Seattle's Cascadia Poetics Lab will celebrate a decade of poetic and bioregional exploration with the 10th Anniversary Cascadia Poetry Festival, scheduled for October 9-11, 2026. The event will take place at the Rainier Beach Community Club and Kubota Garden, bringing together poets, academics, and community members to examine poetry's intersection with environmental, political, historical, and sociological concerns within the Cascadia bioregion.
The festival's core mission is to consider how prioritizing natural and cultural boundaries, rather than arbitrary political ones, can address pressing issues such as climate change and social inequality. This year's program features a diverse lineup of prominent 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.
Attendees can participate in workshops designed to delve into bioregional poetics, poetry as politics, lyric and form, the connection between internal and external worlds, and poetry in times of crisis. Workshop titles 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 is supported by a range of sponsors, including 4Culture Sustained Support and 4Culture Public Free Access, Creative West, the Vogt Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, 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 website: https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2026-cascadia-poetry-festival-10/. A complete schedule is available at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2026-cascadia-poetry-festival-10-schedule/.
Cascadia Poetics Lab, founded in Auburn, Washington, on December 14, 1993, has long been a hub for poetic and bioregional thought. Founding Director Paul E. Nelson is available for interviews, and more information about the organization and its offerings can be found at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/.
This milestone anniversary underscores the growing relevance of bioregionalism in cultural discourse. By focusing on the Cascadia bioregion—a geographic area defined by watersheds and ecosystems rather than national borders—the festival highlights how poetry can foster a deeper understanding of place and inspire action on environmental challenges. As climate change continues to reshape communities, the festival's emphasis on local, ecological perspectives offers a timely framework for engagement.
The event not only celebrates a decade of artistic achievement but also serves as a platform for dialogue on how creative expression can influence political and social change. With workshops and readings designed to connect personal experience with broader ecological and political realities, the festival aims to empower participants to think and act locally while addressing global concerns.
