Rena Priest, Washington’s Poet Laureate, builds awareness and appreciation of poetry, as a means of expression and activism. Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the author of Patriarchy Blues and Sublime Subliminal. She received the Allied Arts Foundation 2020 Professional Poets Award, is a National Geographic Explorer, and a 2019 Jack Straw Writer. She has taught at Western Washington University and Northwest Indian College. Priest holds a BA in English from Western Washington University and an MFA in Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in Bellingham, WA..