April 17, 2025

Michael Dylan Welch has curated SoulFood Poetry Night since 2006. He also served two terms as Redmond poet laureate and is president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword. His poems, essays, and reviews have appeared in hundreds of journals and anthologies in at least 22 languages. Michael has published 76 books, mostly haiku. He cofounded the Haiku North America conference in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996. He founded National Haiku Writing Month in 2010, and his website is www.graceguts.com.

Curtis Manley writes poetry and children’s books from a book-filled home on the Eastside. His picture books include Shawn Loves Sharks (winner of a Washington State Book Award), The Crane Girl, Climbing the Volcano: A Journey in Haiku, and the just-published Grace Builds an Almost-Perfect Dog. He’s also published poetry and prose in Windfall, Arnazella, Pontoon, Isotope, Paragraph, South Dakota Review, American Mineralogist, Bulletin of Volcanology, and in the anthology I Sing the Salmon Home. See https://curtismanley.com/.