Only a matter of days remain before the entry deadline for the 2016 Rainshadow Poetry Competition, a contest open to writers of all ages from Clallam and Jefferson counties.
This event, the second annual, began as a tribute to Jim Fisher, the late novelist, humorist and Peninsula College professor.
He saw this community as one rich in talent, and local writers Ruth Marcus and Judy Duncan were in full agreement.
The pair began the Rainshadow Poetry Competition as a community-wide showcase last year.
Duncan and Marcus are gathering entries now from children, teens and adults — up to three poems apiece — by the deadline of 5 p.m. Jan. 22.
Poems are blind judged by a panel of three, Marcus noted, and those selected will be published in the Rainshadow Poetry Anthology, to be released this spring.
Duncan and Marcus have selected Sequim artist Ryoko Toyama’s painting, “Harvest Time 1,” to grace the book’s cover.
Entry fees are $5 for students in kindergarten through high school, $7 for seniors 65 and older and $10 for adults.
Free reading
Just like 2015, the winning poets will be invited to a free, public reading at Olympic Theatre Arts, 414 N. Sequim Ave.
This year’s reading will be held on OTA’s main stage at 2 p.m. May 1.
The competition’s inaugural reading reflected the variety of writers out there: the prolific poet Gail Elliott, a nonagenarian, was among the 57 winners, as were Jeanine Cardiff, a real estate broker, and Scott Underwood, who works in Olympic Medical Center’s emergency room.
“Poetry connects me to people I haven’t met . . . it deepens my sense of belonging to life,” Cardiff has said.
As it turned out, two winning poets, who crossed paths through writing poetry, found they had something else in common.
Elliott worked in the fire service in northern Alaska while Howard Chadwick, a local writer, was a smoke jumper in Idaho.
Chadwick is working on a collection about his experience fighting fires; the book is due out at the end of March.
Guidelines for submitting poems to the 2016 Rainshadow Poetry Contest are available via www.rainshadowpoetry.com, on the Rainshadow Poetry page on Facebook, and by phoning 360-681-2205 or emailing rainshadowpoets2016@gmail.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
