Susan Blair of Wenatchee, editor and poet, welcomed guests to the 2024 Launch Party, held at Bob’s Burgers & Brews in East Wenatchee, WA. Bruce McCammon, also of Wenatchee, photographed and recorded the readers. There is some ambient noise, so you will feel like you were there!
This year’s Journal is dedicated to Gloria Piper Roberson, poet, writer, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother in Wenatchee. For decades Gloria has read to kids at the library, fostering a love of reading and literature.
Tracy Faulkner, Gloria’s daughter, read her mom’s poem, The Squall.
Mark Oswood of Wenatchee read Ephemerality and Identifying Features of the Common Green Bottle Fly.
Yakima poet Dotty Armstrong read My Mother’s Hair and Early Communion.
Nancy Atkins of Chelan read Washington, D.C. in Springtime.
Ellensburg poet and professor Joseph Powell read First Kiss.
Penny Johnson of Ellensburg read New brand of syncopation.
Greg Wright lives in Twisp, and read Vocabracadabra, Why the Crow Sits in the Cold, Cold Tree, and Tomorrow’s Garden.
Linda Brown, Yakima poet, described her relatives in this picture, and read The Beginning of the Song and Embracing the Song.
Cle Elum poet Jaqualyn Johnson read Bird in the Wild and Snow Cinema in Upper Kittitas County.
Marie Marchand, who just served as the Poet Laureate of Ellensburg, read Autumnal Memorial.
Susan Lagsdin, poet from East Wenatchee, read Western Dream: a True Life Real Estate Saga and My Heaven.
Wenatchee poet Merry Roy read Unfolding the 6th Extinction, Folding Cranes and The Loggerhead’s Song.