Teachers

In truth, Melany is all things in small parts: a Functional Nutritional Therapist Practitioner, an Artist, a Black-Indigenous, Queer Female who prioritizes meditation & radical transformation through Pentecostalism. She came from The Church, y'all. Most recently their ritual work rendered 2 in-production, Spoken Word Performance pieces: ’AWOKEN’ & 'On Receiving The Holy Ghost – UNJEALOUSED'. Both inspired by the George Floyd Massacres, and center polarizing issues of gender & race-based violence. With the creation of their current works, Melany has exorcised the will to hide from an offending world to realize it as Art. The current work is sponsored by: SHUNPIKE- 'STOREFRONTS’, 4Culture, UAAC, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, NW Film Forum, & Collective Power A Member of The African American Writers Alliance, as Co-Secretary, Diversity Consultant, and Spoken Word Artist. Melany is a newly Published Author. "Everything I See is Me, Vol 1" is NOW Available on Amazon.

Jeff Bender is a fiction and comedy writer whose work has appeared in McSweeney's, The Hard Times, Electric Literature, Sports Riot, Fence, The Iowa Review, and a lot of places. In 2023 he co-wrote McSweeney's 8th most-read article.

Describe your teaching style.

I have a plan but try to listen to the group as much as possible and let the personality of the class influence what we do.

Soumeya Bendimerad Roberts is a literary agent and VP, Foreign Rights, at HG Literary. 

In fiction, Soumeya is seeking literary and upmarket novels and collections, and also represents realistic young-adult and middle-grade. She likes books with vivid voices and compelling, well-developed story-telling, and is particularly interested in narratives by people of color and fiction that reflects on the post-colonial world. She's currently on the hunt for narratives set in enclosed settings, stylized literary takes on genre (especially literary thriller and suspense), novels set in other countries or shot through with elements of travel, family sagas, historical narratives (especially those that intertwine with the present), honest, updated, politically charged takes on the domestic family novel, and unconventional love stories. A lover of craft, she is drawn to observant writing that illuminates dynamic relationships between complex but sympathetic characters, intelligent experiments with form, and stories that enchant and transport the reader in authentic and inventive ways. In non-fiction, she is primarily looking for idea-driven or voice-forward memoirs, personal essay collections, and approachable narrative non-fiction of all stripes: politics, current events; popular culture, (especially anything that deals with subcultures – the more minute the better), unconventional business, popular science, adventure, psychology, and more. She also represents practical nonfiction in the areas of cooking, design, craft, gardening, travel and the outdoors, humor, health, and parenting.

Scott Bentley (he/they) received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Poetics at the University of Washington, Bothell. He’s been a curator of the Gamut literary series, a Mineral School resident, Hugo House Fellow, and editor at Clamor, Ghost Town, and Pacific Review. His writing and art have appeared in Paperbark, Abalone Mountain Press, Under A Warm Green Linden, and elsewhere.

JESSICA RAE BERGAMINO is the author of UNMANNED, winner of Noemi Press' Poetry Prize, as well as chapbooks from dancing girl press and Sundress Publications. Once she files some paperwork, she'll hold a PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Utah. These days, she calls Seattle home. 

Christina Berke is a Chilean-American writer and educator with a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. She’s been supported by Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Hedgebrook, and Storyknife. Her work is in Edible, Pithead Chapel, Teen Vogue and elsewhere.

Kate Berreth is a lifelong prolific songstress and natural mystic of Music.

Misha Berson is a freelance writer and teacher. From 1991-2016 she was the drama critic for the Seattle Times, after 10 years writing for the SF Bay Guardian. She has written four books on theater, including "Between Worlds: Asian American Playwrights" and "Something's Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination." Her work has also appeared in American Theatre, crosscut.com, oregonartswatch.com, Variety, the SF Chronicle and many other publications. She has been a Pulitzer Prize juror several times, most recently in 2019 when she was chair of the drama committee, and she is a juror for the annual Steinberg/ATCA playwriting award. She has taught arts and journalism courses at UW, Seattle University, SF State University, UC Davis, Richard Hugo House and The Eugene O'Neill Center Theatre Critics Conference.

Carrie Beyer is a poet and essayist. A mother of three school-aged children, she grew up in rural Kansas and now lives in the Pacific Northwest where she works as a bookseller at Eagle Harbor Book Company. Carrie holds an MFA in Writing from Pacific University. Her poems have been published in Prairie Schooner, Apeiron Review, and as a contest finalist in Iron Horse Literary Review.

Grace Bialecki is a writer, spoken word poet, and workshop facilitator. She has performed at KGB Bar and as the featured poet at Paris Lit Up, and her work has appeared in various publications including Catapult and Epiphany Magazine. Bialecki is the co-founder of the storytelling series Thirst, and the author of the novel Purple Gold (ANTIBOOKCLUB). 

For more information check out Grace's website (www.graciebialecki.com) or Twitter (www.twitter.com/graciebialecki).

Describe your teaching style.

I feel myself as a facilitator more than a teacher. Although I'll be discussing my practice, I'll also be engaging with the students and asking about their process. My goal is to empower attendees to try new techniques they can then adapt to their own needs.

Born in New Jersey, Courtney holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Montana and a BA in Art History from Princeton. Her work has appeared in The Fairy Tale Review, The Masters Review, The Indiana Review, Barrelhouse, and The Los Angeles Review, among others. When Courtney's not writing, she can be found coaching lacrosse, hiking with her baby on her back, or looking for weird little pockets of wonder in the world. Courtney lives in Seattle, where she was a Hugo House Fellow in 2018-2019.

2005 Texas Poet Laureate Alan Birkelbach is a Texas native and 4th generation German-American. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, Western Writers of America, National Park Foundation, and The Academy of American Poets.

He is a Spur Award Winner, two-time international Indie Book Award Finalist, winner of North Texas Book Festival Award, Pushcart Prize Nominee, editor for several editions of the TCU Press Texas Poet Laureate Series, winner of the Pat Stodghill Book Publication Award and winner of the Edwin M. Eakin Memorial Book Publication Award.

One of eight co-authors (all from the Southwest) of the anthology book 8 Voices: Contemporary Poetry from the American Southwest from Baskerville Publishers, Inc. This book is now part of the teaching curriculum for SMU University, Dallas, Texas. 

His twelfth book, “The National Parks: A Century of Grace”, with fellow Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton, is from TCU Press. The poets visited all 62 National Parks, wrote poetry and took photos, with a percentage of the sales from the book going back to the Parks System. This is to help culturally preserve our greatest treasures – our National Parks for the next 100 years. 

Alan Birkelbach currently lives in Raton, New Mexico in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. 

Liza Birnbaum's writing has appeared in Web Conjunctions, jubilat, Tammy, Open Letters Monthly, and other publications. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and teaches at Hugo House, Cornish College of the Arts, and the University of Washington's Robinson Center. She's been awarded residencies from Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts and Agriculture and Fishtrap. For more of Liza go to lizabirnbaum.com