Why Attend Our Annual Fundraiser?

Your support and belief in our mission helps us continue the important work we do to engage, inspire, and transform our communities lives through the power of poetry. Our mission is to support lifelong literacy and cultural diversity through the writing, reading, performing, and teaching of poetry in Northwest Washington schools and communities.

We are grateful to have your support as we continue growing our community of supporters. It’s donations from you that help us keep poets in our local school districts and allow us to invite poets from all over the nation to visit the Skagit Valley and join our unique Skagit River Poetry Festival. This type of conference is rare where community is created through the written and spoken word – where hearts, minds, and lives are changed by discussing critical issues and sharing lived experiences all through the lens of poetry.

If you can’t be with us in person on May 4th, consider donating online at skagitriverpoetry.org/donate. It’s easy and you can donate anywhere, anytime.

You will support our:

Poets in Schools Program

Our Poets in Schools Program places professional poets in school districts in Skagit, Island, and Whatcom counties for one week residencies throughout the school year where poets explore and write poetry with students.

Teaching poets stipend: $1,500

A teaching poet allows the space for student’s to play with imagination, words, and then create poetry. Concrete Elementary School. March 2024

Testimonials of Impact

Anacortes Elementary teachers:

“….Every voice gets space and time, and every voice is affirmed. There is never enough time at the end of each session for students to share their work because everyone wants to share! It is a remarkably positive and healing experience, and one I’m so grateful to experience each year.”

“Ms. JJ, as the kids called her, was wonderful! My students fell in love with poetry. She did a great job of giving specific, tangible ideas for the kids to build upon. IE. color, senses, etc…I loved how she engaged young learners with lizard, lipstick, and asking ‘who needs some words’. The class grew so much in a short time!”

Concrete Elementary School teacher:

“Today was our second day with Jeffrey Morgan, who is working with Skagit River Poetry Foundation‘s poet-in-residency program. I can not say enough good things about him. The kids love working with him. He makes them feel heard and shows them that he values their ideas. It is so fun sitting back as the classroom teacher and watching them be excited about their writing. Thank you SRPF!”

Student Poetry Anthology 2023-24

Click Here to Download the PDF

Our student anthology is a collection of poetry written in classrooms this past school year, 2023-24. Check out student’s amazing creativity inspired by having a poet in their classroom for a week! Donate today to keep our Poets in Schools Program going strong!

Concrete Elementary students that had poems featured in the anthology proudly hold up their copies of the book! Thank you, Students, for your superb work! Photo by Lisa Dills.

You will support our:

Skagit River Poetry Festival

Our Skagit River Poetry Festival is held every other year in La Conner, WA. You can help us bring poets from all over the nation to the festival as they host workshop and conference sessions for the public and area K-14 students. This year featured poets included Tony Curtis, Ellen Bass, Claudia Castro Luna and 33 others from across the nation and the NW. Sessions covered an array of topics, a few examples were: Laughing Out Loud: Poetry with a Comedic Edge, Poetry & Privilege: Writing Inside & Outside the Margins, Northwest Pastoral: Poetry of Place, Endangered: Disappearing Nature, Voices From the Past: How They Inform Poetry in the Present, Consequences of Silence: Poems That Speak UP/ Speak OUT

Festival poet lodging and travel expenses: $2,000

Area students fill Maple Hall in La Conner for poetry festival programming in early October 2024.

Students pose at the Skagit River Poetry Festival. October 2024

Susan Rich and Claudia Castro Luna catch up in Maple Hall

Dublin poet, Tony Curtis, shares from a book at a session called Three Poets Walk into a Bar, comedy in poetry.

Gary Copeland Lilley plays guitar at the session, The Lyre and the Pen: How Music and Poetry Intertwine.

Rio Cortez, Paul Hlava Ceballos, and Samar Abdulhassan ready to present at all-student-day, Pushpins on the Map: Poems Across Borders

Arthur Sze reads to a packed house in Maple Hall at a Poetry Sampler on the last evening of the festival.

Posters inspire attendees. Amanda Gorman’s words: “For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it / if only we are brave enough to be it.”

You will support our poetry and cultural related events:

We also host events to enrich our community:

  • Poet/Teacher Workshops – Poets in Schools Program
  • Memoir Writing Workshop
  • Ekphrastic Poetry Workshops
  • We host the Poetry Out Loud NW Regionals for high school students each year
  • Previous events include: Skagit River Wonder: Poetry, Stories, and Open Mic, Speaking Our Truth: LGBTQ+ Students and Allies, The Healing Heart of the Lushootseed film showing at the Lincoln Theatre, Valentine’s Poetry Workshop, Celtic Storytelling, plus poetry open mic opportunities
  • Partnerships with area arts organizations like Skagit Symphony/McIntyre Hall and the Lincoln Theatre

The 2024 Poetry Out Loud NW Regional Competition for high school students was held at Burlington Public Library in February. Our two finalists, Selah Burrows from Lincoln High School in Seattle and Greg Chvany from Mercer Island High School moved on to compete at the state level.