PORT TOWNSEND — Writer and musician David Romtvedt, a former Wyoming state poet laureate who also worked in Centrum’s folk arts program for many years, is returning to Port Townsend this week.
Romtvedt will read from his latest book, 2025’s “Still on Earth,” at 4 p.m. Thursday at Northwind Art’s Jeanette Best Gallery, 701 Water St. If there’s time, he’ll also read from 2021’s “No Way: An American Tao Te Ching.”
The event is free to the public.
“I have a long connection to Port Townsend, and I admire its artistic and literary community,” said Romtvedt, who moved to Port Townsend after working with the Peace Corps and Maison de Quebec in central Africa in the 1970s.
He served as program manager for Centrum’s Fiddle Tunes festival and workshop and the International Folk Dance and Music Festival.
A poet and button accordionist who plays Creole dance music, Romtvedt also has been a blueberry picker, bookstore clerk, tree planter, truck driver, ranch hand and college professor.
He’s a recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, a Pushcart Prize and the Wyoming Governor’s Arts Award, among other honors.
He lives at the base of the Bighorn Mountains in Buffalo, Wyo.

