Paul E Nelson presenting at Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, photo by Leszek Chudzinski
“Paul formally received the Mahayana precepts of Zen Buddhism in 2023, becoming a lay practitioner within the tradition, but I believe he had long lived in accord with them. His poetry, in its sensitivity, its humility, and its deep listening, embodies practice-realization — the understanding that practice and awakening are not separate. His writing was his zazen. This collection, FLEXIBLE MIND, is more than a book. It is a continuation of that practice. A testament to a man who lives by attention, who bows to language but does not cling to it, who seeks what lays beyond words by walking straight into them.”– Kosho Itagaki, Soto Zen Priest
PAMLA in Seattle in November
I got this today:Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTuesday, May 12, 2026Dear Paul Nelson,I hope this email finds you well. I’m writing to invite you (and your colleagues or graduate...
Rainier Beach Arts & Culture Roundtable #2
To network as neighborhood creatives, support arts and culture, improve the visibility of arts & culture in Rainier Beach and make the neighborhood a destination for arts & culture, we're...
Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion May 18 7pm
May 18 is Cascadia Day, because it is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.Bioregional journalist Andrew Engelson invited me to read at Vermillion, 1508 11th Avenue, May 18 at 7pm. Matt...
Interview with Deborah Poe on her Submission to Winter in America (Still
How does one make literary art about this time in history, that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous...
Theodore Roethke and the Birth of Cascadian Poetry
I'm honored to be giving a talk/reading on the subject of: Theodore Roethke and the Birth of Cascadian Poetry on May 12, 2026. I have been invited by The Friends of Roethke organization....
Paul E. Nelson, Clyfford Still Museum Institute Residential Fellowship Program
04.20.26 for immediate release The Clyfford Still Museum Institute Residential Fellowship Program has announced its 2026 selections and named Paul E. Nelson as one of the Residential Fellows for the...
Interview with Aldon Lynn Nielsen on Gil Scott-Heron
I was a sophomore at Wright Junior College in Chicago in 1981, quite determined to be a professional broadcaster, listening to the progressive FM station that shaped my whole cosmology when a song...
Rainier Beach Arts Roundtable & Mapes Creek
It's kind of a joke in the bioregional community that bioregionalists are people who fly all over the world to tell you how important it is to be rooted to place. A lot of truth in that joke. Here...
Clyfford Still Museum 2026 Institute Residential Fellowship
Your humble narrator was awarded a Residential Fellowship for July 2026 at the Clyfford Still Museum. Here was my pitch video: As noted in the video (did you watch it?) I first became aware of...
Lorin Medley Interview
Our latest Cascadian Prophets podcast interview is now up. Lorin Medley is a poet from Comox, B.C. Her first chapbook is On The Way to Kluusms, published by Watershed Press. Lorin Medley's poetry is...
PAMLA in Seattle in November
I got this today:Pacific Ancient and Modern Language AssociationTuesday, May 12, 2026Dear Paul Nelson,I hope this email finds you well. I’m writing to invite you (and your colleagues or graduate...
Rainier Beach Arts & Culture Roundtable #2
To network as neighborhood creatives, support arts and culture, improve the visibility of arts & culture in Rainier Beach and make the neighborhood a destination for arts & culture, we're...
Cascadia Day Poetry Explosion May 18 7pm
May 18 is Cascadia Day, because it is the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. St. Helens.Bioregional journalist Andrew Engelson invited me to read at Vermillion, 1508 11th Avenue, May 18 at 7pm. Matt...
How does one make literary art about this time in history that avoids rhetoric and facile political positioning in this era of the spectacle? How does one avoid being consumed by the simultaneous collapse of so many systems — some being eviscerated by people in positions designed to protect such systems? Deborah Poe has some idea based on her submission to the upcoming anthology Winter in America (Still.
Deborah is the author of several books of poetry including keep, Elements, and Our Parenthetical Ontology, as well as a novella in verse, Hélène. Her visual works–video poems and handmade book objects–have been exhibited throughout the US. She lives on stolen Coast Salish land, specifically the ancestral homeland of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Stillaguamish, and Muckleshoot People.
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