January 17, 2008

Terry Martin is an English professor at Central Washington University, and the recipient of CWU’s Distinguished Professor Teaching Award and the CASE/Carnegie Washington Professor of the Year Award. Her poems, essays, and articles have appeared in numerous publications and she has edited both journals and anthologies. Her first book of poems, Wishboats, won the Judges’ Choice Award at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Book Fair in 2000. Her most recent book, The Secret Language of Women, was published by Blue Begonia Press in 2006. She lives with her family in Yakima, Washington.

Jim Bodeen is publisher of Yakima’s Blue Begonia Press, and the author of several poetry books including Whole Houses Shaking, Impulses to Love, and This House: A Poem in Seven Books. He says “Several years ago I was given a word, storypath/cuentocamino. No handbook, no definition. It’s taking me into deeper explorations of testimony/testimonio, witnessing, and the relationship of poetry and listening. I left classroom teaching after 33 years where I had a dual life with teaching and poetry. I carry a notebook and a camera and write every day. I’m not an expert in anything. I’m a beginner. In Spanish the word is principiante. Writing poems, taking testimony, and documentary photography is what I’ve been doing. My wife and I feel blessed with our lives in the margins where poetry is one of several inclusive centers.”