Tara Hardy
Seattle-based Tara Hardy, a self-described “working class queer femme poet”, is the founder of Bent, a writing institute for LGBTIQ people. She’s also the current Writer-in-Residence at Richard Hugo House, an urbanwriters’ retreat. Last year, Write Bloody Press published Hardy’s Bring Down the Chandeliers, a powerful collection of poems that explore trauma, faith and forgiveness from her perspective as a sexual abuse survivor. That same year, she was honored with the Washington Poets Association Burning Word Award. Her work has appeared in journals, anthologies and spoken word recordings. She’s been a seven-time finalist in National Poetry Slam competitions and is a three-time Seattle Grand Slam Champion. Hardy tours nationwide as a poet, performer and teaching artist, and views art as a tool for social change. “Initially, I entered the field of writing through a desire to heal, but what’s been surprising is that while sowing my own transformation, my work seems to aid others’ healing,” she says. “And what a privilege to be part of people healing themselves. Call me a zealot, but I believe this is a central opportunity offered by the act of creating something.”
