Seattle-based poetry nonprofit Cascadia Poetics Lab will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Cascadia Poetry Festival from October 9-11, 2026, at the Rainier Beach Community Club and Kubota Garden. The event will feature writing workshops, panel discussions, and readings from prominent poets and academics, all centered on the theme of bioregionalism and its intersections with environmental, political, and social concerns.
The festival, which has grown since its inception, aims to challenge conventional political boundaries by emphasizing natural and cultural ones, arguing that such a perspective can offer fresh approaches to urgent issues like climate change. This year's lineup includes a diverse array of voices, including allia abdullah-matta, Greg Bem, Amaranth Borsuk, Bill Carty, Xavier Cavazos, Zach Charles, Ching-in Chen, Stephen Collis, Gary Copeland Lilley, Tess Gallagher, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Geneviève Hicks, Alicia Hokanson, Nadine Maestas, Dion O'Reilly, Roxi Power, Mateo Quispe, Linda Russo, Sharon Thesen, Miriam Tobin, Rodrigo Toscano, Matt Trease, and Terri Witek.
Workshops will delve into bioregional poetics, poetry as a political tool, lyric forms, the interplay between internal and external worlds, and the role of poetry in times of crisis. Highlights include 'Startling the Poem Awake,' 'Flickers of the Poetic, A Watch Party,' 'Concerning Work and Poetry (of Course the Mundane is Generative!),' 'The Green Being,' and 'Cascadia as a Field of Action (Poetry as Politics).' Evening afterparties will be held on Friday and Saturday nights at a nearby location in Rainier Beach.
The festival receives support from organizations such as 4Culture Sustained Support and Public Free Access, Creative West, the Vogt Family Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, ArtsFund, La Sala, and CPL Supporters. Registration for gold passes, workshop packages, reading packages, and student passes is now open via the festival's website: 2026 Cascadia Poetry Festival. A complete schedule is available at the festival schedule page.
Founded in 1993 in Auburn, Washington, Cascadia Poetics Lab has been instrumental in fostering poetic community and ecological awareness in the region. Founding Director Paul E. Nelson is available for interviews, but the festival itself serves as a testament to the organization's enduring mission. By bringing poets and bioregionalists together, the festival underscores poetry's capacity to engage with the most pressing challenges of our time, offering a space for collective reflection and creative action.
