Book Notes: Beacon Hill Reading Series features Welcker
When Ellen Welcker isn’t helping students at Eastern Washington University’s Writers Center, she’s writing poetry and organizing readings of poetry – sometimes in her own living room.
Welcker, who has a book of poems and a couple of chapbooks to her credit, is one of three poets who will read Wednesday night as part of the Beacon Hill Reading Series. Joining Welcker will be Spokane poet Kathryn Smith and Shann Ray Ferch, whose book of poetry, “Balefire,” was released earlier this year.
In a “Five Questions With” email interview, we talked with Welcker about reading poetry aloud and the creative vibe encompassing Spokane these days.
SR: There’s a lot of creative energy surrounding the written word in Spokane of late. Are the poets feeling some of that as well?
EW: Oh definitely! I can’t speak to any real past moment in Spokane, as I’m a pretty new transplant, but I think poets are feeling the energy for sure. I think there’s a lot of cross-pollination going on in the arts in general, everybody feeding off and contributing to a collective dynamism.
SR: Your poems to me seem like they’re intended to be read aloud. Are they?
EW: Poetry has a close relationship to music, and just as music comes alive with sound, so does a poem. The sound takes it from the two dimensional page and inspires it with breath, makes it three-dimensional for the brief time it is spoken and heard.
SR: In a poem such as “ellenwelcker, you have no events scheduled today,” you appear to be playing off technology and its hold on our lives and how this technology that’s supposed to help us actually creates a greater time suck. Do you find yourself thinking of these issues often?
EW: Yes, like anybody I am simultaneously attracted and repelled by the opportunity/quagmire that is social media. The poems of my most recent chapbook, “Mouth That Tastes of Gasoline” invoke the idea (not a new one) that technology has a way of hurtling us forward in unnatural ways that we’re often ill-equipped to deal with as human beings. And there I mean, basically all technology – from airplanes to guns to phones that suck our attention from the world we are physically in. I’m trying to hold myself accountable to my life, not sling accusations around (but I also know I’m not alone).
SR: You’re originally from Central Oregon and recently relocated from Seattle to Spokane. What brought you here, aside from a desire to escape the rain?
EW: I actually didn’t mind the rain! As a kid growing up in a recreational paradise, I felt a responsibility to sunshine – the idea of “not wasting” a beautiful day was a tenet of my childhood. I’m not complaining about that, by any means, but it was kind of a relief to just be able to stay inside and read a book. We moved here because my husband got a job here. We’ve moved a ton in the last 10 years, and hope that some combination of exhaustion and meaningfulness will keep us here.
SR: Your book, “The Botanical Garden,” was released in 2010. What are you working on now?
EW: The poems I’m writing now talk about firearms, gender-flux, cephalopods, plastics, scare quotes, hairstyles, camouflage, lullabies, and snack foods – all universal concerns, as I see them.
Bedtime Stories returns
Bedtime Stories, the fundraising event for Humanities Washington, returns to Spokane for the third year on Friday night.
This year, four authors will read works based on the theme “Bump in the Night.”
The local authors are Sharma Shields, a Spokane native whose debut novel, “The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac,” is being released by Henry Holt in January, and Tod Marshall, a poet and professor at Gonzaga University. Jamie Ford, author of “Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” and “The Songs of Willow Frost” is joining the fun, as is Washington Poet Laureate Elizabeth Austen.
In addition to the readings, Humanities Washington will present the Humanities Washington Award to Spokane’s Liz Burroughs, in recognition of her work as a civic leader in the arts in Spokane and across the state.
The event will be at the Spokane Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave. Reception begins at 6 p.m., dinner begins at 7. Limited single tickets to the dinner event are still available. Tickets are $75 and will be sold through Monday. Contact KayLee Jaech at kaylee@humanities.org or (206) 682-1770, ext. 103, or buy tickets online at www.humanities.org.