Kathleen Flenniken has recently been appointed as the second poet laureate in Washington State’s history. Flenniken’s first book, Famous (University of Nebraska Press, 2006), won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, and was a finalist for a Washington State Book Award. Her second collection, Plume (University of Washington Press, 2012), about the Hanford nuclear site, was recently chosen for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series. Flenniken was raised in Richland, Wash. and currently lives in Seattle. She is president of Floating Bridge Press and teaches for Seattle Arts and Lectures Writers in the Schools Program, Washington State Arts Commission and Jack Straw Productions.

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If you’re hoping to see some familiar Seattle-area faces at AWP, here are some highlights, both on and offsite:

Wednesday:

2012 Festival of Language, 5:30 to 10:30 p.m., The Rock Bottom (Featuring Debra De Blasi)

Lowbrow Press, Rose Metal Press and Hopewell Publications Reading, 9 to 11 p.m, Weeds Tavern (Featuring Sierra Nelson)

Thursday:

Saturnalia Books Mega Book Launch and Reading, 6 to 8 p.m., Villains Bar and Grill (Featuring Martha Silano)

Bloof/Coconut/Alice Blue off-site at Delicious, 6 to 8 p.m., Delicious (Featuring Amber Nelson and Alice Blue Review)

I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing By Women, 8:30 to 10:30 p.m., The School of the Art Institute Ballroom (Featuring Debra Di Blasi)

Friday:

Pleiades Press 15th Anniversary Reading, 6 p.m., Beauty Bar (Featuring Susan Parr)

Saturday:

S191 Coloring Outside the Lines, 1:30 to 2:45 p.m., Red Lacquer Room, Palmer House Hilton 4th floor (Featuring Jane Wong)

S212 Crisis Economics for Nonprofits (WITS Alliance), 3 to 4:15 p.m., Grand Ballroom, Palmer House Hilton 4th floor (Featuring Rebecca Hoogs)

S230 A Tribute to Carolyn Kizer, 4:30 to 5:45 p.m., Waldorf Hilton 3rd Floor (Featuring Emily Warn, Kevin Craft and Martha Silan0)

Fence & Action Books Party, 6 p.m., Buddy Guy’s Legends Upstairs (Featuring Don Mee Choi)

Bookfair:

Seattle/Washington Presses/Publications include: Copper Canyon Press, Knock Magazine, Bellingham Review, Wave Books, Seattle Review, Jaded Ibis Productions, Golden Handcuffs Review

–Crystal Curry