December Castalia

DECEMBER CASTALIA!

What: The Castalia Reading Series
Who: Writers: Shawn Wong, Megan Snyder-Camp, Nicholas VandenBos, Fonda Fan, Thomas Grout, Emily Sketch Haines
Where: Richard Hugo House, Capitol Hill, Seattle
When: 8 pm

Get ready for the last Castalia of 2011! The theme for December is Lights. The lineup features first year prose writer Fonda Fan and first year poets Thomas Grout and Emily Sketch Haines. Nicholas VandenBos, 2nd year fiction writer, will be returning fresh from the Montana forest, with the glow of the northern lights still in his eyes. . .

We are lucky enough to count alum and poet Megan Snyder-Camp (2004) among our star readers this month. Her first collection The Forest of Sure Things won the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Award, and she has received a 2010 Individual Artist Award from Washington’s 4Culture Foundation, as well as scholarships and residencies from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Espy Foundation, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, and the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest. Her poems have appeared in the Antioch Review, Field, ZYZZYVA, the Sonora Review, the Cincinnati Review, 88, and elsewhere.
You can find her online at http://snydercamp.com/.

But of course, no one can hold a candle to our featured faculty writer, UW professor Shawn Wong, whose works include the novels American Knees (recently made into the IFC film Americanese, on which Shawn served as associate producer) and Homebase, winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and the Governor's Writers Day Award of Washington. He has co-edited and edited six Asian-American and American multicultural literary anthologies and has been the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship and a Rockefeller Foundation residency in Italy.

See you there!

As always, fabulous drinks will be served at the RHH bar!

IN 2012: On Tuesday, January 3rd, the spotlight will be on alum poet Matthew Nienow, poet & faculty member Pimone Triplett, first-year writers Kristine Greive and Matt Perez, and second-year poet Kate Lebo!

December Castalia Poster

November Recap!

That's a wrap folks! Last month's Castalia was a raging success featuring first year poet Luke Laubhan who gave us a stirring collage account of his experiences on the Oklahoman range. He was followed by first year prose writer Tara Atkinson who gave us a brief but memorable peek into her novel-in-progress beautifully detailing the complications of a father-daughter relationship. Second year poet gentleman and scholar Peter Moench stole the show in the first act. Via his verse he delved into the life of another scholar and schooled us all on Linear B.

After a brief intermission, we got back to business and boy was it busy! Alum Marcia Woodard surprised us with her off-genre canine journalism. She shared two pieces with us, offering new insights into the world of the AKC and a new understanding what it means to be a pet owner. Following Marcia was her fellow alum, Amanda Laughtland. Amanda shared short poems inspired by a box of forbidden postcards, dug up out of the depths of her neighbor’s basement. Then she got the crowd a buzzin’ with her bee poems. Finally, our best and most distinguished reader Andrew Feld arrived with his pet falcon. Kidding! Guided by the metaphorical possibilities of falconry, he captivated us with poems from his new book Raptor.

November Castalia Photos