(Unfortunately, Duane Poncy could not participate in this event due to illness.)

In recognition of Veterans Day and the human cost of war, Carlos Reyes, Patricia McLean and Duane Poncy will be reading anti-war poetry selections from Raising Our Voices: An Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War.  The anthology was published near the beginning of the war in Iraq and it contains anti-war poetry from many of the most well-known contemporary Oregon poets.  In addition to poems from Raising Our Voices, the three poets will read their individual work.

Carlos Reyes

Carlos Reyes, a noted poet, writer and translator, is a Korean Era veteran and long-time member of the Northwest Veterans for Peace.  Of his work Carolyn Kizer has said: “Mr. Reyes is one of our local and national treasures.  His poetry is as clear and strong as his social conscience.  One is always struck by his sensual and sensory qualities: the touch, taste, feel, color of things, and his ability to capture a mood, a world, in a handful of lines.”  His latest book of poetry is The Book of Shadows; New and Selected Poems (2009) . Other recent books include At the Edge of the Western Wave (2004) and A Suitcase Full of Crows (1995) (a  Bluestem Prize winner and finalist for 1996 Oregon Book Awards).  Among his books of translations are Poemas de la Isla/Island Poems by Josefina de la Torre (Eastern Washington University Press, 2000).   Reyes’ translation of the Obra poética completa (Complete Poetic Works) of the preeminent Ecuadorean poet Jorge Carrera Andrade was published in 2004 in a bilingual edition in Ecuador.  He is the  publisher/editor of Trask House Books, Inc.  In 2007 he was awarded a  Heinrich Boll Fellowship to write on Achill Island, Ireland, and in 2008 he was awarded the Ethel Fortner Award from St Andrews College.  He was recently the poet-in-residence in the Joshua Tree National Park.  Reyes lives in Portland but travels often to Ireland and is a frequent visitor to Spain and Ecuador.

Patricia McLean

Patricia McLean and Duane Poncy are co-editors of Raising Our Voices: An Anthology of Oregon Poets Against the War.  They are also co-authors of Bartlett House, a mystery novel set in Portland, and have been active in the local poetry scene as members of the now-defunct Roadside Bomb, an insurgent band of guerilla poets. They have been invited to read alongside such notable poets as Walt Curtis, Ursula K. Le Guin, Penelope Schott and Leanne Grabel.  Patricia and Duane are also founders of the Habit of Rainy Nights Press, a small non-profit which has published poetry chapbooks by Marilyn Johnston and Jay Thiemeyer, and The Eye of the Moon, a memoir by Shelley Davidow.

Three Friends Coffee House,
SE 12th and Ash, Portland, Oregon

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