Growth and Healing through Language, Symbol, and Story |
Expanding the Frontiers of Poetry: Held on April 18-22, 2007 Featured: Kim Stafford, Keynote Speaker; Lawson Inada, Featured Poet; Opening Performance by Madgesdiq; The Rattlebox–Open Mic Poetry Reading with Jen Bosveld; Closing Performance by Fern Davye About Our Keynote Speaker Kim Stafford is the founding director of The Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College where he has been a writing teacher since 1979. He is also the director of the William Stafford Center and the author of fourteen books of poetry and writing, including, The Muses Among Us, A Thousand Friends of Rain, and Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford. Kim believes that the expressive arts are the greatest priority of our time. About Our Featured Poet Lawson Inada was our Featured Poet. Lawson Inada is Oregon’s first Poet Laureate since William Stafford retired from the post in 1989. Lawson is currently Professor Emeritus at Southern Oregon State College where he has taught since 1966 as a professor of writing. A third generation Japanese American who spent part of his childhood at several internment camps during World War II, Lawson authored Legends from Camp. Lawson is also the author of Drawing the Line and other books of poetry, as well as the editor of Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. He has been hailed as “a poet-musician in the tradition of Walt Whitman,” and his writing has been greatly influenced by jazz. He is considered by many to be the father of Asian American literature. The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) brings together professionals from the fields of health, literature, and education to promote growth and healing through the interdisciplinary study and application of language, symbol, and story with individuals, groups, and communities in the United States and the world. |
