“I Sing the Salmon Home,” an evening of poetry and prose headlined by 2021-2023 Washington State Poet Laureate and Lummi tribal member Rena Priest, will take place from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Land Trust Building.

The free event will celebrate two books published by Empty Bowl Press, a cooperative letterpress publisher founded in 1976, which publishes the work of writers who share its founding purpose: the love and preservation of human communities in wild places.

In 2022, Holly J. Hughes and John Pierce became co-publishers of Empty Bowl, returning the press to its roots on the Olympic Peninsula, with its new home in Chimacum. Hughes, the author of four poetry collections, will be a speaker at the event.

The first Empty Bowl book to be celebrated at the Nov. 14 event is “I Sing the Salmon Home,” a 2023 award-winning poetry anthology, edited by Priest, that includes the work of more than 150 Washington poets ranging from first graders to tribal elders, all inspired by the Northwest’s beloved, iconic salmon.

A diverse chorus of voices, they join together in poems that praise salmon’s heroic journey, beauty, courage, and generosity, and also bear witness to the struggle that salmon face from pollution, dams and warming oceans.

At the event, island poets whose work is included in the anthology will read their work — Katy E. Ellis, Kathryn True, and Vashon’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, Ann Spiers. Puyallup Tribe member and youth poet, Audrey Sterud Miller, will also read her poem.

The second Empty Bowl Press publication celebrated at the event will be “A Watershed Runs Through You,” a compendium of essays and talks by watershed restorationist Freeman House, who died in 2018.

Islander Seth Zuckerman — who worked with House in one of the oldest citizen-led watershed restoration groups in North America — will present a reading from this book.

Salmon advocates will also be on hand throughout the evenings to share ways to get involved in protecting the treasured species.

Sponsors of the event are Save Our Wild Salmon, a coalition of conservation, fishing, orca, and clean energy advocates working together to protect and restore healthy populations of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia-Snake River Basin and across the fresh and marine waters of the Northwest. The organization’s director is islander Joseph Bogaard.

Empty Bowl Press and Vashon Poets Laureate are also sponsoring the event, with support from the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, Vashon Nature Center, and Vashon Bird Alliance.

Space is limited; reserve tickets and find out more at tinyurl.com/muvnxnre.

2021-2023 Washington State Poet Laureate and Lummi tribal member Rena Priest will headline “I Sing the Salmon Home,” an evening of poetry and prose at the Land Trust Building on Nov. 14. (Courtesy photo)

“I Sing the Salmon Home,” a 2023 award-winning poetry anthology published by Empty Bowl Press, includes the work of more than 150 Washington poets. (Courtesy photo)