Featured Reader – Even More Poems from the Salon
The Mingei Museum, 6-8:30p, Monday, 8 June 2026
Free community poetry reading with refreshments and books sales in the beautiful event space at the Mingei, featuring poets Jennifer Karp, Barbara Thomson, Patricia Williams, Tammy. Greenwood, Ron Lauderbach, Leslie Hodge, Ron Salisbury, Pat Obuchowski, Jen Laffler, and Katie Kemple.

Presenter – Ekphrasis: Poets Engaging with Other Artists
Pacific Alumni Craft Talks (PACT) Presents, online 1-2:15p PDT, Sunday, 31 May 2026
“Move back, Miss, behind the line, you’re too close to the painting.” –– Ama Codjoe

Ekphrasis was originally an exercise in vivid description. We’ll read from a rich array of contemporary poets who cross “the line” to see what––and how––they discover beyond description. Mark Doty wrote, “We think that to find ourselves we need turn inward…But ‘I’ is just as much to be found in the world…Say what you see and you experience yourself through your style of seeing and saying.” I’ll share a variety of specific approaches to converse with the art and write into something you don’t already know. Sliding Scale: $40 / $30 / $20 – Registration here.

Host – Poet Tree Productions – When Your Sky Runs Into Mine – A Supper Club at Bedda
poetry and jazz to reset your default, South Park, San Diego,4-7p, Sunday, 17 May 2026
Angela, of Carbon Angela's Kitchen, Meraki, and now the newly opened Bedda, has invited us to try a supper club in May. We'll have jazz guitar by Louis Valenzuela of "ElectricLouieLand," and three poets who represent rich, multicultural perspectives, having each been born in other countries: Rooja Mohassessy, Katieann Vogel, and Jane Muschenetz. Our title for this event comes from a poem by Rooja which is also the title of her book.

We're so happy to welcome you to this special dining experience in this charming neighborhood bistro. There is a $10 cover charge to help us pay the poets and musician. Angela is designing a light, spring supper menu from which you may purchase your own meal and drinks. Space is a little more limited for this event. Tickets are available now on our Eventbrite page here. After purchasing a ticket, you may let us know if you'd like to reserve a table for a certain number of guests or sit at a community table.

Presenter – Pacific University MFA Body Chronicles – online, 9a-5p PDT, Fri-Sun, May 1, 2, and 3
In this three-day online workshop, we bring a focus to the art and craft, labor and sacrifice, and the great gift of care. The weekend will feature facilitation from MFA alumni poets Georgina Marie Guardado, Melissa McKinstry, and NL Shompole, plus guest teachers Laura Mauldin (In Sickness and In Health) and Brian Trapp (Range of Motion). You can expect talks and workshops, time to write, and readings and conversations that bring lessons of craft to the topic of caregiving and the receiving of care.
Writers across all genres, of all identities, are welcome to register. REGISTER HERE.
Details:
Friday, May 1 - Sunday, May 3, 2026 (on Zoom)
9am-5pm Pacific Time (with midday breaks)
Workshop Cost:
General Registration: $350 for the three-day course
Pacific University Community*: $175 for the three-day course
*MFA students and alumni and any other participants from within the University. To get the discount, please select “Pacific University Community” in the category section of the registration form and the discount will be applied to check out.

Presenter – Coastal Cadence: Maine Council of English Language Arts and Millay House Rockland– online, 4-6p EDT, March 31, April 14, May 12, 2026
10 Professional Development hours for high school English teachers in Maine integrating the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and contemporary Maine poets into engaging, practical lessons with revision and assessment pieces. Led by Jen Munson and Melissa McKinstry, high school English teachers and Board members of Millay House Rockland. The registration is $40 and includes annual membership to the Millay House Rockland for the remainder of 2026. Register here.

Featured Reader – San Diego Writers Festival Poetry Reading, followed by an Open Mic
Coronado Library and Arts Complex, 2:30-4p, Saturday, 28 March 2026
Hosted by Michael Klam, Carly DeMento, Jane Muschenetz, and Karla Cordero ith Blas Falconer, Donna Spruijt-Metz, and Bill Harding

Red Wheelbarrow Prize Reading, 5-6:45p PDT, Wednesday, 18 March 2026, online
Register here to hear poets and artists from Red Wheelbarrow 2025!

Guest – The Written Scene Podcast, February 2026
Listen to the 104th episode of @thewrittenscene podcast wherever you stream your faves. It’s host Adam Greenfield’s four-year anniversary of this podcast that discusses process and path with writers of all genres. Hope you’ll tune in to help celebrate his ongoing conversations with writers.

Host – “What We Keep in Boxes” – Poet Tree Productions – poetry and jazz to reset your default
San Diego 1-3p Pacific, Sunday, 22 February 2026
Join us to mingle, nosh, and celebrate lyric prose and poetry with Ren Cedar Fuller, Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, and Anna DiMartino – and Quincy Reyes on the jazz keyboard.
Tickets and details: Eventbrite

Featured Reader – Every Prose Has Its Thorn Reading
San Diego Writers Ink, Liberty Station, San Diego 7:00-8:00p Pacific, Monday, 26 January 2026
Join us for this free, ongoing reading series co-hosted by Adam Greenfield and Brendan Praniewicz. I’ll be reading and an open mic will follow, so bring a poem to share!

Alumni Programming Committee, Pacific University MFA Residency
Seaside, Oregon Wednesday, 14 January 2026

Featured Reader - Women in a Golden State & Friends Reading
Verbatim Books, North Park, San Diego 6:30-8p Pacific, Sunday, 16 November 2025
Join us for a reading and celebration of the anthology Women in a Golden State (Gunpowder Press, 2025) hosted by Tammy Greenwood, Leslie Hodge, and special guest, editor Chryss Yost, and featuring poets Lori Anaya, Elena Katrina Byrne, Veronica Kornberg, Seretta Martin, Kathy O’Fallon, and friends Deborah Allbritain, Andrea Carter, Heidi Seaborn, and Melissa McKinstry.

Host – “Depth of Field” – Poet Tree Productions – poetry and music to reset your default
San Diego 1-3p Pacific, Sunday, 16 November 2025
Join us to mingle, nosh, and celebrate poetry and music with poets Allisa Cherry (Exodus of Sparks), Majda Gama (In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls), and Heidi Seaborn (tic tic tic) – and the musical stylings of Rebecca Matayoshi and Evan Pasternak.
Seat reservations on Eventbrite here.

Panelist – Writing While Caregiving: Challenges & Strategies
A Panel Discussion for Writer-Caregivers
online, Millay House Rockland, 6:30-8p, Eastern, Thursday, 6 November 2025
The panel will bring together a diverse group of writer-caregivers to share experiences, strategies, and insights from the intersection of caregiving and creativity. This event invites writers, caregivers, and community members to explore how caregiving reshapes the creative process and how writing, in turn, can illuminate the caregiving experience. NOTE: This event is FREE, but you need to register here in order to receive the Zoom link to the panel discussion.

Interviewer – In Conversation with the Landscape: a Poetry Reading with Joanna Young
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine 1-2pm Eastern, Thursday, 16 October 2025
Join us for a special reading with the Millay House Writer-in-Residence Joanna Young, followed by a conversation with our 2024 inaugural resident, Melissa McKinstry. Register for this free, in-person event here.

Past & Present: in Conversation with Poets I Love
The Poets Corner Community of Poetry & Prose
online 4-5:30p Eastern, Sunday, 14 September 2025
Mark Doty, Diane Seuss, and Melissa McKinstry will be reading some of their current poems, as well as poems written in response to poets or poems that they love, and a conversation about writing, influences, and inspiration.This event has past, and the recording of it is available here.

Host – “For a Spell” – Poet Tree Productions – poetry and jazz to reset your default
San Diego 6-8p Pacific, Tuesday, 19 August 2025
Join us to mingle, nosh, and celebrate poetry and jazz with poets Blas Falconer (Rara Avis), Emily Hyland (Divorced Business Partners), and Zea Sandoval, and musical guests the Quincy Reyes Trio.

Alumni Programming on Behalf of the Alumni Council
Pacific University MFA in Writing Residency
Forest Grove, Oregon 10:30a-6:15p Pacific, Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Join us for an Alumni and Fifth Semester Student Prompt Luck, an Alumni Panel: Cultivating Writing Relationships–Mentorship in Many Forms, and an Alumni Reading and Book Sale.

Featured Reader – Stonecoast Review Launch Reading for Summer 2025, Issue #23: Power
online, 3:15p Eastern, Monday, 16 June 2025

Interviewer – Pacific Alumni Craft Talks (PACT) with Catherine-Esther Cowie, poet
online, 6-7:15p Pacific, Tuesday, 10 June 2025
archived on the PACT Desk Set on Substack

Host – “Tilt-a-Whirl”– Poet Tree Productions – poetry and jazz to reset your default
San Diego 6:30-8p Pacific, Tuesday, 25 March 2025
Celebrate poetry and jazz with us at our inaugural Poet Tree Production with poets Nancy Miller Gomez (The House of Inconsolable Objects), Cindy Huyser (Cartography), Carly Marie DeMento, and Michael Mark (Visiting Her in Queens Is More Enlightening Than a Month in a Monastery in Tibet) and guitarist Ben Zinn.

Presenter – Poems of Place Craft Talk at the Farnsworth Art Museum
online 3-4:30p Eastern, 30 April 2025
“Poems of place contain the psychological and geographic maps we make of the worlds we know, think we know, and those we remember.”
––KC Trommer

We’ll be reading and writing poetry inspired by the current exhibit Capturing Her Environment: Women Artists, 1870-1930. The session will begin with an orientation to some of the art and artists, led by Francesca Soriano, Associate Curator of American Art, followed by a selection of poems by women whose life and work coincides with these women painters, and then a selection of poems by contemporary women poets in Maine, whose work “captures their environment.”

Participants will have the opportunity to explore how place is evoked with craft elements such as detail, image, and form. We will map the worlds we know. There will be time to write, and the option to share what you create.

Host – “The Entropy of Joy”–Poet Tree Productions –poetry and jazz to reset your default
San Diego, 6:30-8p Pacific, Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Here’s to poetry and jazz, and the second of our quarterly Poet Tree Productions, with poets Deborah Allbritain (Osgood), Ron Salisbury (Please Write and Tell Me What I Looked Like When You Met Me), and Sonya Schneider, and the musical stylings of the The Eric Wesling Trio.