Teachers

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.

Xóchilt Martinez is a Seattle born and raised poet and spoken word artist of Nicaraguan and Mexican heritage. Growing up queer and Latino in this primarily white city, in primarily white schools, poetry became the third place in which they discovered their belonging and voice. Their work deals with themes of identity, queerness, loss, language, culture, love, resistance, & connection.  

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. 

Lish McBride is the author of funny and creepy young adult books such as Hold Me Closer, Necromancer; Necromancing the Stone; Firebug; Pyromantic; and the upcoming Curses. She has a BFA in creative writing from Seattle University and an MFA from the University of New Orleans.

NICOLE MCCARTHY is an experimental writer and artist based outside of Tacoma. Her work has appeared in [PANK], The Offing, Redivider, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Best American Experimental Writing, and others. A Summoning is her first nonfiction collection, published by Heavy Feather Review. Find Nicole at nicolemccarthypoet.com.

ERIN L MCCOY holds an MFA in creative writing and an MA in Hispanic studies from the University of Washington. Her work has appeared in the Best New Poets anthology twice, selected by Natalie Diaz and Kaveh Akbar. Her poetry and fiction have been published or are forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, Narrative, Bennington Review, Conjunctions, and other publications. She was a finalist for the Missouri Review’s Miller Audio Prize. Erin is acquisitions editor for Seattle-based independent publisher Entre Ríos Books. She is from Louisville, Kentucky. Her website is erinlmccoy.com and she can be found on Twitter at @erinlmccoy.

Frances McCue is a poet and prose writer. For a decade, she was the Founding Director of Richard Hugo House in Seattle. She has published six books, including a book of essays about poet Richard Hugo, The Car That Brought You Here Still Runs, and another that describes the portraits of photographer Mary Randlett. Her 2017 book of poems, Timber Curtain, is an exploration of lost places in our fast-developing city and arose from work on “Where the House Was,” a documentary film that tells one story about the arts and gentrification in Seattle. In 2018, she won the University of Washington’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Her chapbook called I Almost Read the Books Whole is out from Factory Hollow Press. Frances also writes about why tech folk might engage with poetry and recent articles appear in Geekwire and The Smart Set. 

Joy McCullough’s debut young adult novel, Blood Water Paint, won the Washington State and Pacific Northwest book awards, as well as honors including the National Book Award longlist, finalist for the ALA Morris Award, a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and four starred reviews. She has since written picture books and young adult and middle grade novels that have been Junior Library Guild Selections, Indie Next Selections, finalists for the Washington State Book Award, and a New York Time bestseller. Her most recent novel, Enter the Body, received six starred reviews. She writes books and plays from her home in the Seattle area, where she lives with her husband and two children. She studied theater at Northwestern University, fell in love with her husband atop a Guatemalan volcano, and now spends her days with kids and dogs and books.