Stop In For Some Spoken Word

April is National Poetry Month. In celebration, , the local literary hot spot, is hosting a poetry reading tonight in conjunction with the Third Thursday Art Walk.

“We try to do different things each month,” said former bookshop owner and current employee, Susan Hildebrandt, who has been overseeing the store for over 21 years. “Last month it was paintings, and sometimes it’s jewelry or other arts.” 

And this month, it’s poetry. According to Hildebrandt, the current owners are huge poetry fans, and one of them is on the Board of Directors at Copper Canyon Press, a Port Townsend-based nonprofit publisher dedicated to poetry. All four poets reading tonight are local published (from the Puget Sound area) writers and each will have their books for sale and signing. Poets include Erika Michael, Martha Silano, Joan Swift and Richard Wakefield.

This isn’t the first poetry reading hosted by the Edmonds Bookshop, and according to Hildebrandt the community enjoys these literary evenings.

“There has always been a great response to the poetry readings in Edmonds,” Hildebrandt said. “We think Edmonds is a very literate community, and that always helps.”

The poetry reading will take place tonight, starting at 6:30 p.m. and will run for about an hour.

And because it is National Poetry Month, I will share with you a poem I fell in love with in a poetry class I took in college. America, by Allen Ginsberg.