Yaw Amponsah
West African Drumming
Yaw Amponsah is a master percussionist from Ghana. Coming from a musical family from West Africa he is at home in the world of rhythm. A versatile player, Yaw can play many styles of music from Ghana including Highlife, Agbadja, Kpanlogo and more. His specialty is the music of the multi-part percussion ensembles of the Ashanti people.…
Alice Anderson
Morning Workshop Faculty
Alice Anderson is the author of the national bestselling memoir, Some Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away, which was published in fall of 2017 from St. Martin’s Press and was recently optioned for film. Anderson’s second poetry collection, The Watermark, was published in the UK and US simultaneously from Eyewear Publishing. A bestselling first collection of poems, Human Nature, was awarded both the Best First Book Prize from the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Elmer Holmes Bobst Prize from NYU.…
Bryce Andrews
Morning Workshop Faculty
Bryce Andrews is a rancher, conservationist, and co-owner of Thunder Road Farm. His award-winning books Badluck Way (2014), Down from the Mountain (2019), and Holding Fire (2023) describe the complex realities of living and working in the wild landscapes of the contemporary American West. He lives with his family on the Flathead Indian Reservation, in Montana.
Keeth Monta Apgar
“An acoustic treat.” – Seattle’s Child Magazine
With a 1000 songs written in his 35 prolific years of songwriting, Northwest singer-songwriter Keeth Monta Apgar has created an enormous pile of music.
Keeth strums ukuleles, acoustic guitars and fronts Indie-Folk band The Harmonica Pocket.…
Keeth Apgar
Faculty
With a 1000 songs written in his 35 prolific years of songwriting, Northwest singer-songwriter Keeth Monta Apgar has created an enormous pile of music. Keeth strums ukuleles, acoustic guitars and fronts Indie-Folk band The Harmonica Pocket. Rich in image, harmony and rhyme, his lyrical songs tell stories about plants, love, forgiveness and the outdoors.…
Janeen Armstrong
February 14, 2026 Reading
Janeen Armstrong has a BA from University of Washington. She studied with Lidia Yuknavitch and Gary Copeland Lilley, among others. She is the Reader Services Manager at Copper Canyon Press.
Quenton Baker
Morning Intensive Faculty
Quenton Baker is a poet, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. Their current focus is black interiority and the afterlife of slavery. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Jubilat, Vinyl, The Rumpus and elsewhere. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and the recipient of the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. They were a 2019 Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and a 2021 NEA Fellow. They are the author of we pilot the blood (The 3rd Thing, 2021) and ballast (Haymarket Books, 2023).
Christine Balfa
Christine Balfa is a native Louisiana French speaker, a committed and caring teacher, and a deeply- rooted Cajun musician with a passion for culture and education. As the daughter of Cajun cultural ambassador and National Heritage Fellow Dewey Balfa, she grew up in the center of the renaissance of Cajun and Creole culture. After his passing, she formed the musical group Balfa Toujours and created the non-profit Louisiana Folk Roots, of which she was the founding executive director.…
Dan Balmer
Faculty
From coffee house gigs at fifteen to chart-topping success with the Tom Grant Band in the 90s, world tours with two-time Grammy Award winner Diane Schuur and contemporary jam-bands, Dan Balmer brings fire and heart every time he plays the guitar. His playing spans nearly one hundred CDs including twelve as a leader from which his original works have appeared internationally in television, film and radio.…
Swanky Kitchen Band
Cayman Islands
fiddle, guitar, grater, cooking
Swanky Kitchen Band is on an essential quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to kitchen dance music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The kitchen dance sound, created through a crossroads of European and African influences, might have disappeared save for the efforts of Swanky Kitchen Band, the last of the Caymanian Kitchen Bands.…