Teachers

SIMON GRAHAM is an MFA Candidate in Prose at the University of Washington. Their stories and essays have appeared in New York Tyrant, Vol 1. Brooklyn, Bull Magazine, X-R-A-Y, Hobart, and elsewhere. Prior to moving to Seattle, they lectured on climate change at Monash University in Melbourne and their writing on climate change has appeared in a number of Australian publications. 

Shana Graham is a Seattle-based writer, producer, and somatic sex and relationship coach. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Cimarron Review, Witness, The Los Angeles Review, CRAFT, West Trade Review, Rust & Moth, and others. She’s been anthologized in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival Literary Anthology and was the recipient of the SEAF Literary Foundation Award in Short Works. She is working on a memoir in essays. Shana also creates living stories in the form of events filled with music, artistry, and general mayhem. You can find her at www.supershana.com (writing) and www.shanagraham.com (coaching).

Rachel Griffin writes young adult novels inspired by the magic of the world around her. She is the New York Times bestselling author of The Nature of Witches and the forthcoming Wild is the Witch, publishing August 2, 2022 with Sourcebooks Fire.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Rachel has a deep love of nature, from the mountains to the ocean and all the towering evergreens in between. She adores moody skies and thunderstorms, and hopes more vampires settle down in her beloved state of Washington.

On her path to writing novels, Rachel graduated from Seattle University with a Bachelor of Science in diagnostic ultrasound. She worked in healthcare for five years and taught ultrasound at her alma mater before making the switch to a small startup. She has been mentoring in Pitch Wars since 2017 and now writes full-time from her home in the Seattle area.

When she isn’t writing, you can find her wandering the PNW, reading by the fire, or drinking copious amounts of coffee and tea. She lives with her husband, small dog, and growing collection of houseplants.

Lili Gu is a poet and filmmaker passionate about exploring justice, liberation, and the human condition through storytelling. She studied poetry while in engineering school at Columbia University and went on to receive her MFA in Film Production and Directing from UCLA. Her work has received numerous accolades, screening internationally and on television networks such as PBS. This will be Lili’s return to poetry. Her writing works to uncover language away from the white gaze, speaking truth to power on themes of Chinese American assimilation, queerness, and intergenerational strength. She makes art as an act of love—toward visions of an imagined future in which all humans can not just survive, but thrive.

Alex Guy is a Seattle-based violinist, violist and singer, and the creator and founder of Led to Sea, an unusual and magnetic solo project. Guy fuses classical, pop and experimental music. Her live show as a string player and vocalist has captivated audiences all over the U.S. and Europe, and draws comparisons to St. Vincent and Andrew Byrd. She has opened for and shared the stage with a host of renowned artists, including Laura Veirs, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Mirah, Sera Cahoone and Jherek Bischoff. She has also contributed to albums from Amanda Palmer, Xiu Xiu, Laura Veirs, Mirah and Parenthetical Girls. 

Alex Guy is a Seattle-based violinist, violist and singer, and the creator and founder of Led to Sea, an unusual and magnetic solo project. Guy fuses classical, pop and experimental music. Her live show as a string player and vocalist has captivated audiences all over the U.S. and Europe, and draws comparisons to St. Vincent and Andrew Byrd. She has opened for and shared the stage with a host of renowned artists, including Laura Veirs, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, Mirah, Sera Cahoone and Jherek Bischoff. She has also contributed to albums from Amanda Palmer, Xiu Xiu, Laura Veirs, Mirah and Parenthetical Girls. 

Becca Rose Hall directs Frog Hollow School, a children's writing program. She is a Bread Loaf and Sewanee alum, and her work has received support from the Community of Writers, ArtsOmi, Writers' Lighthouse, and Zvona i Nari. Her fiction, essays, and poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Orion, Pacifica Literary Review, Third Coast, About Place, Mutha Magazine, Drunk Monkeys, and Muleskinner. She is working on a novel set in Olympia in the aftermath of Kurt Cobain's death. She lives in Seattle with her daughter and their dog.

Seattle author Alle C. Hall's debut novel As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back has been honored sixteen times, most recently: finalist for The Nancy Pearl Book Award for Literary Fiction. Hall’s short work appears in journals including Dale Peck’s Evergreen Review,Tupelo Quarterly,New World Writing,CreativeNonfiction, and Another Chicago. She has a lively passion for bringing writers to an easy understanding of their writing and publishing goals.

Seattle author Alle C. Hall's debut novel As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back has been honored sixteen times, most recently: finalist for The Nancy Pearl Book Award for Literary Fiction. Hall’s short work appears in journals including Dale Peck’s Evergreen Review,Tupelo Quarterly,New World Writing,CreativeNonfiction, and Another Chicago. She has a lively passion for bringing writers to an easy understanding of their writing and publishing goals.

Courtenay Hameister is the former host of Live Wire and the author of Okay Fine Whatever: The Year I Went From Being Afraid of Everything to Only Being Afraid of Most Things—Amazon Bestseller and Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist.