By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
This week, wordsmiths and rhyme enthusiasts will flock to La Conner to laugh, cry, reflect and learn at the 13th Biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival.
The town will turn into a poets village from Thursday to Saturday, with performances, readings, workshops and discussions taking place at Maple Hall, the La Conner Inn, the La Conner Swinomish Library, the La Conner United Methodist Church, the Skagit County Historical Museum, the Garden Club and Small Walter.
To Molly McNulty, executive director of the Skagit River Poetry Foundation, La Conner is the perfect setting for poets and the public to mingle, compare works and feel inspired.
“La Conner is a magical spot. It has so much literary and artistic history,” she said.
Local poet Georgia Johnson, who sits on the foundation’s board, said it is one of the premier poetry events in the West Coast, with several poet laureates among the list of 39 acclaimed authors.
Amid increased competition for grants and budget cuts, McNulty said the foundation recruited a quarter fewer artists than previous years, but strived to bring a diverse group of poets that can speak to audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
McNulty expects roughly 700 to 1,000 attendees to come to the three-day event, which kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with “A Council of Women,” a reading featuring Tess Gallagher, Danusha Laméris, Rena Priest and Naomi Shihab Nye — poets she described as “powerhouses.”
Students will have exclusive access to open mics, writing workshops and readings with their favorite poets from 9 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. Friday.
When asked about what she looks forward to the most, Johnson described the sight of hundreds of high schoolers gathered at Maple Hall, carefully listening. Both she and McNulty emphasized poetry’s impact on people’s lives, getting kids out of their shell and improving their self esteem and literacy skills. These are the very powers that prompted a group of Skagit teachers to start the foundation, a nonprofit that has been bringing poets to school classrooms for over 20 years.
“We feel like we’re saving kids,” Johnson said.
“We let them fool around with words, there aren’t any rules,” McNulty said. “The more you play with something, the better you get at it.”
On Friday the public is welcome to learn about the ethics of writing about family from 12:55 to 1:50 at the La Conner Inn, enjoy a poetry speakeasy from 7:30 to 9:30 at Maple Hall, and linger for an open mic and music session.
McNulty is particularly excited about the poetry speakeasy, where each poet is called to the stage in random order to read one poem in two minutes.
Saturday’s schedule is packed with readings, panels, workshops, discussions and Q&As, all open to the public.
To view the full schedule, purchase tickets or learn more, visit skagitriverpoetry.org/festival-2026/.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
