The FisherPoets Gathering

Several years ago some of us commercial fishermen and women thought it might make a good occasion for a reunion of old friends if we gathered to sing songs and read poems in Astoria like we used to in fo’c’sles tied alongside each other anchored up before an opener or over radios when fishing was slow on the grounds or at mug-up late nights at the cannery. 

The FisherPoets Gathering is sort of an ethereal, mostly oral, seasonal event that takes place in our darkest wettest days each year.  There’s a lot of activity for about a week. Folks come from far away, stay late, tell stories, play music, polish up a few poems, fill the Wet Dog and Voodoo Room, Clemente's and the Event Center, Baked Alaska and Fort George, maybe listen in on KMUN but shortly we all go our ways and if you got there a week late you’d have as much trouble finding fisherpoetry in Astoria as you would finding last week’s fish in Bristol Bay.

Folks keep coming back, schools of them, from all over.  It's become a cultural highlight of the year for a lot of us, attracting talent from every Pacific state and province, from New England and the Gulf Coast, from Kodiak, Alaska to Sulphur Springs, Arkansas.  Come join us in the audience or on stage!

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To listen to the FisherPoets Gathering performances live at the Astoria Event Center Feb. 22 and 23 from 6:00-10:00 pm, tune in to KMUN at 91.9 on the FM dial or streaming on the web at www.coastradio.org