Teachers

Becky Mandelbaum is the author of The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals (Simon & Schuster, 2020), an Indie Next Pick, and Bad Kansas (UGA Press, 2017), which received the 2016 Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, the 2018 High Plains Book Award for First Book, and was a Kansas Notable Book. Her short fiction, essays, and humor writing have appeared in The New Yorker, One Story, The Sun, The Georgia Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and elsewhere. 

She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, Writing by Writers, Lighthouse Works, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and was a finalist for the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Short Story Award, the Joyland Open Border Fiction Contest, the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Prize in Fiction, and the DISQUIET Prize for Fiction. She has taught creative writing at the University of California Davis, Hugo House, and through Whatcom Community College’s Chuckanut Writers Series. Originally from Kansas, she currently lives in Bellingham, Washington.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For 10 years she curated Soul Sister Revue, a quarterly reading series that promoted poetry as storytelling and featured emerging poets, poet laureates, and Pulitzer prize winners. Manick’s poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller at literary festivals, libraries, and museums, her work has also featured in VOICES, an audio play by Aja Monet and Eve Ensler’s V-Day, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, the Rumpus and other outlets. She currently serves on the editorial board of Alice James Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York but travels widely for poetry.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, jean mann picked up the guitar in 1995. A self-taught Americana singer-songwriter, she has released eight original records; performing on tenor and acoustic guitars, ukulele and harmonica in support of an ethereal vocal style. Touring since 2000, jean has headlined house concerts and listening rooms, churches, wineries, festivals; and performed in such iconic rooms as CBGB's in New York. She has opened for Peter Mulvey, Peter Himmelman, Blame Sally and shared the stage with Laura Veirs and Vicci Martinez. In 2014, she made her tour debut in Europe, and continues growing her international fan base. When she's not teaching ukulele/songwriting lessons at her cottage in Seattle, jean is recording her ninth album at Froglips Studio in Indianola, WA.

Corinne Manning's debut story collection We Had No Rules has received starred reviews from Booklist and Publisher's Weekly the latter noting it "exquisitely examines queer relationships with equal parts humor, heartache, and titillation." Corinne has taught for Hugo House since 2011.

Magda Manning is a queer trans writer, artist, and educator from Taos, New Mexico. They received their MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in 2019, and are a current Hugo House Fellow (2022-2023). For Magda, writing is a process of self-making, a way of engaging with/in community, and a powerful practice of embodiment for all people, young and old. They are in a two-person cribbage league with their mom, and live in Seattle with their partner. 

Marjorie Manwaring lives in Seattle where she is a technical writer and poet. She is the author of Search for a Velvet-Lined Cape (Mayapple Press, 2013) and What to Make of a Diminished Thing (Dancing Girl Press, 2012). She took a long hiatus from creative writing but over the past couple years has been dipping her toe back in through offerings at Hugo House, for which she is very grateful. 

Originally started in Daejeon, South Korea, and now based in Seattle, Drea Castillo leads the cross-cultural amalgamation of the band Drea and the Marilyns. Drea is influenced by all the Filipino ballad and disco records her parents listened to, bossa nova, punk rock, and spending the early years of her life as a pre-school music teacher. 

Melanie Márquez Adams is the author of Querencia: crónicas de una latinoamericana en USA, Mariposas Negras, and El País de las Maravillas: crónicas de mi sueño americano. An advocate of Spanish-language writers in the U.S., Melanie holds an MFA in Spanish Creative Writing from the University of Iowa where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. Her most recent fiction and non-fiction can be found in Puerto del Sol, Laurel Review, Spansglish Voces, Huellas Magazine, and Escritorxs Salvajes: 37 Hispanic Writers in the United States. An International Latino Book Award winner, Melanie is the founder and editor-in-chief of Anfibias Literarias. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Melanie Márquez Adams es escritora, traductora y editora. Ha publicado El país de las maravillas: crónicas de mi sueño americano, Querencia: crónicas de una latinoamericana en USA y Mariposas negras: cuentos. Melanie tiene un Máster en Escritura Creativa por la Universidad de Iowa y su obra en inglés y en español aparece en varias antologías y revistas. Fundadora y directora editorial de Anfibias Literarias, ha editado también una serie de proyectos, entre ellos Imaginar Países: Entrevistas a escritoras latinoamericanas en Estados Unidos (Hypermedia 2021), Ellas cuentan: Crime Fiction por latinoamericanas en Estados Unidos (Sudaquia 2019) y Del sur al norte: Narrativa y poesía de autores andinos (premiada por los International Latino Book Awards). Vive en Nashville, Tennessee.

Rebecca Marrall writes fiction and creative nonfiction for teens and adults, and lives in the Pacific Northwest with an adorable scamp of a dog and an unsustainable number of hobbies. She recently attended the 2021 Tin House YA Fiction Workshop and was selected to be one of the 100 invited writers to participate in the Write Team Mentorship Program’s curated Pitch-a-Thon event before being chosen as a Mentee for the 2021 Program.

Vince Martinez is a Seattle-based americana singer/songwriter originally from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Vince and his band, The Great Blue Yonder, perform in and around Seattle and have increasingly been receiving recognition for their engaging live performances and honest, straightforward music. Vince and the band's latest album, Northwest by Southwest, features original music inspired by Martinez's New Mexican roots, as well as his recent Pacific Northwest experiences.

Siwar Masannat is a Jordanian writer and the author of two books of poetry, cue: poems (University of Georgia Press, 2024) and 50 Water Dreams (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2015).

Describe your teaching style.

I typically begin by introducing the texts we are reading and offering some context to facilitate a well-informed collaborative reading experience. I like to ask questions and open up space for students to contribute their own observations, knowledge, and interests to the conversation.

Warren Dunes plays PNW Tropicalia and is led by keyboardist/vocalist Julia Massey. Their unique style of Beach Rock is born from the cold waters and grey sky beaches of the Salish sea, and is highlighted by Massey's double keyboards and crystalline voice soaring over chiming guitars and thundering drums from husband Jared Cortese and his brother Dominic Cortese. A long-time favorite in Seattle, Massey's newest project has gained broader attention with performances at festivals around the PNW including Treefort Music Fest, and notable performances at Seattle Zoo Tunes and the historic Neptune Theater. Most recently their debut LP "Get Well Soon" was voted KEXP's #20 album of 2021.

Adrian Matejka grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana and is a graduate of the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

He is the author of The Devil’s Garden (Alice James Books, 2003) which won the New York / New England Award and Mixology (Penguin, 2009), a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. His third collection of poems, The Big Smoke (Penguin, 2013), focuses on Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight champion of the world. The Big Smoke was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and 2014 Pulitzer Prize in poetry. His fourth collection, Map to the Stars, was published by Penguin in 2017. His mixed media collection inspired by Funkadelic, Standing on the Verge & Maggot Brain (Third Man Books), and a collection of poems Somebody Else Sold the World (Penguin) were both published in 2021. Matejka’s first graphic novel, Last On His Feet, completes his project about Jack Johnson and will be published by Liveright in 2022.

Among Matejka’s other honors are the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a Simon Fellowship from United States Artists. He is the Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University Bloomington and served as Poet Laureate of the state of Indiana in 2018-19.

Adrienne Matthews is a Los Angeles-born, Seattle-based visual artist, writer, and designer. Her multidisciplinary practice is inspired by ancestral stories, intersectional identities, and the interior lives of people of color. She is currently developing a collection of visual art and creative nonfiction inspired by Black women at work.

Go to elizabethmayorca.com for more information about Elizabeth.

In her writing, Nancy Mburu amplifies the experiences and stories of East African immigrants in an authentic way that also encompasses the complex relationship with culture, traditions, language, gender dynamics, and race as black diasporans. Nancy incorporates her native language, Swahili, rooting her stories in its cultural and political context which continues to influence her, and how she interacts with different tribes and countries herein the diaspora. As a poet, she continues to be a voice that speaks up against injustice by drawing attention to incidences of hypocrisy and inequality regardless of who commits them or how uncomfortable the topic is. Nancy's purpose is to tell her story as a Kenyan African and immigrant through her own lens, to help others understand her culture's experience while striving for social justice.