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About Elizabeth Austen:
Poet, teacher and performer Elizabeth Austen has been interviewing poets and producing poetry segments for KUOW since 2001. She began as an intern while in graduate school for an M.F.A. in creative writing (poetry). Once she discovered the joy of blending her early background as an actor and director (Book–It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Festival) with her passion for poetry as a spoken art form, she was hooked, and has been producing literary segments for radio audiences ever since.
Elizabeth was the 2007 Roadshow poet, bringing poetry to underserved rural communities in Washington State under the auspices of the Washington State Arts Commission, Humanities Washington, and the Washington Poets Association. You'll find Elizabeth's poems in the anthologies "Poets Against the War," "Pontoon" and "Weathered Pages;" online at Verse Daily and DMQ Review, and on the page in the Bellingham Review, Swivel and other literary magazines. She's performed at venues including Bumbershoot, the Seattle and Skagit River Poetry Festivals, and the Austin, Texas ArtSpark Festival. An audio CD, "skin prayers," featuring 26 original poems recorded with a live audience in the KUOW Studios, is available on her Website, www.elizabethausten.org.
Elizabeth is committed to fostering a broader understanding and appreciation of the literary arts in general, and poetry in particular. She has taught for several years in the Inquiry Through Writing program at Richard Hugo House, a literary arts center in Seattle, and been a visiting artist for western Washington school districts and colleges.
