Originating in eighteenth century Paris, a salon gathers people together around discussions of literature, art, and philosophy. Poets Kaveh Akbar, Kelly Schirmann, Janaka Stucky, Claudia Castro Luna, and Anastacia-Renee Tolbert will engage in a discussion centered around poetry and the writing life — the poets may also choose to read short sections of their own work. The discussion will be moderated by poet Ellen Welcker.
Kaveh Akbar's poems appear recently in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New York Times, The Nation, and elsewhere. His first book, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is just out with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches in the MFA program at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College.
Claudia Castro Luna is the Poet Laureate of Washington State (2018-2020) She served as Seattle’s first Civic Poet from 2015-2017 and is the author of Killing Marías (Two Sylvia's Press) shortlisted for the 2018 Washington State Book Award and nominated to a 2018 Pushcart. She also is the author of This City (Floating Bridge Press). Born in El Salvador she came to the United States in 1981 fleeing civil war. She has an MFA in poetry from Mills College, an MA in Urban Planning from UCLA and a K-12 teaching certificate. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, La Bloga, Diálogo, Psychological Perspectives and the Taos Journal of International Poetry and Art among others. Her non-fiction work can be read in the anthologies, This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home (Seal Press), The Wandering Song: Central American Writing in the US, (Northwestern University Press) and Vanishing Points: Contemporary Salvadoran Narrative, (Kalina Eds) Living in English and Spanish, Claudia writes and teaches in Seattle where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children.
Janaka Stucky is a mystic poet, performer, and founding editor of the award-winning press, Black Ocean. In 2015 Jack White’s Third Man Records launched a new publishing imprint, Third Man Books, and chose Janaka’s full-length poetry collection, The Truth Is We Are Perfect, as their inaugural title. Other books include Your Name Is The Only Freedom, The World Will Deny It For You, and his latest book, Ascend Ascend (Third Man Books, 2019). He has performed in over 60 cities around the world. His poems have appeared in such journals as Denver Quarterly, Fence and North American Review, and his articles have been published by The Huffington Post and The Poetry Foundation. He is also a two-time National Haiku Champion. More at
janakastucky.com.
Kelly Schirmann is a writer, musician, ceramicist, and visual artist from Northern California. She is the author of Popular Music and the co-author, with Tyler Brewington, of Boyfriend Mountain and Nature Machine. Her music projects include headband (solo), Sung Mountains (with Jason Fiske), and Young Family (with Sam Pink). She is the founding editor of Black Cake, a record label for contemporary poetry and other experiments, and the co-creator of OMO, Public Access and Friendship Collective. Other projects include Americans for Responsible Technology (A.R.T.), Idea Book, and Human/Website. She currently lives in Missoula, Montana.
Anastacia-Renee is a multi-genre writer, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. She is the recipient of the 2018, James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists (Artist Trust), and has served as the Seattle Civic Poet from 2017-2019, and the 2015-2017 Poet-in-Residence at Hugo House. Anastacia-Renee is a two-time Pushcart nominee and 2017 Artist of Year (Seattle). She is the author of five books:
Forget It (Black Radish Books), (
v.), (Black Ocean)
26, (Dancing Girl Press),
Kiss Me Doll Face (Gramma Press) and
Answer(Me) (Winged City Chapbooks, Argus Press) and has received writing fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Artist Trust, Jack Straw, Ragdale, Whiteley, Mineral School and Hypatia in the Woods. Her cross-genre writing has appeared in a TEDx talk and the anthologies:
Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism, Sinister Wisdom: Black Lesbians—We Are the Revolution, Revise the Psalm: Work Celebrating the Writing of Gwendolyn Brooks and: Ms. Magazine, Split this Rock, Painted Bride Quarterly, Crab Creek Review, Seattle Review, The Fight & the Fiddle, Duende, Poetry Northwest, Synaethesia, Banqueted, Torch, Mom Egg Review, The Magazine of Glamorous Refusal, Pinwheel Journal, and many more. She teaches poetry and multi-genre workshops at Hugo House, libraries, universities, and high schools.
