2006 Readings

January 7, 2006 — Stacey Levine

Stacey Levine is a Seattle-based author. Her books include My Horse and Other Stories (winner of 1994 PEN/West Fiction Award) and Dra—, a novel, both published by Sun & Moon Press. Her novel Frances Johnson was recently published by Clear Cut Press. She has written for the American Book Review, Fodor’s travel guides, Nest magazine, the Seattle Times, the Seattle Weekly, The Stranger, and even scarier venues. Formerly a creative writing instructor, Stacey is now working on a second collection of short fiction.

February, 2006

[no reading scheduled, or we have no record of it]

March 4, 2006 — Island Style Slam—Twenty-five minutes of inspired panic

Twice a year, RASP features a competitive event we call an “Island Style Slam.” Writers compose poems on the spot and perform them for an audience and panel of judges. Winners are judged on performance, adherence to criteria, and originality. First, second and third place winners divide a cash prize pot. Sounds scary, but it is great fun.

April 1, 2006 — John and Roberta Olson (poets)

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John Olson is the author of four collections of prose poetry. His essays, poetry, short stories and literary criticism are published in many respected journals. In 2004, he received The Stranger’s Genius Award. Open Books called Roberta Olson’s collection, All These Fair and Flagrant Things,” a delightful collection of distinctive and whimsical poems.” Her poetry appears in distinguished periodicals, and she is a frequent featured reader at local and regional arts venues. In her other life, Ms. Olson is a cake designer. No one knows what Mr. Olson does. John and Roberta live in their cat Toby Olson’s house, in Seattle. More about John Olson. More about Roberta Olson.

May 6, 2006 — Steve Potter (fiction, poetry)

Steve Potter lives in Seattle where he spends more time than he ought wandering the streets, mumbling under his breath. His short fiction and poetry are unleashed in the journals Arson, Drunken Boat, Knock, Midnight Mind, 3rd Bed, California Quarterly, Freefall and online at Pindeldyboz. He is the publisher and editor of a new magazine, The Wandering Hermit Review. Mr. Potter has an MFA from City University of New York.

[Steve Potter did not show up for this reading, and we never heard any explanation.]

June 3, 2006 — Carol Morrison (nonfiction)

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Carol J. Morrison—an instant favorite reader last summer—again favors RASP with her winsome brand of prose. Author of Catching On: Love with an Avid Fly Fisher, Morrison is a Mississippi native transplanted to the Northwest. She lives in North Bend and shares a therapy practice with her husband Ed—the avid fellow referred to above. As a fly-fisher’s wife, she knows fishermen. As a therapist, she knows relationships. “People want to be loved. They want to believe they’re lovable. They want to believe they’re important to others. Readers have seen themselves in my journey and have been inspired by my coming to believe all these things.”

July, 2006

[no reading scheduled, or we have no record of it]

August 5, 2006 — Fred Jesset, with special guest Galit Oren (poets)

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Fred Jesset was born in Wenatchee, grew up in Olympia, Everett, and Seattle. Graduated UW ’56. Lived in Colorado, California, South Dakota and Montana before returning to Cheney WA in ’73. Moved to Sammamish in ’89 to start a new congregation of the Episcopal Church there. Married Kris Olson in ’60 and we have two sons and two daughters and seven grandchildren. Began taking writing courses just before I retired in ’98. My little paperback, Remembering Grace, was published this year, It’s a collection of 13 true stories of God’s grace appearing in the lives of ordinary people. Since 1999 I’ve been writing a column, Grace Happens for some Episcopal newspapers (circulation around 20,000) and I’ve had some short stories, both fiction and creative non-fiction published. In 2003 my unpublished novel When Drummer Loved Dancer was a finalist in the PNWA Literary contest. Death on the Rez: A Quartet of Scenes won second place for excellence in creative non-fiction in the Maryland Writers’ Contest. A short story, The Preacher’s Gift will be published in the January 2007 issue of Ancient Paths, and three true short stories in an anthology by the South Dakota Humanities Council late this year.

September 2, 2006 — Penny Orloff

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October 7, 2006 — Rebecca Meredith (poet, novelist)

Rebecca Meredith is a psychoanalytic psychotherapist and writer, with a private practice in Seattle. As an analyst she helps people explore how they are shaped by earliest relationships and events and understand how these early experiences affect them now. As a writer and poet, she writes about her own love/hate relationship with her Southern heritage, and her own questions about childhood, mortality and what it means to be human. A long-time RASP reader and tireless supporter, Rebecca is a past president of the RASP board of directors, and member of the scrappy RASP Super Bowl of Poetry team.

November 4, 2006 — Priscilla Long (nonfiction, fiction, poetry)

Priscilla Long writes and publishes poetry, essays, fiction, and history. She is author of Where the Sun Never Shines: a History of America’s Bloody Coal Industry. Her work appears in The Southern Review, Raven Chronicles, North Dakota Quarterly, The American Scholar, Ontario Review, Seattle Review, Chattahoochee Review, Passages North, Painted Bride Quarterly, Under The Sun, Michigan Quarterly Review, and other journals and periodicals. In 2006 The American Scholar, was honored for her piece “Genome Tome” with a National Magazine Award for Best Feature Writing. Her awards include the Richard Hugo House Founders’ Award, and honors from the Seattle Arts Commission and the Los Angeles Arts Commission. Ms. Long serves as Senior Editor of www.HistoryLink.org, an evolving, online encyclopedia of Washington state history.

December 2, 2006 — Vicky Edmonds (poet)

A poet and teacher, Vicky Edmonds uses written and spoken word in an ongoing therapeutic and spiritual practice. Host of a series of radio shows on Straight Talk/Recovery Radio, she has presented at the National Association for Poetry Therapy and the International Expressive Arts Therapy Annual Conferences. Ms. Edmonds has worked nationwide as an educator, developing CD-ROM magazines written and produced by youth. Her published books include the poetry collections, Inside Voices, used to the dark, once drunk / opening, unpredictable as breathing, and two volumes of the ongoing writing curriculum series, Writes of Passage. Vicky has compiled over 100 collections of writings from her workshops taught in schools, treatment centers, youth-at-risk programs and a children’s prison near Seattle. Vicky’s website, http://www.ealloftheabove.com/index.html, is a repository of her poetry, as well as details about her classes, her books, and . . . her.