Everett-based Poetry Northwest Magazine Earns Three Arts Grants
The arts can have a rough time even in the best of years. And in the time of Coronavirus? Yikes. 2020 was a challenging year for sure. So it’s super exciting to hear about a local publication that’s thriving despite the economic downturn.
This year, Everett-based Poetry Northwest magazine received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The publication is based at Everett Community College as part of EvCC’s Written Arts program and publishes the work of poets from around the nation.
The NEA grant will be used by the magazine to help promote indigenous voices, especially from local poets. As part of this effort, Poetry Northwest is now offering the James Welch Prize. James Welch was a Blackfeet poet and novelist whose work was featured in early issues of Poetry Northwest. When poetry readings are again open to the public, the magazine plans to continue collaborating with the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip to host poetry readings for Native and other visiting poets.
Poetry Northwest cover // courtesy of Poetry Northwest.
Poetry Northwest also was awarded an Everett Cultural Arts Commission grant for 2021. In addition to this, they also received a sustaining grant from the Robyn Johnson Poetry Fund. These three grants will fund another year of print and digital publishing and help the Northwest literary magazine to gain more national attention.
To which we at Live in Everett say hurrah! More literary arts! More print publications! More amplification of Indigenous voices! Well done, Poetry Northwest. You’re doing the work of elevating the arts at a time in which people need to hear poetry from marginalized voices more than ever before.
Read the immersive interview we did with Poetry Northwest editor and esteemed poet Kevin Craft.
Love poetry? Subscribe to Poetry Northwest magazine or submit your own piece to the magazine for publication.
Richard Porter is a writer for Live in Everett.
