Professor Laura Laffrado bringing NW writer Ella Higginson back to public spotlight

Ella Rhoads Higginson, one of the first prominent literary authors from the Northwest, has been largely forgotten as a key American writer.

Higginson, who lived much of her adult life in Bellingham, was celebrated for her award-winning fiction, her lyric poetry, which was set to music and performed internationally, and her position as Washington’s first poet laureate. Her most famous poem, “Four Leaf Clover,” first published in 1890.