Rena Priest is a poet and an enrolled member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) nation. She spoke with us on Saturday, June 11, 2022.
She has been appointed to serve as the Washington State Poet Laureate for the term of April 2021-2023. She is the 2022 Maxine Cushing Gary Distinguished Writing Fellow, a Vadon Foundation Fellow, and recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. Her debut collection, Patriarchy Blues, was published by MoonPath Press and received an American Book award. Her second collection, Sublime Subliminal, was published as the finalist for the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. She is a National Geographic Explorer (2018-2020) and a Jack Straw Writer (2019). Priest holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.