Highline College Library: Recommended Reading: April

About This Guide

April is National Poetry Month!

On this guide you will find a selection of poetry we have at the Library. These poets represent our diverse community, giving voice to the powerful experiences of immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ people, people of color, and people with disabilities in ways only poetry can evoke.

National Poetry Month celebrates poetry in all it's forms, raises up diverse voices, and encourages people to read more poetry. Find out more about the month-long celebration and get involved by browsing the National Poetry Month website.

Included in this guide are resources for you to find more poetry online, find opportunities to connect with other writers, and find events and projects that celebrate the Pacific Northwest's vibrant literary culture.

National Poetry Month

Visiting and Highline Faculty Poets

Bonehouse by Erika Brumett
Call Number: 811.6 B893b 2018
ISBN: 9780999226322
Main Collection--4th Floor
Deep Lane: Poems by Mark Doty
Call Number: 811.54 D725d 2016
ISBN: 0393353222
Main Collection--4th Floor
Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Call Number: 811.6 N575o 2018
ISBN: 1556595263
Main Collection--4th Floor
Water & Salt: Poems by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha
Call Number: 811.6 T914w 2017
ISBN: 1597090298
Main Collection--4th Floor
Deaf Republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky
Call Number: 811.6 K15d 2019
ISBN: 1555978312
Main Collection--4th Floor
Jump Start: A Northwest Renaissance Anthology by Lonny Kaneko; Pat Curran; Susan Landgraf (editors)
Call Number: 811.608 J94 2009
ISBN: 0974326488
Main Collection--4th Floor

Online Poetry Databases at Highline

Ebook Academic Collection (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
Highline College library has over 4,000 full-text poetry publications available online through EBSCO eBook Collection.

To search for poetry, type in "poetry" in the search bar. On the right side of the bar, click the drop-down menu and select "SU Subject Terms". If you are looking for specific types of poetry, such as poetry about the natural world add the keyword "nature" into the second line of the search bar to narrow results. Add more keywords as you go!

Off-campus? Get help accessing library databases here: https://library.highline.edu/c.php?g=344456&p=2497335

Read Poetry Online

Poetry International Online
A database of poetry from around the world, searchable by country and language. The organization also hosts forums and publishes interviews with poets.
Poetry Out Loud
Poetry Out Loud encourages students to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life.
RHINO Poetry
The Poetry Forum/RHINO Poetry is a non-profit literary organization, primarily devoted to the publication of RHINO Poetry, an annual high-quality print journal featuring well-crafted, diverse poetry, flash fiction, and translations. While remaining committed to our print journal, all poems will be placed online throughout the year.

RHINO Poetry occupies a niche somewhere between academia and the emerging poetry scene – devoted to creative work that tells stories, provokes thought, and pushes the boundaries in form and feeling – while connecting with our readers and audience.
The Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary
organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
The Poetry Archive
The Poetry Archive is a not-for-profit organization that makes and acquires recordings of poets from around the English-speaking world and makes substantial excerpts from them freely available online.
The Poetry Foundation: Online Resources
An extensive list of poetry resources, focused on online poetry archives, national poetry organizations, and educational opportunities.

Reading List: April Poetry Month

Carrying Knowledge up a Palm Tree: Poetry by Taban lo Liyong
Call Number: 821 L788c 1997
ISBN: 0865435936
Main Collection--4th Floor
Catch the Fire!!!: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African-American Poetry by Derrick I. Gilbert (editor)
Call Number: 811.008 C357 1998
ISBN: 1573226548
Main Collection--4th Floor
The Crossover by Kwame Alexander
Call Number: Fic Alexa
ISBN: 9780544107717
Publication Date: 2014
Children's Literature Collection--3rd Floor
From Unincorporated Territory [Guma'] by Craig Santos Perez
Call Number: 899.5 S237f 2014
ISBN: 1890650919
Main Collection--4th Floor
If They Come for Us: Poems by Fatimah Asghar
Call Number: 811.6 A818i 2018
ISBN: 9780525509783
Main Collection--4th Floor
I Know Your Kind: Poems by William Brewer
Call Number: 811.6 B847i 2017
ISBN: 1571314954
Main Collection--4th Floor
The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L'Engle by Madeleine L'Engle
Call Number: 811.54 L566o 2005
ISBN: 0877880867
Main Collection--4th Floor
The Palestinian Wedding: A Bilingual Anthology of Contemporary Palestinian Resistance Poetry by Abdelwahab M. Elmessiri (editor)
Call Number: 892.716 P157 1982
ISBN: 0894100955
Main Collection--4th Floor
Raised by Humans: Poems by Deborah A. Miranda
Call Number: 811.6 M672r 2015
ISBN: 1882688503
Main Collection--4th Floor
Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States by Lori M. Carlson
Call Number: Level-A 811.0080868 R312 2005
ISBN: 0805076166
ESL Collection--3rd Floor
Voices of the Rainbow: Contemporary Poetry by Native Americans by Kenneth Rosen (editor)
Call Number: 811.080897 V889 1993
ISBN: 9781611453362
Main Collection--4th Floor
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Call Number: 811.54 L867z 1982
ISBN: 0895941228
Main Collection--4th Floor

National Poetry Month at Highline College

Did you know Highline College hosts events during National Poetry Month?

A student poetry contest with 106 submissions resulted in 10 finalists. You can see the finalists' poems displayed on the 4th floor of the library. Highline College also hosts a number of eadings, talks and workshops, from April 6th to April 17th to celebrate National Poetry month. Check out the winners and the full schedule on the Highline College Blog.

Full Schedule and information: https://www.highline.edu/poetry-month-2019/#schedule

Local Poetry Programs and Events

Cowboy Poets
From the website: The Western Folklife Center event known as the Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering started 35 years ago as a place where Western ranchers and cowboys could gather to share poems about their lives working cattle. From the beginning, it was clear these men and women had found their tribe, an artistic community that few knew existed. Three decades later, the tribe is now a nation of Western poets, musicians, artisans and storytellers, sharing their creativity across the country, telling their stories of hard work, heartbreak and hilarity, and what it means to make your way in the rangeland West.
Haiku Northwest
From the website: Haiku Northwest is an enthusiastic and friendly group of poets from the greater Puget Sound area of Washington state, meeting monthly usually in Bellevue (just east of Seattle). We are dedicated to writing, studying, and appreciating haiku and related genres of poetry written in English... Haiku Northwest holds monthly meetings and publishes regional anthologies of haiku and related poetry. Most of the group's members live in the Seattle area, but many haiku poets from the Puget Sound area and farther afield also attend Haiku Northwest meetings. The Haiku Northwest group has no membership dues, and visitors are always welcome to attend all events.
Hugo House
From the website: Hugo House is for writers. A place to read words, hear words, and make your own words better. We provide classes, events, and fellowships for emerging and established writers.
King County Library System (KCLS): Events - Writing & Poetry
Schedule of writing and poetry events such as workshops and lectures, hosted by libraries in the King County Library System.
King County Metro's Poetry on Buses Project
Poetry on Buses brings poetry to the nearly 400,000 riders using King County Metro Transit and Sound Transit every day. Poetry submitted by the community is displayed on buses for riders to experience and share stories about their lives in shared public space.
Rain City Slam
The mission of Rain City Slam is provide a headquarters for Seattle Spoken Word Poets of all ages to create, learn, teach and find a poetry community. Our vision is to establish a safe space where poetry can be discovered, inspired, learned and showcased without boundaries. We provide an open mic that allows any voice to be heard; community showcases that promote new work; writing circles to ensure time, space and support for writing; featured poets to inspire our community as well provide a place for reading and engaging the Seattle community, and a slam competition to assist in artistic growth, build confidence and challenge poets to think about the translation of their work to the rest of the world.
RASP: Redmond Association of Spoken Word
From the website: RASP was founded in 1997 to promote literary arts and activities in Redmond, Washington, and the surrounding area. We meet on the last Friday of each month, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Open mic signup begins at 6:30 PM. RASP also holds a monthly writing critique group at the Redmond Regional Library on the second Tuesday of each month from 6:30 PM to 8:45 PM. All events are free. Please join us!
Seattle Poetics LAB: Poetry, Bioregionalism, Community
From the website: SPLAB is an intergenerational spokenword Performance, Resource and Outreach center dedicated to Poetry, Story-telling, Conversation, Debate, Consciousness and Building community through shared experience of the spoken and written word. We create an environment by encouraging writers to develop or deepen their individual writing practices and providing a supportive community so they may deepen their own personal gestures.
Seattle Writes by the Seattle Public Library
From the website: "Our Seattle Writes program offers you time and space to experiment and improve your creative writing. We offer year-round drop-in writing circles, a fall series of classes, and recordings available anytime. Our fall series features more than 20 classes focusing on the craft of writing."

Writing Opportunities

2019 Writing Contests: The Ultimate Guide
Finding the right writing contest for you can be a difficult and time-consuming process. This up-to-date list of 20 contests can point you in the "write" direction! Each is free to enter and accept submissions to short stories, nonfiction, and poetry.
Seattle Arts and Lectures: Youth Poet Laureate
Seattle's Youth Poet Laureate project aims to identify young writers committed to civic and community engagement, poetry and performance, human relations, diversity, and education.