Poet Subhaga Crystal Bacon to give free readings in Wenatchee and Omak

WENATCHEE — Poet Subhaga Crystal Bacon will read and discuss their work during two free public events Oct. 28 and 29 as part of Wenatchee Valley College’s Visiting Writers Series.

The Wenatchee event will pair Bacon with WVC instructor and poet Linda Cooper for a reading and conversation from 6:30–7:30 p.m. Oct. 28 in The Grove Recital Hall, inside the Music and Art Center on the Wenatchee campus.

Bacon will give a second reading at 1 p.m. Oct. 29 in Room 301 of Wendell George Hall on the Omak campus.

A North Central Washington resident, Bacon is the author of five poetry collections, including “A Brief History of My Sex Life” and “Transitory.” The latter won BOA Editions’ Isabella Gardner Award for Poetry and was a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Their collection “Surrender of Water in Hidden Places” won the 2023 Red Flag Poetry Chapbook Prize.

Bacon also mentors writers through the Association of Writers & Writing Programs’ Writer to Writer program and works as a teaching artist with young people and adults in schools, libraries and private instruction. Their poetry has appeared in publications including Prairie Schooner, Bellevue Literary Review and Terrain.org.

Cooper teaches English composition at WVC and nature writing at Washington Outdoor School. She lives in Ronald and earned her Master of Fine Arts degree at Eastern Washington University.

Her poetry honors include the 2015 Orlando Prize for Poetry and the 2022 Allied Arts Foundation Prize. Floating Bridge Press published her chapbook, “Blue, a Waltz,” in 2023.

The Visiting Writers Series is supported by the WVC English Department and Wenatchee Valley College Foundation. Its next event will feature author Laura Pritchett in conversation with Lizbeth Barcena as part of the college’s Earth Day celebration.

For more information about the October readings, contact WVC English faculty member Holly Thorpe at hthorpe@wvc.edu.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media