The Poetry at the Rainbow Café welcomes Jeannine Hall Gailey and Michael Dylan Welch on Monday, Oct 7.

The program is from 7 to 9 p.m. in the banquet room at the café, 112 E. Main St., Auburn.

Coffee and conversation follow readings. It is an open mic opportunity. The public is invited.

The Rainbow Cafe, Striped Water Poets, the NorthWest Renaissance, Auburn Arts Commission, City of Auburn, and King County 4Culture make the program possible.

About the poets

Gailey served as the second poet laureate of Redmond. She’s the author of five books of poetry: “Becoming the Villainess”, “She Returns to the Floating World”, “Unexplained Fevers”, “The Robot Scientist’s Daughter”, and “Field Guide to the End of the World”, winner of the Moon City Press Book Prize and the SFPA’s Elgin Award.

Her work appeared in journals such as the American Poetry Review and Prairie Schooner. Her website is webbish6.com.

Welch has been investigating haiku and related poetry since 1976, and for 2019 has given himself the challenge of writing at least one longer poem each day (not counting haiku). He is president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword and has curated monthly SoulFood Poetry Night readings since 2006.

He served as poet laureate of Redmond from 2013 to 2015 and is poet-in-residence for VALA Arts. He founded his press, Press Here, in 1989, and co-founded Haiku North America in 1991 and the American Haiku Archives in 1996. He founded the Tanka Society of America in 2000, the Seabeck Haiku Getaway in 2008, and National Haiku Writing Month in 2010.

Welch was the keynote speaker for the 2013 Haiku International Association convention in Tokyo. He has published his poetry, essays and reviews in hundreds of journals and anthologies in more than 20 languages, and has also published numerous books, the most recent of which include “Sitting in the Sun” (the 2019 HNA conference anthology), “Jumble Box” (NaHaiWriMo anthology), “Seven Suns/Seven Moons” (with Tanya McDonald), “Off the Beaten Track: A Year in Haiku” (with 11 other poets) and “Becoming a Haiku Poet”, among other collections.

Welch lives in Sammamish. His website is graceguts.com.