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Poetry Bus Tour was a literary event sponsored by independent poetry publisher Joshua Beckman, Matthew Zapruder, Lori Shine, Monica Fambrough, and Travis Nichols the tour featured many poets published by the press, as well as performance artists and local readers. One reviewer characterised the project as being "like some strange collective of disenfranchised rock musicians, shorn of their instruments and forced to travel together for warmth",[2] while another posed the question, "What would happen if poets started acting like one big heavy metal band?"[3]
The Poetry Bus started its tour from Seattle, WA in September 2006. It traveled from the Pacific Northwest, across the upper Midwest, and as far as New England and parts of Canada. The Bus traveled south along the Eastern Seaboard, as far as Georgia, then headed west through areas of the Deep South and Southwest. After reaching the West Coast again in Los Angeles, the tour aimed north through California and Oregon before returning to Seattle for a finale event at the foot of the Space Needle in late October. Some stops involved multiple readings in the same city, and the types of venues varied from stop to stop (including art installations, festivals, a Naval Academy, historic sites, and prisons). The bus itself was a forty foot-long Biodiesel Motorcoach with the words "Poetry Bus" painted on the sides. Passengers varied along the way, but as many as 38 writers, organizers, and journalists slept in the bus at once. The tour was documented on a blog.
Performers varied from venue to venue, but a handful remained consistent throughout the majority of the readings. Participants included, alphabetically: Eileen Myles, Amanda Nadelberg, Maggie Nelson, Sierra Nelson, Aimee Nezhukumatathill, Hoa Nguyen, Travis Nichols, No Cry Sleep Solution, Melanie Noel, John Olson, Ethan Paquin, GE Patterson, Becky Peterson, Scott Poole, DA Powell, Stephen Powers, Kristen Prevallet, CE Putnam, Srikanth Reddy, Dwaine Rieves, David Rivard, David Roderick, Mary Ruefle, Damian Rogers, Matthew Rohrer, Martha Ronk, Catie Rosemurgy, Molly Russakoff, Standard Schaeffer, Robyn Schiff, Rob Schlegel, Zachary Schomburg, Vijay Seshadri, Prageeta Sharma, Brenda Shaughnessy, Frank Sherlock, Lori Shine, Evie Shockley, Eleni Sikelianos, Richard Siken, Bruce Smith, Dale Smith, ML Smoker, Dennis Somera, Juliana Spahr, Chuck Stebelton, Chris Stroffolino, Gwydion Suilebhan, Mathias Svalina, Chad Sweeney, Jennifer K. Sweeney, Cole Swensen, Arthur Sze, James Tate, William Taylor Jr., Edwin Torres, Trdmrc, David Trinidad, Nick Twemlow, Typing Explosion, Nance Vanwinckel, Sarah Vap, Nico Vassilakis, Vis a Vis Society, Miles Waggener, Catherine Wagner, Lewis Warsh, Kary Wayson, Joe Wenderoth, Betsy Wheeler, Sam White, Dara Wier, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Dustin Williamson, Elizabeth Willis, Catherine Wing, Rebecca Wolff, Jon Woodward, Mark Yakich, Matvei Yankelevich, John Yau, Jake Adam York, Monica Youn, Dean Young, Stephanie Young, Karena Youtz, Maged Zaher, Matthew Zapruder, Rachel Zucker, 826 Laureates.
Readings were hosted in fifty cites across the United States and Canada (including Seattle twice, at the beginning and end of the tour) over the course of fifty days. The cities and venues included:[4]
University of California, Berkeley, Copper Canyon Press, Washington, D.C., University of Houston, Amherst College
Wesleyan University, Pratt Institute, National Endowment for the Arts