Rena Priest

Rena Priest is a Poet and a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is a recipient of an American Book Award, as well as an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. She has been awarded residency fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hawthornden Castle, and Mineral School, with support from the Whiting Foundation and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. Priest has published two collections of poetry and has had individual poems featured at Poets.org, Poetry Northwest, Verse Daily, Pontoon, The Poetry Broadcast, Sweet Tree Review, Diagram, and elsewhere. In addition to poetry, Priest has published a series of essays on Lhaq’temish relationships to marine life and waterways. These works appear in High Country News, YES! Magazine, Seattle Met, Adventures Northwest, and Nautilus Magazine. She is a National Geographic Explorer and a Jack Straw Writer (2019). She serves on the board of the Whatcom Peace and Justice center and lives in Bellingham, Washington, where she works as a Job Skills Instructor for the Lummi Indian Business Council. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.