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Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds
A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds is a one-of-a-kind Washington State bird guide. The anthology includes original pen and ink sumi-e paintings by artist Hiroko Seki, bird fact notes, and short poems/stories/memoir. Poems/prose are bird-focused rather than human centered. The bird notes include information about song, call, mating rituals, habitat, migration, climate, dark comedy, and fun facts.
Birdbrains brings to the stage 107 species of Washington birds in the words of ninety-eight talented poets and writers. The contributors come from different regions of Washington State, from other parts of the USA, and even from faraway lands such as Ireland. In the mix of talent, there are contributions from four Washington State Poet Laureates (Elizabeth Austen, Claudia Castro Luna, Kathleen Flenniken, and Derek Sheffield), three Pulitzer Prize winners (Rae Armantrout, Ted Kooser, and Diane Seuss), and a special collaborative poem by Ann Teplick’s young students at Seattle Children’s.
“As one of the best indicators we have for ecosystem health, birds—glimpsed on the wing or perched and watchful—are both a celebration of the possible and a harbinger of it, too. This wildly varied anthology invites us to pay attention to the feathered creatures who define the very air around us. Birds are nothing short of magic—as are these poems, which I know I’ll return to just as surely as the robin that makes her hopeful nest under my eaves each spring.”
—Keetje Kuipers, Editor-in-Chief, Poetry Northwest
Birdbrains brings to the stage 107 species of Washington birds in the words of ninety-eight talented poets and writers. The contributors come from different regions of Washington State, from other parts of the USA, and even from faraway lands such as Ireland. In the mix of talent, there are contributions from four Washington State Poet Laureates (Elizabeth Austen, Claudia Castro Luna, Kathleen Flenniken, and Derek Sheffield), three Pulitzer Prize winners (Rae Armantrout, Ted Kooser, and Diane Seuss), and a special collaborative poem by Ann Teplick’s young students at Seattle Children’s.
“As one of the best indicators we have for ecosystem health, birds—glimpsed on the wing or perched and watchful—are both a celebration of the possible and a harbinger of it, too. This wildly varied anthology invites us to pay attention to the feathered creatures who define the very air around us. Birds are nothing short of magic—as are these poems, which I know I’ll return to just as surely as the robin that makes her hopeful nest under my eaves each spring.”
—Keetje Kuipers, Editor-in-Chief, Poetry Northwest
342 pages, Hardcover
Published November 1, 2025
About the author
Susan Rich
24 books58 followersSusan is the author of five collections of poetry including the most recently released, Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems. She is also co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres: Poets Writing Across Borders. Her four previous books are Cloud Pharmacy, The Alchemist's Kitchen, finalist for the Foreword Prize, Cures Include Travel and The Cartographer’s Tongue: Poems of the World. She is the winner of the PEN USA Award for Poetry and the Peace Corps Writers Award.
Recent poems appear in The Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Diode, Southern Review, Harvard Review, and Poetry International. Susan Rich grew up in Boston, Massachusetts but has since become a confirmed Seattlite. When she read in Bosnia and Slovenia the audience burst into laughter at the word "Seattlite" in a poem, mistaking it for satellite. Later, someone explained to Susan that this was funny because Americans come from out of space.
Interview with Elizabeth Glixman at http://www.eclectica.org/v9n4/glixman...
Rich teaches English and Film Studies at Highline College outside Seattle, WA where she is also a co-founder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women. She has worked in Bosnia, Niger, West Bank and Gaza, and South Africa on behalf of human rights.
Recent poems appear in The Antioch Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Diode, Southern Review, Harvard Review, and Poetry International. Susan Rich grew up in Boston, Massachusetts but has since become a confirmed Seattlite. When she read in Bosnia and Slovenia the audience burst into laughter at the word "Seattlite" in a poem, mistaking it for satellite. Later, someone explained to Susan that this was funny because Americans come from out of space.
Interview with Elizabeth Glixman at http://www.eclectica.org/v9n4/glixman...
Rich teaches English and Film Studies at Highline College outside Seattle, WA where she is also a co-founder of Poets on the Coast: A Writing Retreat for Women. She has worked in Bosnia, Niger, West Bank and Gaza, and South Africa on behalf of human rights.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 3, 2026
My friend from the priory cowrote this wonderful book. Stephanie’s “intriguing tidbits” were my favorite part, along with a poem for each bird. It was a joy to read.
August 9, 2026
2.5 stars. I really wanted to like this, but it doesn't know what it even is. The ink paintings are gorgeous! But black and gray watercolor-esque art is a weird choice for a book about birds, especially when the book includes descriptions and we could imagine readers would try to use it as an ID resource. There is blank space under every entry for the reader to includes dates and locations of each bird spotted-- but this is a 300-page hardcover (on very thick paper) and extremely not-portable. Is this supposed to sit at home on your bookshelf while you use a better ID book to acutaly identify the subject? The editor functions more as a collector, making sure each bird has a corresponding poem but doing little apparent editing-- many poems are clearly dashed off in one hurried go. Some are only tenuously connected to the subject. One (somewhere, citation not saved) was essentially ~no one has chosen this bird I've never seen, so here's a poem~.
I only browsed the factual section (Description, Voice, Habitat, Intriguing Tidbit), but found some kind of error as often as not-- conflicting information, clear grammatical error, and other problems that should have been caught by even a fairly casual editor. Examples: "The Sanderling is a small, plump shorebird that one finds in Washington only during the winter... The ocean coasts of Washington are the winter home of the migratory Sanderling, though they may be found year-round in Washington" (p. 88)-- was this written by A.I.? "They [Glaucous-winged Gulls] are highly adaptable, omnivorous, foragers..." (p. 100). A period in the middle of a sentence (p. 114) clearly not intended to be a fragment, using "hoover" in place of "hover" (p. 134), and other errors abound.
If purchased by public libraries, it would check out because it is very pretty. However, it isn't a quality publication and can be safely skipped, or should be weeded as soon as circulation drops off. Hopefully the artist is able to repackage the portraits into some other work-- look for anything else that might be available by this painter that might have a better editing and writing team.
Program topics: not currently recommended for programming
Discussion prompts: not currently recommended for book discussion groups
I only browsed the factual section (Description, Voice, Habitat, Intriguing Tidbit), but found some kind of error as often as not-- conflicting information, clear grammatical error, and other problems that should have been caught by even a fairly casual editor. Examples: "The Sanderling is a small, plump shorebird that one finds in Washington only during the winter... The ocean coasts of Washington are the winter home of the migratory Sanderling, though they may be found year-round in Washington" (p. 88)-- was this written by A.I.? "They [Glaucous-winged Gulls] are highly adaptable, omnivorous, foragers..." (p. 100). A period in the middle of a sentence (p. 114) clearly not intended to be a fragment, using "hoover" in place of "hover" (p. 134), and other errors abound.
If purchased by public libraries, it would check out because it is very pretty. However, it isn't a quality publication and can be safely skipped, or should be weeded as soon as circulation drops off. Hopefully the artist is able to repackage the portraits into some other work-- look for anything else that might be available by this painter that might have a better editing and writing team.
Program topics: not currently recommended for programming
Discussion prompts: not currently recommended for book discussion groups
September 7, 2026
The bigger lesson I take from Birdbrains is observation matters.
Taking the time to really look at the world around us can open the door to curiosity, wonder, and even a story we might otherwise have missed.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that I probably wouldn't have discovered on my own. Someone reaches out, shares their work, and suddenly I've been introduced to something new.
That happened with Birdbrains.
I may not live in Washington State, but birds certainly aren't limited by state lines. I can look out my own window or head to one of the lakes around me, and there they are. And perhaps that is why this collection resonated with me.
Sometimes a book about birds turns out to be a book about paying attention.
And I think that's a pretty good reminder of the importance of observation—and of slowing down long enough to see what has been there all along.
Taking the time to really look at the world around us can open the door to curiosity, wonder, and even a story we might otherwise have missed.
Every once in a while, a book comes along that I probably wouldn't have discovered on my own. Someone reaches out, shares their work, and suddenly I've been introduced to something new.
That happened with Birdbrains.
I may not live in Washington State, but birds certainly aren't limited by state lines. I can look out my own window or head to one of the lakes around me, and there they are. And perhaps that is why this collection resonated with me.
Sometimes a book about birds turns out to be a book about paying attention.
And I think that's a pretty good reminder of the importance of observation—and of slowing down long enough to see what has been there all along.
February 6, 2026
Fun, poetic, informative, beautiful. This is a unique anthology, a scientific guide to birds of WA state, a poem about each, and a lovely illustration of most. Full of good poems, some by well-known poets, others by little-knowns and newcomers. Hardcover, my goodness! Brainchild of Susan Rich, poet and friend to birds, this collection would be a fantastic valentine for any bird lovers you know.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews