First Draft Writers’ Series presents author readings every third Thursday. Jan 21, 21 join us online for Don Colburn. Request Zoom link at director@pendletonarts.org

Don Colburn came to poetry late and unexpectedly in the midst of a journalism career. A longtime reporter for The Washington Post and The Oregonian, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing. He has published five collections of poems, including four chapbooks; all five won or placed in national manuscript competitions. Colburn’s poems have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies. His latest collection, Mortality, with Pronoun Shifts, won the 2018 Cathy Smith Bowers poetry award. His previous chapbook, Tomorrow Too: The Brenda Monologues, is a sequence of poetic monologues based on the true story of a young woman facing breast cancer while pregnant — a story he first reported in The Oregonian. His full-length book, As If Gravity Were a Theory, won the Cider Press Book Award. Other writing honors include the Discovery/The Nation Award, the Finishing Line Press Poetry Prize, residencies at The MacDowell Colony and Yaddo, and five Pushcart nominations. He lives in Portland.