Teachers

Jonathan Escoffery is the author of If I Survive You, a debut collection of linked stories forthcoming in September 2022 from MCDxFSG, as well as the forthcoming novel, Play Stone Kill Bird. Both books will be published in the UK and Commonwealth by 4th Estate Books, in Canada by McClelland and Stewart, and will be published in translation in France by Albin Michel and in Germany by Piper Verlag.

Escoffery is the winner of The Paris Review’s 2020 Plimpton Prize for Fiction and is the recipient of a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts (Prose) Literature Fellowship. His story “Under the Ackee Tree” was among the trio that won the Paris Review the 2020 ASME Award for Fiction from the American Society of Magazine Editors, and was subsequently included in The Best American Magazine Writing 2020. His most recent stories have appeared in The Paris Review, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, Zyzzyva and American Short Fiction.

 Escoffery has taught creative writing and seminars on the writer’s life at Stanford University, the University of Minnesota, the Center for Fiction, Tin House, Writers in Progress, and at GrubStreet in Boston, where, as former staff, he founded the Boston Writers of Color Group, which currently has more than 2,000 members. He has received support and honors from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, Aspen Words, Kimbilio Fiction, the Anderson Center, and elsewhere. 

 For Writers of the World, Jonathan reflected on his love of the short story form: “I first fell in love with story’s ability to transport, to expand the borders of my reality. I recall crouching beneath my parents’ kitchen counter as a child, losing Sunday afternoons reading. That words printed between book covers could take me to far off worlds, on journeys that left me forever changed, was, to me, nothing short of magic. I also sensed perfection in the economy of these world-altering journeys; their being beautifully bound to fit in my palms. Later, I came to understand that great literature does not simply transport, but that it also helps me understand myself, and that—at its best—it helps me to better articulate my experiences and helps me further understand those of others.”

 He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota’s Creative Writing MFA Program (Fiction) and attends the University of Southern California’s Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature Program as a Provost Fellow. He is a 2021-2023 Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University.

Tasha Essen is a multiracial Asian with family roots in Korea, Russia, and China. Tasha was born in Seattle to an immigrant/refugee family. She’s been on a journey of healing from intergenerational trauma arising from war, occupation, and displacement. Her therapy includes writing, chanting, meditating, and doting on her small dogs.

ANDREW FELD is the author of two books of poetry, most recently Raptor (University of Chicago Press, 2012). His work has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Yale Review and many other journals, and has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry series and several editions of the Pushcart: Best of the Small Presses. His other honors include a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University and the “Discovery” / The Nation Award. The former Editor-in-Chief of the Seattle Review, he is an Associate Professor of English/Creative Writing at the University of Washington. He is currently working on a prose work, an as-yet-untitled auto/biography of his mother.

Dedi Felman is a writer/director born and raised in the wilds of NJ. A member of the inaugural class of the HBO Access Writing Fellowship, she attended the UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting and teaches TV writing for Script Anatomy. Previously, Dedi worked in publishing as a senior editor at Simon & Schuster and an executive editor at Oxford University Press. Titles she’s developed have been The New York Times and The Washington Post bestsellers and have won the Bancroft Prize, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, and the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism prize, and been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She continues to freelance consult on book projects at Book Doctor West. Her espionage drama short, "Allegiance", was a finalist at the USA Film Festival and voted a Kickstarter "Project We Love." She is currently working on two features, American Holler, a heist movie, and a contained sci-fi drama, The Immortalists.

Julie Feng is a poet, communications strategist, and scholar of stories. She holds a M.A. in Cultural Studies and is an incoming Ph.D. student in Communication at the University of Washington. Julie currently serves as the Director of Communications for Scholar Fund, supporting resources for communities of color and immigrant communities. Her work has appeared in Winter Tangerine, Pacifica Literary Review, Wildness, Quaint Magazine, and more.

Melanie Figg is a poet and essayist, currently working on a hybrid memoir. Her award-winning poetry collection, Trace, was named one of the year’s "Best Indie Books" by Kirkus Reviews. She's received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, and others, and has had work published in dozens of literary journals, including The Iowa Review, Nimrod, The Rumpus, Hippocampus, and the American Journal of Poetry. As a certified professional coach, Melanie offers women’s writing retreats and works remotely with writers on their manuscripts as well as their creative process.

Website: melaniefigg.net

J.D. Finnegan is a queer writer from Pennsylvania. They mainly write prose, and they most enjoy writing on an informal and interpersonal level about people and places that are extraordinary for no reason other than the fact that they exist. J.D. likes wizards, playing the harmonica, and the concept of public transportation. They have also seen probably three to four ghosts, if ghosts are real. If you want to contact them for any reason, feel free to imagine them in your head, then imagine them responding to your inquiry wisely and gracefully!

Karen Finneyfrock is a poet and novelist. She is the author of two young adult novels: The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door and Starbird Murphy and the World Outside, both published by Viking Children’s Books. She is one of the editors of the anthology Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls, and the author of Ceremony for the Choking Ghost, both released on Write Bloody press. She is a former Writer-in Residence at Hugo House. Learn more on her website: http://www.karenfinneyfrock.com.

Maple Valley-raised singer/songwriter Zan Fiskum uses her haunting and beautifully controlled singing to craft ethereal and brooding folk/pop songs. 

Being raised in a family that is deeply connected to music and theater led Zan to discover her transcendence on the stage at the age of 6 and explore her natural connection to songwriting and musical expression by the time she was 8 years old. Zan wrote and released her first single in 2018 followed by 5 more songs and achieved over 2.8 million streams on Spotify alone. Just 2 years later, she made her national debut on NBC’s The Voice as a top 9 finalist and received recognition for her dynamic performing and voice from Billboard magazine, Maggie Rogers, Camila Cabello and the Indigo Girls. This opened the door for Zan to join John Legend on his Bigger Love Tour of 2021 and just a few months later share the stage with Dave Mathews, Portugal The Man, Sera Cahoone and many more. Zan released her debut album “Sleeping Problems” with much success in April of 2021 as she built her reputation for her incredibly powerful and moving performances in iconic PNW venues such as The Moore Theater, The Triple Door, Sasquatch and more, leaving her audience awe struck each time.