Skagit River Poetry Foundation

A small group of community members who appreciate and seek out opportunities to bring people together in celebration of written and spoken word!

The Skagit River Poetry Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, took root in 1998, the result of a conversation between leaders from seven rural school districts in Skagit County, Washington. These leaders hoped to create a project that would support our high literacy standards with the arts; poetry was the natural vehicle. From 1998 to the present, more than 50 Skagit County teachers a year have hosted resident poets. More than 400,000 students have had the experience of playing with words while reading and writing poetry one-on-one with experts. Our professional poets have modeled instructional strategies for teachers and prepared a bank of poetry lessons. The culminating event for this in-class work is the biennial Skagit River Poetry Festival, which started in 2000, and will be held in La Conner the weekend of October 6-8, 2022.