For More Information

Please download our conference information & paper registration form (PDF)

Conference Schedule

Please download our conference schedule and list of workshops (PDF)

About Our Keynote Speaker

We are happy to announce that Kim Stafford, a native Portlander, will be our Keynote Speaker this year. Kim is the founding director of The Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College where he has been a writing teacher since 1979. He is also the director of the William Stafford Center and the author of fourteen books of poetry and writing, including, The Muses Among Us, A Thousand Friends of Rain, and Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford. Kim believes that the expressive arts are the greatest priority of our time.

We are also delighted that Lawson Inada will be our Featured Poet. Lawson Inada is Oregon's first Poet Laureate since William Stafford retired from the post in 1989. Lawson is currently Professor Emeritus at Southern Oregon State College where he has taught since 1966 as a professor of writing. A third generation Japanese American who spent part of his childhood at several internment camps during World War II, Lawson authored Legends from Camp. Lawson is also the author of Drawing the Line and other books of poetry, as well as the editor of Only What We Could Carry: The Japanese American Internment Experience. He has been hailed as “a poet-musician in the tradition of Walt Whitman," and his writing has been greatly influenced by jazz. He is considered by many to be the father of Asian American literature.

Volunteer!

Please view information regarding Volunteering at the 2007 Portland Conference by downloading our Volunteer Flyer (PDF)

Interested in Being a Vendor/Exhibiting?

Please contact Lauren Keller at NAPTKeller@aol.com.

Interested in Presenting?

The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Portland conference has passed. If you are interested in submitting a proposal for a workshop at our conference in Chicago in 2008, please visit our web site after June 2007 to find more information and to download the forms you'll need. Please join us in Portland in the meantime!

Help Wanted!

The NAPT Conference Committee is seeking to fill volunteer positions at the 2007 conference in Portland for Registration and Information Table Attendees and Audio/Visual Technicians. A modest hourly wage and/or community services hours are available. Please contact Volunteer Coordinator Hannah Menkin at hannah.menkin@sbcglobal.net.

The National Association for Poetry Therapy (NAPT) brings together professionals from the fields of health, literature, and education to promote growth and healing through the interdisciplinary study and application of language, symbol, and story with individuals, groups, and communities in the United States and the world.

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