¡The 2019 Lineup!

Before 2019 gets any further underway, Blue Cactus Press has a big announcement to make! In celebration of two fantastic years of publishing under our belt, we’re announcing our 2019 lineup of authors! Please join us in welcoming three phenomenal local artists, poets, and writers to the Blue Cactus Press family:

Jack Cameron

author, blogger

Michael Haeflinger

poet, musician, educator

Kellie Richardson

writer, artist, educator

Keep an eye out for news about Jack, Michael and Kellie’s upcoming titles with Blue Cactus Press over the next few months, and join us for a night of readings on Feb 28 at Notes Coffee Company in Parkland, WA. There, Blue Cactus Press Alumni Lux Barker, Samuel Snoek-Brown and Christina Butcher will take to the stage alongside Jack Cameron and Michael Haeflinger. Event details can be found here. Learn more about each of our talented authors below! 

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Jack Cameron

Jack Cameron is the author of Ruin Your Life, a self-help book for hooligans, 15 Minute Stories, a collection of flash fiction, and Kickstart Your Kickstarter, an ebook on crowdfunding. His work has also appeared Creative Colloquy’s online and print collections. He maintains a website called TacomaStories.com which covers local businesses and events as well as every homicide that happens in the city of Tacoma.

He holds an Associates in Human Services from Tacoma Community College and a Bachelor of Arts from The Evergreen State College. You can find him online on his personal website, jackcameron.com, at @jackcameron on Twitter, or on Facebook. He also writes a weekly newsletter called Notes From Table 30 that you can subscribe to at http://tinyletter.com/jackcameron.

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Michael Haeflinger

Michael Haeflinger is a local poet, musician and educator. He’s also the executive director of Write253, a non-profit youth literacy organization serving Pierce County. Michael earned a BA in Religion from Wright State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry: Love Poem for the Everyday (2011) and The Days Before (2013). In 2016, he released Let’s Don’t Be Crazy, a spoken word album partially funded by the Tacoma Arts Commission.

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Kellie Richardson

Kellie Richardson is a writer, artist and educator born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. Her work explores the intersection of race, class, and gender with specific emphasis on themes of love, loss and longing. She employs both classical poetic forms as well as contemporary mediums such as spoken word. Her work is provocative yet accessible, powerful yet vulnerable. In addition to publishing original work, Kellie created the blog, Brown Betty, in 2012. Brown Betty exists to provide armor and inspiration for real life; a place where commerce and community intersect to cultivate healing. The blog explores the complexities of navigating the human experience, and calls its readers to continue to be inspired to endure and overcome barriers to their happiness.

Kellie is particularly inspired and called to explore the experiences of women of color, and the intersectionality of identities. As Poet Laureate for the city of Tacoma, Kellie worked to ensure literary arts are both accessible to and representative of the diversity of the community.

Kellie believes her work has one purpose: to be used as a tool for liberation and healing. Sometimes through provocation or confession, other times through belly laughs or tears, Kellie works to center the beauty and power of everyday folk, and put some funk into the dread we call survival.