Poetry Northwest receives $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant

Press Release

Date: March 14, 2023

Contact: Kevin Craft, English faculty and Executive Editor of Poetry Northwest, 425-388-9395, kcraft@everettcc.edu

Image: Poetry Northwest Winter/Spring 2023 cover with artwork by artist Kalina Wińska.

EVERETT, Wash. – A $10,000 grant awarded to Poetry Northwest by the National Endowment for the Arts will support the literary journal’s ongoing efforts to produce, publish, and distribute the oldest literary magazine in the Pacific Northwest.

Poetry Northwest, which has been based at Everett Community College as part of EvCC’s Written Arts program since 2010, will use the grant funding to support production of its magazine, and to showcase Indigenous voices with the Native Poets Torchlight Series and James Welch Prize. 

This is the third year in a row and the fifth time overall that the magazine has received this grant.

“We’ve been very fortunate over the years to receive substantial support from our local community,” said Kevin Craft, Poetry Northwest publisher and executive editor. “A grant from the NEA is a big lift in national prestige. It validates our efforts to remain in print, to reach and reflect a diverse and growing literary audience.”

The Native Poets Torchlight Series spotlights a Native American poet on Poetry Northwest’s website, www.PoetryNW.org. Poetry Northwest frequently collaborates with the Hibulb Cultural Center in Tulalip to host poetry readings for Native and other visiting poets.

The grant will also support an ongoing collaborative initiative, the James Welch Prize. The prize is named in honor of James Welch, the Blackfeet poet and novelist whose early work appeared in Poetry Northwest.

This major national prize was developed in conjunction with several partners, including Seattle Arts & Lectures, Hugo House, Beargrass Writer's Workshop and In-Na-Po, and is entering its third year as an integral part of the Poetry Northwest publishing platform. More info on the James Welch Prize and prize sponsors is available at www.PoetryNW.org.

Poetry Northwest was also awarded an Everett Cultural Arts Commission grant for 2023, along with another sustaining grant from the Amazon Literary Partnerships. Together these three grants will ensure another year of print and digital publishing, and help the magazine expand its national presence.

Poetry Northwest, the northwest’s oldest literary magazine, was founded in 1959. It is an independent, autonomous nonprofit organization dependent on subscriber and community support.

In January 2010, Poetry Northwest’s Board of Directors appointed EvCC English instructor Kevin Craft the fifth editor of the magazine. Craft returned the editorial offices to the greater Seattle area, reaching an agreement with Everett Community College to house and publish the magazine at Everett, where it plays an integral role in EvCC’s Written Arts Associate in Fine Arts program. Since 2016, Craft has served as Publisher and Executive Editor of Poetry NW Editions, beside fellow English department faculty member and Managing Editor Aaron Barrell. Editor Keetje Kuipers selects the poems which appear in print, and Bill Carty edits content for the website. More than 150 students have completed graphic design and editing internships in the past 14 years.