Teachers

Shaun Crawford writes songs for the lost and wondering.  

Learn more at Jed Crisologo's website!

DAVID NIKKI CROUSE is author of the short story collections The Man Back There, winner of the Mary McCarthy Award in Short Fiction, Copy Cats, winner of the Flannery O’Connor Award, and the forthcoming I’m Here: Alaska Stories. Their collection of novellas, Trouble Will Save You, was published recently by the University of Colorado Press. They have also written horror comic books for Dark Horse Publishing and a graphic novel about a trans superheroine. Nikki is the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Endowed Professor in Creative Writing at the University of Washington-Seattle, where they direct the MFA Program. 

Carla Crujido is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She is the co-editor of the anthology Nonwhite and Woman: 131 Micro Essays of Being in the World forthcoming from Woodhall Press. Her work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Yellow Medicine Review, Ricepaper Magazine, Tinfish Press, The Ana, and elsewhere. Originally from San Francisco, she now calls Portland home.

Dario Cvencek (he/him) is an immigrant poet from the Balkans. He started writing poetry in high school, inspired by his growing up during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, and his subsequent experiences as a refugee of war and an immigrant in Germany and the United States. In his poems, he explores the themes of war, trauma, healing, identity, gun violence, immigration, nature, and love. His first full-length collection of poetry, PTSD Martini, was released by Carbonation Press in May 2025. He lives and works in Seattle, WA.

Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and The Institute of American Indian Arts. Da’ is Eastern Shawnee. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Artist Trust, Hugo House, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. Her first book, Tributaries, won the 2016 American Book Award. Her newest book is Instruments of the True Measure (University of Arizona Press, 2018). Go to www.laurada.com for more information.

Instagram: @lauralouiseda

Twitter @Laura_L_Da

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lauralda

Laura Da’ is a poet and teacher. A lifetime resident of the Pacific Northwest, Da’ studied creative writing at the University of Washington and The Institute of American Indian Arts. Da’ is Eastern Shawnee. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Artist Trust, Hugo House, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. Her first book, Tributaries, won the 2016 American Book Award. Her newest book is Instruments of the True Measure (University of Arizona Press, 2018). Go to www.laurada.com for more information.

Instagram: @lauralouiseda

Twitter @Laura_L_Da

Facebook: www.facebook.com/lauralda

Sarah Dalton is a Latina writer, editor, and teacher. She is an alumna of VONA, Macondo, and San Jose State. Her nonfiction has appeared in [pank], MUTHA Magazine, Reed, River Teeth's Beautiful Things, and The Sun's Readers Write.

Sarah Dalton is a Latina writer, editor, and teacher. She is an alumna of VONA, Macondo, and San Jose State. Her nonfiction has appeared in [pank], MUTHA Magazine, Reed, River Teeth's Beautiful Things, and The Sun's Readers Write.

Sarah Dalton is a Latina writer, editor, and teacher. She is an alumna of VONA, Macondo, and San Jose State. Her nonfiction has appeared in [pank], MUTHA Magazine, Reed, River Teeth's Beautiful Things, and The Sun's Readers Write.

Molly Damm is a Writing lecturer at Montana State University, as well as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor in private practice in Bozeman, Montana. Her work has appeared in the Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, Terrain.org, and Western Humanities Review, among other publications. She is the author of the poetry collection Ground-truth (Finishing Line Press, 2018), and was a Hoyns Fellow at the University of Virginia, where she earned her MFA.

Lilly Dancyger is the author of Negative Space (2021), a reported and illustrated memoir selected by Carmen Maria Machado as a winner of the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards; and the editor of Burn It Down (2019), a critically acclaimed anthology of essays on women's anger from Seal Press. She is currently at work on an essay collection about the power and complexity of female friendship. Lilly's writing has been published by Guernica, Literary Hub, The Rumpus, Longreads, The Washington Post, Playboy, Rolling Stone, and more. She lives in New York City, and you can find her on Twitter at @lillydancyger.

Brian Dang (they/them) is a Vietnamese/Chinese playwright/poet/teaching artist based in Duwamish Territory (Seattle). For Brian, writing is an act of envisioning an eventual communing, an opportunity to freeze time as we know it, and a reaching for joy. They really like bread. Website: brianeatswords.com. 

With songs that sound like Top 40 hits but read like tarot cards, Brittany Danielle, who has been playing piano since 8-years-old and boasts a graduate degree in music, creates compositions that touch opposite sides of the spectrum. On Danielle’s debut LP, which she will unveil in 2022, many of the tracks were born from the pandemic and the song exercises that kept her sane throughout. Woven together with truths about her mental health (and its own unraveling), the songs represent growth, new connections.  

Danielle, who has played in popular bands in Seattle like Purr Gato, graced stages like The Tractor Tavern and those abroad in cities as far away as Germany, has worked in children’s theater and performed in musicals, too. She’s a quilt of experience held with uneasy stitching. At times her songs sound like a stroll down a city street, others like the corners of your consciousness. Standouts include the unburdening, “Hindsight,” and sauntering, “Nothing.” But don’t fret. In the end, of course, she’s got the world dancing on a line. 

Edwidge Danticat is the author of several books, including Breath, Eyes, Memory, Claire of the Sea Light, and The Dew Breaker. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow and a 2020 winner of the Vilceck Prize. Her most recent work, the story collection Everything Inside, is a 2020 winner of the Bocas Fiction Prize, the Story Prize, and the National Books Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

Kimberly Dark is the author of Fat, Pretty, and Soon to be Old, The Daddies, Love and Errors, and Damaged Like Me. Her essays, stories, and poetry are widely published in academic and popular online publications alike. Visit www.kimberlydark.com for more information.

April Dávila is an award-winning author and certified mindfulness instructor. Writer's Digest listed her blog (at aprildavila.com) as one of their Best 101 Websites for Writers. She is the co-founder of A Very Important Meeting (averyimportantmeeting.com). She is a practicing Buddhist, half-hearted gardener, and occasional runner.

April Dávila is an award-winning author and certified mindfulness instructor. Writer's Digest listed her blog (at aprildavila.com) as one of their Best 101 Websites for Writers. She is the co-founder of A Very Important Meeting (averyimportantmeeting.com). She is a practicing Buddhist, half-hearted gardener, and occasional runner.

Lauren Davis is the author of The Milk of Dead Mothers (YesYes Books, forthcoming), and the poetry collections Home Beneath the Church (Fernwood Press) and When I Drowned (Aldrich Press). She holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars.