Washington State Poet Laureate Derek Sheffield: Reading, Conversation, and Poetry Walk

Washington state poet laureate Derek Sheffield joins Bainbridge Island poet laureate Erin Malone for a poetry reading and conversation, followed by a Q&A, book signing, and a Waterfront Trail poetry walk with the poets laureate.

Derek Sheffield is the 8th poet laureate of Washington State (2025-2027). His books include Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry, winner of a 2024 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, Not for Luck, selected by Mark Doty for the Wheelbarrow Books Poetry Prize, Through the Second Skin, runner-up for the Emily Dickinson First Book Award, and Dear America: Letters of Hope, Habitat, Defiance, and Democracy. A two-time finalist for the Washington State Book Award, his other awards include the Foreword Reviews Indies Book of the Year in Nature Writing and the James Hearst Poetry Prize judged by Li-Young Lee. He teaches at Wenatchee Valley College and Western Colorado University, edits poetry for Terrain.org, and can often be found in the woods along the eastern slopes of the Cascade Range near Leavenworth, Washington.

The Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate Program is funded in part by the City of Bainbridge Island.