| Alice Derry will be the featured reader at the Festival’s opening reception at the Clatskanie Cultural Center’s Birkenfeld Theatre. Alice was born in Oregon and raised in Washington and Montana. Derry received her M.F.A. from Goddard College (now Warren Wilson College) as well as an M.A. in English from The American University in Washington, D.C. Alice’s debut poetry collection, Stages of Twilight (1986), was selected for the King County Arts Publication Award by Raymond Carver. A long time resident of Port Angeles, Washington, Alice also has a family connection to Clatskanie—her parents met while teaching at Clatskanie Middle High School! Alice Derry has published six volumes of poetry and three chapbooks, most recently, Asking (MoonPath Press 2022). Her new manuscript is titled Embraces. During thirty years teaching at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, WA, she curated the Foothills Writers Series and helped initiate and host a writer-in-residence program. With artist Fred Sharpe, she has produced three volumes on native plants of the Olympic Peninsula. She and colleague Kate Reavey currently facilitate a workshop for Native writers on Zoom. |
| The 2026 Festival line up also includes: Craig Brandis, Jon Broderick, Gary Copeland Lilley, Janet Ebert, Tess Gallagher, Marj Hogan, Robert Michael Pyle, and Florence Sage. Read their biographies |