Language and the Land – a festival of poetry from Cascadia

Language and the Land, a festival celebrating bioregional poetry and poetics, comes to Cumberland August 22nd to 24th. The program includes readings, workshops and presentations, and discussions with poets from all over the bioregion of Cascadia. Featured poets include Harold Rhenisch, Daphne Marlatt, Robert Bringhurst, Garry Gottfriedson, Lorin Medley, and some of the poets in the anthologies Cascadian Zen: Volumes 1 and 2.

Rain Shadow Poetics Lab, formerly Cascadia Poetics Lab, has been bringing world-class poetry with a bioregional focus to the Comox Valley since 2017. Pursuing a sense of deep time and place, we aim to build community by sharing creative language forms intimately linked to their place of origin—the Cascadia bioregion.

Language and The Land, our 2025 Festival, brings together poets from across Cascadia with the question, What is a bioregional poetry practice?

The weekend includes readings, workshops, lectures, and discussions featuring poets from Quadra Island, Courtenay-Comox, Vancouver, the Okanagan Valley, and Washington State. The festival runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning.

Watershed Press joins the party to launch two books on Friday the 22nd: Lorin Medley’s chapbook, On the Way to Kluusms, and the anthology Cascadian Zen: Volume Two. Book event starts at 7pm.

Events will be held at The Abbey and at the Cumberland Village Museum.

To see the full schedule of events, please visit the festival website
https://rainshadowpoeticslab.com/2025-festival

Tickets

Tickets for each event are available through our website, https://rainshadowpoeticslab.wordpress.com/2025-festival. Follow the link to Tickets.