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At a Loss for Words

Write Here

Explore the power of words with Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston.

Join Oregon Poet Laureate Ellen Waterston in exploring the origin, sound, color and power of words…while reckoning what their ongoing loss portends about our capacity for relationship to place and one another. Generative writing prompts will guide workshop participants in recruiting words that honor unique American regional dialects and languages and as interpreters of wildlife and landscape. Established and emerging poets can count on returning to the page with renewed commitment and inspiration as writers and as custodians of language.

About Ellen:

In 2024, Waterston was named to a two-year term as the eleventh Poet Laureate of Oregon and has so far visited twenty-two out of thirty-six counties across Oregon’s 96,000 square miles. Ellen has dedicated herself to writing and advocating for the literary arts in the high desert region of Oregon, all the while continuing to write poetry and nonfiction works that have evolved into essential reading about Oregon and the West. As an award-winning high desert author and poet Waterston has published five poetry and four literary nonfiction titles, including, most recently, As Far as I Can Anthem, Poems (2026), We Could Die Doing This (2024), and Walking the High Desert (2020). She has received the Soapstone Bread and Roses Award, the Stewart H Holbrook Award, an honorary PhD in the Humane Letters from OSU Cascades.

Questions? Contact lizg@deshuteslibrary.org