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

PictureScot Siegel
Poetry is an essential creative outlet from my work as a city planner. It also informs my approach in working with citizens. As a planner, I am trying to tell the story of a community according to the vision or aspirations of its people. An effective plan must connect past to present, reconcile different values and points of view, and serve as a roadmap for the common good. As a poet, or artist, one is free to focus on the individual, raise questions out of order, and leave things unsettled and open to interpretation.

​Everyone has the capacity to change the world through art. Art bears witness and gives voice. It heals and praises, mourns and celebrates. Art conveys that which cannot be heard on the news or picked up from popular culture. But art should be accessible too. Poetry, for example, should clarify, not obfuscate, the truth while pushing the envelope of literary accomplishment and challenging notions of political correctness. The best literature blurs the line between everyday life and high art, and moves us to repair the world.

Bio
Scot Siegel is the author of three full-length poetry collections and three poetry chapbooks. His most recent full-length volumes are: The Constellation of Extinct Stars and Other Poems (Salmon Poetry, 2016) and Thousands Flee California Wildflowers (Salmon Poetry, 2012). He has received artist residencies with Playa at Summer Lake and Oregon State University's Spring Creek Project, and awards and commendations from Nimrod International, Aesthetica (UK), the Oregon State Library, and the Oregon Poetry Association. Scot was born in Oakland, California, and has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1987. He has two grown daughters.

Awards and Commendations

  • Playa at Summer Lake Residency Awards, Oregon, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2019
  • Spring Creek Project Writer's Residency at Shotpouch Creek, Oregon State University, 2016 & 2018 (workshop leader)
  • 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