Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds Hardcover – November 2, 2025

Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds is a one-of-a-kind Washington State bird guide. The anthology includes original pen and ink sumi-e paintings by artist Hiroko Seki, bird fact notes, and short poems/stories/memoir. Poems/prose are bird-focused rather than human centered. The bird notes include information about song, call, mating rituals, habitat, migration, climate, dark comedy, and fun facts.Birdbrains brings to the stage 107 species of Washington birds in the words of ninety-eight talented poets and writers. The contributors come from different regions of Washington State, from other parts of the USA, and even from faraway lands such as Ireland. In the mix of talent, there are contributions from four Washington State Poet Laureates (Elizabeth Austen, Claudia Castro Luna, Kathleen Flenniken, and Derek Sheffield), three Pulitzer Prize winners (Rae Armantrout, Ted Kooser, and Diane Seuss), and a special collaborative poem by Ann Teplick’s young students at Seattle Children’s.“As one of the best indicators we have for ecosystem health, birds—glimpsed on the wing or perched and watchful—are both a celebration of the possible and a harbinger of it, too. This wildly varied anthology invites us to pay attention to the feathered creatures who define the very air around us. Birds are nothing short of magic—as are these poems, which I know I’ll return to just as surely as the robin that makes her hopeful nest under my eaves each spring.”—Keetje Kuipers, Editor-in-Chief, Poetry Northwest Read more