Holly J. Hughes, Elizabeth Evans Landrum to read at Darvill’s

Wednesday, February 12, 5:30 p.m., Darvill’s

— from Jill McCabe Johnson for Artsmith —

Poets Holly J. Hughes and Elizabeth Evans Landrum will read this Wednesday, February 12, 5:30 p.m. at Darvill’s Bookstore in Eastsound. The pre-Valentine’s Day reading is hosted by Artsmith and will be followed by a small reception and book signing.

Holly J. Hughes is the author of three poetry collections, most recently Hold Fast from Empty Bowl Press. Hughes is coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of the award-winning anthology Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her fine-art chapbook Passings (Expedition Press, 2016) received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017 and was recently reprinted by Wandering Aengus Press. She has spent more than thirty summers working on the water in Alaska in a variety of roles, including commercial fishing for salmon, skippering a 65-foot schooner, and working as a naturalist on ships. She currently teaches writing workshops throughout the Pacific Northwest and consults as a writing coach, dividing her time between a home in the Chimacum valley and a small log cabin built in the 1930s in Indianola, Washington.

Elizabeth Evans Landrum is the author of Shelf Life, a collection of poems composed by a clinical psychologist/poet whose voice speaks with compassion and insight into themes ranging from memory, loss, and curiosity about family history to the value of art and significance found in small objects.  Each poem is a response to what is uncovered when dusting a bookcase — the books, photographs, saved items and objects of art that have inspired the writer to pause, to question and excavate the deeper meanings and poetry found in what surrounds us. Landrum grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in her “true home,” the Pacific Northwest. She earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Louisville, then began a 30-year psychotherapy practice, in Louisville and later, in Edmonds, Washington. She lives with her wife and dog on Lopez Island in the Salish Sea where she enjoys retirement time for writing, creating journals and cards, and volunteering. Her poems have appeared in numerous print and on-line journals. Shelf Life is her first published collection.