Join us for a four-day gathering for people who care about poetry!
Registration deadline in June 1.

The Stafford Challenge Conference is an invitation to slow down and show up together. Rooted in the legacy of William Stafford and inspired by the practice of daily writing, this four day gathering brings together poets, writers, and lovers of language for an experience built around curiosity, creativity, care, and shared presence.

Whether you are a longtime member of The Stafford Challenge community or discovering us for the first time, you are welcome here.

Conference at a Glance
Dates:
June 18-21, 2026 (Thursday 12pm - Sunday 1pm)

Location:
Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon (Home of the William Stafford Archive)

Attendance:
Limited to 100 participants to keep the experience intimate and connected

Guest Poet Teachers:
Naomi Shihab Nye, Kim Stafford, Emmett Wheatfall, Brad Aaron Modlin, Christopher Luna, Georgia Popoff, John Rosenwald, Ann Arbor, and Brian Rohr

What Your Registration Includes

• Four days of workshops, writing, and community
• All daytime programming with Guest Poet teachers
• Evening performance tickets fully included:
  • Thursday: "Consider This with Naomi Shihab Nye" - SOLD OUT (Not included with registration)
  • Friday: When the Poets Gather: A Reading of Acclaimed Poets
  • Saturday: Naomi Shihab Nye & Kim Stafford, A Reading and Conversation
• Open mics and participant readings
• Group visits to the William Stafford Archive (a free public resource at Watzek Library)
• Light breakfast (coffee, tea, donuts) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
• Cafeteria lunch provided on Friday and Saturday (available for purchase on Thursday)
• Time and space designed for depth, creativity, and real connection

Registration Notes

• Current and past Stafford Challenge participants receive a $100 discount
• Limited partial scholarships are available, please reach out for more information at events@staffordchallenge.com
• Space is limited and expected to fill

Lodging, travel, and dinners are not included.

Presented in partnership with Lewis & Clark College and Oregon Humanities

CANNOT MAKE THE FULL CONFERENCE?
Join us for three public facing events. More info at: staffordchallenge.com/conference

Meet the Poet Teachers

Naomi Shihab Nye

Palestinian-American writer, editor and educator Naomi Shihab Nye grew up in St. Louis, Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she graduated from Trinity University and continues to live. She has been Young People’s Poet Laureate for the U.S. (Poetry Foundation), poetry editor for the New York Times magazine, and The Texas Observer, and a visiting writer in hundreds of schools and communities all over the world. She received Lifetime Achievement Awards from The Texas Institute of Letters and the National Book Critics Circle.

Kim Stafford

Kim Stafford writes, teaches, and travels to restore the human spirit. He is the author of twenty books, including As the Sky Begins to Change (Red Hen Press, 2024), and his poem A Proclamation for Peace has been translated in over 50 languages and published as a remarkable book by the same name. He was Oregon Poet Laureate in 2018-2020.

Brad Aaron Modlin

Brad Aaron Modlin writes because he likes talking to strangers. His work appears in the 2025 Pushcart Prize Anthology; Poetry Unbound; The Slowdown, and A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford. His book Everyone at This Party Has Two Names is available from Black Lawrence Press. He has received support from The Banff Centre for the Arts, The Sewanee Writer’s Conference, & The Nebraska Arts Council. The Reynolds Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at University of Nebraska, Kearney, he teaches undergraduates & in the online master’s program.

Emmett Wheatfall

Emmett Wheatfall lives in Portland, Oregon where he is a two-time nominate for Oregon Poet Laureate, and is the recipient of the 2024 Oregon Poetry Association Patricia Ruth Banta Award. He is the author numerous collections, including Contradictions from an Uncertain Silence , As Clean as a Bone, and Our Scarlet Blue Wounds. In 2020, Corban University produced a nine-part documentary titled Emmett Wheatfall: A Brief History highlighting Emmett’s life and poetry.

Georgia Popoff

Georgia A. Popoff is a writer, editor, arts-in-education specialist, and a program coordinator for the YMCA of Central NY’s Writers Voice, where she teaches poetry and creative nonfiction. Georgia is a past Poet Laureate of Onondaga County, NY, and a 2024 Poet Laureate Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. She is the series editor for the University of Michigan Press Under Discussion book series on contemporary poets. Her most recent book is Living with Haints (Tiger Bark Press, 2024).

Christopher Luna

Christopher Luna served as the inaugural Poet Laureate of Clark County, Washington from 2013-2017. A graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, he founded the anti-fascist, anti-racist, pro-science LGBTQ+ friendly, all ages and uncensored Ghost Town Poetry Open Mic in 2004. His most recent book is Voracity (Lightship Press, 2022).

John Rosenwald & Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor and John Rosenwald bring over seventy years of combined poetry, teaching, and editorial experience from their work with the Beloit Poetry Journal, alongside distinguished careers as educators, writers, and translators. Based in Farmington, Maine, Ann has published poetry and photography internationally, while John, a longtime professor and four-time Fulbright scholar, is the author of multiple books, including a noted translation of Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke. Together, they have also served as Foreign Experts at major universities in China, helping develop programs in Western literature, and were awarded honorary doctorates for their contributions to literature and education. They working intimately with Robert Bly to help launch the Great Mother Conference in 1975, and still help it thrive to this day.

Thursday: "Consider This with Naomi Shihab Nye" an Oregon Humanities Presentation (tickets included while supplies last)