To celebrate the 25th anniversary of SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) Paul E Nelson discusses American Prophets: Interviews 1994 to 2012, featuring poets Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Wanda Coleman, Jerome Rothenberg, Nate Mackey, Brenda Hillman and Sam Hamill, and will facilitate an interview exercise. Participants will learn techniques to connect with a guest, quickly develop a rapport and sharpen skills in this under-appreciated art form. Paul E Nelson has conducted over 600 interviews with poets, authors, indigenous leaders and whole systems activists through his non-profit organization SPLAB and will discuss how he prepares for interviews, the difficulties that are sometimes encountered, tech aspects and how to develop your interviewing technique. Copies of the book American Prophets will be available for purchase.
Poet & interviewer Paul E Nelson founded SPLAB (Seattle Poetics LAB) & the Cascadia Poetry Festival. Since 1993, SPLAB has produced hundreds of poetry events & 600 hours of interview programming with legendary poets & whole systems activists including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Joanne Kyger, Robin Blaser, Diane di Prima, Daphne Marlatt, Nate Mackey, George Bowering, Barry McKinnon, José Kozer, Brenda Hillman & many others. Paul’s books include American Prophets (interviews 1994-2012) (2018) American Sentences (2015) A Time Before Slaughter (2009) and Organic in Cascadia: A Sequence of Energies (2013). Co-Editor of Make It True: Poetry From Cascadia (2015), 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards (2017) and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill (2019) Make it True meets Medusario (2019), he’s presented poetry/poetics in London, Brussels, Nanaimo, Qinghai & Beijing, China, has had work translated into Spanish, Chinese & Portuguese & writes an American Sentence every day. Awarded a residency at The Lake, from the Morris Graves Foundation in Loleta, CA, he’s published work in Golden Handcuffs Review, Zen Monster, Hambone, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2014 Robin Blaser Award from The Capilano Review, he is engaged in a 20 year bioregional cultural investigation of Cascadia and lives in Rainier Beach, in the Cascadia bioregion’s Cedar River watershed.
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