S’Klallam elder-scholar-poet-editor to share poetry

By Sequim Gazette Staff • April 26, 2023 1:30 am
Photo courtesy of Peninsula College Celebrate National Poetry Day and hear from Duane Niatum, a Jamestown S’Klallam Elder, scholar, poet and editor, at the next Studium Generale event, set for Thursday April 27.
Photo courtesy of Peninsula College Celebrate National Poetry Day and hear from Duane Niatum, a Jamestown S’Klallam Elder, scholar, poet and editor, at the next Studium Generale event, set for Thursday April 27.

Studium Generale will celebrate National Poetry Month by welcoming Duane Niatum, a Jamestown S’Klallam Elder, scholar, poet, editor and longtime supporter of Peninsula College, on Thursday, April 27.

The event is at 12:30 p.m. in the Little Theater on the main college campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Port Angeles, or on Zoom at pencol-edu.zoom.us/j/83024542567 (meeting ID 830 2454 2567).

The event will also celebrate Niatum’s new chapbook of poetry, “Sea Changes,” which is available in the Peninsula College bookstore, the Bookaneer.

Niatum will offer a reading, and the event will be followed by a book signing in the PUB Gallery of Art and reception in ʔaʔk̓ʷustəƞáwt̓xʷ House of Learning, PC Longhouse.

Niatum, a Seattle native and life-long resident and member of the Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, has been writing poems, stories, and essays for more 65 years. He has been widely published in the U.S. and abroad, and his work has been translated into at least 14 languages.

Niatum’s honors include residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts and Yaddo, the Governor’s Award from the State of Washington, and grants from the Carnegie Fund for Authors and the PEN Fund for Writers. He was four times nominated for a Pushcart Prize and received the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award from Native Writers Circle of the Americas, Returning the Gift. He has read at the U.S. Library of Congress and the International Poetry Festival at Rotterdam, in the Netherlands.

Niatum earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Washington, where he studied with Theodore Roethke and Elizabeth Bishop, an master of arts degree from Johns Hopkins University, and a Ph.D. in American culture from the University of Michigan.

As a child and youth, Niatum studied and absorbed S’Klallam tribal ways with his maternal grandfather. His writing is deeply connected with the Northwest coast landscape, its mountains, forests, water, and creatures. The legends and traditions of his ancestors, who have long called this place home, help shape and animate his poetry.

Niatum has made a life-long study of art and artists, including European and American Indian art, literature, and culture. Along with a rigorous pursuit of the craft of writing, he brings unique insight to his writings and publications.