Paul Nelson, the featured reader of this month’s Writer's Read, is a poet, editor, and interviewer. He is also the founder of Seattle Poetics LAB (SPLAB) and the Cascadia Poetry Festival. For over twenty years, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events and 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists, including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, and Diane di Prima. Paul’s books include American Prophets: Interviews with Thinkers, Activists, Poets and Visionaries (2019), American Sentences (2015), Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013), and A Time Before Slaughter (2009). He has co-edited Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill (2019), Make It True Meets Medusario (2019), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017), and Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015). He’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, and multiple cities in China. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, Paul is engaged in a 20-year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia. He lives in Rainier Beach, WA.

Since 1999, Writers Read has been Ukiah’s literary salon, focusing on poetry, spoken word, short stories, and occasionally expository prose. The program combines a reading by a featured author, followed by an hour of open mic. Writers Read is sponsored in part by Poets & Writers, through grants from the James Irvine Foundation and the Hearst Foundation. Additional support provided by an anonymous local writer, Colored Horse Studios, the Poet Laureate Committee of Ukiah, The Grace Hudson Museum. Events are free but donations are appreciated. For additional information about Writers Read, contact Michael Riedell at innisfree@pacific.net.

Please Note: Writers Read usually happens on the last Thursday of most every month. In October the last Thursday falls on Halloween, so the program has been moved to the last Friday, October 25.