poetry reading series

Lewis & Clark College Senior Poetry Readings

Each year the Department of English invites faculty, students, and the community to one of Lewis & Clark’s most anticipated annual events. Students in Advanced Poetry Writing courses read from their work in connection to designing a limited number of broadside prints produced by the Watzek Library Special Collections and Archives.


These recordings include both the yearly Manor House Senior Poetry Reading Series, as well as individual readings by senior poetry students.


Lewis & Clark College has a long tradition of teaching creative writing. The distinguished poet William Stafford spent most of his teaching career at Lewis & Clark and is now honored in the Stafford Room in the Watzek Library, which displays several manuscripts and editions of his poems. Vern Rutsala, recipient of numerous poetry awards, also taught poetry writing here for forty years. Today, Lewis & Clark offers a full menu of courses for students interested in developing their skills as creative writers. These include classes in poetry and fiction writing offered annually by poets Mary Szybist and Jerry Harp, and Pauls Toutonghi, novelist.

Lewis & Clark College Senior Poetry Readings Recordings: 2020 | 2014 | 2013 |

Mountain Writers Series

Mountain Writers Series is one of the nation's longest running literary series. Since its founding in 1973, it has sponsored and facilitated thousands of literary events, broadcasts, readings, conferences, seminars and workshops. In cooperation with a network of literary presenters throughout the Pacific Northwest, Mountain Writers Series works to bring writers to all communities in the region, through writing workshops, conferences, and public readings. Mountain Writers Series has welcomed poets and writers of regional, national, and international reputation into the community in order to share with audiences and enrich the literary life of Portland and the Northwest.

Mountain Writers Series Recordings: 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 |

Satyricon Poetry Series

The Satyricon nightclub was a Portland venue located at 125 N.W. Sixth Avenue in Portland, Oregon. Opened in 1983 the Satyricon nightclub developed a national reputation for its artistic radicalism and association with alternative and independent music through the 1980s and 1990s. Considered to be the oldest rock club on the west coast the Satyricon nightclub and adjacent restaurant Fellini's closed in 2003, to reopen briefly between 2006-2010.

Besides having a national reputation and history that includes being home to many notable concerts, a number of incidents involving notable people, and a police riot in 1990, the nightclub hosted regular poetry readings featuring poets from Portland and the Northwest. The poetry series often curated by Portland poet and novelist Walt Curtis featured regular readers Doug Spangle, John Twigg, Kevin Boardman, and Bad George, among other notable Northwest poets and authors.

In keeping with the artistic spirit of the Satyricon these recordings from 1984 and 1985 are unedited and include many of the onstage discussions, audience responses, and occasional fights that occurred during these poetry readings.

Satyricon Poetry Series Recordings: | Mar. 22nd, 1985 | Mar. 27th, 1985 | Nov. 13th, 1985 | Dec. 5th, 1984 | Dec. 12th, 1984 | Dec. 19th, 1984 | Dec. 26th, 1984 |

The Spare Room

The Spare Room reading series was founded as a collective early in 2002, and in nine years has presented 140 public events focusing on innovative and experimental writing, in a variety of venues. Spare Room holds a monthly reading that typically pairs local poets with out-of-towners, and has also sponsored annual festivals devoted to collaborative and intermedia work, including sound poetry and neo-benshi, and marathon readings of book-length works by Bernadette Mayer, Gertrude Stein, Ted Berrigan, H.D., Clark Coolidge, and Charles Olson. Information on Spare Room events can be found at www.flim.com/spareroom.

The Spare Room Recordings: 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 |

Summer Fishtrap

Fishtrap serves writers, teachers, librarians, editors, publishers, and readers as it "promotes clear thinking and good writing in and about the West."

It began in 1988 at Wallowa Lake, Oregon, with a Summer Writers' Gathering. Over 100 writers, editors, teachers, librarians, and readers spent a July weekend reading, listening, and discussing "Western Writing and Eastern Publishing." Each summer since, people have gathered to listen and respond to outstanding Western writers address living and writing in the West. Writing workshops were added in 1989, and a Fellows program for emerging writers in 1990. The Winter Fishtrap Gathering was launched in 1992, followed by the Imnaha Writers' Retreat and the Writer-in-Residence programs in 1997.

Several programs that primarily serve residents of Wallowa County followed: the volunteer-driven Radio Storytelling program in 2000, both the Fishtrap College program and Lectures & Readings in 2002, and The Big Read in 2006. At the same time, programs for the regional audience continued to expand. A Children's Lit Workshop started in 2004; Fishtrap's writer-in-residence model was expanded in 2006 to serve four other eastern Oregon counties as the Eastern Oregon Writers-in-Residence program; a year-long low-residency book writing (novel first and now non-fiction as well) workshop program started in 2008, and the Outpost workshop and nature writing residencies saw their first incarnations in 2009. A library and archive project is also underway.

Over the course of 24 years, an estimated 20,000 participants and more than 350 presenters—writers, academics, and literary professionals—have been involved with Fishtrap programs, which now number more than 15 and occur year-round.

Summer Fishtrap Recordings: 2010 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1992 | 1991 | 1990 |

VoiceCatcher

VoiceCatcher is a non-profit community that connects, inspires, and empowers women writers and artists in the greater Portland and Vancouver area. Founded in 2006 VoiceCatcher regularly sponsors workshops on the art and craft of writing, presents readings and art exhibits, as well as publishes the VoiceCatcher anthology series, and online literary and art publication VoiceCatcher: a journal of women’s voices & visions.

Learn more about this organization at www.voicecatcher.org and view their online journal at www.voicecatcherjournal.org.

VoiceCatcher Recordings: 2013