James Navé

Language can change the course of a life. I’ve seen it happen—on stage, in workshops, and once, in a departure lounge, where a single recited poem earned me a first-class seat from San Francisco to London.

I’m a poet, storyteller, and teacher. I’ve committed more than 600 poems to memory and carried them like old friends across continents—performing in cafés, classrooms, festivals, and concert halls. Poetry, for me, is not something written and left behind. It’s something lived, spoken, and passed from person to person.

I’m the founder of The Imaginative Storm Writing Project, where writers and non-writers alike learn to trust their voice, think imaginatively, and write with clarity and force.

I’m a founding member of Poetry Alive!, a former Poet Laureate and Strategic Advisor to the Lake Eden Arts Festival, and a co-founder of The Artist’s Way Creativity Camp with Julia Cameron. I hold an MFA in Writing from Vermont College and have represented Asheville on three National Poetry Slam teams.

At the center of it all is this belief: language—spoken, written, and remembered—shapes how we move through the world.