April WordFest features local, regional poets

The April WordFest program will feature poets of the lower Columbia region, including Cathlamet's Dayle Olson.

Heading the event will be Astoria Poet Florence Sage. Her new poetry collection, "The Man Who Whistled, The Woman Who Wished," tells the story of her mother and father, children of Polish immigrants to Canada, during World War II.

Her tender-hearted memoir shows the poetic nature of reminiscence and how rich the memory can be when allowed to explore the past.

Joining Florence will be local poets Jan Bono from Long Beach, Charolette Conklin and Mary Lyons from Longview, Jim MacLeod from Kalama, Olson from Cathlamet, and Rick E. George from White Salmon, reading from their works and giving voice to life as they experience it in the Pacific Northwest.

WordFest is a monthly gathering of local writers and readers, celebrating the joy and magic of words, with public readings, discussions, and networking opportunities. In-person events were suspended in March, 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic, and monthly one-hour events on Zoom were launched in October.

The WordFest on Zoom events are free and open to the public. One doesn’t need to have a Zoom account to participate, but one must register for the free, monthly WordFest newsletter at http://www.alan-rose.com to receive the Zoom invitation by email.

More information available at http://www.alan-rose.com.