Kelli Russell Agodon

Kelli Russell Agodon is a poet, writer, and editor from the Northwest. Her recent books are Hourglass Museum, (Finalist for the Julie Suk Poetry Prize) and The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice. Her other books include Letters from the Emily Dickinson Room (Winner of ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year in Poetry and Finalist for the Washington State Book Prize), Small Knots, Geography, and Fire On Her Tongue: An Anthology of Contemporary Women’s Poetry. Kelli is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press and the Co-Director of Poets on the Coast: A Weekend Retreat for Women Writers.

For her 2015 time at Centrum, Kelli will be writing poems about the history of Fort Worden and exploring the grounds. Since coincidentally, her project is *about* Fort Worden, the time at Centrum would be used doing research, visiting the museum, learning more about the housing and officer’s quarters there as well as writing the corresponding poems.

Kelli received 2003 GAP Award funding to cover expenses incurred while trying to find a publisher for her collection of poems Beginning to Speak, including reading fees required by many poetry book prize competitions, computer and printing costs, and personal time to complete each application. The collection is based on one woman’s experience with passion, family, religion, and her struggle with breast cancer. “I chose the title of the manuscript to reflect the many things we still do not talk about in our histories and in our own lives. The narrator of these poems is just beginning to tell her stories, just beginning to speak.”

Kelli also received a 2000 GAP Award.