PAST EVENTS

recent Events

Entre Riós Poetry Series
July 13, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Entre Riós Global Headquarters in the Central District
Seattle, WA

This reading included a delightful conversation with UCSD Geographer Dr. Megan Ybarra.

Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series
Monday, June 3, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Jack Straw Cultural Center
Seattle, WA

At the June 3 installment of this year-long poetry reading series, it was a great joy to share the stage with my dear friend Anastacia-Renée, as well as four other poets I admire: Kevin Craft, Erin Malone, Janine Walker, and Julene Tripp Weaver. You can watch a video recording of the reading here. I was first in the line-up.

Meeting House Reading Series with poet Holly Hughes
Thursday, May 23, 2024 at 7:00 pm
The Meeting House
1841 Sheridan Street
Port Townsend, WA

It was delightful to be reading my former Rainier Writing Workshop colleague Holly Hughes, whose poetry and prose have both meant a huge amount to me. We celebrated the release of Memory’s Vault: The Poetic Heart of Fort Worden, an anthology published by her wonderful press, Empty Bowl, in which I have an essay.

Across Landscape and Language
Cadence Video Poetry Satellite at Frye Museum
Thursday, May 16, 2024, 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Frye Art Museum
Seattle, WA

A video poem of Irma Pineda’s poem “Cue’ Yoo / La Pared / The Wall” wa be part of this program and I was part of a fascinating global panel discussing her poetry, with filmmakers and poets Zooming in from the Netherlands and Iran.

2 Books, 4 Languages: VIRTUAL event with Irma Pineda and Mikeas Sánchez
”Indigenous Poetics from Abya Yala”
Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at 4:30 pm EDT / 2:30 pm Mexico City time / 1:30 pm PDT
Native and Indigenous Studies Initiative
Princeton University
virtual event on Zoom

This is the only fully bilingual, English-Spanish virtual event for our “Two Books, 4 Languages” book tour. It was a beautiful event. You can watch it here.

Us&Them Reading Series
Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8:00 pm EDT
Molasses Books
Brooklyn, NYC

At my first-ever reading in New York City I shared both poem translations and a bit of an essay I wrote. The organizers do a great job with this series, now in its ninth year! It was pure delight.

Best Literary Translations New England Release
with contributors Jeffrey Clapp and Muntather Alsawad
Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 7:00 pm
Print: A Bookstore
Portland, ME

The first East Coast event to celebrate the new Best Literary Translations anthology was wonderful. PRINT Bookstore is just a fabulous place.

Sant Jordi Festival USA
Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 6:15 pm
Out of the Box Theatrics
154 Christopher St #1E
New York, NY 10014

Poet Irma Pineda joined me via Zoom for a reading of our January 2024 release: Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater. The two of us also have a reading that is part of the virtual component of this rich, lovely festival. See the Sant Jordi Festival website!

Best Literary Translations: Southeastern US Release
with contributor Gustavo Pérez Firmat, in conversation with recent (2019-2022) Carrboro Poet Laureate Fred Joiner!
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Epilogue Books & Brews & Chocolate
Chapel Hill, NC

We celebrated the publication of the Best Literary Translations anthology with this first event in the Southeastern U.S. I fell in love with Epilogue Books & Brews & Chocolate. What a perfect bookstore.

Book tour events for nostalgia Doesn’t flow away like riverwater & how to be a good Savage and other poems

Book tour events for In the Belly of Night and Other Poems

FELISMA 2023
San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, México
Saturday, February 18, 2023

Bilingual Reading and Discussion of In the Belly of Night, with Irma Pineda
Pitzer College
Claremont, CA
VIRTUAL Reading with English-Spanish interpretation
Wednesday, November 30, 2022, 3:45 pm PST / 5:45 pm México / 6:45 pm EST (video coming soon!)

Trilingual readings with Irma Pineda and Dra. Elisa Ramírez 

Centro de las Artes (CEART) de San Luis Potosí,
San Luis Potosí, México
Thursday, October 13, 2022, 5:00 pm

Galería Libertad
Plaza de Armas, Centro Histórico
Queretaro, Qto, México
Saturday, October 15, 2022, 7:00 pm

Librería U-tópicas: Libros, Arte, Feminismo
Aguayo 37-Planta alta,
Del Carmen, Coyoacán, 04100
Ciudad de México, México
Sunday, October 16, 2022, 6:00 pm
Watch the video of this event here.

La Jícara: Libreespacio Cultural
Porfirio Díaz #1105, Colonia Figueroa
Oaxaca, Oax, México
Wednesday, October 19, 2022, 7:00 pm
Watch the video of this event here.

Trilingual Readings with Irma Pineda

Casa de la Cultura de Oaxaca
Oaxaca Centro, Oax, México
Wednesday, October 26, 2022, 6:00 pm

Virtual Events

A Book-Launch Reading: Hosted by Latin American Literature Today and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship
with Mikeas Sánchez and Shook, hosted by Arthur Dixon
Wednesday, December 6, 2023, noon PST / 2:00 pm CST & Mexico / 3 pm ES

First event for How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems, published early January 2024 from Milkweed Editions.

“Traducción de Poesía Multilingüe,” (in Spanish / en español), Panel with Marco Antonio Huerta and Irma Pineda, Festival de Poesía Flor y Canto, San Francisco, CA, June 2022

“Translation as Activism & Taking Care,” Panelist, Literary Conference: Taking Care in Writing, Publishing, & Building Community, Writers & Books, Rochester, NY (virtual), January 2022

“Irma Pineda’s Guie’ ni zinebe: Poetry of Violence, Violation, and Volition,” (recording available at link) Invited Panelist, Global South Translation Symposium, Institute of Comparative Modernities, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, December 2021

“Traducción de Poesía Indígena de México,” (en español), Panel with Whitney DeVos, Irma Pineda and Martin Tonalmeyotl, moderated by David Shook, Lit & Luz Festival, MAKE Magazine, Chicago (virtual), November 2021

“La Poesia de Lindantonella Solano Mendoza,” Encuentros con Escritores, Papel y Lápiz, Bogotá, Colombia (Virtual), November 24, 2020

“Traducción de Poesía Indígena y Bicultural de Guatemala y México,” (in Spanish/en español) Panel Coordinator and Panelist, Association of Literary Translators (ALTA) National Conference (recording available at the link) October 2020

“Translating Across Race and Gender,” Panelist for Opening Panel of Conference, American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) National Conference, (recording available at the link), September 2020

“Poesía Indígena y el Arte de Storme Webber,” (in English and Spanish with subtitles / en inglés y español con subtítulos) Interview with poet Storme Webber, PoeMaRío: Festival Internacional de Poesía en el Caribe, (virtual) Barranquilla, Colombia, August 2020

Lectures & Panel Discussions (2007-2019)

“Creación, activismo y difusión de la literatura en lenguas originarias: Protesta y poética en lenguas mexicanas,” Panel coordinator, Latin American Studies Association (LASA) International Congress, Boston, MA, May 2019

“Voces del Pueblo: Translating Irma Pineda’s Poetry,” Invited Presentation, “Mexico Remixed: The Global Arts and Humanities Festival,” Indiana University, Bloomington, April 2019

“How Do We Translate a Sense of Place Across Places?” Moderator / Panel Chair, Associated Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), Portland, OR, March 2019

“Palabras tras fronteras diversas: La traducción de la poesía bilingüe de Irma Pineda al inglés,” Panelist, Letras y Lenguas Indígenas, Simposio de Estudios Oaxaquenos, CIESAS and Insitituto Welte, Oaxaca, Mexico, December 2018

“Indigenous Hip Hop in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec,” Invited Presenter, Primer Encuentro de Creadores y Especialistas en Lenguas y Literaturas Originarias, University of California at Santa Barbara, April 2018

Panel Discussion: "Translating Place Across Places"
A Panel Discussion with Cecilia Martinez-Gil, Alison Mandaville, Irma Pineda, and Sidney Wade.
2017 American Literary Translators Association Annual Conference (ALTA)
October 5-8, 2017
Minneapolis, MN
The ALTA website has more conference details here.

Panel Discussion: "Rusted Species," chaired by Barbara Eckstein, with Nathaniel Otjen, Clint Peters, Kelsi Nagy, Erica Damman, and Chris Dolle
ASLE Biennial Conference
Rust / Resistance: Works of Recovery
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
June 20-24, 2017
As these scenarios suggest, humans regularly encounter unwanted beings, or “rusted species,” decayed from their pure state in life web, and we react negatively. Rather than cringe at the seagulls or flee from the house centipede, we propose to look at the ecological and sociological possibilities that can emerge if humans pause their disgust and examine these beings in their own right. Taking the form of animals, insects, plants or fungi, these rusted species are embedded in a complex and ever-shifting web of relations with people and other beings surviving on this planet. This panel explores, among other things, the broadly interpreted manifestations and articulations of rusted species including the rusted infrastructure of animal housing, the rusty ideas of animal confinement and spectacle, the aging and deteriorating species created by modern medicine, and the possibilities of living with invasive species, ultimately aiming to recover a new appreciation for these maligned beings.
Visit the conference webpage for more information.

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
Annual Conference
Los Angeles Convention Center
& JW Marriott Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, March 30, 2016 through
Saturday, April 2, 2016

"Translation as a Democratizing Force" (Panel #F292)
with Peter Crume, Cecilia Martinez-Gil, Alison Mandaville and John Oliver Simon
4:30 to 5:45 pm, Friday, April 1, 2016
Room 512, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Three poets, a prose writer, and a scholar, translators all, explore the democratizing power of translation. We consider how translation—with examples from Azerbaijani and indigenous Mexican poets, a poet’s self-translation, ASL/sign interpretation of speech and story in the US and Kenya, and work in multilingual children’s poetry—empowers writers and increases equity in the world of words and ideas, where new possibilities for living together are imagined, shared, and set into motion.

"Writing Other(ed) Places" (Panel #S152)
with Catina Bacote, Jeremy B. Jones, Justin Nobel, and Stephen J. West
10:30 am to 11:45 am, Saturday, April 2, 2016
Room 501, LA Convention Center, Meeting Room Level
Five nonfiction writers discuss the pressures and possibilities of writing about marginalized and overlooked places—empty corners of Appalachia, tornado-torn stretches of the Deep South, housing projects in Connecticut, immigrant communities in New Jersey and LA, and beyond. Writing in forms ranging from memoir to journalism, the panelists grapple with how to honestly and artfully render people and places too often stereotyped or simplified or silenced.

Panel Discussion: A New "I" on Nature,"
with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Angela Pelster, and Yelizaveta Renfro, moderated by Clint Crockett Peters
NonfictioNow Conference
University of North Arizona
Flagstaff, Arizona
Friday, October 30, 2015
It was an honor to be part of this panel, described by Clinton Crockett Peters this way: The first-person essay has a formidable history in the field of nature writing. By “nature writing,” we mean the traditional and well-challenged notion of a first person seer engaging with landscape and species, dissecting wilderness and animal experience. This, of course, is not the only way to define “nature writing.” Many eco-writers and critics have been hard at work in the last twenty years parsing out different streams of the environmental genre: eco-feminism, eco-justice literature, eco-post-colonial literature, post-humanism, and many, many others. The stream we follow today is the personal environmental essay as seen in the context of contemporary writers as they engage with the more-than-human world. “More-than-human,” includes rocks, animals, trees, insects, carbon-dioxide, and effluent but does not mean “without humans.” As one of the pioneers of ecocriticism, Lawrence Buell, writes, “Personhood is defined for better or for worse by environmental entanglement. Whether individual or social, being doesn’t stop at the border of the skin.”

Craft Lecture: "When You Have a Sense of Place, What Exactly Do You Have? (And where did that idea come from, anyway?)"
Schoolhouse, Fort Worden
Tuesday, July 14, 1:00 to 1:50 pm
Port Townsend Writers' Conference
Centrum
Fort Worden State Park
Port Townsend, Washington
The Port Townsend Writers Conference is an annual ten-day wonder of literary learning, celebration, and community. I have attended many a writers' conference and this one is my favorite. Register for this fabulous conference here.

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
Annual Conference
Minneapolis Convention Center & Hilton Minneapolis Hotel
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 through
Saturday, April 11, 2015

Word-mania landed in Minneapolis. I spent most of my time at the bookfair (especially at the Goddard College table) and spoke on two panels:

Writers Write, No Matter What: The Role of the Writing
Prompt in the (Elementary to Post-Graduate) Classroom
and Beyond
with Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Sejal Shah and Anastacia Tolbert
4:30 to 5:45 pm, Thursday, April 9, 2015
Minneapolis Convention Center,
Auditorium Room 3, Level 1
The four panelists—writers of poetry, fiction, essay and memoir, representing Cave Canem, Kundiman, or Macondo—offered specific pedagogical strategies and learning outcomes for their writing prompts. Audience members added a favorite writing prompt to a collective basket and later received the entire collection, along with an extensive resource list, via email.

Byte by Byte: Teaching Creative Writing Online
with Cass Dalglish, Athena Kildegaard, Kate Kysar, LouAnn Muhm
3:00 to 4:15 pm, Saturday, April 11, 2015
Minneapolis Convention Center,
Room 200 H&I, Level 2
Five writers – who teach online in a public university, a community college AFA, an arts nonprofit, and in private BFA and MFA low-residency programs – offer a candid and guided tour of the online creative writing classroom. Stops on the circuit: cleaning out the correspondence course feel; using technology for web-based fine arts studios and readers’ salons; maintaining trust, establishing community, setting boundaries; and nourishing creativity and improvisation. Ample audience engagement.

Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP)
Annual Conference
Washington State Convention Center
Seattle, Washington
Thursday, February 27, 2014 through
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Yes, word-mania took over Seattle. I spent some of my time at the Bookfair tables for Goddard College and Hedgebrook and helping to promote my Goddard students' new literary journal, Duende.

"Sonic Lit: Reaching New Communities by Lifting Writing off the Page"
Panel Discussion with Nari Baker, Tina Hoggatt, Geoff Larson, Judith Roche, moderated by Wendy Call.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
4:30 to 5:45 pm
Aspen Room, 2nd Floor
Sheraton Seattle
Digital technology brings us back to the oral/aural roots of poem and story, while expanding our options for leaping off the page. Jack Straw Productions brought together a poet, nonfiction writer, musician, and two multimedia/ installation artists to describe how they created audio recordings of poetry and prose; turned stories into songs; installed poetry as part of public art projects; incorporated oral history and storytelling into gallery installations; and created literary work for the stage, mobile app, and web page.

"From Finding Your Muse to Finding Your Readers: Book Promotion in the 21st Century"
Panel discussion with Kelli Russell Agodon, Wendy Call, Janna Cawrse Esarey, and Susan Rich, moderated by Midge Raymond
Friday, February 28, 2014
4:30 to 5:45 pm
Room 608, Level 6
Washington State Convention Center
We discussed the unique challenges and opportunities of transitioning from writer to published book author. Through specific experiences and using real-world examples, panelists will offer tips for finding one's natural niche and audience, and how to reach out to readers authentically and generously. Topics included book promotion through conferences, book clubs, social media, awards, blogs, events, book trailers, and salons.
These sessions were open only to registered participants of the AWP Conference.

Chuckanut Writers Conference
Whatcom Community College
Bellingham, Washington

9:00 to 9:45 am, Saturday, June 22, 2013
Writer's Studio Plenary Session
"Making Chicken Soup out of Chicken Scratch"
In my talk, we took a quick tour through nearly three hundred thousand years of mark-making and what the commonalities of all art, all through time, can offer your current writing practice.

1:30 to 2:30 pm, Saturday, June 23, 2013
"Breathing Life Into Your Nonfiction"
I shared the panel table with fellow Northwest writer Thor Hanson, with skillful moderation from Nan Macy.

It was a true delight to be on the faculty of this fabulously well-organized and enriching writers' conference for the second year. Many thanks to Whatcom Community College and Village Books for creating and sustaining this project.

Rejection: Get Over It!
Whatcom Writers and Publishers
Upstairs at Nicki’s Bella Marina
2615 South Harbor Loop Drive
Squalicum Harbor, Bellinhgam, Washington
Gathering 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Presentation 7:00 pm
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
OK, I don't really love rejection, but I do learn from it. In this talk, I'll shared ten things that rejection has done for me -- and can do for you.

"Taking Up Residence: Writers in Unexpected Places"
A Panel Discussion with Wendy Call, Stephanie Elizondo Griest, Henry Reese, and Ellen Placey Wadey
Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference
Lake Ontario Room, 8th Floor, Hilton Chicago Hotel,
Chicago, Illinois
Thursday, March 1, 2012
12:00 to 1:15 pm
I gathered some of the writer-activists I most respect for a lively session on how to be a Writer in Residence outside the (very comfortable and wonderful) boxes of the university and the artist colony. This group has participated in and/or managed Writer in Residence programs in city neighborhoods, public high schools, county hospitals, national parks, libraries, historical archives, and many other unexpected places. See a summary of my presentation at my blog.

Telling True Stories: The Art and the Craft
A Discussion and Workshop
University of Pittsburgh
Cathedral of Learning, Room 501
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Thursday, September 29, 2011
4:00 pm
At this interactive session, I offered a series of writing exercises inspired by some of my favorite lessons of Telling True Stories, the craft anthology I co-edited with Mark Kramer. Many thanks to the University of Pittsburgh's Writing Program for offering this workshop, and thanks to several dozen undergraduate and graduate students, several faculty, and even writer John Temple, who traveled 90 miles from West Virginia University!

The Story of No Word for Welcome
"Peer Innovations in Publishing" Series
Empire State College
State University of New York (SUNY)
Distance Learning Campus
113 West Avenue
Saratoga Springs, New York
Monday, September 26, 2011
12:30 to 1:30 pm
Reception to follow from 1:30 to 2:00 pm
In addition to the usual book reading and slideshow, I shared the long road that No Word for Welcome traveled from collection of articles (in 2002) to book proposal (in 2003) to full manuscript (in 2008) to book (in 2011).

"Global Perspectives, Local Stories"
with Midge Raymond
School of Communication
640 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 317
Boston University
Boston, Massachusetts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
noon to 2:00 pm
Midge Raymond and I will return to the school were we first studied writing (me, for a single -- but seminal -- seminar with Mark Kramer, and Midge, for her master's degree) to offer a free, two-hour discussion and workshop on using a journalist's toolbox for better creative writing.

Artist Talk: Telling True Stories about Places Near and Far
The Studios of Key West
600 White Street
Key West, FL 33040
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
10:30 am to noon
I will begin my two-week stint as Artist in Residence at TSKW with a one-hour talk/discussion about the three years I lived and worked in southern Mexico to write No Word for Welcome. We'll talk about writing about places you know well, along with writing about places where you are a stranger.

"The Art of Rejection: Giving and Receiving"
Panel discussion with Philip F. Deaver, Geeta Kothari,
Molly Peacock, and Kevin Morgan Watson; moderated by Diana Raab
AWP Conference (February 2 to 5, 2011)
Hampton Ballroom, Omni Shoreham Hotel
Washington DC
Friday, February 4, 2011
10:30 to 11:45 am
Rejection is part of the literary life. Rejection of your manuscript is not a rejection of you as a person or a writer, but of one piece of writing. It says nothing about your potential. It’s equally difficult being an editor turning down work, as being a writer receiving the rejection. These panelists of writers, editors, and publishers will discuss how to establish boundaries between yourself and your work, what we learn from rejections, and how feedback makes us better writers and editors.

"Translating Mexican Women"
A Panel Discussion
Friday, November 13, 2009
8:45 to 10:00 am
I was so pleased that we had healthy attendance for this early-morning panel, at which I discussed ttranslating southern Mexican poets. It was an honor to be on a panel with two translators I greatly admire: Clare Sullivan and Jen Hofer.
Hilton Pasadena Hotel
168 South Los Robles Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101
This panel discussion was part of the 2009 Annual Conference of the American Literary Translators Association -- an excellent organization..

"What Can Artists' Communities Do to Support Social Change?"
A Panel Discussion
Thursday, November 13, 2008
5:30 to 7:00 pm
A panel discussion with Amy Wheeler, Executive Director of Hedgebrook, Theaster Gates of Chicago’s South Side 4 Flat residency, Valerie Curtis-Newton, of ACT - A Contemporary Theater, and Rick Ingrasci, author of Chop Wood, Carry Water.
Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98122
This panel discussion was part of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Alliance for Artists Communities. Read an essay I wrote expanding on my presentation in this newsletter, beginning on page 15.

"Stories in Collision: Globalized Narratives about the Isthmus of Tehuantepec"
Thursday, July 3, 2008
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm
I presented a paper at the "Storytelling, Memories and Identity Constructions " Conference of the International Society for Cultural History and Cultural Studies. Read the abstract here.
Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos (CNDH) Calle República de Cuba # 60,
Centro Histórico, Ciudad de México
Mexico

"Fishermen, Housewives, Teachers and Transvestites: Social Movements in Oaxaca, Mexico"
World Issues Forum
Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
12:00 to 1:30 pm
In 2006, a burgeoning social movement in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca jumped into international headlines. Involving everyone from university professors to rural farmers, teenaged gay-rights activists to middle-aged housewives, this movement built upon thirty years of activism by Oaxaca’s indigenous communities. Their grassroots organizing continues, in spite of severe repression by the state and federal governments. In this slideshow and talk, I'll discuss the development of Oaxaca’s current social movement, and how it inspired the Zapatistas in Chiapas and other groups throughout the world.
Western Washington University
516 High Street
Bellingham, WA 98225

"How Do We Render Other People's Stories?
Tales from Mexico"
Field's End Writers' Roundtable
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
7:00 to 8:30 pm
Bainbridge Public Library
1270 Madison N.
Bainbridge Island, Washington 98110
Bainbridge island writer and editor Tamara Sellman wrote an excellent summary of my presentation.

"What Can the Right Editor Do for You?"
A Roundtable Discussion with Waverly Fitzgerald and
Karalynn Ott & Michelle Whitehead of Verve Editorial
Thursday, April 17, 2008
4:00 to 6:00 pm
Book Publishers Northwest
Good Shepherd Center, Room 221
4649 Sunnyside North
Seattle, Washington

"Why They Come al Norte :
Economic Pressures Facing Rural Mexico"
part of a panel discussion with
Pramila Jayapal of Hate Free Zone and
Joel Millman of the Wall Street Journal
Institute for Current World Affairs Trustees Meeting
Saturday, December 8, 2007
morning session
Cosmos Club, Dupont Circle
Washington, DC
See a (rather homespun) video of my presentation here.

Book Festivals & Book Events (2007-2014)

Search for Meaning Book Festival
School of Theology and Ministry
Seattle University
901 12th Avenue, Capitol Hill
Seattle, Washington
Saturday, February 15, 2014
I was one of 45 authors (including the brilliant Katherine Boo, as well as my friends Sonora Jha, Brenda Miller and María de Lourdes Victoria) at this annual, one-day celebration of the exploration of faith, spirituality, and "dedication to a life lived with and for others." It was one of the most inspiring days I've had in a long time; I was grateful to be part of it.

Get Lit! Literary Festival
Reading with Aaron Bobrow-Strain
Saturday, April 14, 2012
4:30 to 5:30 pm
Riverpoint Campus, Phase 1 Auditorium, Room 122
Eastern Washington University
Spokane, Washington
The theme for Get Lit! 2012 was "Capture the World," and the genre focus is "crime fiction." Hmmm. I can see how No Word for Welcome fit both these themes. In addition to my reading, I gave a Saturday morning workshop for a packed room of more than thirty enthusiastic writers. Two years later, I learned that a poem created by one of those writers in that workshop had made it into her latest collection. Wonderful news!

Reading, Discussion, and Signing
Virginia Festival of the Book
Barnes & Noble
1035A Emmet Street
Charlottesville, Virginia
Thursday, March 22, 2012
2:00 to 3:00 pm
Many thanks to the 45 book-lovers who chose to spend a gorgeous spring afternoon inside; to my co-presenter, novelist Robert Sanabria; and to our most thoughful moderator, Beatriz Ruizpalacios. My first event in Virginia and my first in, um, Nookville.

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
sponsored by One Equal Heart
Elliott Bay Book Company
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle Washington 98122
Monday, January 9, 2012
7:00 pm
Local solidarity organization One Equal Heart sponsored a discussion of No Word for Welcome. It was a real honor to discuss the book with the 70+ attendees, and to share the stage with Román Cruz, whose story is featured in the book.

Words • Images • Stories: No Word for Welcome
Indigo Bridge Books and Cafe
The Creamery Building, 701 P Street, Suite 102
Lincoln, Nebraska
Friday, October 28, 2011
6:00 pm
This beautful bookstore was founded on the desire to have a bilingual English-Spanish kids' storytime. Its generous spirit shines brightly. From the gifts they gave me (store mug and book bag!) to a lovely dinner with both the store's ownwer and manager after my reading. Many thanks to the store; Macondo friends Amelia Montes, Belinda Acosta and Joy Castro; and Rhonda Mitchell and Cara Pesek from University of Nebraska Press for attending!

"The Art of Nonfiction," a panel discussion with Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts and Hugh Raffles, facilitated by George Getschow
Texas Book Festival
Book TV Tent
Austin, Texas
Sunday, October 23, 2011
1:30 to 2:30 pm
It was an honor to participate in one of the country's biggest and best book festivals (in spite of, ahem, its founder....). George Getschow fostered a rich exchange among Hugh, Sharifa and me. You can see the archived C-SPAN Book-TV broadcast here. (Our panel begins 2 hours and 30 minutes into the recording; just move the bar at the bottom of the screen to get there.)

Reading and Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Resistencia Bookstore
1801-A South First Street
Austin, Texas 78704
Friday, October 21, 2011
7:00 pm
Since 2007 I've been a member of the San Antonio-based Macondo Writers' Workshop. For far longer than that, the crucially important Resistencia Bookstore has been a great friend of Macondo. Many thanks to la Familia en Resistencia for a particularly rich discussion of my book.

No Word for Welcome: Images and Stories
with Jacob Wheeler, author of Between Light and Shadow
Wisconsin Book Festival
Overture Center for the Arts Rotunda
Madison, Wisconsin
Thursday, October 20, 2011
5:30 to 6:30 pm
I shared the stage with a fellow University of Nebraska Press author, whose brave book I deeply admire.

No Word for Welcome Reading / Discussion
with Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English
Prairie Lights Bookstore
15 South Dubuque Street
Iowa City, Iowa 52240
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
7:00 pm
My friend and fellow writer Midge Raymond traveled all the way from Ashland, Oregon to connect with me in Iowa, where I was spending the month of October at the beautiful Cornell College. It was a joy to complete a ten-stop, five-state run of events shared with Midge at this oh-so-storied bookstore on the prairie. The event was broadcast live on the university radio station and will be available soon via podcast. Stay tuned!

Words • Images • Stories: No Word for Welcome
Magers & Quinn Booksellers
3038 Hennepin Ave. South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Sunday, October 16, 2011
4:00 pm
I am grateful to the Minnesota Society for Conservation Biology for co-hosting a lovely afternoon at a lovely bookstore!

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion : No Word for Welcome
Boswell Book Company
2559 N. Downer Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211
Thursday, October 13, 2011
7:00 pm
No bookstore in the country will host you better than Boswell!

Reading from No Word for Welcome
with writer Renny Golden
Guild Literary Complex Reading Series
Barbara's Bookstore at UIC
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, Illinois 60607
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
7:00 pm
I was honored to share the stage at a beautiful independent bookstore, with a life-long activist for social justice in Latin America, standing before the poster of a book that I edited, hosted by a fabulous community literary arts organization.

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Busboys & Poets @ 5th & K
1025 5th Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
6:30 pm
Co-hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies' Global Economy project
Five of my closest friends from high school and my brother each traveled for hours to join an audience of capitalinos at a new(ish) location of DC's iconic Busboys & Poets.Welcoming remarks were offered by Tania Arroyo of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Reading, Discussion, Slideshow: No Word for Welcome
Longfellow Books
One Monument Way
Portland, Maine 04101
Thursday, September 15, 2011
7:00 pm
We'll talk about how economic globalization is changing rural life -- from Mexico to Maine.

Book Reading & Writing Workshop:
Global Stories with a Local Heart
with Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English
RiverRun Bookstore
20 Congress Street
Portsmouth, New Hampshire 03801
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
7:00 pm
Midge Raymond and I will offer our joint writing workshop for folks in one of the most beautiful ports in America.

Book Reading & Writing Workshop:
Global Stories with a Local Heart
with Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English
Northshire Books
4869 Main Street
Manchester Center, Vermont
Sunday, September 11, 2011
3:00 to 5:00 pm
This lovely, thriving bookstore was enormously welcoming when I visited in 2007 with Telling True Stories. This time around I offered a (brief) reading and (longer) writing workshop with my friend and fellow writer, the (very) talented fiction writer Midge Raymond.

Book Reading & Writing Workshop:
Global Stories with a Local Heart
with Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English
Galaxy Bookshop
7 Mill Street
Hardwick, Vermont
Saturday, September 10, 2011
3:00 to 5:00 pm
I discovered this bookshop via a fabulous blog by an avid reader who practices what he calls "bookstore tourism." Midge and I kicked off our New England series of writing workshops here.

Biting the Snake: Ecological Conscience
Bookstock: Green Mountains Festival of Words
Town Hall
Woodstock, Vermont
Saturday, July 30, 2011
11:00 am
It was an honor to share my first book festival event (and New England premiere) for No Word for Welcome with ecologically minded writers David Budhill, Robert L. Cavnar, and Jason J. Czarnezki.

No Word for Welcome Reading / Discussion
with Midge Raymond, author of Forgetting English
Orca Books
509 East Fourth Avenue
Olympia, Washington 98501
Friday, July 15, 2011
6:00 to 7:30 pm
My friend and fellow writer Midge Raymond and I kicked off our joint "Global Perspectives, Local Stories" tour at the warm and welcoming Orca Books. We read from our books -- hers the luminous collection of short stories Forgetting English, recently reissued in an expanded edition by the fabulous Press 53 -- and enjoyed a rich discussion with everyone who attended. Orca Books is run by some of the kindest and friendliest bookshop folk I've ever met. If you find yourself in the Olympia area, you should stop by!

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Elliott Bay Book Company
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle Washington 98122
Sunday, June 26, 2011
5:00 pm
Elliott Bay Events Manager Karen Allman says: "The presentation was wonderful. Really engaging, great photos and what a testimony for grassroots activism. You can't read No Word for Welcome and think 'nothing ever changes' or that people don't care about their own communities."

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Eagle Harbor Book Company
157 Winslow Way East
Bainbridge Island, Washington
Thursday, June 23, 2011
7:30 pm
Many thanks to the wonderfully welcoming and generous crew at Eagle Harbor, for maintaining such a gorgeous bookstore and for hosting the Kitsap County premiere of No Word for Welcome.

Reading and Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Village Books
1200 11th Street
Bellingham, Washington 98225
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
7:00 pm
The Whatcom County premiere of No Word for Welcome! This event is part of Village Books' Hedgebrook North: Women Authoring Change Series.

Words • Images • Stories: No Word for Welcome
Booksmith
1644 Haight Street 
San Francisco, California 94117
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
7:30 pm
The Bay Area premiere of No Word for Welcome! This event was co-sponsored by the fabulous grassroots organization International Development Exchange (IDEX) It was an honor to be there on the store's thirty-fifth anniversary!

Nonfiction Writers' Workshop with
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide
Friday, May 2, 2008
2:00 pm
McIntyre's Fine Books
2000 Fearrington Village
Pittsboro, NC 27312

Nonfiction Writers' Workshop with
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide
Monday, January 21, 2008
7:00 pm
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth Street
Durham, NC 27705

"Telling True Stories "
a panel with Jack Hart of the Oregonian
Wordstock: Portland's Annual Book Festival
Saturday, November 10, 2007
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Festival runs November 9 through 11, 2007
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon
More folks from Seattle should head south for this book fest extraordinaire. What a great gathering of book lovers!

Nonfiction Writers' Workshop with
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide
Saturday, October 20, 2007
2:00 pm
Wordsmiths Books
141 East Trinity Place
Decatur, Georgia 30030

Benefit Reading
for Hedgebrook Retreat for Women Writers
with Kathleen Alcalá, Jacci Thompson-Dodd, and
María de Lourdes Victoria
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Reception at 6:00 pm
Reading at 7:30 pm
Elliott Bay Book Company
Seattle, Washington

Nonfiction Writers' Workshop with
Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers’ Guide
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
7:00 pm
Northshire Bookstore
Manchester Center, Vermont

Reading for Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction
Writers’ Guide
with Emily Hiestand and Mark Kramer
Monday, June 25, 2007
7:00 pm
Porter Square Books
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Reading for Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction
Writers’ Guide
with Mark Kramer
Saturday, June 2, 2007
7:00 pm
Twenty-Third Avenue Books
Portland, Oregon

Many thanks to the organizations that helped make my 2011-2012 events for No Word for Welcome possible:

Casa de la Cultura
Juchitán, Oaxaca

Encuentro 5
Boston

Guild Literary Complex
Chicago

Hedgebrook
Whidbey Island / Seattle

Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, DC

International Development Exchange (IDEX)
San Francisco

LaSala
Seattle

Minnesota Society of Conservation Biology
Minneapolis

One Equal Heart
Seattle

UCIZONI
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca

Readings(2007-2014)

Video Installation and Juried Show: "Gimme Shelter"
Collaboration with Aram Falsafi
Artists & Architects working in 3D, 2D & Video
12th Annual Juried Exhibit
Columbia City Gallery
4864 Rainier Ave S
Seattle, WA 98118
August 13 to September 24, 2017
Artists' Reception: Saturday August 19th, 5-7pm

Reading: Anastacia-Reneé Tolbert's book release for (v.), Forget It, and Answer(Me).
Hugo House
Seattle, WA
Friday, August 18, 2017

Reading with Pam Houston
Wheeler Theater, Fort Worden
Monday, July 13, 2015
7:00 pm
Port Townsend Writers' Conference
Centrum
Fort Worden State Park
Port Townsend, Washington
What a thrilld to read with the amazing Pam Houston at my all-time favorite writers' conference. The Port Townsend Writers Conference is a ten-day wonder of literary learning, celebration, and community.

Poetry on Buses Roadshow: Reading and Workshop
with John Gorski, Laraine Hong, and Michelle Peñaloza
Bellevue Public Library
1111 - 110th Avenue NE
Belleveue, Washington
Saturday, May 9, 2015, 1:00 to 2:30 pm
"Let’s interrogate, complicate and celebrate “home” – with poetry, and at the library." I will read (very briefly) with several other "Poetry on Buses" participants and then Michelle Peñaloza will lead a poetry workshop. Free and open to all!

Reading: "Talking Pages"
Historic Shell Station
232 Front Street
Issaquah, Washington
Tuesday, June 16, 2015 at 7:00 pm
I will be sharing the stage withTheo Nestoras the feadtured reader for this nonfiction edition of Eastside Writes' monthly "Talking Pages" open mic.

Reading with Maggie Messitt, in conversation with Kristen Young
Elliott Bay Book Company
Capitol Hill neighborhood
1521 Tenth Avenue
Seattle WA 98122
Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 7:00 pm
It's always an honor and a delight to take the podium at my beloved hometown Elliott Bay Book Company! I read at Elliiott Bay for the fourth time with brilliant nonfiction writer Maggie Messitt, as she debuted her new book The Rainy Season. A writer from my neighborhood, Kristen Millares Young, expertly faciliated our post-reading conversation.

Poetry Reading with Janet Sylvester, Michael Vizsolyi and Arisa White
Poem City Celebration
Kellogg-Hubbard Public Library
135 Main Street
Montpelier, Vermont
Thursday, April 2, 2014 at 7:00 pm
For the third year in a row, I celebrated National Poetry Month by reading poetry translations with my poet-colleagues from Goddard College's BFA program.

Poetry on the Buses Launch Party
Moore Theatre
1932 Second Avenue
Seattle, Washington
Monday, November 10, 2014
6:30 pm: Doors open
7:30 pm: Show begins
Over the next year, 120 poems will appear on posters in King County buses and transit stations, thanks to 4Culture's Poetry on the Buses program. One of mine will be one of them. The launch party, where I read my poem along with thirty-five other poetry-creators from all over King County, was what I can only describe as a transformative event. A packed house of 850 cheering and giving a standing ovation for poetry!

Leave a Message at the Beep
Twilight Gallery
4306 SW Alaska Street
Seattle, Washington 98116
Saturday, April 26, 2014
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm
At a reading curated by my dear friend Anastacia Tolbert, Jourdan Keith, Natasha Marin, Rachel Kessler, Star Murray, and Ann Teplick and I moved the crowd from laughter to tears and back again and again.

Goddard College BFA Faculty Reading
Kellogg-Hubbard Library
135 Main Street
Montpelier, Vermont 05602
7:00 pm
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
It was a delight to share my translations (of poems by Irma Pineda and José Alfredo Escobar Martínez) and one poem of my own, in the gorgeous Carnegie library of Vermont's capitol city, with my Goddard colleagues Michael Leong, Janet Sylvester, Michael Vizsolyi and Arisa White.

Anthology Release Party:
The Burden of LIght: Poems Illness and Loss
Vermilion Art Gallery and Bar
1508 11th Ave
Seattle, Washington 98122
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
7:00 to 9:00 pm
I was honored to read my first-ever published poem at this anthology release party, along with poets Kelly Davio, Carolyne Wright, and others. Deep thanks to anthology editor Tanya Chernov.

Reading with David Guterson and Matthew Dickman
2013-2014 Literary Series
Richard Hugo House
1634 - 11th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98122
Friday, March 14, 2014
7:00 pm
The Hugo House Literary Series is the stuff of legend in the Emerald City. Some of the most powerful readings I've ever attended have been part of this series, in which authors produce commissioned work on an assigned theme. Oh, some of the moments I've witnessed there.... Randall Kenan, sweat pouring down his face, reading a brilliant story he had reconstructed by hand (after his computer died and took his story with it) while on the plane to Seattle. Brian Turner getting all of us in the audience to recite the names of dead Iraqi civilians. Richard Rodriguez presenting an elegant box-within-a-box essay. Aimee Bender blushing as she read about public sex. Sherman Alexie flirting up a particularly good storm. On March 14, 2014 it was my turn. Matthew, David and I all read prose and poetry about death and loss (that managed to be both morbid and humorous) on our assigned topic: "Family Ties."

Hedgebrook Hauntings:
Stories of Mothers and Other Ghosts
Lit Crawl - Seattle
The Project Room
1315 East Pine Street
Seattle, Washington 98122
Thursday, October 24, 2013
8:00 to 8:45 pm
I read with my very dear friends Anastacia Tolbert and Storme Webber about ghostly visitations as part of the second annual Lit Crawl. Many thanks to Michelle Goodman for inviting us, Hedgebrook for MCing, the Project Room for hosting, and Richard Hugo House for a rocking after-party.

Haybarn Literary Arts Festival
Haybarn Theatre
Goddard College
Plainfield, Vermont
Monday and Tuesday, October 7 and 8, 2013
all day!
It was a beautiful adventure to collaborate with my colleagues, poets Michael Leong, Janet Sylvester, Michael Vizsolyi, and Arisa White, interdisciplinary artist Pam Booker, composer Otto Muller, and several of Goddard's undergraduate students on this two-day literary festival. Cornelius Eady's keynote was a real inspiration. Many thanks to those within and beyond the Goddard community who attended.

Panel Discussion: Measures of Success: What Publishing Your Work Really Means
Monday, October 7, 2013
4:20 pm to 5:50 pm
Wendy Call, Michael Leong, and Arisa White.

Goddard Student-Faculty Reading
Monday, October 7, 2013
7:30 pm


Tilled Paths Through Wilds of Thought: A Reading
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Visitor Center
54 Elm Street
Woodstock, Vermont
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
7:00 pm
Unfortunately, t his event was cancelled, due to the federal government shut-down.

Made in America: Reading / Discussion
Acadia National Park
Eliot Hall
SERC (Schoodic Education and Resource Center) Institute
64 Acadia Drive, Schoodic Point
Winter Harbor, Maine
Thursday, August 29, 2013
7:00 pm
When you have a sense of place, what exactly do you have? I'll trace the concept back through two centuries and then discuss how it has inspired "Made in America." Join me for a discussion of my work as Artist in Residence at five national parks: Acadia, Everglades, Joshua Tree, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller, and North Cascades. This event is free and open to the public.

Faculty Reading
MFA Program of the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts
Captain Whidbey Inn
Ebey's Landing National Historic Preserve
2072 West Captain Whidbey Inn Road
Coupeville, Washington
Sunday, August 11, 2013
7:00 pm
As a guest writer at the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, I will honored to be part of the faculty reading for their fall 2013 residency. (What a gift to return to the island where I've done some of my best writing over the last decade, thanks to Hedgebrook!) I enjoyed every minute of my three days at the Captain Whidbey Inn, from talking about my journal rituals, to tearing up magazines in search of writing prompts, to jumping off the dock into chilly Penn Cove!

Chuckanut Writers Conference
Whatcom Community College
Bellingham, Washington
4:15 pm to 5:45 pm, Friday, June 21, 2013
Faculty Reading
Such an honor to share the stage with writers I so admire, including Waverly Fitzgerald, Kathleen Flenniken, Frances McCue, Naseem Rakha, Natalie Serber, Garth Stein and Jennie Shortridge.

Goddard Faculty Poetry Reading at Poetry City
with Janet Sylvester
Goddard Art Gallery
54 Main Street
Montpelier, Vermont
7:00 pm
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
At my first residency on the faculty of the Goddard College BFA in Creative Writing, I was honored to read some of my poetry translations with esteemed poet (and BFA Program Director) Janet Sylvester, in a celebration of National Poetry Month.

Words & Notes Across Borders
Artist in Residence Trilingual Poetry Reading
with poet Irma Pineda
with original music inspired by the poems, from
Juan Carlos Sérbulo, Jacinta Fuentes & Miho Takekawa
Jack Straw Studios
4261 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, Washington 98105
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
7:00 pm
For the past two years I've been working on translations (Spanish to English) of delicious poems by the Zapotec-Mexican-Istmeña poet Irma Pineda. I am honored that Irma came to Seattle to record a trilingual CD of her work with me, thanks to a generous Artist Support Grant from the Jack Straw Foundation. Irma's time in the Northwest included this Zapotec-Spanish-English poetry reading, an isthmus-style pachanga thanks to El Tío in Burien, and a four-day residency at the Whiteley Center of the University of Washington..

Joshua Tree National Park
Artist in Residence Presentation
Reading from No Word for Welcome &
Tilled Paths Through Wilds of Thought
Red Arrow Gallery
61597 29 Palms Highway
Joshua Tree, California 92252
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
6:30 pm
As part of my 2012 residency at Southern California's Joshua Tree National Park, I gave a reading from No Word for Welcome and Tilled Paths Through Wilds of Thought at a lovely Joshua Tree gallery. Many thanks to Rhonda Lee Coleman and JTNP volunteers for making the event possible!

Writing Our Parks / Our Parks Writing Us
Arts Crush Featured Event
Columbia City Gallery
4864 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98118
Thursday, October 18, 2012
6:00 to 8:00 pm
My dear, most gifted poet-friends Judith Roche and Storme Webber, along with my brilliant former student Jinhee Kim, joined me to share poetry and prose about our parklands -- both local and national. I read from my new "essay chapbook," Tilled Paths Through Wilds of Thought and gave away 35 copies of it. Many thanks to 4Culture, ArtsCrush and the Seattle CityArtist Program for making this event possible (and free!). And to the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and K2 Family Foundation for making the chapbook possible.

Book Discussion: Rural Villages Face the Global Economy
Pangea Presentation
Nagomi Tea House
(former Uwajimaya building)
519 Sixth Avenue South
International District
Seattle, Washington 98104
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
6:30 pm reception, 7:00 pm presentation
Local organization Pangea: Giving for Global Change sponsors this discussion of No Word for Welcome. I offered a new-to-Seattle reading and slideshow and then participated in a roundtable discussion about the issues raised in the book. It was one of the richest discussions I've had about the issues of No Word for Welcome. Great job, Pangea!

"Artists, Writers, and Our National Parks"
Short Takes on Capturing Nature
A Burke Museum Event
Neptune Theatre
1303 NE 45th Street
Seattle, Washington 98105
Monday, October 15, 2012
7:00 pm
Along with nine others, I had six minutes and twenty images to talk about "the enduring relationship between the human imagination and the natural world." My subject: how artists and writers have shaped our national park system. (Indeed, how we might not have a national park system without them.) Many thanks to the Burke and my co-presenters for such a delightful evening.

Osler Literary Roundtable
"Lunch & Literature" Series
Duke University Medical Center Health Arts Network
Room 1993
Duke Clinic
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina 27710
Friday, October 12, 2012
noon to 1:00 pm
I returned to the medical center where I spent far too much time in 2006, while caring for my mother, to talk about something very different: No Word for Welcome. (With a bit about an essay inspired by my experiences at DUMC's oncology center.) I'm grateful to my Bennington friend and classmate Sharon Swanson for inviting me to this guest author series.

Reading to Celebrate Jack Straw's Birthday
Jack Straw 50th Anniversary Celebration
Jack Straw Studios
4261 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, Washington 98105
11:15 to 11:30 am, Saturday, June 16, 2012
I am honored to be part of the twenty-five hour (yes, really!) marathon of performances to celebrate this Seattle institution's golden anniversary. The party goes from 7:00 pm on Friday to 8:00 pm on Saturday. As a 2008 Jack Straw writer and 2011 Artist Fellow, I'm excited to be sharing the stage with some fabulous writer-pals, including Elizabeth Austen, Kathleen Flenniken, Felicia Gonzalez, Donna Miscolta, Susan Rich, Judith Roche, and others.

National Book Prize Reading from No Word for Welcome
The Muse and the Marketplace Conference
presented by Grub Street
Saturday, May 5, 2012
8:15 pm
Boston Park Plaza Hotel
50 Park Plaza at Arlington Street
Boston, Massachusetts
Thanks to the great honor of having won Grub Street's 2011 National Book Prize for Nonfiction, I gave a reading (Saturday evening) with Fiction Prize Winner Eileen Pollack and was honored with a lovely introduction by writer Michelle Seaton, at Grub Street's 2012 writers' conference.
Many thanks to all who attended and made is such a special evening -- especially several friends who traveled several hours to be there.

Reading, Slideshow, and Discussion
CHICLE Language Institute
101 East Weaver Street, Suite G-1, 3rd Floor
Carrboro, North Carolina 27510
Monday, March 19, 2012
7:00 pm
Many thanks to this language and cultural center for hosting the first No Word for Welcome event in North Carolina. It was an honor to share the book with my family, some of my mother's dearest friends, and a friend from college I'd not seen in 15 years!

Visiting Writer Series
University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh
Reeve Memorial Union, Ballroom A
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Monday, February 27, 2012
7:30 pm
Many thanks to the eight students, faculty, staff, and community members who came out for this reading/slideshow/discussion, Thanks also to the enthusiastic faculty and staff of the four classes I visited: a graduate nonfiction writing class that uses both Telling True Stories and No Word for Welcome as class texts; a Latin American Studies class focused on sustainability; a Latin American literature class to whom I talked about translating Irma Pineda's poetry; and a Native American Literature class that engaged in a spirited discussion of muxe culture. Many thanks to my host Douglas Haynes, whose socially engaged writing about Nicaragua I much admire.

Visiting Writer Series at Pacific Lutheran University
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Writer's Life Talk at 3:30 pm
Garfield Book Company
208 S Garfield Street
Tacoma, Washington 98444
Reading from No Word for Welcome at 7:00 pm
PLU University Center
Tacoma, Washington 98447
In the fall of 2008, I taught my first semester of university classes at PLU. Most of my students were also in their first semester. In Spring 2012 those students will graduate from PLU--so I was particularly thrilled to be part of PLU's Visiting Writer Series this spring. I am grateful to my former Writing 101 student Clayton Haselwood for a delightful introduction, my former star Free-Lance Writing student Jinhee Kim for a beautiful gift, and my former colleagues for making me feel so welcome.

Presentación del Libro: No Word for Welcome
Casa de la Cultura
Juchitán, Istmo de Tehuantepec
Oaxaca, México
viernes, 25 de noviembre de 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
6:00 de la tarde
Presenté fragmentos de mi libro en español, con imágenes de la bella región. Escritores juchitecos Gerardo Valdivieso y Victor Cata ofrecieron comentarios apasionados y lindos. Mi querida amiga, la poeta Irma Pineda, organizó y moderó con la elegancia que siempre muestra. Mis agradecimientos a todos ellos y los coordinadores de la magnífica Casa de la Cultura, Yolanda Gómez y Vidal Candelaria.
I read the introduction of of my book (translated to Spanish by María Victoria and Lori Berenson), and showed images of the beautiful isthmus region. Juchiteco writers Juchiteco writers Gerardo Valdivieso and Victor Cata offered impassioned, lovely commentary. My dear friend, poet Irma Pineda, organized and moderated the event in typically elegant fashion. My deep thnks to the coordinators of the magnificent Casa de la Cultura, Yolanda Gómez and Vidal Candelaria.

Presentación del Libro: No Word for Welcome
Estación del Ferrocarril
Matías Romero, Istmo de Tehuantepec
Oaxaca, México
auspiciado por la UCIZONI
jueves, 24 de noviembre de 2011
Thursday, November 24, 2011
5:00 de la tarde
Fue un gran honor presentar la introducción de No Word for Welcome (en español) en la cuidad que dio vida al libro, en en mero lugar que es el corazón de la historia que cuenta el libro: el viejo estación del ferrocarril. Mi amiga Lucía Antonio dio la bienvenida, Carlos Beas Torres presentó un comentario muy inspirador, y Karina Martínez organizó todo el evento. Muchos amigos y vecinos míos, y compañero/as de la UCIZONI, llenaron el espacio historico -- y también mi corazón.
It was a great honor to read the introduction of No Word for Welcome (in Spanish) in the town that gave life to the book, in the very space that is the heart of the story the book tells: the old railroad station. My friend Lucía Antonio gave the welcome, Carlos Beas Torres presented deeply inspired commentary on the book, and Karina Martínez organized the entire event. Many friends and former neighbors, and members of UCIZONI, filled the historic space -- and also filled my heart.

Visiting Writer Diversity Series: Sustainable Communities
Reading / Lectura Bilingue
Yakima Valley Community College
Parker Building
South 16th Avenue and Nob Hill Boulevard
Yakima, Washington 98902
Thursday, November 3, 2011
7:00 pm
Presenté fragmentos de mi libro en inglés y en español y también mis traducciones de poesía istmeña.
At this bilingual reading, I presented excerpts of No Word for Welcome in both English and Spanish, as well as translations of poetry from Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Thanks to the Diversity Series at YVCC for a wonderful morning talking to seventy YVCC students and a very rich discussion with the audience of nearly one hundred. The Yakima Herald published a nice article.

Words • Images • Stories: No Word for Welcome
Distinguished Visiting Writer Reading
Cornell College
Shaw Lounge, Campus Commons
Mount Vernon, Iowa
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
7:00 pm
During my one-month teaching residency at this lovely college on a hill, where students take one class at a time, I gave one reading on campus, to a delightful mix of students, faculty, and community members.

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Friends of the Library Lecture Series
Moffett Auditorium, Room 050
Mudd Library
Oberlin College
Oberlin, Ohio
Friday, September 30, 2011
4:30 pm
Twenty-one years (is that possible?) after graduating from Oberlin with a degree in biology--never having taken a single class in creative writing, or even English--I returned to my alma mater for a reading. A true testament to the college's commitment to the liberal arts: I have my former biology research advisor Roger Laushman to thank for this opportunity. And I'm just as grateful to Ray English, Director of Libraries, for hosting me! See a video of the reading here.

Artist in Residence Final Reading
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
Carriage Barn Visitor Center
54 Elm Street
Woodstock, Vermont
Sunday, September 25, 2011
1:00 to 2:00 pm
The finale for my two-month residency at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, made possible by the K2 Family Foundation and 4Culture, was a reading at the park's Fall Forest Festival, in the park's gorgeous horse-stable-turned-visitor-center.

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
with music by Sergio Reyes
Encuentro 5
UNITE-HERE Building, 33 Harrison Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02111
Thursday, September 8, 2011
6:30 pm
It was a true joy to return to my old stomping grounds, where the idea of No Word for Welcome was nurtured for so many years, by so many people. This event was sponsored and hosted by an organization founded by people I deeply admire: Encuentro5. We enjoyed an inspirational and educational set of music by Sergio Reyes (whose life's work has inspired me for more than half of my life) and ended with a book-signing and reunion with old and dear friends.

Reading and Slideshow: No Word for Welcome
Forest Education Center
Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
54 Elm Street
Woodstock, VT 05091
Friday, August 19, 2011
8:30 to 9:15 am
We talked about conservation and community organizing from Vermont to southern Mexico.. (Yes, that really was AM -- park rangers have to do their meetings early so they can talk to park visitors all day!)

Reading, Slideshow, Discussion: No Word for Welcome
Shiretown Books
9 Central Street
Woodstock, Vermont 05091
Friday, August 5, 2011
7:00 pm
For the two months that I'm Writer in Residence at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (August and September 2011), this is my local bookstore. It's a very happy coincidence that Shiretown Books specializes in the core issues of No Word for Welcome: sustainability, education, and local economies.

Words & Images: Reading from No Word for Welcome
Port Townsend Writers' Conference at Centrum
Wheeler Theater, Fort Worden State Park
Port Townsend, Washington
Friday, July 22, 2011
7:30 pm
It was a thrill to share the stage with poet Gary Copeland Lilley, and to be introduced by my grad school mentor Bob Shacochis on the stage of Fort Worden's historic Wheeler Theater. Every July, the Reading Series of the Port Townsend Writers' Conference brings a dozen writers to the Wheeler stage; the readings are free and open to all.

Welcome Dance / Book Release Party
for No Word for Welcome and
When the de la Cruz Family Danced
Vermillion Art Gallery and Wine Bar
1508 11th Avenue
Capitol Hill (one block south of Richard Hugo House)
Seattle, Washington 98122
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
6:30 pm festivities began
My dear friend, novelist Donna Miscolta, and I celebrated the June releases of our books with about 125 of our dear friends. The duo Mochima provided lovely music. Vermillion hosted us grandly. The event was sponsored by La Sala, an organization close to my heart.

Words • Images • Stories: No Word for Welcome
Guelaguetza Restaurant
3014 W. Olympic Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90006
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
7:00 pm
The Los Angeles premiere of No Word for Welcome -- in the city that is home to several hundred thousand Oaxacans! The delightful independent bookstore Skylight Books managed book sales for this event. Many thanks to Betto Arcos for making this event possible, the López family for offering their beautiful restaurant, and the amazing grassroots organization FIOB (Frente Indígena de Organizaciones Binacionales) for helping to get the word out! Listen to an interview that I did the following morning at KPFK radio.

Distinguished Visiting Writer Reading
Cornell College
Hedges Room, The Commons
600 First Street SW
Mount Vernon, Iowa 52314
Thursday, April 14, 2011
7:00 pm
In October I will teach "Legend and Lyric in Linn County" at Cornell College, as their 2011 Distinguished Visiting Writer in Nonfiction. In April, In visited Shannon Reed's Humanities and Writing course "Exiles, Immigrants, and Nationalists" and gave an evening reading from No Word for Welcome with Anne Sanow, Cornell's 2012 Distinguished Visiting Writer in Fiction.

Roslyn Reading Series
Marko's Tavern
106 North 1st Street
Roslyn, Washington, 98941
Saturday, February 12, 2011
7:00 to 8:30 pm
As part of a reading series organized by novelist Ellie Belew, I read from my essays about grief and loss. The last time I watched television (of my own volition) was the last episode of "Northern Exposure." For that reason, I was thrilled to be part of this reading series, in the town where that show was filmed, with fellow Hugo House Writer in Residence alum Ed Skoog.

"Writing Grief and Loss at Harborview"
Friday, July 16, 2010
Noon to 12:45 pm
I read from excerpts from my writing about patients at Harborview, as well as ekphrastic short-shorts created by Harborview patients in the writers' workshops I led on the inpatient psychiatric unit. Many thanks to all who came to discuss my six weeks as Writer in Residence at Harborview Medical Center. (Read more about my residency in the Center's staff newsletter, STAT, here.)
Maleng Building Conference Room (MB 111/112)
Norm Maleng Building
Harborview Medical Center
At the corner of Ninth Avenue and Jefferson Street
First Hill, Seattle
Sponsored by 4Culture and the Seattle CityArtist Program, with deep thanks to the Harborview Art Program and program director Peggy Weiss.

Sustainability • Sostenibilidad
a photographic & literary response
una respuesta literaria & fotográfica
Exhibit ran May 27 through July 11, 2009
I co-curated (along with Catalina Cantú) the literary portion of this La Sala gallery show, featuring a dozen local writers, including Felicia Gonzalez, Gabriella Guttiérez y Muhs, Donna Miscolta, Juan Carlos Reyes, and María Victoria. Heather Dwyer of 4Culture writes: "Curators Marita Holdaway, Wendy Call and Catalina Cantú have successfully meshed this body of work into a fascinating exhibition that is sure to speak to all of us about our individual and collective place in our communities - and on this planet."
Benham Gallery
1216 First Avenue
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 622-2480
Thanks to La Sala, Benham Gallery, the Cervantes Institute, the Seattle Office of the Latino Community Fund, and the Latin American Studies Program of the University of Washington.

Hedgebrook Reading
Literary Landscapes Reading Series
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
6:30 pm
I am curating this reading, with my performance group comrades (and Friends-of-Hedgebrook) Byron Au Yong, Laura González, Anastacia Tolbert and Storme Webber.
in the Hedgebrook Longhouse
2197 Millman Road
Langley, WA 98260
Many thanks to all who attended, and to Byron, Laura, Anastacia and Storme for sharing their poems, their songs, their music, and their hearts. Rarely is a reading magical. This one was. You can read the anagram poems I wrote for my writer-artist-comrades here.

Beyond One Language / Más Allá de Una Lengua
reading • theater • music
Friday, June 12, 2009
7:00 to 9:00 pm
This final event in the year-long "Beyond One Language" series features Spanish-language theater, Chilean food, and Mapuche poetry and music. The event is FREE with dinner for sale. Todos están bienvenidos.
South Seattle Community College
West Seattle Campus, Olympic Hall
6000 16th Avenue SW
Seattle, WA
on bus routes 125 and 128
This is the last in a series of four bilingual English-Spanish readings I helped organize with fiction writers María de Lourdes Victoria and Paola Casla, and poets Laura González and Eugenia Toledo-Keyser.
Thanks to 4Culture and the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods for sponsoring this series.

First Annual Creative Writing Faculty Reading
Seattle University
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
6:00 to 9:00 pm
I will be reading (briefly) from a work-in-progress, with my colleagues Sharon Cumberland, Alice Marshall, Edwin Weihe and others.
LeRoux Room, First Floor, University Center
(on E. James Way, between Broadway and 12th Ave)
Seattle University Campus
Seattle. WA, 98122
I'm very grateful to Sharon Cumberland for organizing this reading and honored to have been a part of it.

"Distinguished Northwest Writer in Residence" Reading
for Seattle University's Creative Writing Program
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
4:00 to 6:00 pm
I presented an excerpt from my book manuscript, No Word for Welcome, along with my photographs. I also read four of my poem translations (by Mexican indigenous poets who write in Zapotec and translate their work into Spanish).
Book signing and reception followed the reading.
Wyckoff Auditorium
Bannan Engineering Building
(10th Avenue East and East Columbia Street)
on the Seattle University campus
Seattle, WA 98122
Hear a podcast of the event.
Many thanks to Seattle University's English Department and Creative Writing Program, and especially to Dr. Sharon Cumberland, for hosting this event.

Reading: 2008 Jack Straw Writers
I shared a shortened version of my essay, "My Life in Books, in a Place Without Them." We also heard poetry by my colleague at Seattle University, Sharon Cumberland, and from Michael Spence and Kevin Craft. And on the prose side, we enjoyed a thoughtful essay by my Hugo House / Artist Trust colleague Waverly Fitzgerald, along with smart (sometimes hilarious) memoir by my buddies JD Munro, Janna Cawrse Esarey, and Ghida Sinno.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
2:00 to 3:30 pm
Central Library
Seattle Public Library
1000 4th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98104
Many thanks to Judith Roche, the Writers Series Curator, and Chris Higashi, of the Seattle Public Library, for making this reading possible.

Beyond One Language / Más Allá de Una Lengua
reading • writing workshop • book exchange
Friday, September 26, 2008
6:00 to 9:00 pm
Several local writers who work in Spanish will share their work; I will share English translations (some by me, some by others) of their words. I will also teach a half-hour bilingual English/Spanish nonfiction writing workshop. Reading and music begin at 7:15 pm. Spanish-language book-exchange all evening! The event is FREE with dinner for sale. Todos están bienvenidos.
This was the first in a series of four bilingual English-Spanish readings I am co-organizing with fiction writer María de Lourdes Victoria and poets Laura González and Eugenia Toledo-Keyser.
Thanks to 4Culture and the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods for sponsoring this series.
NewHolly Gathering Hall
7054 32nd Avenue South
Seattle, Washington 98118

"So Long, So Short... a Goodbye Reading & Celebration"
with friends Shelley Gillespie, Laura González &
Storme Webber
Thursday, June 12, 2008
7:00 pm
Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Avenue
Seattle, WA 98122
I bid a fond farewell to Richard Hugo House, after two years as Writer in Residence, with three of the 105 writers I worked with during my office hours. Shelley Gillespie showed her collages and read her nonfiction prose poems. Storme Webber performed portions of her memoir. Laura González read her poems in Spanish and I read my English translations of them. I also read my translations of poems by two Zapotec poets from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, and debuted the introduction to my book in progress,
No Word for Welcome, illustrated by my photographs.

Jack Straw May Reading Series
with the poets Merna Hecht and Kevin Craft, and fellow prose writer (& Hedgebrook alum) Jennifer Munro
Thursday, May 15, 2008
7:30 pm
Jack Straw Productions
4261 Roosevelt Way NE
Seattle, Washington 98105
See the essay I read here.
Listen here to a podcast of my reading, prefaced by an excerpt from an interview with me by the curator of the Writers Program for 2008, Judith Roche.

Reading & Discussion: "Writers at Work"
Hedgebrook & the Creative Process
with Anjali Banerjee and Rachel Chapman
Hosted by the American Association of University Women and co-sponsored by Watermark Book Company
Saturday, February 23, 2008
10:00 am
Island View Elementary School
2501 J Avenue
Anacortes, Washington 98221

Spanglish Potluck at Cafe Rozella
una noche de palabras y música
an evening of words & music
with Maria de Lourdes Victoria
with music by Charanga Danzón, led by Irene Mitri
Co-sponsored by Hedgebrook & Supported by 4Culture
part of Hedgebrook's Women Authoring Change series
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
7:00 pm
Café Rozella
9434 Delridge Way SW
Seattle, Washington 98106
Muchísimas gracias a las 80 personas que vinieron.
Many thanks to the 80 people who joined us!

Richard Hugo House Teachers' Reading
with my colleagues Paul Nelson, Daniel Hintzsche, Judith Roche, Michael Dylan Welch, Ann Spiers,
and fellow Hugo House writer-in-residence Cody Walker
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
6:30 pm
Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98122

Writers in the Schools: A Reading
with Christa Bell, Matt Gano, Karen Finneyfrock, Rachel Kessler, Judith Roche & Cody Walker
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
7:00 pm
Richard Hugo House
1634 11th Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98122

Women Authoring Change: Literary Landscapes
Día de los Muertos Reading
with Anjali Banerjee, Lana Ayers, and Susan Rich
Hedgebrook Retreat on Whidbey Island
Saturday, October 27, 2007
7:00 pm
Hedgebrook Retreat
2917 Millman Road
Langley, Washington 98260
See Anjali Banerjee's blog for a brief recap of this lovely event.

"We Read Banned Books! A Celebration of Banned and Challenged Literature"
The Information School, University of Washington
with Charles R. Cross, Ellen Forney, Cody Walker & others Thursday, October 4, 2007
6:30 pm
Part of a national event organized by the American Library Association.
Room 220, Odegaard Undergraduate Library
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington 98105

Fellows Reading
with Henrietta Goodman and Natalie Serber
Fishtrap Summer Gathering
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
7:30 pm
Wallowa Lake Camp & Retreat Center
Enterprise, Oregon

Many thanks to the grassroots social change organizations that helped make the 2011-2012 events for No Word for Welcome possible:

Casa de la Cultura
Juchitán, Oaxaca

Encuentro 5
Boston

Guild Literary Complex
Chicago

Hedgebrook
Whidbey Island / Seattle

Institute for Policy Studies
Washington, DC

International Development Exchange (IDEX)
San Francisco

One Equal Heart
Seattle

PANGEA Giving
Seattle

LaSala
Seattle

Minnesota Society of Conservation Biology
Minneapolis

UCIZONI
Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca

YVCC Diversity Series
Yakima, Washington