This page contains links and resources for readers interested in the Hanford Story behind the collection Plume.

Kathleen Flenniken’s second collection of poems, Plume, was selected by Linda Bierds for the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series, and published by University of Washington Press in 2012. It won the Washington State Book Award and was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Awards and the William Carlos Williams Award for the Poetry Society of America.

Please also see the Books Page.

Reviews

• The Georgia Review
• Poetry Northwest
• The Rumpus
• The Seattle Times
• Seattle City Living
• Rain Taxi
• Orion
• Plumwood Mountain

Print Interviews

• Cascadia Review
• Northwest Book Lovers

Videos

• A 45-minute reading and slide presentation from Plume for Hanford Challenge’s Nuclear Waste Scholar Series, September 30, 2022
• A live streamed conversation from Seattle’s Town Hall for the release of Steve Olson’s new Hanford book, The Apocalypse Machine (Norton, 2020).
• “Emergence,” a 2-minute film by Director Scott Wilson
• “Shell Game,” a 6-minute film by Director Lou Karsen, Producer Cory Kelley, composer B C Campbell and a talented crew for the 2013 Doc Challenge 
• ”Well Read,” a 20 minute interview with Terry Tazioli about Plume
• “Telling the Hanford Story: Finding a Form that Fits,” presented at Edmonds Community College in April 2012
• TEDx Rainier: Reaching Groundwater: A discussion of three poems from Plume
• Particles on the Wall, poems from Plume, 3/27/12

On the Radio

• INTERVIEW and three poems with David Miller on THINK OUT LOUD September 25, 2024.
• THE STORY: Kathleen Flenniken interviewed by Dick Gordon for his nationally syndicated radio program.
• INTERVIEW Everything’s Environmental (Prairie Schooner)
• Fleda Brown’s review on Interlochen Public Radio
• On KUOW: Washington’s Poet Laureate Reflects On Growing Up Near Hanford In New Book
• POEMS: Kathleen Flenniken On Coming To Terms With Hanford
• POEMS: Poems From Washington State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken
• POEMS: Growing Up Near Hanford With Wash. State Poet Laureate Kathleen Flenniken
• INTERVIEW with Steve Scher, KUOW, Part I
• INTERVIEW with Steve Scher, KUOW, Part II

Articles on the Web

• The Seattle Times:  The Tri-Cities’ contribution to our literary landscape: a poet laureate and shapeshifting werewolves
• Washington State Magazine: “The Atomic Landscape” by Tim Steury

Music

• Listen to Denin Koch’s jazz concept album re: manhattan project.
• Composer Reginald Unterseher has set four poems from Plume for string quartet and soprano. You can listen here.

Links to Resources

Michele Stenhjem Gerber’s environmental history of Hanford: On the Home Front: The Cold War Legacy of the Hanford Nuclear Site

Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West by John M. Findlay and Bruce Hevly, a social history of the Tri-Cities and the Hanford Site

A Note on Herbert Parker

The Declassified Document Retrieval System portal

Film

Irene Lusztig’s beautiful feature-length documentary film, Richland  (Komsomol Films, 2023) features four poems from Plume. See the trailer above.