MoonPath Press judge Annette Sisson has selected Embraces by Alice Derry as winner of the 2026 Sally Albiso Award.

“Some Words about Love” and “Framed by Fire,” two section titles in Embraces, point to the collection’s defining motifs: love and fire. These poems attest to the brightness of our most cherished relationships and the flames that may consume a beloved home but cannot destroy the love for a deceased partner, nor the love that kindles new buds of family. Steeped in mystery, compassion, and keenly observed imagery, this poet’s facility with language is steady, offering readers an experience rich with surprise and discovery—the kind of discovery the speaker herself longs to make in the poem “Color”: “When I sit by the lake . . ./ I can’t understand/ color’s tongue, how bark speaks. . . ./ I want this wild to infuse me . . ./ these idioms I’m trying to enter.” Or as she writes in “Where Brightness Pours,” speaking ostensibly to her lost husband, but also to the reader: “I want you to imagine it/ as I imagine you every day,/ fire in your dark eyes.” Embraces testifies, again and again, that love is the fire that endures.
—Annette Sisson, contest judge, author of Winter Sharp With Apples

Embraces will be published in 2027. Alice will hold readings at venues to be announced.

Alice gratefully acknowledges the kindness of John Albiso, also of Port Angeles, in providing this support of poetry in honor of his late wife, poet Sally Albiso.

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January 27, 2026: Alice Derry presents a generative poetry exercise and reading at

Gentle House, 1215 W. 11^th St. in Port Angeles, 6 to 8 p.m.

Derry will conduct a writing exercise based on “writing from poems we love,” with the theme “Embraces” from the title of her newest poetry manuscript.  She will read from her 2022 volume of poems, Asking (MoonPath Press) and from the new manuscript.  Refreshments will be served.

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12:35 p.m. Peninsula College Little Theater, also via Zoom

Several decades ago, Alice Derry and Fred Sharpe began a project to write text for drawings of native plants he had inked over many years.  They hardly knew each other when they began, and although they both tried to make the partnership work, they eventually realized that both their life styles and their goals for writing were too far apart to continue.  More years passed.  Having already done so much writing and in the intervening time, having learned a lot more about native plants, Alice approached Fred when she retired from teaching and asked if she could use the plates to do her own writing.  He was free of course to find another writer to use the plates his way.  He said yes.

The result so far are three booklets which focus on native plants on the Olympic Peninsula, where Derry hikes and learns.  The booklets are entitled “Plants and Art” and although they never want to desert science, the emphasis is on how the drawings have inspired Derry’s imagination.  Certainly, that could never have happened if the drawings themselves had not been highly imaginative.  Issues of social justice accompany much of Derry’s thinking, and those issues crept into the booklets as well.  Members of Native Nations have lived on this land since it was land, and their knowledge of flora was and is thorough, especially in the use of plants for food and medicine.  Derry hopes to correct the sometime assumption that this knowledge was only part of the past. Tribal foods and pharmacopeias are alive and well today.

These booklets are Derry’s first foray into serious essay writing.

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Alice will read on November 13, 2022 with fellow MoonPath poet, Suzanne Edison, a virtual reading sponsored by MoonPath.

On December 6, 2022, Alice will read at Elliott Bay bookstore, 6.p.m., a virtual reading, with Tess Gallagher, Gary Copeland Lilley and Kathryn Hunt.

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Alice Derry’s book of poems, Hunger, has been released by MoonPath Press!  Books are available from Port Book and News in Port Angeles, IndieBound.org, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

Alice’s book launch is scheduled for Friday, January 26, 2018, at The Heritage Center in Port Angeles, 401 East First Street, 7 p.m.  She will read with Native poets Brenda Francis-Thomas and Chris Thomas.  Both poets worked with Alice and Kate Reavey in a poetry group sponsored by The Heritage Center. The reading is co-sponsored by Port Book and News, which will handle book sales. Please join us, as we meet together to appreciate poetry.

Alice will read at Peninsula College’s Studium Generale on Thursday, April 5, 2018, 12:30 p.m.  On Tuesday, April 10, 2018, she will join poet Kim Stafford for a reading at Annie Bloom’s Books, 7834 SW Capitol Highway, Portland, Oregon, 7 p.m.

Additional readings are planned.

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Alice Derry will be Peninsula College’s 17th  Writer in Residence this spring, April 25-27, 2017.  During her residency, she will hold a number of forums with students, give readings from her work, conduct two workshops with Dr. Kate Reavey, and deliver a keynote address, “Let Poetry Delight You.”  Details of the residency are listed on the accompanying brochure.

Derry and Professor Kate Reavey will team-up to help new writers generate new work and share with each other at a writer’s workshop on Tuesday, April 25, 2017, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on the Peninsula College campus.  Although the exercises will lean toward the writing of poetry, writers are invited to work in any genre.  Please contact Matt Teorey at Peninsula College (mteorey@pencol.edu), if you are interested in participating.  The workshop will be limited to 12 participants and still has openings.

A writer’s workshop will also be held on Thursday, April 27, 2017 from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on the main campus.  Derry and Reavey will help experienced writers improve their work.  Derry will provide limited written feedback on each manuscript.  Serious writers can view this workshop as a great free opportunity to work with two veteran poets to catapult their work forward.  Whether publishing is your goal or not, understanding how your poems can be deeper, wider and more technically adept is always a boon.  This workshop is full. (click here for the official flyer)

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Exciting news: Alice’s fifth volume of poetry, Hunger, will appear from MoonPath Press late in 2017. See book pages for details.

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Sunday, January 26, 2 p.m. Museum of Northwest Art, La Connor, Washington

with Linda Bierds, Lorraine Ferra and Michael Bonacci

http://www.monamuseum.org/event/poetry-reading

Wednesday, April 2, 7 p.m., 6:30 p.m., Duvall Visitor and Centennial Center, Duvall, 

Washington

http://duvallpoetry.weebly.com/upcoming-readers.html

April 7-13, Get Lit! 16^th Festival, Spokane, Washington

more information to follow

Saturday, June 21, afternoon, home of Janet and Michael Markee, celebration the 100^th year of

William Stafford’s birth

with Paulann Peterson; more information to follow

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by Judith Kitchen, in Winter, 2012, issue of The Georgia Review, along with Washington State Poet Laureate, Kathleen Flenniken, and U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey.

by Shelf Awareness (Thuy Dinh): http://www.shelf-awareness.com/readers-issue.html?issue=141#m2698

by Booklist: http://booklistonline.com/Tremolo-Alice-Derry/pid=5536167

by Peninsula Daily News (Diane Urbani de la Paz): http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20120920/news/309209995/0/SEARCH

by Peninsula Daily News (Phyllis van Holland): http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20121130/news/311309978/0/SEARCH

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Alice reads with State Poet Laureate, Kathleen Flenniken, and members of the Indian writing group, Poetic Blood Quantum, Port Angeles Public Library, April 10, 2013, 7 p.m.

 Alice reads with colleague and friend Joseph Powell at Auntie’s Bookstore, Spokane, on Saturday, April 20, 2013, 2 p.m.

http://www.auntiesbooks.com/

 Alice reads at Stonehenge Studios in Portland, Oregon, for Mother’s Day, May 12, 2013, 7 p.m.

http://www.stonehengedesigns.com/studio/event

 Alice will be faculty and presenter at the 7^th annual LiTFUSE Poets’ Workshop in Tieton, Washington, September 27-29, 2013.

http://www.litfuse.us/litfuse-2013.html

Alice will read with author Kelly Davio at Elliott Bay Books, date  TBA

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