The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
-William Stafford

Bio
Scot Siegel is a city planner, educator, and author of four full-length poetry collections, including Tender Currencies from MoonPath Press, 2025, winner of the Sally Albiso Poetry Book Award. Previous volumes include The Constellation of Extinct Stars and Other Poems (2016) and Thousands Flee California Wildflowers (2012), both from Salmon Poetry. Siegel works with Writing The Land, which pairs poets with land trusts nationwide. His poems appear in many journals in the US and internationally and are part of public art installations, including along TriMet’s Light Rail ‘Orange Line’ in Portland, Oregon. He has received fellowship residencies with Playa at Summer Lake and Oregon State University’s Spring Creek Project, and he previously published the poetry journal Untitled Country Review. Scot was born in Oakland, California, grew up in the Bay Area and the mountains around Lake Tahoe, and has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1987. He has two grown daughters

Awards, Commendations, Commissions & Service

  • Sally Albiso Poetry Award, for the book, Tender Currencies, due out in 2025 from Concrete Wolf-MoonPath Press, 2024
  • Writing the Land: Commissioned works of poetry for The McKenzie River Trust and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2023-present
  • Playa at Summer Lake Residency Awards, Oregon, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019; Guest artist for Playa Dark Skies Celebration, 2022 
  • Spring Creek Project Writer's Residency at Shotpouch Creek, Oregon State University, 2016, and Writing The Woods workshop leader, 2018
  • Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Nimrod International, Finalist with Honorable Mention, 2012; Philip Levine, Judge
  • Tri-Met, Orange Linings Project, Portland-to-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit; six poems selected from over 1000 entries for permanent public art installation
  • Crab Creek Review Annual Contest, Semi-Finalist, 2017
  • Aesthetica Magazine (UK) Creative Works Contest, Finalist, 2010; and, Commendation, 2009
  • Nimrod International Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Semi-Finalist, 2008
  • Pushcart Prize nominations in 2009, 2011, and 2015
  • Best of the Net Anthology nomination, 2010
  • “Some Weather” honored as one of 150 Outstanding Poetry Books, for Oregon’s Sesquicentennial, Oregon State Library and Poetry Northwest
  • Oregon Poetry Association, First Prize, Poet’s Choice, 2008
  • Squaw Valley Community of Writers-Poetry, 2007
  • Richard Chambers Environmental Grant, 1990; for creative writing senior honors thesis
  • Oregon State University Provost’s Literary Award, Honorable Mention, 1990

Community Service
  • Oregon Poetry Association Annual Contests, Judge, 2014, 2016
  • Arbor Month, City of Lake Oswego, Directed Annual Art and Poetry Contests, 2015-2022
  • Friends of William Stafford Board of Directors, Treasurer, 2008-2012
  • Northwest Poets Concord, Steering Committee, 2011
  • Lake Oswego Centennial Poetry Project, 2009, Chair and Editor