Bainbridge Island Youth Partners in Health Presents Partners in Poetry! Featuring beloved Bainbridge Island poet, Michele Bombardier and Bainbridge Island Youth Musicians and Poets.

All proceeds will benefit Tuberculosis treatment and prevention.

Purchase tickets: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzQTzyymFEEzwvqtV0cKUbI_934dwV6MXbzaLvUa5B4qAKPQ/viewform

"Celebrate the launch of Don’t Ask Me How I Know, the powerful new poetry collection from former Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Michele Bombardier, joined in conversation by award winning poet Samyak Shertok. Reserve your seat today.

Bombardier’s second collection is a bold, compassionate exploration of endurance, vulnerability, and the forces that shape us. This book offers poems that confront loss, illuminate resilience, and honor the fragile beauty of daily life."

For more info and to reserve your seat: https://www.eagleharborbooks.com/events/5137220260522

Join Poetry Memoir, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

Welcome guest reader Samyak Shertok!

Samyak Shertok’s debut collection, No Rhododendron (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025), was selected by Kimiko Hahn for the 2024 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry and shortlisted for the 2026 PEN Open Book Award. His poems appear in The Cincinnati Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, POETRY, Shenandoah, Waxwing, Best New Poets, and elsewhere. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, and the Jake Adam York Prize, he has received fellowships from Aspen Words, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His work has been awarded the Robert and Adele Schiff Award for Poetry, the Gulf Coast Prize in Poetry, and the Auburn Witness Poetry Prize. Originally from Nepal, he is an Assistant Professor of English at Mississippi State University.

Hosted by poet laureate Erin Malone!

Sign up to read opens at 6:45pm. Ages 14+ *Cookies, courtesy of T & C, wine, and tea will be served. *Location: Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.

"If you have drafts of new poems, this intermediate-level workshop is a safe and encouraging circle of writers where you can give and receive feedback. Using the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process, you remain in charge of your own creative choices while developing revision skills and honing your poetic voice. Each class session includes a writing prompt and a short lesson on poetic craft. Instructor: Carrie Aberle."

This workshop is a series of Wednesday evening classes that go from May 20th to June 1oth.

Registration: https://anc.apm.activecommunities.com/biparksrec/activity/search/detail/5849?onlineSiteId=0&from_original_cui=true

This informal class is a companion to the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program's Third Thursday open mic readings. We'll study the work of featured guest reader Shertok Samyak, with the goal of deepening our skills for close-reading of poems and conversations about him.

Lead by poet laureate Erin Malone in the BARN Writers Studio. Bring a notebook, pen, and your curiosity!

To register go to https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/AssnFe/ev.asp?ID=5326486

Join Poetry Memoir, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

Join Poetry Memoir, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

Join Poetry Memoir, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

Presented in partnership with Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network (BARN) as part of Handwork 2026 and National Poetry Month.

At this evening of poetry and storytelling with poet Ricardo Ruiz, he will explore the lived experiences of his Mexican farmworker community in Eastern Washington. Ruiz’s debut collection, We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hardworking Mexicans from Eastern Washington, won the 2023 Washington State Book Award for Poetry and presents vivid, bilingual poems created in collaboration with 13 members of his community. Through his work, Ruiz brings to light stories of migration, labor, and resilience, honoring voices that have too often gone unheard.

Click link for more info: https://www.biartmuseum.org/event/ricardo-ruiz-poetry-reading-and-reception/

Sunday, April 26th from 2-3:30 p.m. Poetry Corners exhibit and anthology poets read their works. Followed by Poetry Corners Anthology book sale and reception.

Washington state poet laureate Derek Sheffield will be joining Bainbridge Island poet laureate Erin Malone in poetry discussion!

There will be time for Q&A and book signing. Afterwards there will be a Waterfront Park poetry walk with the poet laureates!

Derek Sheffield is the 8th poet laureate of Washington State (2025-2027). His books include Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, winner of a 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, Not for Luck, selected by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, Through the Second Skin, runner-up for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy. A two-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award, his other awards include the Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year in Nature Writing and the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Li-Young Lee. He teaches at Wenatchee Valley College and Western Colorado University, edits poetry for Terrain.org, and can often be found in the woods along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range near Leavenworth, Washington.

Location: Bainbridge Island Senior & Community Center, 370 Brien Dr SE, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

Join Poetry Memoir, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

"Join Janee Baugher to celebrate a narrative portrait of the life of painter Andrew Wyeth on April 21st at 6:30 PM. Influenced by Wyeth paintings, Baugher compiles a stunning collection of poetry that allow the reader to cross the boundary between art and the written word."

For more info https://www.eagleharborbooks.com/events/4651920260421

Join Bainbridge Island's 2024 Poet of the Year and author of Superbloom, Makaela Smith, for a poetry workshop at Bainbridge Gardens!

Call 206-842-5888 or email info@bainbridgegardens.com to register. Class fee is $10.

Presented in partnership with Humanities Washington as part of Handwork 2026 and National Poetry Month.

Author Tara Campbell invites participants to explore art through creative writing while engaging with selected works from BIMA’s Crafting Futures: Emerging Artists Invitational exhibition, part of Handwork 2026.

Click link for more info: https://www.biartmuseum.org/event/finding-yourself-in-art-ekphrastic-poetry-workshop-with-tara-campbell/

Welcome guest readers Kary Wayson!

Kary Wayson is the author of two collections of poems—The Slip (Burnside Review, 2020) and American Husband (Ohio State University Press, 2009), and a chapbook, Dog & Me (LitRag Press, 2004). Her poems have appeared in Oxford Poetry, The Nation, Narrative, FIELD, Image, The Volta, The Best American Poetry, and Pushcart Prize anthologies. She lives in Port Orchard, WA.

Hosted by poet laureate Erin Malone!

Sign up to read opens at 6:45pm. Ages 14+ *Cookies, courtesy of T & C, wine, and tea will be served. *Location: Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.

This informal class is a companion to the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program's Third Thursday open mic readings. We'll study the work of featured guest readers Kary Wayson and John Okrent, with the goal of deepening our skills for close-reading of poems and conversations about them.

Lead by poet laureate Erin Malone in the BARN Writers Studio. Bring a notebook, pen, and your curiosity!

To register go to https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/AssnFe/ev.asp?ID=5326486

New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Beautiful and renowned poet Maggie Smith presents her newest collection of poems A Suit or a Suitcase in conversation with our very own Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Erin Malone on March 25th. Smith’s work is as lyrical as it is alive, and this event will be perfect for writers and lovers of poetry.

Click here for more info https://www.eagleharborbooks.com/events/4399120260325

"Develop a daily practice of poetry writing through class exercises, daily prompts, and participating in class readings."

To find out more about this writing series and to register click here— https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=5326114&_gl=1*tac2cd*_gcl_au*OTQ5NTE1NDg1LjE3NjM3NDUyNTE.*_ga*MTM2NjExNzMxNS4xNzYzNzQ1MjUx*_ga_T23DJFHLRZ*czE3NzA0MzUwODAkbzQ4JGcxJHQxNzcwNDM1MTg4JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..

"Writing in the Garden with Emily Nemens

Join Creative Resident Emily Nemens for this generative workshop looking at examples of fiction and poetry that take place in, and gain energy from, gardens. After reading and discussing works from writers like Virginia Woolf and Ross Gay, try your hand at writing your own creative “garden works.” Please be ready to participate in class-wide discussion and try your hand at writing while exploring Bloedel Reserve. Sharing your new work is not required, but encouraged, and we’ll save time for Q&A.

Emily is the author of The Cactus League (2020) and Clutch (2026)."

WHERE

Meet at the Japanese Guest House

Click here to register https://bloedelreserve.org/event/writing-in-the-garden/

Welcome guest readers Bill Carty and Paul Hlava Ceballos!

Bill Carty lives in Seattle and is the author of We Sailed on the Lake (Bunny Presse/Fonograf Editions, 2023) and Huge Cloudy (Octopus Books, 2019), which was longlisted for The Believer Book Award. He is Web Editor at Poetry Northwest and teaches at Edmonds College and the Hugo House.

Paul Hlava Ceballos is the author of banana [ ], which won the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the Poetry Society of America’s Norma Farber First Book Award. banana [ ] also was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Washington State Book Award. His collaborative chapbook, Banana [ ] / we pilot the blood, shares pages with Quenton Baker and Christina Sharpe. He currently is the poetry editor of the Seattle Met and practices echocardiography.

Hosted by poet laureate Erin Malone!

Sign up to read opens at 6:45pm. Ages 14+ *Cookies, courtesy of T & C, wine, and tea will be served. *Location: Bainbridge Public Library, 1270 Madison Ave N, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.

"Develop a daily practice of poetry writing through class exercises, daily prompts, and participating in class readings."

To find out more about this writing series and to register click here— https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=5326114&_gl=1*tac2cd*_gcl_au*OTQ5NTE1NDg1LjE3NjM3NDUyNTE.*_ga*MTM2NjExNzMxNS4xNzYzNzQ1MjUx*_ga_T23DJFHLRZ*czE3NzA0MzUwODAkbzQ4JGcxJHQxNzcwNDM1MTg4JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..

This informal class is a companion to the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program's Third Thursday open mic readings. We'll study the work of featured guest readers Bill Carty and Paul Hlava Ceballos, with the goal of deepening our skills for close-reading of poems and conversations about them.

Lead by poet laureate Erin Malone in the BARN Writers Studio. Bring a notebook, pen, and your curiosity!

To register go to https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/AssnFe/ev.asp?ID=5326486

Free and open to the public, cash and check donations accepted at the door.

https://centrum.org/event/poetry-on-the-salish-sea-free-public-reading/

Join Poetry Surprise, taught by poet and educator Amanda Williamsen!

Amanda’s work has appeared in New Ohio Review, Mezzo Cammin, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Baltimore Review, Midwestern Gothic, and other journals. A graduate of The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University, she has been an educator for thirty years for young people and adults. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and a past poet laureate of Cupertino, California. Currently she’s working on a poetry memoir about her youth in rural Ohio.

This ongoing series of classes is free, and open to the public and to adults of all ages (with $25 annual membership fee).

Click link to sign up and for the center's calendar: https://myactivecenter.com/activity/1346:1/13264

"Develop a daily practice of poetry writing through class exercises, daily prompts, and participating in class readings."

To find out more about this writing series and to register click here— https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=5326114&_gl=1*tac2cd*_gcl_au*OTQ5NTE1NDg1LjE3NjM3NDUyNTE.*_ga*MTM2NjExNzMxNS4xNzYzNzQ1MjUx*_ga_T23DJFHLRZ*czE3NzA0MzUwODAkbzQ4JGcxJHQxNzcwNDM1MTg4JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..

"Develop a daily practice of poetry writing through class exercises, daily prompts, and participating in class readings."

To find out more about this writing series and to register click here— https://www.create.bainbridgebarn.org/assnfe/ev.asp?ID=5326114&_gl=1*tac2cd*_gcl_au*OTQ5NTE1NDg1LjE3NjM3NDUyNTE.*_ga*MTM2NjExNzMxNS4xNzYzNzQ1MjUx*_ga_T23DJFHLRZ*czE3NzA0MzUwODAkbzQ4JGcxJHQxNzcwNDM1MTg4JGo2MCRsMCRoMA..