A Resplendence of Poets

Start AWP off right with this off-site reading on Wednesday evening, featuring some of the best poets from both sides of the 49th parallel: Kazim Ali, Ali Blythe, Kayla Czaga, Laura Da’, Demian DinéYazhi’, Raoul Fernandes, Emily Kendal Frey, Miguel Murphy, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, and Ian Williams. Passages Bookshop is just a few blocks from the Convention Center, and there will be books for sale, wine to drink, and revelry to be had. Hosted by Sheryda Warrener and Jen Currin. Join us!

This event takes place on the traditional and ancestral territories of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes on the lands now known as the Portland Metro area.

Bios:

Kazim Ali was born in the UK and raised on unceded Pimicikamak land in northern Manitoba. His writing includes books of poetry, fiction, essay, cross-genre work, and translation as well as journalism for Huffington Post and Bomb. He lives in southern California on US-occupied Kumeyaay land, between mountain, desert, and ocean.

Ali Blythe is the award-winning author of Twoism, a courageous, critically acclaimed debut collection exploring trans-poetics. Hymnswitch is forthcoming spring 2019. His poems have been published across Canada and in England, Germany and Slovenia.

Kayla Czaga is the author of two collections of poetry, For Your Safety Please Hold On (Nightwood Editions, 2014) and Dunk Tank (House of Anansi, 2019). Her debut won The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, The Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and The Debut-litzer. She lives in Victoria, B.C. and currently serves as the online poetry mentor for SFU’s The Writer’s Studio.

Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and The Institute of American Indian Arts. Da’ is Eastern Shawnee. She is a recipient of the Native American Arts and Cultures Fellowship, an Artist Trust Fellowship, and fellowships from Hugo House and the Jack Straw Writers Program. Her first book, Tributaries, won the 2016 American Book Award. Her newest book is Instruments of the True Measure, published by the University of Arizona Press.

Demian DinéYazhi´ is an Indigenous Diné transdisciplinary artist born to the clans Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) & Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water). Through research, mining community archives, and social collaboration and activism, DinéYazhi´ highlights the intersections of Radical Indigenous Queer Feminist identity and political ideology while challenging the white noise of the contemporary art movement. DinéYazhi´ is the founder of the artist/activist initiative, R.I.S.E.: Radical Indigenous Survivance & Empowerment, which is dedicated to the education, perseverance, & evolution of Indigenous art & culture. DinéYazhi´ also serves as co-director for the zine, Locusts: A Post-Queer Nation Zine. You can follow them @heterogeneoushomosexual.

Raoul Fernandes lives and writes in Vancouver, with his wife and two sons. He first collection of poems, Transmitter and Receiver (Nightwood Editions, 2015) won the Dorothy Livesay Award and the Debut-litzer Award for Poetry in 2016 and was a finalist for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry. He has been published in numerous literary journals and anthologies, including The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English.

Emily Kendal Frey is the author of several chapbooks and chapbook collaborations as well as two full-length collections, THE GRIEF PERFORMANCE and SORROW ARROW. She lives in Portland, Oregon and is a practicing psychotherapist.

Miguel Murphy is the author of A Book Called Rats and Detainee. He lives in Southern California where he teaches at Santa Monica College.

Shazia Hafiz Ramji is the author of Port of Being (Invisible Publishing), which received the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry and was named by the CBC as a best Canadian poetry book of 2018. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Best Canadian Poetry 2018, Poetry Northwest, Music & Literature, and the Chicago Review of Books. She is at work on a novel about addiction, saints, and family.

Ian Williams is the author of four books, including Personals, a finalist for the Griffin Prize, and the new novel, Reproduction. He teaches poetry at UBC.

[Also see the Passages Bookshop website]