Teachers

Matt Sedillo has been hailed as "the best political poet in America" and "the poet laureate of the struggle" by journalists and historians alike. He has appeared on CSPAN, the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation and upon many other platforms and outlets. He has spoken in 5 countries on 3 continents. He is the author of Mowing Leaves of Grass (FlowerSong Press) and City on the Second Floor (FlowerSong Press).

Sondra Segundo-Cunningham is a multi-faceted Haida Language Warrior/Preserver. She is the author and illustrator of “Killer Whale Eyes” and “Lovebirds – the True Story of Raven and Eagle”.

She is the Lead Female Vocalist of the Tribal Funk Band, Khu’éex’ which is based in Seattle and sings in the Tlingit and Haida Languages. Sondra also composes, sings and produces music with her husband Eric, and also solo. She grew up singing in the church choir and also singing Haida songs.

In 2018 she founded Haida Roots, an organization created specifically to preserve the Haida language. Haida Roots enables Sondra to teach Haida – thus honoring the elders and uplifting the youth.

Sondra makes regular visits to Hydaburg Alaska, the village her ancestors come from. In Hydaburg she is able to practice Indigenous Food Sovereignty which is vital to preserving the Haida people. She plans to retire there.

She currently lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband Eric, stepson Mo, and mischievous Huskita Pup Kundláan.

Stephanie Segura is a poet from Fontana, CA (Tongva Land) and daughter of Central American immigrants. Her poetry explores a lineage of displacement through speculative testimony, audio transcriptions, and written recollections. Stephanie has been working on her first multimedia poetry manuscript, Open Door Behind You, a genealogy of generational trauma, memory, and dysfunctionality. She is a former Hugo House Fellow and LitFuse Scholar. Stephanie holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington, Bothell. 

Kascha Semonovitch’s poems and essays have appeared in journals including Quarterly West, The Bellingham Review, Zyzzyva, The Kenyon Review and others, and in the chapbook Genesis by Dancing Girl Press. She has a PhD in philosophy from Boston College, an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College. She has fellowships at the MacDowell Colony and the Ucross Foundation, and her creative nonfiction was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Kascha has edited two collections of philosophical essays on early twentieth century European thought, and published academic essays, mostly recently Attention and Expression in Simone Weil. She has taught philosophy at Boston College, Seattle University, and Hugo House in Seattle. She runs an art gallery in Seattle. Teaching Philosophy: I believe that we learn by reading – whether the work of our classmates, contemporary authors or canonical works. The work of a teacher lies in asking –and re-asking –questions that motivate us to pay attention to these texts. In class, we think together by articulating our interpretations. When we reach a conflict of interpretation – “Oh, I thought Robert Hass was talking about beauty” or “I thought Descartes meant his elbow”– then we inquire into the reasons for the conflict. After such careful reading, we are ready to re-read our own writing. We are better at paying attention to what is happening in syntax and semantics. As a faculty member at Seattle University for over seven years, I taught the history of philosophy, critical thinking, and ethics. Philosophers pay attention to the history and internal consistency of systems and concepts. This type of paying attention is also invaluable to writers. For example, we might ask whether poet thought through the connections between the terms in a text and the deep history of texts that precede it? Does a fictional or poetic world hold together consistently? I love learning by reading with students.

Website: kaschasemonovitch.com

Maria Semple is the author of the best-selling novels Today Will Be Different and Where’d You Go, Bernadette. She wrote for the TV shows Arrested Development, Mad About You, and Ellen. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and the New Yorker. Where’d You Go, Bernadette has been translated into 30 languages. It spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and made over a dozen yearend best lists. It was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize and received the Alex Award from the American Library Association. The film version of the book, starring Cate Blanchett, Kristen Wiig, and Billy Crudup, will premiere in March 2019. Today Will Be Different was featured on the cover of the New York Times book review. It made over a dozen year-end best lists and is currently in development as a limited TV series.

Monika Sengul-Jones (she/her), PhD, is an independent writer and scholar based in Seattle, WA, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. She has a doctorate in Communication and Science & Technology Studies and an MA in Gender Studies. She has taught at University of Washington, UC San Diego, and Central European University; she was the inaugural co-managing editor of Catalyst, a feminist technoscience journal. Her research and original reporting on technologies, civic media, and intersectional feminism have been supported by Art+Feminism, European Journalism Centre, OCLC, Knight Foundation, WikiCred, and Wikimedia Foundation. She is at work on a debut novel that takes on the geographies of pollution and inheritance of trauma. As an instructor, she encourages students to take risks by listening, following ideas, and naming the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Natalie Serianni is a Seattle-based writer and instructor with work at HuffPost, Insider, Motherwell, MSN/SheKnows, The Manifest-Station, Seattle's ParentMap, Today's Parent, and MuthaMagazine, among others. Her essay, "Subtle Shifts," was included in the 2021 anthology, "The Pandemic Midlife Crisis: Gen X Women on the Brink." She writes about grief and parenting (sometimes together), and has taught college writing for over twenty years. Connect with her on instagram @natserianni or at natalieserianni.com. 

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 is a Seattle writer, speaker, and nonprofit executive with an MA from Florida State University. Her memoir, She Called Me Throwaway (March 2024), details her journey from a challenging childhood to healing, and she is currently working on The Dreamers, a collection of immigrant stories about the American Dream. Shama also teaches at North Seattle College and Edmonds College while leading storytelling and nonprofit development workshops.

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.