Through the lush lines and stanzas of her work, it's quite apparent that Laura Read adores Spokane.
Read moved to Spokane as a young child and from the moment she began writing, the city has informed her work. Several poems in her collection Instructions for My Mother's Funeral glean their titles from places in the Lilac City: "The House on North Stevens," "The Big Dipper" and "Donut Parade."
"Because I've been here so long, [Spokane] seems to be like a container for some of my memories," Read says. "I've lived here a long time, and I feel like it's the way I hold onto myself, if that makes sense. It contains all of who I am."
Read served as Spokane's second poet laureate from 2015-17, but she's shared her knowledge of the written word with people of the region since far before that.
Read has been a professor at Spokane Falls Community College for 25 years, was adviser of SFCC's creative arts magazine, The Wire Harp, and, as of a few years ago, also began teaching poetry at Eastern Washington University as part of the school's MFA in creative writing.
"It's heaven," she says. "I love my job. It's fun to work with people who want to do poetry for their life, you know?"
And for most of Read's life, that's what she's been doing. Poetry. She's published four collections of her own: The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You, Instructions for My Mother's Funeral, Dresses from the Old Country and, just last year, But She Is Also Jane.
She's also begun work on a new collection set to release in fall 2025 called The Serious World.
"It's about mental health," Read says. "There are some poems that are specific to mental health and the pandemic, but it's also about Sylvia Plath and Marguerite Duras, two historical women that I love."
Read is also working on a prose book right now, her first venture into a non-poetry realm.
The topic? Spokane.
"My identity is wrapped up in Spokane," she says. "I have so many students who live here that I've taught poetry to, and it's great to be a part of this artistic community with all of these people I've known for years. I feel so rooted in this community."
2nd PLACE: Mery Smith
3rd PLACE: Chris Cook
