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Meet the poets coming to TCC’s Poetry in the Harbor
April is National Poetry Month, and Gig Harbor will mark the occasion with Poetry in the Harbor on Thursday, April 23. Four regional poets will read and discuss their work at the free event hosted by Tacoma Community College’s Gig Harbor branch.
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Meet the poets
Michael Spence
Michael Spence refers to himself as a “poet of journeys, time and transit.”
Michael Spence
For three decades, he drove public buses in Seattle, which gave him a city-level perspective that shapes much of his work. He also served as a junior officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy.
Spence has a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Washington. His poems have appeared in Alabama Literary Review; Louisiana Literature; Tampa Review and other publications. His book “Umbilical” won the New Criterion Poetry Prize and his newest collection, “Brine Evaporates to Salt on Blacktop” will appear later this year in Able Muse Press.
Peter Ludwin
Peter Ludwin’s latest collection of poems, “An Altar of Tides” focuses on his native Northwest. It won the 2024 Trail to Table Editors’ Award.
Peter Ludwin
His earlier book, “Gone to Gold Mountain,” addressed the little-known 1887 massacre of more than 30 Chinese gold miners in Hells Canyon in Oregon. Ludwin’s second book, “Rumors of Fallible Gods,” documents his extensive travels to the Amazon, Morocco, Tibet and more.
He focuses on history and social justice, and the physical and spiritual aspects of different cultures and the natural world. He has received numerous literary awards.
Katharine Threat
Tacoma poet Katharine Threat is the managing editor at Tulipwood books and the editor of the speculative fiction anthology “If the Storm Clears.” Her work has been featured by Blue Cactus Press, Pile Press and Button Poetry.
Katharine Threat
She is a mixed-race writer, poet and artist whose work sits at the crossroads of identity, land and home. Her most recent chapbook is titled “Anatomy of My Mixed Body.” Threat is passionate about working with contemporary artists of all media to create socially active communities through the creative process.
Chris Vega
Born in the borderlands of Texas and Mexico, Chris Vega is a Chicana poet who now lives on Puyallup and Nisqually land near Tacoma. They founded Blue Cactus Press, where they work with local change-makers to create books that serve as community resources, especially for people from historically marginalized groups who are denied access to publishing.
Chris Vega
Vega believes in transformative justice and collective laboring of love. Their poems have appeared in many publications including Creative Colloquy, Frontera, Timberline Review, City Arts, Grit City Magazine, The Ranger and more. Vega is also a U.S. Army veteran.
Tacoma Community College English instructor Monia Monk will emcee Poetry in the Harbor.
Each poet will read from their work, participate in will be a panel discussion for the audience to connect with the poets on a more personal level. Hearing poets read from their work and talk about how they work is “very insightful. It deepens the meaning” of each poem, organizer Janice Tayler said.
How it began
Tayler is the continuing education manager at TCC’s Gig Harbor branch. Poetry in the Harbor is her brainchild. This is the fourth year for the free event that started almost on a whim.
The idea emerged from several brainstorming sessions with colleagues about the “power of writing,” Tayler said in a phone conversation.
“There are tons of writers in Gig Harbor and Tacoma, and we just started thinking, ‘What about poetry?’ I reached out to some folks I knew and to local poetry groups, and it all just came together.” Besides, she added, “our space is so beautiful that people just like to come here.”
“We know that there is a growing poets community in Gig Harbor,” TCC-Gig Harbor Dean Olga Inglebritson said. “We want to provide a space for everyone to enjoy an evening dedicated to the various form of poetry. And what better time to do this but in April, which is National Poetry Month!”
Tayler tries to include the state’s Poet Laureate when she’s putting together each year’s Poetry in the Harbor lineup. This year’s Laureate, former Gig Harbor High School teacher Derek Sheffield, wasn’t available, but asked to be put on the list for 2027, Tayler said.
TCC’s commitment
Inglebritson noted that TCC “loves providing opportunities for the community to gather to engage in the many variations of art.” So the college also hosts quarterly art shows and artist receptions in the school’s gallery, and the annual Write in the Harbor Conference in the fall. And every event is open to the entire community.
Poetry is just as valuable as other art forms, Inglebritson added. It invites people from any age to share their thoughts and emotions. “Writing a book can be overwhelming, but poetry can be as short or as long as you want it to be. There are so many forms of poetry, and Poetry in the Harbor highlights a few of them. We want to share them with the community.
The fourth annual Poetry in the Harbor is at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 23, sat TCC’s Gig Harbor Campus, 3993 Hunt St. It’s free, but RSVP is requested by calling Tayler at 253-566-5020 or emailing her at [email protected].