Elizabeth Austen
Producer
About
Former Washington State Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen has been interviewing poets and producing poetry segments for KUOW since 2001.
She began as an intern while in graduate school for an MFA in poetry at Antioch University, Los Angeles. Once she discovered the joy of blending her early background as an actor and director (Book–It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Festival) with her passion for poetry as a spoken art form, she was hooked. She's been producing poetry for radio audiences ever since.
Her collection, "Every Dress a Decision" (Blue Begonia Press, 2011), was a finalist for the 2012 Washington State Book Award in poetry, and is now in its fourth printing. She's committed to fostering a broader understanding and appreciation of the literary arts in general and poetry in particular. Visit her online at her personal site.
Stories
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Inside A Toddler's Brain: "Epiphanette"
In "Epiphanette," Woodinville poet Dennis Caswell speculates on what happens to the "carefree cognitive tumbleweed" of his baby daughter's mind when it "is
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Marjorie Manwaring's "Letter From Zelda"
In "Letter from Zelda," poet Marjorie Manwaring creates an imaginary letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald, written by his wife Zelda from her room in a mental
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"Letter To Mick Jagger From The St. Paul Chapter Of The Daughters Of Norway"
The Woodstock generation may be aging, but don't try to tell them they're not still cool. Poet Marjorie Manwaring's "Letter to Mick Jagger from the St.
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Karen Finneyfrock's Monstrous Spring
A Metro bus ride inspires poet, novelist and teaching artist Karen Finneyfrock to find a delightfully surprising personification for Northwest springtime
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Annette Spaulding-Convy's "Bonsai Nun"
As a former Dominican nun in the Roman Catholic Church, Annette Spaulding-Convy is intimately aware of the complex messages the institution sends about
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Marjorie Manwaring Offers A Poem Of Second Chances
As spring edges out winter and previously bare tree limbs are suddenly effusive with blossoms, there's a sense that almost anything -- or anyone --
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Poet Alice Derry On Mourning A Complicated Relationship
Mourning begins in a kind of thick non-seeing, only later clarified, gradually lightening, until we recognize what our lives must carry. So begins "The
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Elissa Ball In Praise Of "Analog Love"
Performance poet Elissa Ball comes from the ethos of Riot Grrrl and punk. She distributed her poems via do-it-yourself zines beginning in her early teen...
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Kathleen Flenniken On Coming To Terms With Hanford
In childhood, our allegiances, our loves, are often black and white, simplistic. One of the difficult parts of becoming an adult is reconciling ourselves to the failings and flaws in what we have loved and admired. Sometimes the task involves recognizing our own complicity in those failings.Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken's most recent collection, “Plume” (University of Washington Press, 2012) reckons with her own childhood allegiances. She grew up in Richland, Wash., a town next to the Hanford nuclear site. Both she and her father worked at Hanford. She writes from an insider’s perspective, and uses all the poetic means at her disposal to express the complexity of her adult perspective in “Museum of a Lost America” and “Deposition.”From “Museum of a Lost America,” by Kathleen Flenniken:Country of short memory,glass surfaces,and fingerprints easily wiped off.Flenniken’s first book, "Famous" (University of Nebraska, 2006), won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. She has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust, a Pushcart Prize, and grants from Artist Trust and the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. Flenniken is one of Seattle Magazine's 2012 Spotlight Award winners.Her reading was recorded in the KUOW Studios on March 23, 2012.As the Washington poet laureate, she promotes the work of the state’s poets on her blog, The Far Field.Hear Flenniken reading poems about the effects of Hanford on the Columbia River, and on families including her own.
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Poet Alice Derry On "Fooling Around" With The Artistic Life
In "Fooling Around," poet and translator Alice Derry considers the implications of the artistic life — whether it is chosen, or thrust upon us."Fooling Around" appears in Derry's fourth poetry collection, "Tremolo" (Red Hen Press, 2012). Her previous award-winning collections are "Strangers to Their Courage" (Louisiana State University Press, 2001), "Stages of Twilight" (Breitenbush, 1986) and "Clearwater" (Blue Begonia Press, 1997). She is also the author of three poetry chapbooks and translations of the German poet Rainier Maria Rilke (Pleasure Boat Studio, 2002). Derry recently retired from Peninsula College on Washington's Olympic Peninsula. She lives in Port Angeles.