February 3rd -- Free Writing Workshop, PIE Reading and Open Mic with Suzanne Edison and Tamara Kaye Sellman
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4:24 pm to 6pm - Free Writing Workshop led by Suzanne Edison - The Words to Say It: Writing Poems About Illness, Trauma, & Healing-- In this brief workshop we will read a poems on the topic and you’ll receive prompts and time to write your own poems.
6:10 pm Poetry is Everything (PIE) Reading with Suzanne Edison & Tamara Kaye Sellman and Open Mic
Bio: Suzanne Edison writes often, but not exclusively, about the intersection of illness, healing, and medicine. Her first full length book, Since the House Is Burning, was published by MoonPath Press in 2022. Her chapbook, The Body Lives Its Undoing, was published by Benaroya Research Institute in 2018. Poetry can be found in: Michigan Quarterly Review; JAMA; HEAL; SWWIM Every Day; Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine; and in several anthologies including: The Healing Art of Writing, Volume One. Suzanne is a Hedgebrook Fellow and teaches in Seattle and through UCSF in San Francisco.
Tamara Kaye Sellman wrote most of Intention Tremor next to a campfire or inside a travel trailer at Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, WA in the five years that followed her diagnosis of multiple sclerosis (MS) in June 2013.
A journalist by trade, she’d gone back to school to study sleep technology at age 47. While preparing for finals in March 2013, she discovered she could see, but she could no longer read. Other symptoms—especially tremors in her left leg and hands, balance and dizziness issues, chronic fatigue, deafening tinnitus, and sweeping sensations called paresthesias—still continue despite treatment.
Following diagnosis, Sellman finished the sleep technology program to earn two medical credentials (RPSGT, CCSH). After working overnight shift directly with patients for two years in the sleep lab, she now works as a science journalist, healthcare columnist for Health Union, and online community advocate.
She also serves as co-admin to the Multiple Sclerosis Unplugged Facebook group, is a member of both the education and content committees for the American Association of Sleep Technologists, contributes regularly to the magazine A2Zzz, and is a paid “influencer” for two of Healthline’s chronic illness communities.
Her short work (essays, poems, stories, and articles) has been published widely and internationally. Sellman’s work has been featured on postcards and calendars and inside city buses.
She’s earned several awards including first place in the Dr. O. Marvin Lewis Essay Award and has been a finalist in contests sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, the North American Review, Winning Writers, and others. Her creative nonfiction was nominated for the prestigious John S. Burroughs Prize. She’s also received two Pushcart Prize nominations: one for fiction, the other for poetry. She currently lives in Kingston, WA.
Author proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Accelerated Cure Project (https://www.acceleratedcure.org/)