PORT ANGELES — A poetry reading at the Port Angeles Library will feature Alice Derry, Kate Reavey and Charlotte Warren.
The reading will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Raymond Carver Room at the library at 2210 S. Peabody St. The free event, organized by Derry, is sponsored by Port Books and News.
With the publication of Asking (MoonPath Press, Tillamook, Ore., 2022), her sixth full collection of poetry, Derry, poet and professor emerita of Peninsula College, presents the best of her new work, she said.
The poems were written for her late husband, who died suddenly in 2014.
“They are poems of mourning but also an exploration of life after losing a close partner of many years, that person taking with them part of the self,” according to a press release.
“What Will You Do?” is a poem titled after the question so many people asked in the months after her husband died.
“At 67, years of formation behind her, she had to fashion a new self, a new way of living in the world.”
Derry has been a local force for poetry throughout her 40 years on the Peninsula. During her years at Peninsula College, Port Angeles, she brought many well-known poets to the stage.
She has invited writing friends, Reavey and Warren, both of Sequim, to join her. Reavey’s fourth volume of poetry, Curve, is published this month by Empty Bowl Press of Chimacum.
Warren’s third volume, If Not Him, will join the trio of books in the spring of 2023 (Stephen F. Austin Press).
Along with her six books of poetry, Derry has written three chapbooks, including translations of poems by Rainer Rilke. She taught for 30 years at Peninsula College where she curated the Foothills Poetry Series, holding some 12-15 readings per year.
Since retirement, she has been active in helping local tribal members access poetry and has taught a number of community workshops in poetry.
She has printed the first in a series of essays on native plants, collaborating with artist Fred Sharpe. Raymond Carver chose her first poetry manuscript, Stages of Twilight, for the King County (Seattle) Arts Prize. Strangers to their Courage was a finalist for the Washington Book Award.
In July 2022 she was faculty at the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference. She lives and works on the Olympic Peninsula. Her website is www.alice derry.com.
Warren’s other poetry books are Dangerous Bodies (SFA Press), and Gandhi’s Lap, winner of the Washington Prize in D.C. (Word Works).
A memoir, Jumna: Sacred River (SFA Press), chronicles Warren’s childhood in India and coming of age in America through the turbulent ’60s.
She earned her MFA in Writing from Vermont College, and taught part time at Peninsula College. Warren’s poems have appeared on Seattle buses and in Calyx, Orion, Hawai’i Review, The Louisville Review, Kansas Quarterly and other journals.
Reavey completed an MA in poetry with Gary Snyder as her mentor. She worked as a fire dispatch and interpretive ranger before deciding on a path of teaching, which she has followed for more than 30 years.
Her chapbooks, Through the East Window (Sagittarius Press) and Trading Posts (Tangram), are limited-edition, letter-pressed works and Too Small to Hold You was published by Pleasure Boat Studio.
She coordinates Studium Generale at Peninsula College, and for many years was co-director of the Foothills Writers Series with Derry.
She taught creative writing and literature in Florence, Italy, and from 2014-2018 she taught in ʔaʔk̓ʷustəƞáwt̓xʷ House of Learning, Peninsula College Longhouse, for the Native Pathways Program through The Evergreen State College.
Her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Humanities is centered on poetry and beloved community.
Alice Derry
Charlotte Warren
