The Cascadia Poetics Lab will host the 10th Anniversary Cascadia Poetry Festival from October 9-11, 2026, at the Rainier Beach Community Club and Kubota Garden in Seattle. The festival, which has become a significant gathering for poets and bioregionalists, will feature workshops, panel discussions, and readings from a diverse array of poets and academics from the Cascadia bioregion and beyond.
The festival’s core mission is to explore poetry’s connection to environmental, political, historical, and sociological pursuits within the Cascadia bioregion. Organizers emphasize the importance of prioritizing natural and cultural boundaries over arbitrary political ones as a means to address climate change and other pressing social and political issues. This year’s theme, bioregional poetics, underscores the festival’s commitment to integrating art with activism and ecological awareness.
Featured speakers include 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. These poets and scholars will lead workshops that delve into practices of bioregional poetics, poetry as politics, lyric and form, the connection between internal and external worlds, and poetry in times of crisis.
Workshop highlights 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).” These sessions are designed to engage participants in creative and critical dialogues about the role of poetry in shaping our understanding of place and identity.
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. This backing reflects the festival’s significance in the cultural landscape of the Pacific Northwest.
Registration for gold passes, workshop packages, reading packages, and student passes is now open via the festival website at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2026-cascadia-poetry-festival-10/. A complete schedule of events can be found at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2026-cascadia-poetry-festival-10-schedule/.
Cascadia Poetics Lab, founded in Auburn, Washington, on December 14, 1993, has been a vital force in promoting poetry and bioregional thought. The 10th anniversary of the festival marks a milestone in its ongoing effort to foster a deeper connection between creative expression and the ecological and cultural identity of the Cascadia region. As the festival convenes this October, it promises to be a platform for urgent conversations about the role of poetry in addressing the climate crisis and building resilient communities.
