Please contact us to hold your seat! More info below.
In 2003, New Yorker Christopher Luna found himself on the other side of the country, uncertain how to navigate the strange new culture of the Pacific Northwest. He spent the next decade writing poems and observations of Vancouver, WA (a place he nicknamed Ghost Town, USA) and building the local literary community through the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic.
Join Luna, the first Poet Laureate of Clark County (2013-2017) in a discussion about making peace with unfamiliar surroundings and the power of writing poems of place. This 90-minute workshop will include a short writing exercise as well as ideas for writing poetry that begins where you are.
Christopher Luna by Julian Nelson
Christopher Luna served as Clark County, WA’s first Poet Laureate from 2013-2017. He has an MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and is the co-founder (with Toni Partington) of Printed Matter Vancouver, an editing service and small press for Northwest writers. He has hosted the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in Vancouver, WA since 2004. Luna’s books include Brutal Glints of Moonlight, GHOST TOWN, USA and The Flame Is Ours: The Letters of Stan Brakhage and Michael McClure 1961-1978.
This event is FREE for everyone. Please register for this workshop at 360-993-5679 or by email at events@cchmuseum.org (include your name, phone number, and how many in your group).
Sponsored by: Clark County Historical Museum, Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, Humanities Washington “Washington Stories” Grant, Peabody’s College of Arts and Sciences Meyer Distinguished Professor Fellowship, Washington State University Vancouver, and Washington State University History Department’s Pettyjohn Fund.
Follow your bliss this Summer. Take a writing workshop with Christopher Luna.
Christopher has an MFA in Writing and Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, where he received training in literary community outreach from Jack Collom, and two decades of teaching experience. He served as the Poet Laureate of Clark County, WA from 2013-2017. In 2004 he founded the popular Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic, which he co-hosts with his wife Toni Partington. Christopher and Toni co-founded Printed Matter Vancouver, which publishes local poetry and provides coaching and editing services to Northwest writers.
Darlene Zimbardi had the following comments about her experience in Christopher’s poetry and memoir writing classes: “I love taking classes with Christopher. From the moment you walk into the room, you see and feel his passion for literature. His zest transfers to his students. It doesn’t matter where you are on your writing path, he encourages and challenges you. Christopher holds a safe space for writers to share their work.”
Christopher Luna photographed by Toni Partington
Below you will find several creative writing workshops throughout the region sponsored by Multnomah Arts Center, Clark College, Niche Wine Bar, and Angst Gallery. Hope you can join us.
Contact printedmattervancouver@gmail.com or christopherjluna@gmail.com for more information.
Poetry as a means of expression, exploration, and experience is available to everyone. Write poetry in response to prompts and read a variety of published poems that you can use as inspiration. Read and respond to one another’s work in this supportive setting, paying close attention to revision.
Poetry as a means of expression, exploration, and experience is available to everyone. Write poetry in response to prompts and read a variety of published poems that you can use as inspiration. Read and respond to one another’s work in this supportive setting, paying close attention to revision.
Everyone has a story to tell. Each person’s life is filled with adventure, mystery, trouble, and triumph. Memoir is a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all human beings. This course will empower you to begin to see yourself as a part of history, and to discover the value in documenting the story of your life.
Item #: 9412
Thursdays 7/12 – 8/23/2018
1:00PM- 3:20PM
$159
Room CCE 208
Downtown Campus
500 Broadway Street, Suite 200
Vancouver, WA 98660
Metered Parking: $ 0.50/hr
Memoir writer Susan Starkey’s army jacket covered in pins from her years on the front lines of the battle for civil rights, the anti-war movement, and the gay rights movement
Beginners and experienced writers alike will generate new works and discuss the poet’s role in the community. Read, listen to, and write poetry together in a supportive class focused on providing gentle, constructive feedback. Discuss how to construct a manuscript and ready it for publication. Writers of all experience levels are welcome. Bring paper and pen or laptop. Ages 16 and over.
Join us on Saturday, June 9 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Niche Wine Bar led by former Clark County Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna.
Christopher is completely convinced of poetry’s ability to encourage empathy and compassion, and to spark the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. He would love to share his passion for poetry with you.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 11:30 until 2:30.
Niche is located at 1013 Main Street, right next door to The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District.
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.
Note: The Work Saturday Afternoon Edition will take place on the second Saturday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming Saturday workshops will take place on July 14 and August 11.
Join us on Monday, May 28 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Angst Gallery led by former Clark County Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 6:00 until 8:30.
Angst Gallery is located at 1015 Main Street, two doors down from The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District.
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.
Note: The Monday evening edition of the Work will take place at Angst Gallery on the last Monday evening of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming Monday workshops will take place on the following dates: June 25 and July 30.
Matt Amott is a poet, musician, and photographer who rambles around the Pacific Northwest. He is co-founder and co-editor of Six Ft. Swells Poetry Press and has been published in numerous collections as well as two books of his own, The Coast is Clear (Six Ft. Swells Press) and Get Well Soon (Epic Rites Press). He can be reached and purchases made at afterhourspoetry.com.
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sharon Wood Wortman, who appeared as our featured reader in November 2007, shared the following observations about what she witnessed at Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on April 12, 2018:
“The Oregonian published a story yesterday about a new 100-bed shelter proposed for under the west end of the Broadway Bridge. Housing is at a crisis, don’t we know? Wouldn’t it be something if the sponsors knew that in addition to the foundation-building of keeping people out of the elements, equally humane would be to help them express themselves, also in a safe and warm a place?
“What if when everyone is thinking of ways to help others redirect, they would consider poetry an essential—as surely as access to a bed, soap, and a toothbrush to call one’s own? Cuisine for the heart made right there at the shelter and then read before a microphone as part of the redistribution of the self? In a better manufactured world, someone would hire you two to implement such mending/remaking of humanity.
“From where I sat in the audience last night, it looked to me that you two offer, among all the things you offer, your talent for luxurious attention and high-end listening. I once thought of you as ministers of poetry, but you are something better, more practical. More tangible than any church, you run the HUD of poetry—providing a welcoming and unfettered place for people of all shapes, sizes, hues, abilities, genders, and clothing preferences, and you do all this on a cotton-thin budget. Amazing.”
Drawing from a deep well of autobiographical and cross-cultural experience, Everywhere I Find Myself is a wide-ranging narrative journey of the heart.
“Leah Stenson’s Everywhere I Find Myself traverses the full range of human experience–what she calls the ‘terrible exquisiteness of being’–from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima to a friendly encounter with a cow; from the distractions of our devices to moments of deep tranquility; from a grandfather’s suicide to a daughter’s gift of a pair of pillowcases made from fine Egyptian cotton. By turns witty, playful, and deadly serious, these poems give readers one woman’s unflinchingly honest take on life’s beautiful, painful vicissitudes.”—John Brehm, author of Help Is on the Way and Sea of Faith
“In this engaging and satisfying first full-length collection of poems, Leah Stenson explores the tensions between mystery and understanding, and between estrangement and belonging. The world of these poems–our world–is simultaneously expansive and confining, and Stenson travels through it seeking connection. ‘Home / wasn’t far away,’ she tells us, ‘but the road never ended’.”—Andrea Hollander, author of Landscape with Female Figure, Woman in the Painting, The Other Life, and House Without a Dreamer
“’Eternity can be heard in the stir of the breeze, in the vineyards, the whisper of prayer,’ the poet writes in Everywhere I Find Myself. The poems explore love, memory and deep loss with equal verve. With an artist’s sharp eye for detail and a philosophical world view Leah Stenson is a savvy traveler. Her wry wit, compassionate heart and spirit infuse this vivid, engaging collection.”—Marilyn Stablein, author of Climate of Extremes, Splitting Hard Ground, and Sleeping in Caves
Flying to Ohio
by Leah Stenson
After a soporific of red wine and potato chips,
I drifted off over the Great Plains at midnight,
the cabin darkened, my heart and the heartland lit.
Now the sky is reddening in the east, and
in the west lights are clumped like islands
glimmering through velum.
On that solo adventure four decades ago, knapsack
on my back, I wandered from the foot of the Acropolis
to Delphi and Santorini, channeling light.
Returning home a prodigal wanderer, I never stopped.
Sometimes at high altitudes, I still find shards
of former selves, a polished stone, a sun-bleached shell.
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Photo by Friderike Heuer
Judith Arcana writes poems, stories, essays and books, publishing online and on paper. Her work has, naturally, been influenced by the times and places of her life: A high school English teacher in the 1960’s, Judith was fired, as many were in those years, considered dangerously radical by the school board. She’s written poems and stories rooted in her commitment to reproductive justice, which began with her work in the pre-Roe abortion underground in Chicago.
Judith’s new poetry collection, Announcements from the Planetarium, was published by Flowstone Press in 2017; its poems examine memory, consider the nature of wisdom, and reflect on the experience of aging into new consciousness. Judith hosts a poetry show on KBOO community radio in Oregon and online.
The Woman Who Hands You A Gun
Don’t think because I’m old
I’m not learning anymore. No.
That’s not how it goes. Right
now I’m on my way, leaving
town to be a carny, a barker
at the tattooed lady’s tent flap
or the woman who hands you a gun
at the shooting gallery or hoops
to toss over baby dolls. It’s got
to be something I don’t have
to study or practice, something
I can slip right into, on-the-job
training. Because I don’t have
that kind of time anymore.
I’m saying I’ll be an intern
an apprentice – not a student.
I don’t have time for that.
…….. Judith Arcana (First published in CIRQUE – Winter Solstice issue, 2012)
LGBTQ+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
christopherjluna@gmail.com
Peter Ludwin is the recipient of a Literary Fellowship from Artist Trust and the W.D. Snodgrass Award for Endeavor and Excellence in Poetry. His first book, A Guest in All Your Houses, was published in 2009 by Word Walker Press. His second collection is Rumors of Fallible Gods, a two-time finalist for the Gival Press Poetry Award that was published in 2013 by Presa Press.
His new book, Gone to Gold Mountain, was published in 2016 by MoonPath Press and subsequently nominated for a Washington State Book Award. In May, 2017 the Before Columbus Foundation nominated it for an American Book Award.
A fourteen-year participant in Mexico’s San Miguel Poetry Week, where he has studied under such noted poets as Mark Doty, Tony Hoagland, Joseph Stroud and Robert Wrigley, Ludwin was the Second Prize winner of the 2007-2008 Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards. In 2010 Soundings Review named him its Reader’s Choice winner in the spring/summer issue.
Most recently, he was the 2016 First Prize winner of The Comstock Review’s Muriel Craft Bailey Memorial Award, the Second Place winner of the 2016 Paulann Petersen Poetry Award, and a finalist in poetry for both the 2016 Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards and the Pangaea Poetry Prize. A multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, he received nominations in 2016 from MoonPath Press and Connecticut River Review.
His work has appeared in many journals, including Atlanta Review, The Bitter Oleander, The Comstock Review, Crab Orchard Review, Nimrod, North American Review and Prairie Schooner, to name a few. A world traveler who has journeyed by canoe to visit remote Indian families in the Amazon Basin of Ecuador, hiked in the Peruvian Andes, thumbed for rides in Greece, bargained for goods in the markets of Marrakech and Istanbul and survived debilitating illness in China and Tibet, he is also accomplished on acoustic guitar and autoharp. He lives in Kent, Washington, where he works for the Parks Department.
Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver
Dane DeLloyd by Tiffany Burba
7 pm
Thursday, February 8
Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7
Angst Gallery
1015 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
angstgallery.com
Dane DeLloyd is an actor/poet/pianist/artist extraordinaire who has performed coast to coast in many different venue’s and formats. On the East Coast he has opened up for acts such as The Roots, The Pharcyde, Faith Evans, and the Last Poets. On the West Coast he has played every tall monster (i.e. Frankenstein, Shrek, Zombie, Ghostface Killer and others) at Universal Studios Hollywood four out of the last five years. He also custom designed T-shirts for several mazes at Hollywood Horror Nights in Los Angeles. Dane has self-published multiple chap books as well as two musical CD’s: 100% Organic Music and Serumade Adabeigio. 100% Organic Music includes over twenty years of original material. Serumade Adabeigio (literally translated as “the healing kiss”) is his debut classical/jazz solo piano recording. He has also promoted diversity in the community working with organizations such as the University of Pittsburgh and the Heinz Foundation. His works have been performed in the Andy Warhol Museum as well as the National Poetry Slam competition. His photography is currently on display at the Waddell & Reed building in downtown Vancouver, and in limited edition photography books such as N.Y.C. (2010).
Serumade
by Dane DeLloyd
Number one. water tension: the last drop to dissipate and splash
or encircle meniscus or slide down the side of a glass
aside doing dishes after grits and bacon
lovemaking that we choose not to mention.
Number two. Total stranger love: it was totally strange love,
only strangers could share the unfamiliarity of compartmentalized air
as out of the corner of side ways you stare
Not accidentally that you were looking at their love.
Looking at their love there. It’s like
Number three. Grits and bacon.
Number four. Habitdashedbaby: she drew in close to cuddle
through inspiration she never knew
about the places she will grow
or how much she grew… has grown… is growing…
Number five: gelatinous (dispeller)
she didn’t understand daddy’s self-doubt that he had
left her the genes to stand out
and now we only cradle her until she goes forward
to educate the labelers
she’s not of mixed blood
only mixed love… loving her always… loving them always… just because.
Number six: tomato blossoms: who transplanted buds immune
to the gloom. They love the rain and gave yellow blossoms in turn that smelled fertility fuzzy fragrant and sweet fruit to turn into sauces.
Number seven: Burning bush: it started between the behemoth desert sanders and the sawdust encircling the wind to show gust and test your faith sho-nuff’ it’s the wilderness against your nature… you pushed until the words were given back the water tension from the burning bush
Number eight: already here: The road was winding up to the mountain tops,
the van was packed out so there was no time to stop and see where the sludge stopped, and the clouds met the steep. I had love for the dregs where the industry seeps but now I live here with the rivers run deep.
Number nine: invisible tank : Two waterfalls folded in the pond the landscape the culture the knowledge the genre’ routed genes rooted in between the know-how of how unknown we are.
Items numbered of human SKU. Skewn into too soon
being again residue
pledging on cue. All that you have left… patience.
Number 10: patience for Dane: I felt the loss of innocence, a child punished for being beautiful and talented. Could I take those scars away for you
…only if I could… now we both heal together and apart
we always took beach strolls when you couldn’t walk
and now we pick up phones and don’t have time to talk about Love.
And the way in the life we may have just missed.
Life could be gone quick in a wind gust, a heart lust or a trip.
Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic Featuring Neil Aitken Hosted by Christopher Luna and Toni Partington of Printed Matter Vancouver 7 pm Thursday, January 11 Open mic sign up begins at 6:30 and closes at 7 Angst Gallery 1015 Main Street Vancouver, WA 98660
Neil Aitken, author of Babbage’s Dream
Neil Aitken is the author of Babbage’s Dream (Sundress 2017) and The Lost Country of Sight (Anhinga 2008), which received the Philip Levine Prize, as well as the poetry chapbook, Leviathan. His work has been published in American Literary Review, Crab Orchard Review, The Dialogist, Ninth Letter, The Normal School, The Southern Poetry Review, and many other journals. A former computer programmer and a past Kundiman Poetry Fellow, he is the founding editor of Boxcar Poetry Review, curator of Have Book Will Travel, and co-director of De-Canon: A Visibility Project. He also hosts The Lit Fantastic, a podcast about writers and their obsessions, and works as a creative writing coach and mentor. Visit him online at www.neil-aitken.com
Float
—a fundamental type used to define numbers with fractional parts
Like a bell, or rather the sound of it opening,
a silence that having tolled speaks again
suspended between states of incompleteness—
a point traversing a numbered landscape.
This country of small infinities is what we do
with what remains: bits of window panes,
refracted light, what gathers in the torn leaves
from the dimming edge of the red fields
grown dark. Say what you will, the body is no more
than the moon, a white trouser button in a pool
of gasoline, a halo of ash and flame
ascending the ladder of night.
Food and libation provided by Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street
Sound provided by Briz Loan & Guitar
LGBTQIA+ FRIENDLY, ALL AGES, AND UNCENSORED SINCE 2004
Listen to a feature on Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic on OPB Radio’s State of Wonder
Christopher Luna’s Winter 2018 Creative Writing Classes
Christopher Luna by Julian Nelson
UPDATE: Thank you to everyone who has already signed up for one of my classes. As of this writing, my Thursday memoir writing class is full, but there are still spots available in the Wednesday memoir writing class, and my MAC classes on poetry writing and collage. I have also updated the link to the Wednesday memoir writing class so that it will take you directly to the class description. Please feel free to contact me with any questions: printedmattervancouver@gmail.com.
Poets and artists have always used allusion and reference to create something new. Explore strategies for assembling borrowed words and images into art and poetry. Create visual collages that incorporate text or poems that include visual aids. Bring newspapers, magazines, photos, found text, and natural items to class. These items will be shared or swapped during class. Scissors, glue, and paper to collage on will be provided. All levels.
1082751 Sat. 10 am – 2 pm Feb. 24 $40 [1 class] Christopher Luna
Poetry Writing Ages 16 & Up
Poetry as a means of expression, exploration, and experience is available to everyone. Write poetry in response to prompts and read a variety of published poems that you can use as inspiration. Read and respond to one another’s work in this supportive setting, paying close attention to revision.
1082102 Mon. 10 am – 12:30 pm Jan. 8 – Mar. 19 $249 [9 classes] Christopher Luna
Everyone has a story to tell. Each person’s life is filled with adventure, mystery, trouble, and triumph. Memoir is a powerful way to demonstrate the interconnectedness of all human beings. With the help of former Clark County Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna, you will begin to see yourself as a part of history, and appreciate the value of documenting the story of your life.
This class is full and cannot accept additional students. Please consider taking the Wednesday class described above.
Item #: 9028
Dates: Thursdays 1/11/2018- 3/15/2018
1:00PM – 3:20PM
$215
Room: CCE 208
THE WORK
Niche Wine Bar/ Angst Gallery
The Work Saturday Afternoon Edition
Join us on Saturday, December 2 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Niche Wine Bar led by Clark County Poet Laureate Christopher Luna.
Christopher is completely convinced of poetry’s ability to encourage empathy and compassion, and to spark the shifts in consciousness which can lead to healing, personal growth, and an interest in fighting for progressive social change. He would love to share his passion for poetry with you.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 11:30 until 2:30.
Niche is located at 1013 Main Street, right next door to The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District.
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Shareable snacks are also welcome and very much appreciated.
Note: The Saturday Afternoon Edition of The Work will take place on the second Saturday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming readings will take place on the following dates: January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, and June 9.
The Work Monday Evening Edition
Christopher Luna and Leah Jackson are excited to announce a new Monday evening edition of The Work, to take place on the last Monday of every month.
Join us on Monday, January 29 for The Work, a monthly poetry writing workshop at Angst Gallery led by Clark County’s first Poet Laureate (2013-2017) Christopher Luna.
We will read and discuss poetry, and write several new poems together from 6:00 until 8:30. Angst Gallery is located at 1015 Main Street, two doors north of The Kiggins Theatre, Vancouver’s landmark movie house in the Vancouver Arts District. Food and libation available for purchase at Niche Wine Bar, 1013 Main Street (accessible through a doorway at the rear of the gallery).
$20 suggested donation; no one will be turned away for lack of funds.
Bring a poem to share as a way of saying hello.
Note: The Work will take place on the last Monday of each month, unless otherwise noted. Upcoming workshops will take place on the following dates: February 26, March 26, April 30, May 28, and June 25.
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 