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Saturday April 12, 2025 4:30pm - 5:30pm PDT
Join us for a salon-style discussion centered on the power of poetry and its place in the world. Our annual Salon is a chance for 4-5 poets to sit down together to discuss their craft—how they came to it, how they sustain it, and what gifts it can bring to those they share it with. Each poet brings a unique perspective and vast experience to the table, and every year we are stunned at the magic that takes place within these conversations. This year’s Salon includes poets with award-winning debut collections alongside seasoned veterans with several collections and impressive accolades. Our 2025 Salon includes Danez Smith, author of four poetry collections, multi-award winner and MFA professor at Randolph CollegeTennison S. Black, winner of the National Poetry Series of 2023 with their book, Survival Strategies; Subhaga Crystal Bacon, the author of four poetry collections including Transitory, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; Margot Kahn, co-editor of a New York Times Editors’ Choice anthology and author of three other collections; and Rena Priest, who uses her published nonfiction poetry to address history and culture. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from some of the most talented contemporary poets from our region and beyond!

*Note that a Book Fair Pass is required which is $25+fees and covers entry for all 12+ events at the Montvale Event Center along with entry into the Book Fair. You will be able to come and go all day with this ticket. Tickets are on sale now via this link! *Please note that the link  will take you to our Humanitix event page where you can select this specific event along with any other ticketed events you would like to attend. This system allows you to check out once for multiple tickets, and does not require registration.

Purchase books by these poets via Auntie's Bookstore!

Please fill out our festival survey after you have attended this event. The information you provide will help us obtain critical grant funding and will help make next year’s festival even better!  
Authors
avatar for Danez Smith

Danez Smith

Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don’t Call Us Dead, Homie, and, most recently, Bluff. They are also the curator of Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes. For their work, Danez has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book... Read More →
avatar for Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn

Margot Kahn is the author of Horses That Buck (University of Oklahoma, 2008), winner of the High Plains Book Award; A Quiet Day with the West on Fire (Floating Bridge, 2021); and The Unreliable Tree (Northwestern University, 2025). Her poems, essays, and reviews appear in New England... Read More →
avatar for Rena Priest

Rena Priest

Rena Priest is a writer and enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. Priest’s writing draws on history, science, and culture to tell stories and ask questions. Priest served as the 6th Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023) and was named the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gray... Read More →
avatar for Subhaga Crystal Bacon

Subhaga Crystal Bacon

Subhaga Crystal Bacon (they/them) is the author of four collections of poetry including the Isabella Gardner Award-winning Transitory (2023), from BOA Editions, a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry in 2024, and Surrender of Water in Hidden Places (2023), winner... Read More →
avatar for Tennison S. Black

Tennison S. Black

Queer, transmasc nonbinary writer Tennison S. Black is the author of Survival Strategies (winner of the National Poetry Series, UGA Press 2023) which recently was also awarded the NM-AZ Book Award in Arizona Poetry. Their work has appeared or is forthcoming in SWWIM, Hotel Amerika... Read More →
Saturday April 12, 2025 4:30pm - 5:30pm PDT
Montvale Event Center: Ella's Theater 1019 West 1st Avenue, Spokane, WA, USA

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