A Reading by Blue Begonia Press Poets
Come enjoy the stylings of Washington’s own Blue Begonia Press, featuring Washington State poet laureate Elizabeth Austen and others.
Elizabeth Austen is a Seattle-based poet, performer, and teacher. She is the Washington State Poet Laureate for 2014-2016. Austen is the author of Every Dress a Decision and two chapbooks. Her poems have appeared online, in anthologies, and in journals including Willow Springs, Bellingham Review, the Los Angeles Review, the Seattle Review, and the DMQ Review.
Elissa Ball is a writer, performer, and feminist from Yakima, Washington. She currently lives in Seattle. Since 2002 Elissa has been performing poetry on stages, at galleries, in bars, and at house shows. She graduated from Fairhaven College in 2006 with an interdisciplinary concentration titled “Voice: Writing, Literature, and Cultural Diversity.” Her poems have appeared in Rivet, Hoarse, and CityArts.
Joan Fiset is a writer and therapist in Seattle. Her book of memoir prose poems, Now the Day is Over won the King County Publication Award. “After” was a finalist in the 2008 Floating Bridge Chapbook competition. Her poems have appeared in Tarpaulin Sky, Wave Books, GenPop Books/No Contest, The Bedazzler, Pontoon 2008, and Floating Bridge Review Number Four.
Kathryn Hunt is a writer and filmmaker and makes her home in Port Townsend, Washington, on the coast of the Salish Sea. Her poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in Rattle, The Sun, Willow Springs, Rear Curtain, Orion, Crab Orchard Review, and the Alaska Quarterly Review. A collection of her poems, Long Way Through Ruin, was published by Blue Begonia Press in 2013.
Terry Martin is a professor of English at Central Washington University. An avid reader and writer, Martin has published over 200 poems, essays, and articles and has edited both journals and anthologies. Her first book of poems, Wishboats, won the Judges’ Choice Award at Bumbershoot Book Fair in 2000. Her most recent book of poetry, The Secret Language of Women, was published by Blue Begonia Press in 2006.
Nancy Rawles has worked as a journalist, playwright and novelist. The New York Times called her novel My Jim “as heart-wrenching a personal history as any recorded in American literature.” The book was selected by the Seattle Public Library for its Seattle Reads Program. Rawles has received many awards for her writing, including an Alex Award from the American Library Association, and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.
Nancy Takacs has worked with inmates, seniors, and children for the Utah Arts Council’s Artist in Education program for over a decade. She is a recipient of the Nation/Discovery Award, Kay Saunders New Poet Prize, is a six-time first-prize winner of the Utah Arts Council’s Original Writing Contest; and has twice been a finalist for the Utah Book Award.
