Writers 1

ProgramWritingWriters Conference

ABOUT WRITERS CONFERENCE

July 13-20, 2025

Since 1974, the Port Townsend Writers Conference has brought together aspiring and master artists to talk about craft, ignite creativity, connect learners and mentors, and build a diverse community. 

The Conference includes a week of generative, craft-centered workshops, lectures, readings, open mics, and communal gatherings in an environment designed to de-privilege the literary art form and serve diverse voices from across nations. Whether you consider yourself a beginning or seasoned writer, our approach is to provide an inspiring and inclusive space where writers can share their perspectives, celebrate growth, and take creative risks to improve their writing and the writing of our peers. 

Take in craft lectures and readings by our award-winning faculty, who also offer focused writing workshops. The experience provides a multitude of opportunities and moments of quiet reflection on shores overlooking the Salish Sea as well as a space to get inspired and make friends who understand and support the human and writing journey.

In 2025, the Conference returns to a full seven-day schedule. 

Centrum writing workshops at Fort Worden

Registration Opens in January!

Writers Conference

Writing Conference Facts

  • Established in 1974
  • Workshops, lectures, open-mics, and readings
  • Sessions: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, novel, graphic novel, and visual storytelling

Welcome to The Writing Conference

Gary Copeland Lilley

Gary Copeland Lilley is an award-winning poet and educator with a strong background in Southern American culture, blues poetry, and storytelling. He has published several collections of poetry and is renowned for his ability to bring raw emotion and narrative depth to his work. As Artistic Director of the Port Townsend Writers Conference, Gary selects faculty who challenge and inspire writers to explore the full range of their creative voices.

LINK TO FULL BIO

Registration for a morning intensive workshop includes a writing workshop from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m. July 14-16th, 18th and 19th (5 sessions with 1 break day in between). Your morning workshop will include the same cohort of up to 14 of your peer writers throughout the week who are all led by a faculty member of your choosing when you register for the Port Townsend Writers Conference. Morning Workshops also include access to all afternoon and evening programming, including craft lectures, afternoon workshops, evening faculty readings, open mics, and social gatherings at Fort Worden State Park. 

Please note: Morning workshops are in-person only and capped at 14 people per workshop. If you do not see a workshop listed here offered when you registration, it is full.

2025 Morning Workshop Offerings Coming Soon!

Registering for afternoon workshops includes access to all afternoon and evening programming at the Port Townsend Writers Conference, including craft lectures, afternoon workshops, evening faculty readings, open mics, and social gatherings at Fort Worden State Park. Registering for a morning intensive workshop (see above) also includes access to afternoon and evening programming in addition to the morning intensive workshop. Please note, registering for afternoons only does not include access to a morning intensive workshop.

2025 Afternoon Workshop Offerings Coming Soon!

Photo of Alice Anderson

Alice Anderson

Afternoon 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.…

Photo of Bryce Andrews

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.

Photo of Erica Bauermeister

Erica Bauermeister

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Erica Bauermeister is the NYT bestselling author of five novels, including No Two Persons, The Scent Keeper, and The School of Essential Ingredients. She has also written a memoir, entitled House Lesson: Renovating a Life, and is the co-author of two readers’ guides — 500 Great Books by Women and Let’s Hear it for the Girls.…

Photo of Reginald Dwayne Betts

Reginald Dwayne Betts

Morning Workshop Faculty

Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, lawyer, and the Founder & CEO of Freedom Reads, an initiative to radically transform access to literature in prisons. The author of a memoir and three collections of poetry, he has transformed his latest collection of poetry, the American Book Award Winning FELON, into a solo theater show that explores the post incarceration experience and lingering consequences of a criminal record through poetry, stories, and engaging with the timeless and transcendental art of papermaking.…

Photo of Claudia Castro Luna

Claudia Castro Luna

Morning Workshop Faculty

Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018 – 2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press, 2022) and Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press, 2017) both shortlisted for the WA State Book Award in poetry, 2023 and 2018 respectively.…

Photo of Bryan Fry

Bryan Fry

Afternoon Workshop Faculty, Creative Coordinator

Bryan Fry earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho. He is the cofounder of Blood Orange Review and currently teaches at Washington State University. His work has appeared in various publications, including BrevityFront PorchThe South Dakota Review, and The Blue Mountain Review.

Photo of Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher

Morning Workshop Faculty

Tess Gallagher, the author of eleven books of poetry, lives and writes in her hometown of Port Angeles, Washington, and in her cottage in Co. Sligo, Ireland.  She is the only American to have been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her poetry from the Foundation of Rome, which she received in 2023. Her most recent poetry collection Is, Is Not, published by Graywolf press, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award.  …

Photo of Terrance Hayes

Terrance Hayes

Morning Workshop Faculty

Terrance Hayes’ publications, So To Speak, a collection of poems, and Watch Your Language, a collection of visual and lyric essays, were concurrently released in 2023. His honors include the National Book Award for poetry, the Poetry Foundation Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacArthur Foundation. He is a distinguished Silver Professor at New York University.

Photo of Tessa Hulls

Tessa Hulls

Morning Workshop Faculty

Tessa Hulls is an artist, writer, and adventurer who is equally likely to disappear into the backcountry or a research library. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, Atlas Obscura, Adventure Journal, and others, and she received the 2021 Washington Artist Trust Arts Innovator Award. Her debut graphic memoir, Feeding Ghosts, traces three generations of women in her family against a backdrop of Chinese history and diaspora to explore the complex ways that mothers and daughters both damage and save one another.…

Photo of Toni Jensen

Toni Jensen

Morning Workshop Faculty

Toni Jensen is the author of Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land, a Dayton Peace Prize finalist and a New York Times Editors’ Choice book. Jensen’s essays have appeared in journals and magazines such as Orion, Catapult and Ecotone. She also is the author of the story collection From the Hilltop.…

Photo of Samantha Ladwig

Samantha Ladwig

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Samantha Ladwig is an essayist and writing instructor. Her work has been published by The Cut, Literary Hub, Vulture, Bustle, Vice, HuffPost, Real Simple, Vox, The Ex-Puritan, CrimeReads, Brevity, and The Kitchn, among many others. She is a former book reviewer for BUST magazine, as well as a former bookshop owner.…

Photo of Debra Magpie Earling

Debra Magpie Earling

Morning Workshop Faculty

Debra Magpie Earling is the author of the novels Perma Red and The Lost Journals of Sacajewea and is currently working on a novel about witches. She is the recipient of the Montana Governor’s Arts Award and has received both a Guggenheim and NEA fellowship. Other awards include the American Book Award, the WILLA Award, the Mountains and Plains Bookseller Association Award, the Spur Award, Montana Book Award, and the Pacific Northwest Bookseller Award.…

Photo of Valerie Miner

Valerie Miner

Morning Workshop Faculty

Valerie Miner is the award winning writer of 9 novels, 5 story collections and 2 books of non-fiction. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Triquarterly, Salmagundi, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, over 60 anthologies, and on BBC Radio 4. Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she been on the faculty at Stanford University, U.C.…

Photo of Nicole Persun

Nicole Persun

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Nicole J. Persun is an award-winning and internationally bestselling novelist with a master’s degree in creative writing and instruction. She writes in many genres, most notably contemporary fiction under the pen name Jennifer Gold. Nicole has taught writers as a keynote speaker, in large-scale class settings, intimate workshops, and one-on-one coaching for over twelve years. For more information, visit nicolejpersun.com or jennifergoldauthor.com.

Photo of Dawn Pichon Barron

Dawn Pichon Barron

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Dawn Pichón Barron is currently the academic director/faculty of the undergraduate interdisciplinary Native Pathways Program at the Evergreen State College. She writes across borders and genres, while dreaming of ripe lemon sunrays at the southern tip of the Salish Sea–on the lands of the Medicine Creek treaty tribes and bands—with her wingman and Chihuahuas. Her chapbook, ESCAPE GIRL BLUES, was published by Finishing Line Press, 2018.…

Photo of Anna Quinn

Anna Quinn

Morning Workshop Faculty

Anna Quinn is the author of two novels, The Night Child (Blackstone, 2018) listed as #1 Best Real Psychological Fiction on Goodreads, and Angeline (Blackstone 2023), a Foreword Review Winner and nominated for a Washington State Book Award. Her work has garnered praise from Luis Alberto Urrea, Dorothy Allison, Bill Ransom, Pam Houston, Melissa Febos, Lidia Yuknavitch, Library Journal, and more.…

Photo of Peter Quinn

Peter Quinn

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

A graduate of Lewis and Clark College, Peter studied with poets Vern Rutsala, Tony Ostroff and William Stafford. In 1976 he received an Academy of American Poets Award.  His first book of poetry, Painting Circles on Straight Highways, was published by Irenicon Press in 2012.  His second book of poetry, small things (Turning Point Press), Will be released in March, 2023.…

Photo of Robert Stubblefield

Robert Stubblefield

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Robert Stubblefield has published fiction and personal essays in Dreamers and Desperadoes: Contemporary Short Fiction of the American West, Best Stories of the American West, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Left Bank, The Clackamas Literary Review, Cascadia Times, Oregon Humanities, Oregon Salmon: Essays on the State of the Fish at the Turn of the Millennium, Open Spaces, basalt, High Desert Journal, and The Whitefish Review among others.…

Photo of Elizabeth Thorpe

Elizabeth Thorpe

Editing Workshop Faculty

Elizabeth Thorpe teaches writing at Drexel University and Olympic College. She earned an MFA in Fiction from Goddard College, and is a literary editor for freelance clients and a proofreader for design company 160over90. Her short fiction collection, Cities, was published by Texture Press in 2015. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in Per ContraescarpKahiniPainted Bride Quarterly, and The Maine Review, among others.…

Centrum has a variety of ways to be able to attend our workshops even if you’re on a budget. If you need financial assistance, Centrum has a robust scholarship program awarded on a first-come, first-served; and as-needed basis. 

Please note, housing and meal costs reflect the Conference's extension to seven days in 2025. 

Tuition:

Morning Intensive Workshop: $1,050
Afternoons Only: $650
First Impression 1-on-1 Writing Consultation with an Editor: $80

Those who register for the Morning Intensive Workshop get access to their choice of a morning faculty member as well as access to all drop-in afternoon workshops.  Morning faculty classes are limited to 14 people and registration fills quickly.

Housing:

Private Dorm Room (7 nights): $575
Private Dorm Room with a View (7 nights): $675
Shared Apartment (7 nights): $1,085

Meals:

All meals: $455

Transportation:

Shuttle from Seatac 7/13: $65
Shuttle to Seatac 7/20: $65

Scholarships

Apply online as you register. Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only, not housing and meals. Centrum requires a $50 deposit of scholarship applicants, which is fully refundable if you do not receive a scholarship and choose not to attend the conference. 

If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Eric Greenwell at 360-385-3102, x131, or egreenwell@centrum (dot) org.

Is financial assistance available to attend the Port Townsend Writers Conference?

Yes! Centrum is proud to offer a limited number of scholarships. We accept scholarship applications when registration for the Port Townsend Writers Conference opens on January 2 through April 15, prior to the Conference in July. Applications are evaluated by an anonymous scholarship judge on a first come, first served bases and on a rolling schedule throughout the application period. Should Centrum not exhaust our scholarship funding by April 15, the application period will remain open until all funds are committed. Apply online as you register. 

Please note that except in rare cases, scholarships are available for tuition only. This does not include travel, housing, and meals. Applicants should be prepared to cover these expenses. Centrum requires a $50 deposit of scholarship applicants at the time of application, which is fully refundable if you do not receive a scholarship and choose not to attend the Conference. 

I registered for a morning intensive workshop. Can I attend a craft lecture or afternoon workshop? What about a faculty reading?

Yes! Registration for a morning intensive workshop includes access to all afternoon and evening programming as well, including craft lectures, afternoon workshops, evening faculty readings, open mics, and social gatherings through the week. In short, if you register for a morning intensive workshop, you have access to everything on the schedule for the Conference.

I registered for afternoons only. Can I attend a morning workshop too?

Not unless you change your registration to a morning intensive workshop. Morning intensives are limited to 14 writers who meet daily throughout the week with the same faculty member. To attend a morning intensive workshop, you must register for that workshop, which includes access to all afternoon and evening programming during the Conference as well. As an afternoon participant, you still have access to all the great programming in the afternoons and evenings, including craft lectures, afternoon workshops, evening faculty readings, open mics, and social gatherings. If you would like to change your registration to a morning workshop - and spots are still available in that workshop - you do so through the registration confirmation email you received or you can contact Centrum's Registrar at (360) 385-3102.

I want to share my work at the Conference. How can I do that?

We're so glad you asked! At the Port Townsend Writers Conference, one of our goals is to foster a community of writers. While writing can often be solitary in practice - as in, the act itself - there's a whole community of people out there experiencing similar challenges. At the Conference, we have open mics every evening, and anyone who registers (morning and afternoons) can come and sign up. Workshops are often generative as well and include many opportunities to share your work with the work of your peers. If you have books, we have a pop-up bookstore every year where you can sell them, and you will receive more information after you register about how to include your books for sale. Finally, Fort Worden is a big campus with lots of open spaces to walk with the writers you meet and share thoughts, experiences, and ideas while passing through Pacific madrone forests or looking across the Salish Sea. 

Do I have to register for meals and lodging at Fort Worden for the Conference too?

In short, no. You can register for a morning intensive workshop or afternoon programming only without registering for meals and lodging. However, there are important things to consider. Grocery stores and restaurants are not easily accessible from Fort Worden if you do not have a personal vehicle on campus. Downtown Port Townsend and most grocery stores, hotels, and short-term rentals are a 10-minute drive from our campus at Fort Worden State Park, and Centrum is not staffed to provide shuttle service for individual participants to and from town during the Conference. If you choose to stay off campus and/or prepare your own meals, you will want to plan accordingly. Also note, many deep connections and inspiring conversations happen over meals or walking around campus, and participants often sign up for meals because they are conveniently located on campus, just a quick walk from workshops, and because they eat with their peers and faculty, forming stronger bonds as the week progresses. Also note, Fort Worden sits right on the shore of the Salish Sea, and lodging on campus is not only a quick walk from workshops, but also located in an inspiring place with stunning views of the open water, Mount Baker, and Mount Rainier, and campus grounds include about 12 miles of hiking trails.

I want to sign up for a First Impressions Writing Sample Consultation. What can I expect?

A First Impression is yet another opportunity to share your work and receive 1-on-1 feedback from an experienced editor and writing teacher  during the Conference. Here's how it works: After you sign up for a First Impression, you will receive information prior to the Conference to schedule your time with our Editing Faculty member, Elizabeth Thorpe. You and Elizabeth will have an hour to work together. You can look at whatever sample of your writing you bring to her during that hour. Elizabeth will often ask about your goals and intentions, read your sample with your goals in mind, and then discuss the sample with you. How does this help you? Editors and agents often look at work quickly and make snap decisions in a matter of pages. For example, in the initial stages of selecting a poetry manuscript for publication, editors often read the first five and last five poems before deciding whether to advance or reject it. It can be helpful for you to have insight into how your work might impact a reader quickly, like an editor or agent, who knows very little about you or your work. Previous participants have found this “mirror” - truly a first impression - very useful. But the goal is always to meet each writer where they are and try to be as productive as possible within the one-hour session. You might want to ask questions about the editing and publishing landscape more than talk about your writing, for example, or you may want a more in-depth critique of your writing sample. It's your hour of Elizabeth's time and attention. If you do want an in-depth critique, you should plan to give Elizabeth a brief sample of your work so you can spend time really discussing what's happening in that sample.

Do I have to go to everything during the Conference week?

The short answer is, no. In fact, we've often seen writers become overwhelmed when they try to attend everything during the Conference. We recommend thinking about your goals. What do you want to get out of the experience? For example, if your goal is to meet as many writers as possible, including faculty and peers, you might want to plan to attend as many workshops, lectures, evening readings, and open mics as you can, and if you are naturally introverted or drained by extended social interaction, you might consider how much energy such a level of activity might require. If your goal is to advance a piece of writing, on the other hand, you might want to build in time to write and balance that writing time with other activities and programming during the week. Maybe you also want to see Port Townsend and spend time hiking Fort Worden. In 2025, we are returning to a seven-day schedule (as compared to a six-day schedule in recent years). The additional day will allow us to build in time for you to experience Fort Worden's unique and naturally-rich campus and each other's company. As Centrum's mission states, our goal is creativity and community. We have learned after organizing arts programs for over 50 years, finding the harmony between creativity and community means connecting writers with writers and writers with themselves, and we encourage our writing community to do so for the brief and indelible time we are all together in a beautiful place.

Can I register for the 2025 Port Townsend Writers Conference remotely and attend online?

The Covid-19 Pandemic challenged our writing community in many ways, and providing the opportunity to attend the Conference online was one way we were able to meet and share our work and continue our legacy of creative and community. Our production crew here at Centrum has done a remarkable job providing a platform for online engagement. In the years since the Pandemic, however, as we have returned to hosting the Conference in person at Fort Worden, we have seen interest in attending online decline significantly, from about 40 participants in 2022 to just 3 in 2024, when we cancelled the online option. There are no plans to offer online remote attendance in 2025. Thank you for supporting our community and engaging each other through the Pandemic, which was a challenge our community rose to and remains a testament to its import and strength.  

For questions about how to get to Fort Worden State Park, food service for on-campus meals, what to bring, and what to expect of Port Townsend and the area, you can also visit Centrum's general FAQ page by clicking here

If we haven’t answered all of the questions you may have, please contact Eric Greenwell at 360-385-3102, x131, or egreenwell@centrum (dot) org.

Find more answers - Centrum FAQs

Below is a general outline of how you can spend your time during the Port Townsend Writers Conference, depending upon what you register to attend.

The schedule below includes when morning intensive workshops, afternoon drop-in workshops, craft lectures, open mics, and evening gatherings occur. Specifics, including the titles of workshops and their locations on campus, will be sent after registration and prior to your arrival on campus.

Please note, all times are Pacific Standard Time.

Sunday, July 13

2 p.m. - Centrum Shuttle leaves SeaTac Airport headed to Fort Worden*

4-5 p.m. - Arrival at Fort Worden State Park, Check In, and Welcome Reception                 

5:15 p.m. - Dinner**

7 p.m. - Welcome Orientation

7:30 p.m. - Faculty Reading

Monday - Wednesday, July 14-16, and Friday-Saturday, July 18-19

7:45 a.m. - Breakfast**

9-11:30 a.m. - Morning Intensive Workshops

11:45 a.m. - Lunch**

1-1:50 p.m. - Afternoon Craft Lectures

2-3:15 p.m. - Afternoon Drop-In Workshops

5:45 p.m. - Dinner**

7 p.m. - Evening faculty readings

Directly following faculty readings - PTWC Open Mic

Thursday, July 17th

7:45 a.m. - Breakfast**

9-11 a.m. Optional Fort Worden Group Hike

11:45 a.m. - Lunch**

1 p.m. - Optional Writers Wiffle Ball

5:45 p.m. - Dinner**

7 p.m. - Evening faculty Readings

Directly following faculty reading - Evening social gathering (TBA)

Sunday, July 20th

7:45 a.m. - Breakfast

9 a.m. - Centrum Shuttle Departs Fort Worden headed to SeaTac Airport**

11 a.m. - Fort Worden Checkout***

*For those who register for the Centrum Shuttle from SeaTac International Airport in Seattle to and/or from Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington

**For those who register for meals on campus

***For those who register for lodging on campus

Photo of Kim  Addonizio

Kim  Addonizio

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Kim Addonizio is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius.

Photo of Rion Amilcar Scott

Rion Amilcar Scott

Morning Workshop Faculty

Rion Amilcar Scott is the author of the story collections The World Doesn’t Require You and Insurrections, which was awarded the 2017 PEN/Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction and the 2017 Hillsdale Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He teaches creative writing at the University of Maryland. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2020 and McSweeney’s Quarterly, among other publications.

Photo of Quenton Baker

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).

Photo of Arna Bontemps Hemenway

Arna Bontemps Hemenway

Past Faculty

Arna Bontemps Hemenway is the author of Elegy on Kinderklavier (Sarabande Books), winner of the PEN/Hemingway Prize, finalist for the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, and long-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize.

Photo of Claudia Castro Luna

Claudia Castro Luna

Afternoon Workshop

Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018 – 2021) and Seattle’s inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). She is the author of Cipota Under the Moon (Tia Chucha Press, 2022); One River, A Thousand Voices (Chin Music Press); the Pushcart nominated Killing Marías (Two Sylvias Press) also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook This City (Floating Bridge Press).…

Photo of Elizabeth Colen

Elizabeth Colen

Past Faculty

EJ Colen is a PNW-based educator, writer, and editor interested in long-form poetry, the lyric essay, literary and visual collage, and research-based approaches to storytelling and memoir.

Photo of Alice Derry

Alice Derry

Past Faculty

Alice Derry is the author of five volumes of poetry, most recently Hunger (MoonPath 2018) along with three chapbooks, including translations of poems by Rainer Rilke. 

Photo of Melissa Febos

Melissa Febos

Past Faculty

Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart; and three essay collections: Abandon Me, a LAMBDA Literary Award finalist and Publishing Triangle Award finalist; Girlhood, a national bestseller; and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative.

Photo of CMarie Fuhrman

CMarie Fuhrman

Past Faculty

CMarie Fuhrman is the author of Camped Beneath the Dam: Poems (Floodgate 2020) and co-editor of Native Voices: Indigenous Poetry, Craft, and Conversations (Tupelo 2019).

Photo of Tess Gallagher

Tess Gallagher

Past Faculty

Tess Gallagher’s eleventh volume of poetry, Is, Is Not, was published May 2019 by Graywolf Press.  Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems, also from Graywolf, is the most comprehensive offering of her poems to date.

Photo of Jennifer Givhan

Jennifer Givhan

Morning Workshop Faculty

Jennifer Givhan is a Mexican-American and Indigenous poet and novelist from the Southwestern desert and the recipient of poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices.

She is the author of five full-length poetry collections and three novels, most recently Belly to the Brutal (Wesleyan University Press) and novel River Woman, River Demon (Blackstone Publishing) which draw from her practice of brujería.…

Photo of Derrick Harriell

Derrick Harriell

Past Faculty

Derrick Harriell is the Ottilie Schillig Associate Professor of English and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi.

Photo of Ravi Howard

Ravi Howard

Past Faculty

Ravi Howard is the author of two novels, Like, Trees, Walking and Driving the King (HarperCollins). In addition to being selected as a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, Like, Trees, Walking won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence.

Photo of Jourdan Imani Keith

Jourdan Imani Keith

Past Faculty

Jourdan Imani Keith is Seattle’s 2019- 2022 Civic Poet.  Featured in Forbes and on NPR, her Orion Magazine essays, Desegregating Wilderness and At Risk appear in the Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology, as well as text books.

Photo of Bettina Judd

Bettina Judd

Morning Workshop Faculty

Bettina Judd is an interdisciplinary writer, artist and performer whose research focus is on Black women’s creative production and use of visual art, literature, and music to develop feminist thought. Her book Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure, and Black Feminist Thought (Northwestern University Press, December 2022) argues that Black women’s creative production is feminist knowledge production produced by registers of affect she calls “feelin.” She is currently Associate Professor of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington.…

Photo of Stephanie Land

Stephanie Land

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Stephanie Land is the New York Times bestselling author of “MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive,” called “a testimony…worth listening to,” by the New York Times and inspiration for the Netflix series “Maid,” and its sequel “CLASS: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education.” Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and many other outlets.…

Photo of Susan Landgraf

Susan Landgraf

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Susan Landgraf is a poet and journalist. She has published more than 400 poems, essays, and articles in numerous journals and magazines. Most recently her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Nimrod, Calyx, The Bellingham Review, Literary Mama, Kestrel, Margie, and The Sow’s Ear. She is the author of What We Bury Changes the Ground (Tebot Bach, 2017) as well as The Inspired Poet (Two Sylvias Press, 2019), a book of writing exercises.…

Photo of Sasha LaPointe

Sasha LaPointe

Morning Workshop Faculty

Sasha LaPointe is from the Upper Skagit and Nooksack Indian Tribe. Native to the Pacific Northwest, she draws inspiration from her coastal heritage as well as her life in the city.

Photo of Kate Lebo

Kate Lebo

Morning Workshop Faculty

Kate Lebo’s first collection of nonfiction, The Book of Difficult Fruit (FSG), won the 2022 Washington State Book Award and was named a best book of the year by NPR, The Atlantic, New York magazine, Electric Literature, and The Globe and Mail. She is the author of the cookbook Pie School (Sasquatch Books), the poetry chapbook Seven Prayers to Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Entre Rios Books), and co-editor with Samuel Ligon of Pie & Whiskey: Writers Under the Influence of Butter and Booze (Sasquatch Books).…

Photo of Sam Ligon

Sam Ligon

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Sam Ligon’s most recent novel — Miller Cane: A True & Exact History — was serialized for a year in Spokane’s weekly newspaper, The Inlander, as well as on Spokane Public Radio.

Photo of Sebastian Matthews

Sebastian Matthews

Past Faculty

Sebastian Matthews’ latest books are a memoir in essays, Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State (Red Hen Press), and a hybrid collection of poetry and prose, Beginner’s Guide to a Head-on Collision (Red Hen Press), an Independent Publisher’s Book Award winner.

Photo of Kristen Millares Young

Kristen Millares Young

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Kristen Millares Young is the author of the novel Subduction, named a staff pick by The Paris Review and called “whip-smart” by the Washington Post, “a brilliant debut” by the Seattle Times and “utterly unique and important” by Ms. Magazine.

Photo of Valerie Miner

Valerie Miner

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Valerie Miner is the award-winning author of 15 books. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Triquarterly, Salmagundi, New Letters, Prairie Schooner, The Gettysburg Review, over 60 anthologies, and on BBC Radio 4. Winner of a Distinguished Teaching Award, she has taught at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, University of Minnesota, Arizona State University, etc.…

Photo of Matthew Olzmann

Matthew Olzmann

Morning Workshop Faculty

Matthew Olzmann is the author of Constellation Route as well as two previous collections of poetry: Mezzanines and Contradictions in the Design. A recipient of fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Olzmann’s poems have appeared in the New York Times, Best American Poetry, The Pushcart Prizes, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. He is an assistant professor at Dartmouth College and also teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

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Dawn Pichón Barron

Afternoon Workshop Faculty

Dawn Pichón Barron (she/her) is a mixt-blood Indigi-Euro writer & scholar born in Southern California and primarily raised in rural Spokane. She is the academic director of the Native Pathways Program and member of the Faculty at The Evergreen State College. Dawn is thrilled to participate in state-wide artist promotion and sustainment as an Artist Trust Board Member.…

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Rena Priest

Morning Workshop Faculty

Rena Priest is a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation. She is the incumbent Washington State Poet Laureate and Maxine Cushing Gray Distinguished Writing Fellow. Priest is also the recipient of an Allied Arts Foundation Professional Poets Award and fellowships from Indigenous Nations Poets and the Vadon Foundation.

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Anna Quinn

Past Faculty

Anna Quinn is the author of The Night Child, (Blackstone) listed as #1 Best Real Psychological Fiction on Goodreads, and Ingram’s 2018 Best Book Club Book. Her second novel, Angeline, (Blackstone) will be released Feb. 7th, 2023.

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Laura Read

Morning Workshop Faculty

Laura Read is the author of But She Is Also Jane (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023, winner of the Juniper Prize); Dresses from the Old Country (BOA Editions, 2018); Instructions for my Mother’s Funeral (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012, winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, selected by Dorianne Laux), and The Chewbacca on Hollywood Boulevard Reminds Me of You (winner of the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award, 2011).…

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Anastacia Reneé

Past Faculty

Anastacia Reneé is an award-winning cross-genre writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, TEDX speaker and podcaster.

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Shawn Vestal

Past Faculty

Shawn Vestal’s debut novel, Daredevils, was published in spring 2016 by Penguin Press. His collection of short stories, Godforsaken Idaho, published by New Harvest in April 2013, was named the winner of the PEN/​Robert W. Bingham Prize.

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Explorations (Grades 7-9)
Mar 2, 2025Youth
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Mar 23, 2025 2:00pmChamber Music
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Apr 13, 2025Youth
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Apr 22, 2025Brazilian Choro

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