Kelli Russell Agodon

Kelli Russell Agodon is a bi/queer poet, writer, and editor from the Pacific Northwest. Her next poetry collection, Accidental Devotions, will be published by Copper Canyon Press in May 2026. She is the author of five full-length poetry collections, including Dialogues with Rising Tides, a finalist for the Washington State Book Award, and Hourglass Museum, a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards and shortlisted for the Julie Suk Poetry Prize. Her collection Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room won the White Pine Press Poetry Prize, was named ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year in Poetry, and was also a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her other books include Small Knots and Geography, winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Agodon co-authored the bestselling craft book The Daily Poet: Day-by-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice with Martha Silano, co-edited Demystifying the Manuscript: Essays and Interviews on Creating a Book of Poems with Susan Rich, and co-edited Fire on Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry with Annette Spaulding-Convy. Her work has appeared in POETRY, APR, The Atlantic, The Nation, Harvard Review, Prairie Schooner, New England Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Born and raised in Seattle, Agodon earned her MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writing Workshop, where she now teaches. She is the co-founder of Two Sylvias Press, where she works as an editor and book cover designer. Kelli also cohosts the poetry series Poems You Need with Melissa Studdard. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, a floating bridge and a ferry ride from Seattle, where she can often be found paddleboarding, hiking, or in conversation with poems. www.agodon.com / www.twosylviaspress.com / www.youtube.com/@PoemsYouNeed

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2026 Keynote Speakers

OPENING KEYNOTE

Emily Nemens

Water, Water Everywhere: Wellsprings, Rivers, and Floods in our Writing

FRIDAY PLENARY

Brendan O'Meara

Rage Against the Algorithm: How to Build a Lasting Author Platform without Social Media

SATURDAY PLENARY

Sonora Jha

Wake Up, and Other Daily Writing Practices in a Time of Madness

CLOSING KEYNOTE

Derek Sheffield

Equipment for Living: On the Necessity and Nature of Poetry

2026 Faculty

Kelli Russell Agodon

Anastacia-Reneé

Sarah Hawley

Glen Hirshberg

Maya Jewell Zeller

Scott Lambridis

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe

Donald Maass

Laura Mazer

Elise McHugh

Brenda Miller

Peter Mountford

A. Muia

José Orduña

Sati Mookherjee

Katie Reed

Lucy Tan

Contact

Village Books
1200 11th Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 671-2626

info@chuckanutwritersconference.com