Hanford is currently embroiled in the world’s largest environmental cleanup, which includes the problematic construction of a $12.2 billion waste treatment plant. The site is burdened with an aging work force, a history of secrecy and a reputation for punishing whistleblowers. Meanwhile, even as stories of costly Hanford programs appear in the news, citizens of Washington state learn very little about the site and its history. Engineer-turned-poet Kathleen Flenniken will present a personal take on the history of her hometown, Richland, and on the Hanford nuclear site where both she and her father worked. She will explore the difficulty she has had facing up to a friend’s father’s death of a radiation illness. In telling this personal history, Flenniken will help us break through the mind-numbing numbers – waste that will last for tens of thousands of years, billions of dollars spent, etc. – to get to the people and culture of Hanford.

About Kathleen Flenniken Kathleen Flenniken is the 2012-14 Washington State Poet Laureate. She was born and raised in Richland, began her career as a civil engineer at the Hanford nuclear site, and didn’t discover poetry until her early 30s. Her latest poetry collection Plume is a meditation on Hanford and her hometown. Flenniken’s first book, Famous, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association and was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Other honors include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust. She is an editor and president of Floating Bridge Press, a nonprofit press dedicated to publishing Washington State poets, and president of Jack Straw Foundation, an audio arts studio and cultural center.

Flenniken currently lives in Seattle.