ABOUT US
"Cheap Wine and Poetry," Seattle’s biggest, coolest, hippest reading series, occurs semi-regularly at Richard Hugo House, a co-sponsor of the series, and occasionally at other venues throughout Seattle and elsewhere. The series began in 2005 when a few writers and poetry lovers, wearied by the pretentious, expensive, and often dull readings in Seattle, decided to start something fun that everyone could enjoy.
With free admission and glasses of wine for a buck, "Cheap Wine and Poetry" regularly draws standing-room only audiences of poets, writers, artists, art lovers, literati, students, hipsters, cheap wine lovers, furious knitters, families, and the occasional dog.
Most nights, there are 4-5 featured readers, followed by an open mic, extending the drinking well into the evening. Audience members are welcomed to refill whenever necessary. “Cheap Wine and Poetry” isn’t a sit-in-your-seat-‘til-your-ass-approaches-rigamortis type of reading, and sometimes the crowd ends up as part of the show, shouting out answers to riddle poems, doing a call-and-response, or some other shenaniganry.
Despite the name, "Cheap Wine and Poetry" is more than just cheap wine and poetry. Often, we feature not only poets but novelists, storytellers, playwrights, visual artists, and a variety of performers. But what sets "Cheap Wine and Poetry" apart from all other readings (besides the cheap wine, of course) is we never know what will happen once the lights are dimmed.
One performer, Jennifer Jasper, lugged two huge wooden dildos on stage. They were props for a story about her grandfather, who had given her the dildos as a "coming out" gift. Another reader, poet Eben Eldridge, arrived with shopping bags of groceries, which sat on stage until his very last poem about his ancestors and their favorite foods— his aunt who loved collard greens, his uncle in recovery who only drank sparkling cider, and his grandmother with her biggest vice, chocolate cake. Thankfully, after the reading, we got to eat the cake (mmm… cheap wine and chocolate cake). We’ve even had a Roshambo battle for the title of biggest “Cheap Wine and Poetry” fan on stage between acts, ending in a fit of ass-slapping with our always affable host Charla Grenz.
Don’t be fooled though: "Cheap Wine and Poetry" isn’t just raucous for raucous’ sake. We do some serious business, too. Our mission is to provide a creative space for established and emerging writers to present their work while taking literature from the dusty shelves of libraries and dimly lit halls of universities to the stage, making it accessible to wider audiences of more than just writers and readers. The cheap wine, chocolate cake, and ass-slapping are just bonuses.