WORD THURSDAYS READINGS

Joanne Clarkson, Olympia, WA Poet & Writer
Website: http://www.joanneclarkson.co

JOANNE M. CLARKSON won Bright Hill’s 2015 poetry book competition, judged by Maine poet Richard Foerster. Her previous collections include “Believing the Body,” published in 2014 by Gribble Press. She was awarded a Grant for Artist Projects from Artist Trust of Washington to help her complete “The Fates.” Her poem “Klotho the Fibre Goddess Describes Fate” won first place in Northern Colorado Writers Annual Competition in 2015 and “Survivor” was selected by Emrys Journal in 2016 for their Nancy Dew Taylor “excellence in the art of poetry” award. Joanne has loved poetry since she was a child and her work has appeared in over 200 magazines and journals internationally. She has Master’s Degrees in English and Library Science, has taught and worked as a professional librarian. After caring for her mother through a long illness, she re-careered as a Registered Nurse specializing in Home Health and Hospice care. In the spring of 2016, she published her first non-fiction book: “There’s Always a Miracle: True Stories of Life Before and After Death,” about her time as a Hospice RN. Joanne lives in Olympia, Washington, with her husband James. She serves on the Board of the Olympia Poetry Network. See more at Http://JoanneClarkson.com.

DJELLOUL MARBROOK DJELLOUL MARBROOK is the author of five published poetry books: Far from Algiers (2008, Kent State University Press, winner of the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and the 2010 International Book Award in poetry), Brushstrokes and Glances (2010, Deerbrook Editions), Brash Ice (2014, Leaky Boot Press, UK) , Shadow of the Heron (2016, Coda Crab Books), and Riding Thermals to Winter Grounds (2017, Leaky Boot). Forthcoming in 2017 from Leaky Boot are four more: Nothing True Has a Name, Even Now the Embers, Other Risks Include, and Air Tea with Dolores. His fiction includes Saraceno (Bliss Plot, 2012), Mean Bastards Making Nice (2014, Leaky Boot), and two books of short fiction forthcoming in 2017 from Leaky Boot: A Warding Circle: New York Stories and Making Room: Baltimore Stories (both 2017, Leaky Boot). He won the 2008 Literal Latté fiction prize for “Artists Hill,” an excerpt from Crowds of One, Book 2 in the Light Piercing Water trilogy, forthcoming in 2018 from Leaky Boot. A US Navy veteran and retired newspaper editor, he lives in the mid-Hudson Valley with his wife Marilyn and maintains a lively presence on Twitter and Facebook.