Poetry road show gathers Tuesday

MOSES LAKE — Poets of the Columbia Basin area are getting their turn at the microphone next week.

Humanities Washington and the Washington Poets Association fund Washington's Poetry Roadshow in Moses Lake Tuesday.

The roadshow includes a Washington poet visiting four sites in rural Washington, explained Moses Lake resident Karen Bonaudi, who wrote the grant for this year's roadshow and one in 2005, which featured a Bellingham poet.

Seattle poet, teacher and KUOW Northwest Public Radio show host Elizabeth Austen is this year's poet.

"They have to be a good poet, but they have to be able to interact with people, teach, lecture, encourage and share," Bonaudi said. "She is a delight."

On Austen's show, she interviews poets.

The Grant County roadshow includes two events, a workshop/lecture where Austen works with a class and members of the community at Big Bend Community College in the ATEC Building at 11:45 a.m.

"She has some really good exercises," Bonaudi previewed. "She calls it 'Poetry From Poetry,' and it's how not only famous poets have taken poems of other famous poets and written answers to them or used them as a jumping off place. It's also a way for poets to get inspired themselves, so it's a way of breaking writer's block, seeking inspiration or to hone your craft."

A reading takes place at the Moses Lake Museum and Art Center at 7 p.m., where Austen reads from her own work, followed by an open microphone session.

"So you get to hear local poets as well," Bonaudi said.

Austen's appearance at the museum coincides with a high school art show and a traveling show of Washington schoolhouses.

"That's a very neat setting for a reading," Bonaudi said.

Other road show locations have included sites in the Tri-Cities and in Grays Harbor.

For more information, call Bonaudi at 509-760-7224.