LSpaura
R
ead
oka ne Poet L au re at e
KAREN MOBLEY
S
pokane Poet Laureate, Laura Read, has been writing since she was a child. She says
of her beginnings, “I wrote poems and stories as a child. When I went to graduate school
to get my M.F.A. I thought I would be studying fiction, but I found what I really enjoyed
was describing small moments, and these moments didn’t always add up to a plot. One of
my professors gave me a book of poems by Dorianne Laux called What We Carry. I loved
how Laux could describe a moment so closely that you were experiencing it with her
and also looking back on it with her and arriving with her at what that moment, through
reflection, could mean.”
Laura Read was named Spokane’s second Poet Laureate in October 2015. Thom Caraway
was the first, in case you’re scratching your head. The Poet Laureate serves for two years
and helps the Spokane Arts Commission promote and support Spokane’s vibrant literary
community.
As part of her role as Poet Laureate, Read is organizing a project called “I am a Town”
based on the 1992 Mary Chapin Carpenter song. This song tells the story of a town in
Carolina, a place illustrated through quiet moments and descriptions. A workshop was
conducted at Ink Art Space in Spokane in May to begin the body of poems. Anyone
can submit works, which may be excerpted and included in a public art project on city
sidewalks in 2017. Submissions to the project can be made through https://spokanearts.
submittable.com/submit. Please submit poems about particular places in Spokane, WA
about which you have a personal memory that you would like to share. If you are selected
for this project, you will be notified in advance. These poems may also be considered for
publication in a book published by the Spark Center.
Karen Mobley is free
range, but not a chicken.
She earned the Dabbler
badge in Girl Scouts and
has been working at it
ever since. She is a visual
artist, poet and arts consultant. She lives in Spokane,
Washington with a cat,
Mary Mouse Cassatt. She
was also an artist in
residence at the Jentel
Foundation in January.
www.karenmobley.com
Laura Read has published poems in a variety of journals, most recently in Kahini and
Sow’s Ear Review. She received the CrabCreekReview Poetry Prize in August 2015. Read
received the 2011 AWP/Donald Hall Prize for Poetry for her book, Instructions for My
Mother’s Funeral published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Her cha