Teachers

Emily Sernaker is a writer and human-rights professional based in Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the Sun, New York Times, Ms. Magazine, McSweeney’s, Los Angeles Review of Books, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Rumpus, New Ohio Review and more. Over the last few years she has teamed up with Brooklyn Public Library to organize free, intergenerational, human-rights poetry programming, including Holding Space for Grief events, an Interfaith Poetry Reading, and Global Citizen poetry classes. She has worked as a staff member at the International Rescue Committee and New York Peace Institute and is currently an adjunct professor at the New School. Go to www.emilysernaker.com for more information or follow on social media @Emilysernaker.

Zain Shamoon is a professor of couple and family therapy at Antioch University Seattle. He hold his PhD in Human Development and Family Studies. He is the host and founder of the Narratives of Pain storytelling showcase.

Shama Shams (Sanjukta) (is an author who lives in Dallas and Seattle. She plans to fully relocate to Seattle in May 2022 after her daughter graduates from High School. She holds a Master’s in Religion with an emphasis on Islam from Florida State University. Excerpts of her memoir were published in Palooka, A Journal of Underdog Excellence; Transformation, A Journal of Literature, Ideas & the Arts; Fiction Fix; and Mandala Literary Journal. She was a finalist for Black Warrior Review and her book proposal, as well as four of her essays, were selected by Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference hosted by University of North Texas. In front of a live sold-out audience at the Dallas Museum of Arts and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, she read excerpts from her memoir which can be found on the YouTube channel titled: Oral Fixation (An Obsession with True Life Tales)’s Lost in Translation, Elephant in the Room, and Old School. In addition, she read excerpts from her memoir at Truth in Comedy, a show featuring nonfiction writers. Shama works as the Director of Philanthropy and Marketing for Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), a Seattle-based nonprofit serving victims and survivors of sex trade and sex trafficking. During her spare time, she loves to write, paint, hike, and travel.

Radhika Sharma is the author of Parikrama: A Collection of Short Stories and Mangoes for Monkeys: A Novel. Radhika received her MFA from the San Francisco State University. Her byline has appeared in several newspapers and magazines including The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Jose Mercury News, India Currents, Tri City Voice, and others. She is currently at work on a novel and a collection of essays.

Nisi Shawl (they/them) is the multiple award-winning author and editor of over a dozen books of speculative fiction and related nonfiction, including the Nebula Award finalist novel Everfair; the standard text on inclusive representation, Writing the Other; and the first two volumes of the New Suns anthology series. Their most recent publication is the middle grade historical fantasy novel Speculation, which Lee & Low published in January 2023. They’ve taught and spoken at Duke University, Spelman College, Stanford University, Sarah Lawrence College, and many other institutions. Once upon a time, they conducted a filmed, onstage interview with Octavia E. Butler.

Michael Shilling is the author of Rock Bottom, a novel published by Little, Brown. The musical adaptation of the book was staged in 2014 by the Landless Theater Company. His stories have appeared in The Sun, Fugue, and Other Voices. He has taught at Seattle University, University of Puget Sound, and Cornish College of the Arts.

Gina Siciliano is an artist, writer, historian, and bookseller living in Seattle, WA. Her award-winning graphic novel I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi was published by Fantagraphics in 2019.

Cedar Sigo was raised on the Suquamish Reservation in the Pacific Northwest and studied at The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute. He is the author of eight books and pamphlets of poetry, including All This Time (Wave Books, 2021), Stranger in Town (City Lights, 2010), Expensive Magic (House Press, 2008), two editions of Selected Writings (Ugly Duckling Press, 2003 and 2005) and most recently the Bagley Wright Lecture Series book Guard the Mysteries (Wave Books, 2021). He has taught workshops at St. Mary’s College, Naropa University and University Press Books. He is currently a mentor in the low residency MFA program at The Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Lofall, Washington.

Darina (Dasha) Sikmashvili was born in Lubny, Ukraine, and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan and has been working in film production for over a decade.

Martha Silano is the author of five poetry books, including Gravity Assist, Reckless Lovely, and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, all from Saturnalia Books. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, New England Review, American Poetry Review, and Paris Review, among others, and in four dozen print anthologies, including American Poetry: The Next Generation and ?Best American Poetry 2009. She also co-authored, with Kelli Russell Agodon, The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts for Your Writing Practice. Martha received Yaddo's 2017 Martha Walsh Pulver Residency. She teaches at Bellevue College.

Marcie Sillman is an award-winning radio journalist. For more than three decades, she covered arts for Seattle’s KUOW and NPR. She is now co-host of the arts podcast doublExposure.

Suzanne Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of the book, Finding the Mother Tree.

She is a pioneer on the frontier of plant communication and intelligence; and has been hailed as a scientist who conveys complex, technical ideas in a way that is dazzling and profound. Her work has influenced filmmakers (the Tree of Souls in James Cameron’s Avatar) and her TED talks have been viewed by more than 10 million people worldwide.

Suzanne is known for her work on how trees interact and communicate using below-ground fungal networks, which has led to the recognition that forests have hub trees, or Mother Trees, which are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest. Her current research investigates how these complex relationships contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery and has far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.

Suzanne has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and presented at conferences around the world. She has communicated her work to a wide audience through interviews, documentary films and her TEDTalk “How trees talk to one another”.