SAM Word Curated by Richard Hugo House

Nicole Hardy is a former Wrigley Field peanut chucker, tour guide, bartender and envelope stuffer.  Her first book of poems, "This Blonde," is forthcoming in September, 2009. She is also the author of "Mud Flap Girl's XX Guide to Facial Profiling," which was a finalist in Main Street Rag's 2006 chapbook contest.  She earned her MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars and was nominated for a 2007 Puschcart Prize.  Her poems have appeared in journals including Margie, 5 AM, Eclipse, The Red Wheelbarrow and Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry. Nicole currently lives in Seattle where she works as a waitress and a teacher and sometimes updates her Web site, hardygirl.com.


Peter Pereira is a family physician in Seattle. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, Virginia Quarterly Review and Journal of the American Medical Association and have been anthologized in "180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Everyday" and "Best American Poetry 2007." His work has also been featured online at Verse Daily and Poetry Daily as well as on National Public Radio's The Writer's Almanac. His books include "The Lost Twin" (Grey Spider, 2000) and "Saying the World" (Copper Canyon, 2003), winner of the Hayden Carruth Award. His latest book, "What's Written on the Body" (Copper Canyon, 2007), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award.

Karen Finneyfrock is a veteran of the spoken word movement who was honored as a "Legend" at the National Poetry Slam in Austin, 2006. She returned to the stage to represent Seattle as a member of our 2008 National Slam Team. A recent alumna of the Hedgebrook Writers Colony, Karen is the author of two books of poetry and is completing her first book of young adult fiction. Karen is a teaching artist for Arts Corps, Seattle Arts & Lectures' WITS program and Richard Hugo House. She is a resident the Cooper School Artist Studios in West Seattle.


Judith Roche is the author of three collections of poetry, the most recent of which, "Wisdom of the Body," won an American Book Award. She has edited a number of poetry anthologies and has worked in collaboration with visual artists on several public art projects which are installed in the Northwest area, including an installation about salmon at the Chittenden Locks.  She is Literary Arts Director Emeritus for One Reel and teaches poetry workshops throughout the country. She was Distinguished Northwest Writer-in-Residence at Seattle University in 2007 and is a Fellow in the Black Earth Institute.


SAM Word
Thursday, November 19, 7:30 p.m. at the Seattle Art Museum
Featuring new work from poets Daemond Arrindell and Kary Wayson in response to the SAM exhibition, Michelangelo Public and Private: Drawings for the Sistine Chapel and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti. Curated by Richard Hugo House.

Daemond Arrindell's full-time work is managing a teen hotline, but his passion has always been poetry. He is the Seattle Slammaster, curating the Seattle Poetry Slam for six years, and has coached the nationally-ranked Seattle Poetry Slam team for five years. He is a faculty member at Freehold Theatre, teaching spoken word & performance poetry. Daemond has facilitated writing workshops at Harborview Medical Center, Edmonds Community College Theater Camp, the National Poetry Slam, Monroe Correctional Complex, Echo Glen Children's Center and Nova Project Poetry Festival. In 2008, Daemond was awarded 2nd place in the Washington Poets Association Bart Baxter Performance Poetry competition.

Kary Wayson's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Boston Review, Poetry Northwest, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Nation, FIELD and The Best American Poetry 2007. She is the recent winner of a Pushcart Prize and the Lynda Hull Memorial Prize in poetry from Crazyhorse. Her chapbook, "Dog & Me," was published in 2004 by LitRag Press. Her first full-length collection, "American Husband," is forthcoming in December, 2009 from Ohio State University Press.

Curated by Richard Hugo House.

Storme Webber, a current Richard Hugo House Belltown writer-in-residence, is a writer, poet, performer and visual artist. She is at work on an experimental memoir--"Wild Tales of a Renegade Halfbreed Bulldagger"--that incorporates myth and history to weave the stories of survivors, strong victims and unsung heroines.  Storme is the founder and director of Voices Rising, which produces quarterly events showcasing the arts and culture of LGBTQ people of color. Her work has been featured in the anthologies "Jack Straw 2009 Anthology 13," "Beyond Borders: Black Women Writing New Worlds," "Serious Pleasure" and "Voices Rising: 20 Years of Black LGBT Writing." Her film credits include "Venus Boyz" and "What's Right with Gays These Days?"


Deborah Woodard's poetry and translations have appeared in Action Yes, Filter, La Petite Zine, the Threepenny Review, Yale Italian Poetry, Zoland Poetry and elsewhere.  Her first full-length collection, "Plato's Bad Horse," appeared in 2006 (Bear Star Press).  Her most recent books are "Hunter Mnemonics" (hemel press, 2008), which was designed and illustrated by visual artist Heide Hinrichs, and "The Dragonfly," a translation from the Italian of Amelia Rosselli (Chelsea Editions, 2009). Deborah teaches at Richard Hugo House.