Carla Shafer BS ’66

Carla Shafer BS ’66 was selected as a 2023 Jack Straw Fellow as a writer of poetry in Washington state. She strives for an antiracist, anti-sexist, anti-ageist, anti-homophobic, nonprovincial, and inclusive society in and around the Pacific Northwest. Shafer is developing a book of poems in which she reflects on what she learned at L&C and Bank Street College in New York City. It will also include reflections on her time serving as a teacher and community activist in inner-city schools; working as a grant writer and dean for development at tribal or community colleges; and interacting with her children and grandchildren.

Carla Shafer BS ’66 has a rich life in connection with efforts toward a just, sustainable world for her amazing young grandchildren, Akira, Hiroki, and Zoya. During the pandemic, she coordinated the fourth international World Peace Poets poetry postcard exchange (open to all). She coedited Our Deepest Calling, poems and prose by writing lab members associated with Everett Community College staff. She was the sole editor/publisher of Solstice: Light and Dark of the Salish Sea, a collection of poems by 28 regional poets that celebrate the light and dark of the longest and shortest days of the year. Her email is chuckanutsandstone@gmail.com (named for Chuckanut Sandstone Writers Theater, the open mic she founded in Bellingham, Washington, 30 years ago).

Carla Shafer BS ’66 and a poet friend traveled all over Ireland in October 2017, taking part in open mics and readings with more than 80 mostly Irish poets. While in Dublin, Shafer encountered Maurice Harmon, who previously taught English and Anglo-Irish literature at Lewis & Clark. They exchanged a few of their poems. She says it was wonderful to visit with him and his wife, Maura. As often as she can, Shafer travels to Oakland, California, to play with her preschool-aged grandsons, Akira and Hiroki.