Hugo House teachers are at the core of our goal to help writers become better writers. Our teachers are writers; they are selected on the basis of their active engagement in the literary world as well as their love of teaching.
Teachers
Hugo House teachers are at the core of our goal to help writers become better writers. Our teachers are writers; they are selected on the basis of their active engagement in the literary world as well as their love of teaching.
Greg November is a short story writer, an English instructor at North Seattle College and Highline College, and a senior submissions reader for New England Review. He was a 2021 Jack Straw Writer, a finalist for the 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Award for Fiction, and runner-up for The Missouri Review's 2021 Miller Audio Prize. His stories have most recently appeared in Boulevard, Carve, Hawaii Pacific Review, Epiphany, 34th Parallel, 3Elements Review, and Juked, among other places. He has an MFA from UC, Irvine.
Kevin OâRourke lives in Seattle, where he works in tech and writes about health. His first book, the essay collection As If Seen at an Angle, was published by Tinderbox Editions; he is currently working on several follow-up projects, including a book about surviving suicide. Other writing has appeared in the LA Review of Books, Kenyon Review, and Think Global Health, among others. Learn more at kforourke.com.
Molly OlguĂn is a queer writer and educator based in Seattle. She holds a BA in English from Williams College and an MFA in Fiction from The Ohio State University. She teaches English and creative writing to high school students. Her collection The Sea Gives Up The Dead is the winner of the 2023 Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction, and is out now with Red Hen Press. Her short stories have appeared in Orange & Bee, Paranoid Tree, Redivider, The Normal School, River Styx, Quarterly West, and others. She is a 2025 Jack Hazard Fellow, and was a recipient of the Loft Mentor Series fellowship in 2019. She was awarded the 2015 AWP Intro Awards Prize in Fiction for her short story âSeven Deaths.â With Jackie Hedeman, she is the creator of the queer sci fi audio drama âThe Pasithea Powder.âÂ
Co-owner of Speculatively Queer, Isabela Oliveira has been a professional editor for years, from technical documents to pop culture content. While attending college, she kept busy as the poetry editor and later the editor-in-chief of her universityâs literary journal, the Salmon Creek Journal. Isabela started speaking on panels at fan conventions in 2016 and has been at it ever since. These days, sheâs working as an editor by day, and an occasional podcast co-host, a crafter and maker, and an aspiring voice actress in her free time.
Nikkita Oliver (they/them) is a Seattle-based creative, community organizer, abolitionist, educator, and attorney. Working at the intersections of arts, law, education, and community organizing Nikkita strives to create experiences which draw us closer to our humanity and invites us to imagine what we hope to see in the future.
Nikkita has opened for Cornel West and Chuck D of Public Enemy, featured on the Breakfast Club, KUOW's The Week in Review, Cut Stories, and performed on The Late Night Show with Stephen Colbert. Nikkita's writing has been published in the South Seattle Emerald, Crosscut, the Establishment, Last Real Indians, The Seattle Weekly, and The Stranger. Nikkita organizes with No New Youth Jail, Decriminalize Seattle, Covid-19 Mutual Aid – Seattle, and the Seattle Peoples Party.
Nikkita is the executive director of Creative Justice, an arts-based alternative to incarceration and a healing engaged youth-led community-based program.
Nikkita was the first political candidate of the Seattle Peoples Party running for Mayor of Seattle in 2017 narrowly missing the general election by approximately 1,100 votes; coming in third of 21 candidates.
Nikkita speaks and performs for events, at universities and conferences, and facilitates trainings on equity, law and justice, education, and arts activism all over the United States.
Follow on IG and Twitter @nikkitaoliver
Clara Olivo (she/her/ella) is an Afro-Salvi poet living in diaspora. Born and raised in South Central L.A. to Salvadorean refugees, Clara weaves history and lived experience, creating transcendental poetry that amplifies ancestral power and pride. Writing for her lost inner child, Clara steps into her poetry with the intention of healing the hurts of her past and inspiring hope for the future. Since finding her voice, she has performed in open mics and art receptions from Seattle to Washington D.C., is a 2022 Pushcart nominee and has been featured in publications such as The South Seattle Emerald, Valiant Scribe, and Quiet Lightningâs Literary Mixtape.
Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route and two previous collections of poems. He teaches at Dartmouth College and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
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