SHARK REEF Poetry reading at Library

Published 10:41 am Wednesday, April 24, 2013

SHARK REEF Literary Magazine and the Lopez Library invite poetry lovers to a reading by four poets on Thursday, April 25, at 7 p.m. at the library to commemorate National Poetry Month. Lopez poet John Sangster, a past poetry co-editor of SHARK REEF, will introduce fellow poets, Tom Aslin, Gary Thompson, Gayle Kaune and Lopezian Ande Finley.

Aslin and Thompson are currently serving as poetry co-editors for SHARK REEF. Finley has been published in the magazine.

“I met Tom at the Centrum Writer’s Conference several years ago,” said Sangster. “When Elizabeth Landrum and I were ready to pass on the poetry co-editor baton, I thought of him. He, in turn, brought in Gary Thompson, both of them graduates of the University of Montana. SHARK REEF editor Lorna Reese and I thought it would be fun to do a SHARK REEF poets, plus one, event for the next reading.”

Recently retired from driving Metro buses in Seattle, Aslin published a chapbook, “Sweet Smoke” (Red Wing Press, West Sacramento, CA), and a full-length collection, A Moon over Wings (Clark City Press). A Moon over Wings will be re-issued in a new edition later this year from Tebot Bach, Huntington Beach, CA. That book was a finalist for the 2009 Washington State Book Award. Aslin holds an Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Montana where he studied with the late Richard Hugo and Madeline DeFrees.

“I enjoy public readings,” Aslin says. “I just remember that everyone comes because they want to. It’s not like teaching 7th or 8th graders where most of them probably wish to be anywhere else.”

Thompson’s latest book of poems, “To the Archaeologist Who Finds Us,” published by Turning Point in 2008, joins three previous collections. He also holds an Master’s in Fine Arts from the University of Montana and remembers fondly those Hugo-DeFrees-Kittredge days.

He taught in the creative writing program at California State University, Chico, for over 25 years. He and his wife Linda have lived in the Northwest for fourteen years and, five years ago, moved to San Juan Island, bringing their old trawler, Keats, home to the waters they have come to love. Fish Bay on Lopez is one of their favorite stopovers.

Kaune has won several Washington Poets Awards, a Ben Hur Lampmann Award, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Pulitzer prizes. Her books include “Still Life in the Physical World,” published by Blue Begonia Press and the chapbook Concentric Circles, which won the Flume Press Award judged by Gary Thompson. Her newest book, “All the Birds Awake,” was published by Tebot Bach. Kaune met John Sangster and Tom Aslin at the Centrum Writer’s Conference and finally met Gary Thompson this past year when he came to her home town, Port Townsend, to give a reading.

Lopez poet Finley, who has been writing most of her life, confesses she imagined early on she would someday be a famous novelist. After dabbling a while with children’s books, poetry became her imaginative focus. Living on Lopez has nurtured the passionate connection with the natural world that shows up in many of her poems.

“In our forest, I often get the feeling I’m merely a conduit for the creative energy swirling around out there,” she says. “It’s endlessly inspiring.”

Finley admits the supportive audiences at well-attended Lopez Writers Read events help her overcome her intense performance anxiety.

“Rain or shine, Lopez always comes out for poets,” says Sangster. “We get bigger audiences than they do at Elliott Bay Books and I expect this event will prove just as popular. These are wonderful poets and great readers so I’d recommend you get there early to get a good seat.”