Rena Priest

Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation and served as the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023). She is the first Indigenous person to hold this post. Priest is also the recipient of a Washington State Book Award and an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. She has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, Nia Tero, and the University of Washington Libraries. Her first collection, Patriarchy Blues,...See more

Rena Priest is an enrolled member of the Lhaq'temish (Lummi) Nation and served as the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate (2021-2023). She is the first Indigenous person to hold this post. Priest is also the recipient of a Washington State Book Award and an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award. She has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Indigenous Nations Poets, Nia Tero, and the University of Washington Libraries. Her first collection, Patriarchy Blues, received an American Book Award. Her second collection, Sublime Subliminal, was published as the finalist for the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. She published a nonfiction book, Northwest Know-how: Beaches, with Sasquatch Books, and is the editor of two anthologies: I Sing the Salmon Home: Poems from Washington State and The Larger Voice: Celebrating Native Arts and Culture Foundation Literature Fellows. Her poems appear in Yellow Medicine Review, Poetry Magazine, "Poem-a-Day" at Poets.org, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Priest's nonfiction appears in High Country News, Nautilus Magazine, Seattle Met, Adventures Northwest, American Poets, and Campfire Stories. Priest holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Bellingham, Washington. You can learn more at renapriest.com. See less