Teachers

Meghan Lamb is the author of COWARD, Failure to Thrive, All of Your Most Private Places, and Silk Flowers. She is a lecturer at the University of Chicago and the nonfiction editor of Nat. Brut, a Whiting Award-winning journal. Go to http://meghanlamb.com/ for more information.

Piper Lane is a writer, teacher, and fisherman from Homer, Alaska. She holds an MFA from UW Seattle. Both a Hugo House fellow alum and a Hedgebrook alum, her work can be found in PANK, Fourth River, Territory, and elsewhere. For more information go to piperlane.org or follow on Twitter: thealaskanwitch and Instagram: piper__l.

Nora Lange’s novel Us Fools is longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and New York Times Editors’ Choice. Nora’s writing has appeared in BOMB, Hazlitt, Joyland, American Short Fiction and elsewhere.

Sasha taqʷšəblu LaPointe is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribes. Native to the Pacific Northwest, she draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city. She writes with a focus on trauma and resilience, ranging topics from PTSD, sexual violence, the work her great grandmother did for the Lushootseed language revitalization, to loud basement punk shows and what it means to grow up mixed heritage. Sasha teaches creative writing at the Native Pathways Program at Evergreen and is a mentor for Seattle’s youth poet laureate program. Her memoir, Red Paint, has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Shelf Awareness and is available through Counterpoint Press. Her collection of poetry, Rose Quartz, is available through Milkweed Press. Her essay collection, Thunder Song, is forthcoming from Counterpoint Press. 

Kate Lebo’s writing is anthologized in Best American Essays 2015 and her first collection of nonfiction, The Book of Difficult Fruit, was published by FSG in Spring 2021. She’s the author of Pie School and co-editor (with Samuel Ligon) of Pie & Whiskey.

Kimberly Lee, JD is a versatile writer, workshop facilitator, editor, and creativity coach with a passion for nurturing the imaginative spirit and helping others reveal their own inner wisdom. She left the practice of law some years ago to focus on motherhood, community work, and creative pursuits. A graduate of Stanford University and UC Davis School of Law, she is an Amherst Writers & Artists facilitator and serves on its board of directors. She is also trained and certified by The Center for Journal Therapy, The Center for Intentional Creativity, The Path Meditation, and SoulCollage®. She has led workshops at numerous retreats, conferences, and corporate venues. A former editor and regular contributor at Literary Mama, Kimberly has also served on the staffs of Carve and F(r)iction magazines. Her stories and essays have appeared in publications and anthologies including Minerva Rising, LA Parent, Words and Whispers, Toyon, The Ekphrastic Review, Writers Read, I Am Woman: Expressions of Black Womanhood in America, the Better Sleep app, and elsewhere. Her debut novel will be published in 2025. Kimberly trusts in the magic and mystery of miracles and synchronicity, and believes that everyone is creative and has unique gifts to share. She lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.

Margot Leitman is an award-winning storyteller, best-selling author, speaker and teacher. A former story scout for "This American Life," she is considered a leading expert in the growing field of storytelling. Leitman has written two books on the subject: the best-selling, Long Story Short: The Only Storytelling Guide You'll Ever Need and her latest What’s Your Story? A Workbook For the Storyteller in All of Us both from Sasquatch Books. Her comedic memoir, Gawky: Tales of an Extra Long Awkward Phase is available from Seal Press/Perseus Books

Noah Lemelson is a speculative fiction writer based in Los Angeles. His short stories have appeared in Planet Scumm, Allegory, and Interzone among others. His debut dieselpunk novel, The Sightless City, was released in 2021. Find more at Noahlemelson.com

Lisa Levy is a writer, editor, essayist, and critic. Her work has appeared in many publications, including the New Republic, the LARB, the Believer, the Rumpus, TLS, the CBC, and Lit Hub, where she is a contributing editor. She is also a columnist and contributing editor to Crime Reads, which she helped found. She is working on a collection of linked essays called The Impatient, about the construction of the case, the conditions of chronic illness, life narrative, failure, modernity, and American literature.

Jaimie Li is a contributing writer at Poetry Northwest and Darling Magazine and the Editor-in-chief of the Spring 2020 issue of The Pitkin Review. She received her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College in 2022 and is the recipient of the 2019 Goddard/PEN North American Centers Scholarship for her work in fiction and memoir. In 2011, she received her BA in Law at Balliol College, Oxford University. She grew up in Los Angeles County and currently lives on the Cedar River in Maple Valley, WA. To learn more about Jaimie go to www.jaimiezongli.com.

Rosario López es escritora, periodista, editora y profesora. Autora de Los besos secos (Bala Perdida, 2020), finalista del Certamen Internacional de Novela Ciudad de Barbastro, 2019. Enseña escritura creativa en Escuela de Escritores, Madrid (España).

Rosario López is the author of Los besos secos (Bala Perdida, 2020), finalist of the International Novel Award City of Barbastro, 2019. She is a writer, journalist, editor and teacher. She has lived and worked in Spain, the Czech Republic, Africa and The Balkans. She was a european volunteer in North Macedonia. Currently, she lives in Madrid and teaches creative writing at Escuela de Escritores. She writes fiction, poetry, articles and books reviews. Her work has been published in several magazines and anthologies: Librújula, Turia, Malos Hábitos, Archiletras, Frontera Magazine, Mujeres Viajeras and others. She was a finalist for the Energheia Award in 2020, a competition of short stories written by young writers. She is always writing: even if she´s in the shower, washing the plates, sleeping or walking, she is always writing.

Describe your teaching style:

I am a friendly person, because I am interested not only in arts but in human beings. It will be a dynamic class.

Lisa Lucas is a senior vice president at Penguin Random House, overseeing Pantheon and Schocken. From 2016-2020, she was the executive director of the National Book Foundation, the organization that runs the National Book Awards and promotes reading and writing. Prior to that, Lucas was the publisher of the beloved literary magazine Guernica. 

Alexandra Lytton Regalado is a Salvadoran-American author, editor, and translator. She is the author of Relinquenda, winner of the National Poetry Series (Beacon Press, 2022); the chapbook Piedra (La Chifurnia, 2022); and the poetry collection, Matria, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Alexandra holds fellowships at CantoMundo and Letras Latinas and her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, poets.org, World Literature Today, and the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, among others. Her translations of contemporary Latin American poetry appear in Poetry International, FENCE, and Tupelo Quarterly and she is the translator of Family or Oblivion by Elena Salamanca and Prewar by Tania Pleitez. She is the co-founding editor of Kalina, a press that showcases bilingual, Central American-themed books and she is assistant editor at SWWIM Every Day an online daily poetry journal for women-identifying poets. Website: www.alexandralyttonregalado.com

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.

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.

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.

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.

Go to elizabethmayorca.com for more information about Elizabeth.

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.

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.