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Free Writing Workshop - Reading - Open Mic w/ Risa Denenberg, Joseph S. Sisson and Sophie Smith

  • BookTree Kirkland 609 Market Street Kirkland, WA, 98033 (map)

Join us for a very special Poetry Month Reading at Booktree. First the writing workshop (4:24pm to 6:00pm) led by Risa Denenberg who will bring some poems that will be used to prompt some new writing from participants!

Then the Reading and Open Mic at 6:15 pm with features Risa Denenberg ; Joseph G. Sissón and Kenmore's Student Poet Laureate - Sophie Lorraine Smith

Please share the Facebook Event Page here and do invite friends and acquaintances too!

Bios:

Risa Denenberg lives on the Olympic Peninsula, where she works as a nurse practitioner. She is a co-founder of Headmistress Press, publisher of lesbian/bi/trans books of poetry; curator at The Poetry Café Online, a site where poetry chapbooks are celebrated and reviewed; and the Reviews Editor at River Mouth Review. Her most recent publications include the chapbook, Posthuman, finalist in the Floating Bridge 2020 chapbook competition, and Rain / Dweller, finalist for the Sally Albiso Prize (MoonPath Press in 2023).

Co- feature : Joseph G. Sissón, a Burien Arts Commissioner, writes daily in temperate Western Washington, where he lives with his wife, Kathleen. In addition to being active in AAWA, he participates in Renton Writers, Puyallup Writers groups, and Pacific Northwest Writers Association. He retired from a thirty-four-year career in education, teaching kindergarten through community college. Since his teens, Joseph has penned memoirs and poems in private journals. His writing has appeared in the Plant Amnesty newsletter, University of Washington’s Voice, Sacramento’s Poet, and guest speaker for the American Association of University Women. His poetry themes are scientific phenomenons, natural sciences, and personal political opinions. A passionate gardener, he has been featured in Vegetable Gardens and Urban Farms magazines. He devotes much of his time to freelance writing, photography, and travel, both foreign and domestic. He’s an avid hiker, yoga participant, and fair-weather cyclist. He survives Puget Sound’s rainy season by reading good books, playing piano and flute, and drinking plenty of black coffee while eating dark chocolate.

Special Guest - Sophie-Lorraine Smith, is a senior at Inglemoor High School, and is the Youth Poet Laureate of Kenmore. She loves words, of course, as well as language, astronomy, bright colors, and cats, and these subjects frequently appear in her poems. She spends most of her time reading and being fabulous.