Kathryn Humes
Poet ~ Essayist ~ Photographer
Welcome
As a poet, I’m interested in connecting with writers, teachers and performers who bring attention to their craft and enjoy collaborating.
I studied acting and improv, later using the skills in my career as a teacher. On the way to becoming a teacher, I studied American Sign Language interpreting and worked as an interpreter for five years. (Favorite performance : A Wrinkle in Time at the Seattle Children’s Theatre.) I have an M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction and an MFA in Creative Writing.
Maybe you’re looking to collaborate on a project or find a teacher for an event.
At Bayview Manor in Seattle, I led a workshop series with elders called Poetry for Life. We made a final book, but my favorite part was seeing my students take risks and connect in a deeper way. At Richard Hugo House, I assisted in an after-school project where kids wrote and performed their poetry. Respect. Connection. Belonging.
Work in Progress: "Monkey Puzzle Tree: A Memoir"
She had moved across the country to be nearer to me, her second daughter. I went along with the plan willingly, even met her to drive across the country, until she asked for my help with the one thing I had done too many times – meet the moving truck at the storage unit. She was 61, divorced and job-searching. I was 37, single and working. I said no. It was a Monday.
When I got the call from the owner of Kenmore Storage that I should come, I was vexed. Why couldn’t she be like other people’s moms? Stay in one place instead of moving from Pennsylvania to Scotland to Maine to New Jersey and now Seattle? Why did she have to discover that she was an artist, a free spirit, a new-age Quaker who believed in garden devas?
“I’ve just called 911," he said. “She’s conscious, but I think you’d better come.”
What I see now is that the losses keep coming and we find what oars will carry us to the other side of grief. Some of us grab oars that numb the pain, some of us row too fast to feel, trying to propel ourselves past loving someone who is gone. Some of us, sooner or later, grab the oars and sing.
About
Kathryn Humes writes poems and essays and has a draft of a memoir called Monkey Puzzle Tree. She received her Master’s in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University, where she was fortunate to study with Judith Kitchen, Stephen Kuusisto, Peggy Shumaker and Lia Purpura.
Her poems have appeared at the Bellingham Public Library, on city buses and at The Children’s Inn of the National Institutes of Health. Humes is a grateful recipient of writing residencies awarded by Centrum, Vermont Studio Center, and the Whitely Center.
Humes has worked with a dream-team of educators for over a decade, writing grants, producing videos and coordinating statewide services to increase access for kids who are differently abled, differently labeled, and always kids first.
Published Writing & Awards
Elder Voices, Volume 2 (Sidekick Press, 2027)
"The Well-Being of the World" (pg 108), The Madrona Project Volume II Number 1, Keep a Green Bough: Voices from the Heart of Cascadia (Edited by Holly J. Hughes , 2021)
"Spin", Sue C. Boynton Poetry Prize, 2009.
When in Crisis, We Don’t Remodel, The Vital Signs Poetry Project of the Children's Inn at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1998. Edited by Davi Walders, NIH Clinical Center, April 2002.
Rest Stop at Indian Hill: Flight Path Writer’s Competition, Highline Community College, 1998.
Tulipomania, an experimental theatre production, staged at Seattle Mime Theater, July 1983. Written and directed by Joellyn Rock with poems by Kathryn Humes.
The Way It Is
William Stafford
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.