The Latest from Empty Bowl Press
April 18, 2025
Dear Empty Bowl friends,
We’re back from the Bookfair at the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) conference in Los Angeles at the end of March, where we were happy to connect with old friends and make new friends, too, amid the crowd of writers, writing students, publishers, and booksellers. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to browse, chat, and admire and purchase our books. Heartening to be in the midst of so many people who love to read!
In honor of National Poetry Month and Earth Day, we’re excited to celebrate the launch of our latest book, Ann Spiers’s collection of new and selected poems, Wild Cucumber. Join us on Vashon Island, Sunday, April 27 at 4 p.m. at the Land Trust Building, 10014 SW Bank Road. See the Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber for a great article on Ann’s work and her book.
On Sunday, June 1 at 4 p.m., Ann will be joined by Lost Mountain poet Kate Reavey, author of Curve, for a reading at the Meetinghouse in Port Townsend. Curve was recently featured on Bethany Reid’s excellent blog “A Habit of Writing.” For more details on both readings, check the Empty Bowl events page, where you can keep up with other readings as they’re scheduled.
Kurt Hoelting has been reading from his powerful essay collection, Apprentice to the Wild, to packed houses. In February, Kurt read in Port Townsend with Tele Aadsen, author of What Water Holds. (See our FB page for photos.) The Port Townsend Leader had a wonderful article on Kurt, Tele, and their books. Kurt will be reading in Port Angeles on Thursday, April 24, at 12:35 p.m. at The Little Theater at Peninsula College as part of the Studium Generale series. He’s also reading on Sunday, April 27, 2:00 p.m. at Griffin Bay Books in Friday Harbor. You can find an in-depth interview with Kurt in the Samaritan Center of Puget Sound’s Spring 2025 newsletter.
Friends and fans of Clem Starck, much-beloved author of Cathedrals and Parking Lots and Enjoying the Evening, will want to listen to a recent episode of the podcast “Walking Inside Poems” that features Joseph Bednarik—a great friend of Clem’s and Empty Bowl Press—talking about Clem and his work. We were also delighted that a recent article in the Seattle Times recommending books to read for National Poetry Month included the award-winning I Sing the Salmon Home, edited by Rena Priest. The article also mentions the work of Shin Yu Pai, author of No Neutral and Virga. Congratulations to both!
We’ll be at the Raymond Carver Writing Festival in Clatskanie, Washington, on Saturday May 3, to participate in the Publishers and Writers Fair. Doors open at 10:00 a.m. Holly will be reading as part of the festival at 3:30 p.m. More details about the festival here.
Jerry Martien, author of Waveshock and editor of A Watershed Runs Through You, will be reading in Corvallis, Oregon, on Tuesday, June 10, at 5:30 p.m. at the Toomey Lobby at PRAx at Oregon State University. Thanks to the Spring Creek Project and Grass Roots Books and Music for sponsoring this event.
There’s more to come this year, but we’re also looking ahead to next year when Empty Bowl celebrates its fiftieth year of operation. In honor of our anniversary, we’ll be publishing an anthology, Working the Land, Working the Sea, a companion to Working the Woods, Working the Sea, which Empty Bowl published in 1986, with a second edition in 2008. We’re happy to announce that the anthology’s editors will be Tele Aadsen and Jessica Gigot. We’ll post more information and the call for submissions on our website on May 1. Stay tuned for details on the other books we’ll be publishing next year.
If you’re wondering how you can support Empty Bowl, an easy way is to share your favorite Empty Bowl titles with a few friends—or post short reviews on Amazon or GoodReads. You only need to write a few sentences, but these do make a difference!
With warm wishes,
Holly and John