It’s almost time, friends! Oregon’s nine­teenth annu­al Fish­er­Po­ets Gath­er­ing is less than two weeks away, with sto­ry­tellers, musi­cians, and poets ready­ing to flood Asto­ria this Feb­ru­ary 26 – 28. It’s an immer­sion into the authen­tic, cap­tains and crew of diverse fish­eries and eras reflect­ing on the sin­gle moments and entire careers that have both nour­ished and devoured us. It’s an exer­cise in express­ing what has often seemed beyond expres­sion, and the belief that the effort mat­ters. That belief pulls us back, a flood tide, every February.

Fish­er­Po­ets has been the high­light of our off-sea­son ever since we made our first trip in 2012. (I was the only one of us debut­ing on the pro­gram that year, but who can for­get this moment, Cap’n J’s rock star emer­gence at the on-site poet­ry con­test?) Joel’s been prac­tic­ing his mate­r­i­al for months. With the final (final?) revi­sions of my book due the day we hit the road for a pre-FPG Port­land gig (Sal­vage Works, 7 pm on the 24^th!) I may not be as pol­ished as my part­ner, but I’ll be no less joy­ful for this annu­al fish­er-artist reunion. Our people.

Meezie Her­mansen & Cap’n J

Our peo­ple come from all over. A record nine­ty-five are sched­uled this year, hail­ing from Alas­ka to Flori­da, Mass­a­chu­setts to Cal­i­for­nia. A cou­ple British Columbians. One made the trip from Fin­land last year. The BBC came in 2014. Just as dis­tance is no match for pas­sion­ate Fish­er­Po­ets, nei­ther can it hin­der the draw of sto­ries. Our audi­ence mem­bers come from just as far, and are just as eager.

Fif­teen bucks buys you an entry but­ton for the whole week­end. That’s a $15 buf­fet of two days’ access to six venues of per­for­mances, as well as all the spe­cial events: work­shops, films, pho­tog­ra­phy exhibits, con­ser­va­tion and advo­ca­cy dis­cus­sions, a silent auc­tion, a dance par­ty, Sat­ur­day night’s annu­al poet­ry con­test.

Ray Troll & the Rat­fish Wran­glers, 2015

And if you can’t join us in per­son? Enjoy a pri­vate show in the com­fort of your own home, curled up on the couch in your paja­mas, for FREE. Thanks to KMUN, Astoria’s Coast Com­mu­ni­ty Radio, lis­ten­ers can livestream the Events Cen­ter per­for­mances, Fri­day and Sat­ur­day nights, 6 to 10 pm PST. Check the sched­ule to be sure not to miss your favorites.

(One of the first-time acts I’m most delight­ed to see is Bel­ly Meat from Sit­ka. I like imag­in­ing a giant house par­ty in Sit­ka – maybe at the Lark­spur – of the home crowd tuned in to cheer these guys. They should be stream­ing about 9:00 on Fri­day night.)

Nine­teen years… The FPG’s suc­cess is the proof of hero­ic vol­un­teer efforts. Orga­niz­ers, MCs, per­form­ers: we’re all vol­un­teers. We foot our own trav­el, lodg­ing, and food. When the weekend’s over and the bills all paid (event but­tons, pub­lic­i­ty, sound/lighting tech, occa­sion­al venue rentals), the com­mit­tee divvies up what remains and rec­og­nizes each Fish­er­Po­et a small trav­el stipend, based on how far they came from.

Not to get too NPR-annu­al-dri­ve on you, but because we have such a full boat this year, I’m mak­ing a spe­cial request:

If you tune in to KMUN’s livestream to enjoy the show from home, con­sid­er con­tribut­ing the $15 that would have been your entry fee. If you’d like to see your busi­ness list­ed on the FPG web­site as a sup­port­er, con­sid­er a $250 read­er­ship. If you val­ue this event and are in a posi­tion to make a dona­tion, please do. Tax-deductible dona­tions can be made direct­ly through the FPG web­site, or mailed c/o Tillicum Foun­da­tion, PO Box 269, Asto­ria OR, 97103. We’re grate­ful for your sup­port in all its forms.

All this said, Fish­er­Po­ets is ten days away, but my book dead­line is sev­en. If you’re plan­ning to make it to Asto­ria, please do let me know — I’d love to see you. For now, I’m off to work, with love and best wish­es until reach­ing the oth­er side.

Pho­to by Tia Jensen