and she is the executive director of The Seventh Wave, an arts and literary nonprofit that champions art in the space of social issues.

Amy Hirayama is a writer and educator from Seattle. She teaches English at South Seattle College, coordinates programming for Clarion West, is a creative writing instructor with Writers in the Schools, and is involved at Common Area Maintenance (CAM). She likes collaborative writing, insists on leaning into the surreal, and actively pursues unnecessary complications.

Diana Xin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana and serves as a contributing editor for Moss. She is a recipient of fellowships and residencies from Hedgebrook, Artist Trust of Washington State, The M Literary Residency in Beijing, and the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology. Her work appears in Electric Literature, Narrative Magazine, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. Her first full-length collection, Book of Exemplary Women, is forthcoming from YesYes Books.

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May
2
4:00 PM16:00

Unsung Poetry at Seattle University

Unsung Poetry is a semi-regular poetry series held in the Byte Cafe located on the 2nd floor of the Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons at Seattle University. The mission of Unsung Poetry is to bring people together through poetry, and bridge the gap between the Seattle literary arts community and the Seattle University campus community. 

Each event in the series will feature readings by poets from the Seattle literary community and beyond, who will share some of their own work and also the work of a lesser known “unsung poet.” Immediately following the featured readers, we invite members of the SU community to share their own creative work during the open mic. This is open to any SU student currently enrolled or any staff or faculty currently employed by the university. 

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Apr
13
12:00 PM12:00

Workshop: “Seeing my hole, I know my whole” with Cass Garison & Ally Ang

From holes we came and into holes we shall return. The hole is the ultimate abject, the transgressable boundary between the self and itself, other selves, the world, the divine. Come join us in reading various hole poems and writing your own hole poems, assisted by holesome prompts. Doors, thresholds, portals, windows, Christ's side wound, gloryholes, manholes, orifices, sutures, slits, sinkholes, mouths, God-sized holes, punctures, ear canals. Let’s make some holes together!

Hosted through Fahmidan. Virtual. Pay what you can. Sign up here.

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Apr
12
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Mateo Bracken, Oliver Brickman, and Garfield Hillson

Other People’s Poems is a monthly poetry open mic and reading series that centers readers and lovers of poetry. Hosted by Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel at Open Books: A Poem Emporium, each event begins with an open mic in which any person can sign up to read 5 minutes of poetry written by someone else, and then three featured readers will each read 10-15 minutes of other people’s poems. This event is free and mask-required.

April’s featured readers:

Mateo Bracken is a poet, librettist, and actor who splits his time between Auburn and Seattle, Washington. He was the 2023-2024 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate and currently serves as the 2024-2026 Auburn Poet Laureate. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in the Gay & Lesbian Review, EchoX, The Washington State Queer Poetry Anthology, Abya Yala: Indigenous Connections in Latin America, Creative Colloquy, Bird Brains: A Lyrical Guide to the Birds of Washington State, and more. As a librettist in the Seattle Opera Creation Lab, he developed the twenty-minute chamber opera Blood Dawn of the Inti Sun in collaboration with composer Mina Pariseau. His first chapbook, Dear Spanish, was published in 2024 through Poetry Northwest and explores the languages of identity, heritage, and belonging. He is currently working on a manuscript about the settler colonial history of Auburn in verse. 

Oliver Brickman is a queer Jewish writer and performer invested in liberatory futures and reckoning with ghosts. The winner of the Split This Rock Poetry Prize and a nationally recognized performer, they have received support from Hedgebrook, the Lambda Literary Foundation, Yiddish Book Center, 4Culture, and Artist Trust. A BOAAT Writers Fellow and Ken Warfel Fellow for Poetry in Community, recent work has appeared in Narrative, Adroit, The Indiana Review, and as part of On the Boards' Performance Lab. They are currently at work on a collection of poems interrogating transness and 19th century spirit photographs, and a memoir about collective organizing in Charlottesville, Virginia during the white nationalist rallies of 2017. Ollie holds an MFA from the University of Virginia and lives in Seattle, where they work in a library and teach writing to youth and adults. 

Originally from South Florida, Garfield Hillson is a Black-Queer poet and educator working in Seattle. He believes in the beauty of words and the power of story-sharing. He believes in trauma-informed social justice healing and that art and education are the building blocks to achieve this. Garfield imagines being Black and Queer is nothing if not a study in silence. So he writes to reclaim the language that was stolen from him, to empower others, and to push imaginations to craft a better NOW!! Garfield is a Seattle Poetry Slam Grand Slam Champion (2015); a Rain City Slam Grand Slam Champion (2017); and a five-time Seattle Poetry Slam National Team Member (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Garfield has appeared in Rising Up: A Queer Social Justice Play (2017); and Dear White People—Resistance (2018).

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Mar
29
12:10 PM12:10

AWP Panel: Debut You! How to Bring Your Poetry Book to Market

  • Los Angeles Convention Center (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Five poets publishing debuts in 2024–2025 will discuss the resources, time, and tactics with which they approached book promotion. With day job expertise ranging from strategic marketing and grant writing to editing and communications, they’ll share how to divide time between writing and publicity, create a budget, send cold emails when you’re a stone-cold introvert, plan readings, pitch reviews, and more. If you’ve got a book on the way or in the works, this panel is for you.

Moderator: Ally Ang
Panelists: Sarah Ghazal Ali, Margot Kahn, Megan Pinto, Katie Prince

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Mar
28
1:45 PM13:45

AWP Panel: The Personal Is Always Political

Confessional poetry and the phrase “The personal is political” have parallel histories. While some have claimed that autobiographical poetry is apolitical, that claim has always been fallacious—and never more so than in the poetry of the present. This panel gathers five poets to share their strategies for infusing even their most “private” or “interior” poems with their politics and their ethics, read brief examples of their own and others’ work, and engage the audience collaboratively.

Moderator: Sumita Chakraborty
Panelists: Ally Ang, Jericho Brown, Tariq Luthun, Rachel Mennies

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Other People's Poems ft. Cass Garison, Constance Hansen, and nanya jhingran
Jan
31
8:00 PM20:00

Other People's Poems ft. Cass Garison, Constance Hansen, and nanya jhingran

Join us at the store at 7pm on Saturday, February 15, 2025 for Other People’s Poems, featuring Cass Garison, Constance Hansen, and nanya jhingran.

Other People’s Poems is a poetry series centered on readers of other people’s poems. Sometimes these readers are writers too, but often they are also lovers of poetry who can’t get enough of those lines that evoke the sense of the exclamation O!. They are no-I’m-not-a-poets who secretly scribble their innermost thoughts in the most delicate of deckled journals. This series features these readers and the poems they love.

This series, hosted at Open Books, will consist of an open mic, in which any attendee can sign up to read 5 minutes of someone else’s poems, followed by a reading by our three featured readers.

At Other People's Poems events, there are low lights and snacks and always a reason to leave one’s winter depression pit, to warm the freeze one has acquired in many cities, and a reason to come together for the thing we love, which is reading, and poetry, and a hot cup of meaning.

Masks required.

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FORECAST: poetry, karaoke, farewell
Jan
24
6:30 PM18:30

FORECAST: poetry, karaoke, farewell

In the heart of Seattle winter, any uttered word or expressed movement drips with the big drizz. Come experience local writers and poets perform creations/divinations/grievances into the falling clouds that make and unmake themselves–and us–moment by moment, drop by drop. We invite you to celebrate this atmospheric act, Aquarius season in general, and Martha’s birthday/imminent departure to other weather systems. KARAOKE TO FOLLOW!

Poets:

Eric Acosta
Ally Ang
Serena Chopra
Cass Garison
Kate Ersing
Sophie Johnson
Martha Ryan
Laurel Wilkinson

Register here.

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Other People's Poems ft. Woogee Bae, Paul Hlava Ceballos, and Patrick Milian
Jan
18
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Woogee Bae, Paul Hlava Ceballos, and Patrick Milian

Join us at the store at 7pm on Saturday, January 18, 2025 for Other People’s Poems, featuring Woogee Bae, Paul Hlava Ceballos, and Patrick Milian.

Other People’s Poems is a poetry series centered on readers of other people’s poems. Sometimes these readers are writers too, but often they are also lovers of poetry who can’t get enough of those lines that evoke the sense of the exclamation O!. They are no-I’m-not-a-poets who secretly scribble their innermost thoughts in the most delicate of deckled journals. This series features these readers and the poems they love.

This series, hosted at Open Books, will consist of an open mic, in which any attendee can sign up to read 5 minutes of someone else’s poems, followed by a reading by our three featured readers.

At Other People's Poems events, there are low lights and snacks and always a reason to leave one’s winter depression pit, to warm the freeze one has acquired in many cities, and a reason to come together for the thing we love, which is reading, and poetry, and a hot cup of meaning.

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Other People's Poems ft. Quenton Baker, Jane Wong, Yanyi
Dec
7
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Quenton Baker, Jane Wong, Yanyi

New poetry open mic and reading series!

Join us at the store at 7pm on Saturday, October 26, 2024 for Other People’s Poems, featuring Quenton Baker, Jane Wong, and Yanyi.

Other People’s Poems is a poetry series centered on readers of other people’s poems. Sometimes these readers are writers too, but often they are also lovers of poetry who can’t get enough of those lines that evoke the sense of the exclamation O!. They are no-I’m-not-a-poets who secretly scribble their innermost thoughts in the most delicate of deckled journals. This series features these readers and the poems they love.

This series, hosted at Open Books, will consist of an Opening Reading track, in which any reader can sign up to 5 minutes of someone else’s poems, followed by the Round Robin track, in which the two hosts, Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel, invite 3-4 writers to select and read poems from one of the other readers or their favorite poets for 10-15 minutes.

At Other People's Poems events, there are low lights and snacks and always a reason to leave one’s winter depression pit, to warm the freeze one has acquired in many cities, and a reason to come together for the thing we love, which is reading, and poetry, and a hot cup of meaning.

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Stronger Together: World AIDS Day Celebration
Dec
1
12:00 PM12:00

Stronger Together: World AIDS Day Celebration

Join us on Sunday, December 1, for the 21st Annual Stronger Together: World AIDS Day Celebration. Gather in community and remembrance of those lost to AIDS and celebrate how far we’ve come while looking to a future that’s stronger than HIV.

Expect speakers, refreshments, a silent auction, A community vigil, and a procession through the AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway directly following the event.

Time: 12pm-3pm

Venue: The Century Ballroom, 915 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122

Suggested minimum donation: $150

Please save the date and reserve your tickets now!

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Other People's Poems ft. Gabrielle Bates, Rachel Edelman, Luther Hughes
Oct
26
7:00 PM19:00

Other People's Poems ft. Gabrielle Bates, Rachel Edelman, Luther Hughes

New poetry open mic and reading series!

Join us at the store at 7pm on Saturday, October 26, 2024 for the inaugural event, featuring Rachel Edelman, Gabrielle Bates, and Luther Hughes.

Other People’s Poems is a poetry series centered on readers of other people’s poems. Sometimes these readers are writers too, but often they are also lovers of poetry who can’t get enough of those lines that evoke the sense of the exclamation O!. They are no-I’m-not-a-poets who secretly scribble their innermost thoughts in the most delicate of deckled journals. This series features these readers and the poems they love.

This series, hosted at Open Books, will consist of an Opening Reading track, in which any reader can sign up to 5 minutes of someone else’s poems, followed by the Round Robin track, in which the two hosts, Ally Ang and Cody Stetzel, invite 3-4 writers to select and read poems from one of the other readers or their favorite poets for 10-15 minutes.

At Other People's Poems events, there are low lights and snacks and always a reason to leave one’s winter depression pit, to warm the freeze one has acquired in many cities, and a reason to come together for the thing we love, which is reading, and poetry, and a hot cup of meaning.

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[#AALF2024] A Bicoastal Trans Kinship Reading
Sep
18
5:00 PM17:00

[#AALF2024] A Bicoastal Trans Kinship Reading

Join Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Reorienting Reads to share space for a luminous bicoastal evening of connection and kinship, uplifting our trans, intersex, non-binary, and gender expansive communities. We’ll be joined in person and through the ether by Ally Ang, Fatimah Asghar, Wo Chan, Persimmon Tobing, Pauline Park, Såhi Velasco, and Yanyi.

📍 Common Area Maintenance
2125 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98121

📍Asian American Writers’ Workshop

112 W 27th St #600, New York, NY 10001

This event is free with RSVP and will be simultaneously live streamed.

RSVP HERE!

For more information about the 2024 Asian American Literature Festival, visit www.asianamericanliteraturefestival.org

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Katie Prince with Ally Ang at Elliott Bay Book Company
Sep
4
7:00 PM19:00

Katie Prince with Ally Ang at Elliott Bay Book Company

Local poet Katie Prince reads from her debut poetry collection alongside fellow poet Ally Ang at Elliott Bay Book Company.

There is an absence at the heart of Katie Prince’s debut collection, Tell This to the Universe, and an obsessive search to find what’s missing. Like moons around faraway planets, the poems orbit the strange and brutal landscapes of longing, alienation, and grief as they move through physics to philosophy, linguistics to mathematics, fairy tales to science fiction. It could be said that this book is trying to find god—to name it, to hurt it or hold it, to make desperate demands of it—but it’s just as true to say it’s looking for a home, a family, an answer to a question it still doesn’t know how to ask.

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Julian Randall with Ally Ang: Past, Present, and Prevail
May
16
7:30 PM19:30

Julian Randall with Ally Ang: Past, Present, and Prevail

In his latest release and nonfiction debut, The Dead Don’t Need Reminding: In Search of Fugitives, Mississippi, and Black TV Nerd Shit, New York Times bestselling author Julian Randall braids past with present as he retraces the life of his grandfather, a white-passing patriarch driven from a town in Mississippi, all the way to Randall’s own internal battles with depression and how he ultimately emerged from its depths.

Randall weaves pop culture into his pages, exploring grief, family, emotional health, and the American way with a medley of media ranging from Into the Spiderverse and Jordan Peele movies to BoJack Horseman and the music of Odd Future.

Seattle writer Ally Ang joins Randall in conversation for an evening of laughter, tears, and everything in-between.

Date: Thursday, May 16

Time: 7:30 pm PDT

Cost: $5 – $25 Sliding Scale

Purchase tickets here.

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Apr
26
7:00 PM19:00

Reading with Ally Ang & Summer Farah at Open Books

Join us on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 7pm for a reading featuring poets Ally Ang and Summer Farah! This will be a fabulous event celebrating the recent publication of Farah's chapbook I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024).

Please note that masking is required during the event.

Ally Ang is a gaysian poet and editor based in Seattle. They are a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow, and their debut poetry collection, Let the Moon Wobble, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2025. Find them at allysonang.com or on Twitter and Instagram @TheOceanIsGay.

Summer Farah is a Palestinian American writer from California. The author of the chapbook I could die today and live again (Game Over Books, 2024), she organizes with the Radius of Arab American Writers and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. She is calling on you to recommit yourself to the liberation of the Palestinian people each day.

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Gretchen Yanover Holding/Movement Album Release Concert
Mar
24
2:00 PM14:00

Gretchen Yanover Holding/Movement Album Release Concert

  • Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Holding / Movement album release concert! Arrive early to purchase a CD, which will include a booklet of poetry from Seattle poets whose work is paired with Gretchen's compositions. The program will include dance, as well as readings by poets involved with the project. Pay-what-you-can at the door.

PROGRAM:
Through Chenoa's Eyes
Bisoux
"Such Things Require Tenderness" (poetry of Luther Hughes)
"& when we unmake the making" (poetry of Abi Pollokoff)
"in your wings, querido" (poetry of Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs)
"Shhh. We are walking on Lushootseed words" (poetry of Jourdan Imani Keith)
"the coinciding" (poetry of Karin de Weille)
Poetry reading by Ally Ang
Ara (with dance by Anastasia & Willow)
Poetry reading by Luther Hughes Taken From Us (part one)
Taken From Us (part two)
"to solve for heart" (poetry of Shin Yu Pai)
"this four-walled pasture" (poetry of Luther Hughes)
"At the end of reason, I am locked in place" (poetry of Quenton Baker)
"i have spread my roots across borders/and i am growing still" (poetry of Ally Ang)
Poetry reading by Raúl Sánchez
"If brown angels could fly" (poetry of Raúl Sánchez)

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Jane Wong PNBA Celebration Reading
Mar
15
7:00 PM19:00

Jane Wong PNBA Celebration Reading

Join us to celebrate Jane Wong's recent Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award for her memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City. Jane will appear onstage to accept the award and discuss the book. Ally Ang, Quenton Baker, and c.r. glasgow will join Jane onstage.

In the late 1980s on the Jersey shore, Jane Wong watches her mother shake ants from an MSG bin behind the family’s Chinese restaurant. She is a hungry daughter frying crab rangoon for lunch, a child sneaking naps on bags of rice, a playful sister scheming to trap her brother in the freezer before he traps her first. Jane is part of a family staking their claim to the American dream, even as this dream crumbles. Beneath Atlantic City’s promise lies her father’s gambling addiction, an addiction that causes him to disappear for days and ultimately leads to the loss of the restaurant.

In her debut memoir, Jane Wong tells a new story about Atlantic City, one that resists a single identity, a single story as she writes about making do with what you have—and what you don’t. What does it mean, she asks, to be both tender and angry? What is strength without vulnerability—and humor? Filled with beauty found in unexpected places, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City is a resounding love song of the Asian American working class, a portrait of how we become who we are, and a story of lyric wisdom to hold and to share.

Jane Wong is the author of the poetry collections How to Not Be Afraid of Everything and Overpour and the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City. An associate professor of creative writing at Western Washington University, she grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Seattle, Washington.

Ally Ang is a gaysian poet & editor based in Seattle. They have received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and MacDowell, and their debut poetry collection, Let the Moon Wobble, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2025. Ally unequivocally supports the liberation of all colonized and oppressed peoples, from Palestine to Sudan to Congo to Haiti to Puerto Rico to Hawai'i to West Papua to Turtle Island and beyond, and they urge you to do everything in your power to resist the normalization of genocide and halt the machinery of empire.

Quenton Baker is a poet, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. Their current focus is black interiority and the afterlife of slavery. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Jubilat, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus and elsewhere. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and the recipient of the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. They were a 2019 Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. They are the author of we pilot the blood (The 3rd Thing, 2021) and ballast (Haymarket Books, 2023).

c.r. glasgow (doc) is a Queer, first-gen Caribbean-American somatic psychologist, interdisciplinary healing artist, Fool, and public speaker. c’s work has been supported by fellowships through UCross, VONA, The Watering Hole, Hurston/Wright, and Anaphora Arts. The work is committed to the interiority and sonics of Black Queer womanhood, nostalgia, death/rebirth, non-duality, and the cosmos/portals. Their chapbook the Devils that raised Us was longlisted by Frontier Poetry and had a 2023 Best of the Net nomination in poetry. c’s work is forthcoming in Obsidian, Black Lawrence Press, and Lion’s Roar. c can be found mimicking sounds, playing steel pan, and finding healthier versions of 80s corner store snacks.

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Open Mouth Presents: A Reading with Czaerra Galicinao Ucol
Jan
14
5:00 PM17:00

Open Mouth Presents: A Reading with Czaerra Galicinao Ucol

Join us for a reading by featured poet Czaerra Galicinao Ucol. The reading will be preceded by a round of introductory readings by Ally Ang, Hannah J. Russell, Sylvia Foster, and Zara Jamshed.

ACCESS NOTES: The reading will take place virtually via Zoom with Zoom and Otter.ai auto captions. An ASL interpreter will be present. Access copies of poems will be made available via Google Docs. Our Access Statement will be read before we begin.

Register here.

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TEAM BUILDING | West Coast Launch
Aug
11
6:00 PM18:00

TEAM BUILDING | West Coast Launch

Join us for the West Coast launch of Team Building: A Memoir about Family and the Fight for Workers’ Rights by Ben Gwin on August 11th at 6pm at the Georgetown Mini Mart Park (6525 Ellis Ave S., Seattle) with readings by Ally Ang, Vincent Rendoni, and Michael Schmeltzer.

Ben Gwin is the author of the novel, Clean Time: The True Story of Ronald Reagan Middleton (Burrow Press, 2018). His fiction and essays have appeared in the Normal School, Lit Hub, the Rumpus, and other venues. He is the editor of The Pittsburgh Neighborhood Guidebook (Belt). He lives in Pittsburgh with his daughter.

Ally Ang is a gaysian poet & editor from Seattle. Their work has appeared in The Rumpus, Muzzle Magazine, ANMLY, and elsewhere. Ally has received fellowships & support from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Artist Trust. Their debut poetry collection, Let the Moon Wobble, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2025. Find them at allysonang.com or on Twitter and Instagram @TheOceanIsGay.

Vincent Antonio Rendoni is the author of A Grito Contest in the Afterlife, which was the winner of the 2022 Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Poets as selected by Dorianne Laux. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and Best Small Fictions multiple times and has appeared/will appear in Prairie Schooner, The Sycamore Review, The Vestal Review, The Texas Review, and So It Goes: The Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.

Michael Schmeltzer is a biracial author originally from Japan. He currently lives in Seattle where he serves as Editor-in-Chief of Floating Bridge Press. His latest poetry book, Empire of Surrender, was the winner of the 2021 Wandering Aengus Book Award. Along with Meghan McClure, he is the co-author of the nonfiction book A Single Throat Opens, a lyric exploration of addiction and family. His debut full-length Blood Song was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Poetry, the Julie Suk Award, and the Coil Book Award. 

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Life After the MFA
May
24
6:00 PM18:00

Life After the MFA

Please join us for “Life After the MFA,” a conversation about literary and artistic pathways through and beyond the Master of Fine Arts. Bringing together alumni from the UW Seattle MFA in Creative Writing and the UWB MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics, this event is an opportunity to learn more about Ph.D. programs; careers in education, the arts, and publishing; and the process of sustaining creative community. Featured panelists include Ally Ang, Emma Aylor, Emma Carson, Brent Michael Cox, Rasheena Fountain, and Liezel Moraleja Hackett.

Click here for more information.

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