The Studio Series Poetry Reading & Open Mic

Featuring Ellen Waterston and John Martin

 2024 was a banner year for poet and author Ellen Waterston who, that year, received Soapstone’s Bread and Roses Award, Literary Arts’ Stewart H. Holbrook Award, and was named the eleventh Poet Laureate of Oregon. She has dedicated herself to writing and advocating for the literary arts in the high desert region of Oregon, all the while continuing to write poetry and nonfiction works that have evolved into essential reading about Oregon and the West. She has published five literary nonfiction titles, including, most recently, We Could Die Doing This (2024) and Walking the High Desert (2020), and four poetry titles. Her fifth poetry title, As Far As I Can Anthem (working title), will be published December 2025. Waterston is the founder of the Writing Ranch and of the annual Waterston Desert Writing Prize. For more information visit www.writingranch.com

 John Martin is the author of the poetry collection, Hold This, published by Concrete Wolf Press in 2017. In 2006, Iota Press published his chapbook, The Nick of Time. His poems have appeared in America Magazine, High Desert Journal, Parody, and Manzanita Quarterly. While living in Central Oregon he wrote articles for newspapers and periodicals, and he has taught poetry in workshops, schools and a prison. He now lives in Walla Walla, Washington.

 The Open Mic is open to all audience members. Participants can sign up before the start of the reading or during the break. In the interest of time, Open Mic readers are asked to limit their reading to three minutes.

View clips of featured poets reading at the Studio Series on Instagram @poet_landia and on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1281329966139780/