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Arlene Naganawa is a Seattle-based poet and teaching artist, with three published chapbooks, and many poems published in journals. She's a recipient of the Seattle Arts Comission literary artist award, has been featured on Metro Poetry on Buses, works with Seattle Arts & Lectures as a Writer in the Schools, and is the current Seattle Review of Books Poet in Residence. Arlene is currently working on two two projects funded by Artist Trust's Grants for Artist Projects, and a Seattle Arts and Culture CityArtist grant. One is a series of poems exploring the life of her maternal grandparents and their friend who immigrated to Whitefish, Montana, in 1919, to work on the Great Northern Railroad as laborers, servants, ranch hands, and store owners. The second is a collaboration with several local visual artists, exploring the connection between biology and the creation of organic forms in ceramics and textiles.

What are you reading now?

Right now I am reading A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit and Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours Adapted to Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineraolgy, Anatomy, and the Arts by Patrick Syme.

What did you read last?

I recently finished On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

What are you reading next?

Next, I’ll be reading The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.