PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Fine Art Center will host author and poet Carmen Germain and guest poet Risa Denenberg for a reading from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.

The reading, which will showcase the most recent works of Germain and Denenberg, is a celebration of National Poetry Month.

The event at the center, at 1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd., is free and open to the public. The reading will take place in the courtyard, so visitors are encouraged to dress appropriately for the weather. In case of rain, the reading will take place in the main gallery. In either location, seating may be limited.

The Esther Webster Gallery will remain open during the event for visitors to view the current exhibition, “What’s For Lunch?” Entrance to the gallery is free, with donations appreciated.

Holding degrees in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of British Columbia, Germain is the author of the chapbook Living Room, Earth (Pathwise Press), the collections These Things I Will Take with Me (Cherry Grove), The Old Refusals (MoonPath Press), and her latest book, Life Drawing (MoonPath Press, 2022).

Her poems have appeared in various anthologies, including In a Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press), New Poets of the American West (Many Voices Press), and The Madrona Project (Empty Bowl Press). The journals Fifth Wednesday, Madison Review, and Poet Lore, among others, have published her work.

Germain taught at Peninsula College in Port Angeles for over 20 years. She was co-director with Alice Derry and Kate Reavey of the Foothills Writers Series.

“This will be my first public reading from Life Drawing,” (MoonPath Press, 2022), Germain said.

“I’m looking forward to getting poems off the page and presented in a setting where crows chase through the canopy of a bit of old forest above Port Angeles.”

Denenberg lives in Sequim where she works as a nurse practitioner. She is a co-founder of Headmistress Press, publisher of lesbian/bi/trans books of poetry; curator at The Poetry Café Online, a site where poetry chapbooks are celebrated and reviewed; and the Reviews Editor at River Mouth Review.

Her most recent publications include the chapbook, Posthuman, finalist in the Floating Bridge 2020 chapbook competition, and Rain / Dweller, finalist for the Sally Albiso Prize (MoonPath Press in 2023).

Denenberg will read from Rain/Dweller (MoonPath Press, 2023).

David Guterson, author of Snow Falling on Cedars, writes about Denenberg’s work: “I felt myself in the presence of a great honesty about things that matter, and in particular responded to the idea that, despite our existential plight — maybe even because of it — life is a thing of great beauty.”

For more about the arts center, see www.pafac.org.