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May WordFest celebrates stories in poems, songs and diaries

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WordFest celebrates stories told in poems, songs, and personal diaries on Tuesday, May 12, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

James Dott will be reading from his new poetry collection, Touch Wood (Watershed Press.) The poems form a lyric field guide to trees. The short life and tragic death of David Douglas, early botanist who cataloged Northwest trees, threads through the work, offering elegies, narratives, and meditations on our tangled histories.

Jim is the son of a geologist and a naturalist who kindled his love of nature and natural history. Born in Eugene, Oregon, and growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, Jim began writing poetry and fiction at an early age. He is the author of several chapbooks and two previous poetry collections, A Glossary of Memory and Another Shore. He and his family live in Astoria, Oregon, above the Columbia River.  More information at jamesdott.com.

Tami J. Whitmore will be sharing from her latest book, The Year Around: A 1930’s Diary. After purchasing rural property in 2020, she found a diary left in a tote in a storage shed. It belonged to Ione Merritt, who was born in 1909, in the tiny town of Farmington, straddling the Washington and Idaho border.

The diary begins when Ione is 24 years old, living with one of her sisters and working as a public stenographer downtown. She goes to movies, dances with friends, swims and spends weekends at many of the surrounding lakes. She even meets some famous people along the way, including Mae West, Bob Hope, Billy Sunday, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Bing Crosby. She meets a boy on the streetcar–he was the driver–and falls in love with him. Then she meets another boy while skating at the local rink. When the diary closes, Ione is 28 and is marrying one of them.

Ione’s diary captures a slice of history and also contains several mysteries. Why did her mother move to the other side of Oregon and leave her behind? Where did the mysterious Mr. Powell go each weekend during Prohibition? And why did she have to wait three years to marry the love of her life?

Tami grew up on a wheat farm in rural south-central Washington state. As far back as she can remember, she was always reading and/or writing books. Now she has numerous books in print with a family biography to be released this fall.

Craig Werner writes fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry. As a former (frustrated) musician, he finds that those times when he is most introspective and immersed in stories is when stories are accompanied by music.  At WordFest, Craig will discuss song writing as story-telling. He says, “As authors, we immerse ourselves in our stories and in our characters. We research locations, historical events, and people, then weave those elements

together in a way that carries our story along a path to enlighten and entertain our readers. Songwriters do that, too. More importantly, their work becomes something that we want to re-experience, time and again. How many books have you read that you would happily re-read dozens or even hundreds of times? As a story-telling medium, songs hold that unique distinction.”

An open mic will follow the presentations where people can read for 10 minutes. TheOpen Mic sign-up sheet is on the center table.

The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.

April WordFest hosts an evening of poets for National Poetry Month

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WordFest features a variety of northwest poets on Tuesday, April 14, 6:00-8:00 pm, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 1428 22nd Avenue in Longview.

Debra Elisa Wöhrmann explores joy and sorrow, grief and ecstasy through poetry and fiction. She believes sharing stories can save lives. Her collection, You Can Call It Beautiful, debuted in 2023. When not playing with words, she loves to lose herself in her backyard garden, or along the coast and in lush forests, often with her dog and partner. Her novel-in-verse, The StoryCatcher, written for tweens, is roaming the world in search of publication.

Eric Fair-Layman writes poetry that is a mix of cheeky, cathartic satire along with the occasional sorrowful lamentation. His first collection of poetry was published in March 2026. Titled Cathartic Musings and Do-It-Yourself Revenge Poetry: A Workbook of Poems, Prompts, Templates, & Other Trojan Horses, he describes it as “a petty, quirky book of retribution, mostly at those who deserve it.” On stage, he goes by Papasquatch. You can find him on Instagram at Papa_squatch2229, or at his website, ericfairlayman.com.

Emmett Wheatfall is an Oregon Poet Laureate nominee, and recipient of the prestigious Oregon Poetry Association Patricia Ruth Banta Award. His poetry has been published in his several books, as well as collections and anthologies. His collection, As Clean as a Bone, was a 2019 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist and a da Vinci Eye award finalist. Emmett has keynoted two Oregon Poetry Association’s Conferences, and in 2020, Corban University produced a 9-part documentary highlighting Emmett’s early life and poetry. You can find him at https://www.poet-emmettwheatfall.com

Quin McFadin (she/they) is a queer, neuro-expansive psychotherapist in Portland, Oregon. She studied in the US, India and England, which contributed to a love of anthropology, sociology and philosophy.  Their work has appeared in High Shelf Press, Rue Scribe, and Peregrine.  She writes that she is “discovering her voice amid the turbulence of disability, ableism and the increasingly seasoned acceptance of so many newfangled entropies.”  

Zac (Sunflower) Oberg is a poet from Athens, Ohio, now based in Portland. His poems move between tenderness and philosophical inquiry, humor and tragedy, employing big words and simple truths. His work often touches on “the quiet work of becoming and how we choose each other, lose each other, and insist on loving anyway.” Recently featured at Poetry Street PNW, Zac is an avid attendee of open mics across Portland every night of the week. More information at www.zacoberg.com

Brandy Knapton is a novice American poet and lifelong student. Trained as a social worker, currently employed as a web developer, she aspires to be “a future scholar of peaceful revolutions” who believes that art is a powerful way to reach people.

Margaret R. Sáraco is the author of If There Is No Wind and Even the Dog Was Quiet, which was a finalist for the Eyelands Book Awards and semifinalist in the Laura Boss Narrative Book Contest. She won first place in both the 2025 Ginosko Literary Journal Flash Fiction Contest and 2024 Moving Words Competition. Margaret sits on the board of the Italian American Writers Association. Her work appears in video, Instagram, and podcast projects. Find more information at https://margaretsaraco.com.

Sally Jones has been in love with words and images since she was eleven when she realized how they can generate, express and satisfy emotions. During her 40-year career in 911 communications, she found writing poetry and taking photographs to be forms of personal therapy. She is now working on a book of stories about her 911 experiences. Sally is a long-time participant of WordFest and local writing groups. 

Jim MacLeod is retired from the computer industry and the author of seven e-books in the Harry & Company Mystery series. A long-time fan of Ogden Nash humor, he dabbles in limericks for the sheer joy of creating whimsical wordplay. For him, “they’re the mental equivalent of snacking.”

If time permits, an open mic will follow the presentations where people can read for 10 minutes. The Open Mic sign-up sheet is on the center table.


The monthly gathering of readers and writers meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:00-8:00 PM, in the fellowship hall of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The events are free and open to the public.