Abby E. Murray
February 14, 2026 Reading
Abby E. Murray’s (they/them) first book, Hail and Farewell, won the Perugia Press Poetry Prize, and their second book, Recovery Commands, released by Ex Ophidia Press in June 2025, won the Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Prize and has been nominated for the National Book Award. …
Lewis Nash
Faculty
Lewis Nash is one of jazz’s most recorded musicians, appearing on over 500 recordings including 10 Grammy winners and numerous Grammy nominees. In fact, Nash has the distinction of being the only musician in jazz history featured on the winners in both the “Best Jazz Vocal” and “Best Jazz Instrumental” album categories in two separate years: the 2004 Grammys with Nancy Wilson and McCoy Tyner, and again in 2010 with Dee Dee Bridgewater and James Moody.
Jim Nelson
Faculty
Jim Nelson is a veteran of the old-time music scene, having honed his guitar skills through many years of playing with senior dance fiddlers, especially Bob Holt of Ava, Missouri and Lotus Dickey of Paoli, Indiana, and by keeping a close eye on some of the older guitar players. He has been playing with Geoff Seitz for the past 40 years, and along with Geoff and Curt Buckhannon.
Sierra Nelson
Poet and essayist Sierra Nelson has taught creative writing at University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Marine Labs. has been writing, performing, and creating installations for over 15 years as co-founder of the literary performance groups “The Typing Explosion” and “Vis-à-Vis Society.”
Joe Newberry
Known around the world for his clawhammer banjo playing, Joe Newberry is also a powerful guitarist, singer and songwriter. The Gibson Brothers’ version of his song “Singing As We Rise,” featuring guest vocalist Ricky Skaggs, won the 2012 IBMA “Gospel Recorded Performance” Award. With Eric Gibson, he shared the 2013 IBMA “Song of the Year” Award for “They Called It Music.”
Joe was a featured singer on the Transatlantic Sessions 2016 tour of the U.K.…
The Newell Family
Carter Newell, fiddle
Maisie Newell, fiddle
Helen Newell, fiddle
Eric Dayan, guitar
Three generations of fiddlers means lots of fun! Carter Newell’s been fiddling for 50 years and farming oysters for almost as long. He is a marine biology PHD, a shellfish and coastal ecosystems researcher, and co-owner of the Pemaquid Oyster Company.…
Johnny Nicholas
Blues Songs
Time is a river and you can never step in the same river twice. It’s all gonna change, but what came before shapes what comes after. There are certain people who seem to be in both places at once. Johnny Nicholas has played music and rambled with some of the most original and artistically powerful individuals of the American 20th century.
Nhatt Nichols
Morning Workshop Faculty
Nhatt Nichols (she/her) is a multidisciplinary cartoonist, journalist, poet, and artist whose work focuses on the intersections of humans, animals, and their environment. A graduate of The Royal Drawing School in London, she uses words and images to cover food and environmental issues using solutions journalism practices for High Country News, Edible Magazine, Civil Eats, Modern Farmer, and The Daily Yonder.…
Ricky Nye
Piano
Traditional blues, boogie woogie, and classic New Orleans jazz and R&B all come flying from the fingers of Cincinnati, OH pianist and vocalist Ricky Nye. The driving force behind the annual BLUES & BOOGIE PIANO SUMMIT held in Greater Cincinnati from 1999 to 2017, Ricky has been inducted into the International Boogie Woogie Hall Of Fame in 2013, voted “Blues Artist Of The Year 2019” in Cincinnati’s CEA Awards, and “Best Local Musician” by CityBeat Magazine’s “Best Of Cincinnati 2018” reader’s poll.…
Miles Okazaki
Faculty
Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.”