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2007-08 Writer Biographies Click here for more information on how to become a Writer-in-Residence.
Fredda Jaffe received a Community Arts Fellowship from the Earthwatch Institute to study salmon habitat restoration on the Skagit River; was a 2005 Jack Straw Writer, currently teaches in the WITS Program (Writers in the Schools) and works as a family therapist in private practice.
WITS Schools
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Christa Bell (Chief Sealth High School) is an award-winning feminist folk poet, performance artist, and cultural activist from Seattle, Washington. A National Poetry Slam (NPS) Champion, National Public Radio alumna and internationally touring artist Bell’s work is crafted by combining the oral poetic and storytelling traditions of the Classical Black American Church with rhythmic elements of Hip-Hop and the body-centered awareness and transformative mission of women’s sacred ritual. Her work is an act of resistance towards the international corporately-sanctioned attack on women in mainstream hip-hop and mass media. As a spoken-word artist, poet and monologist Bell has a created a body of work that is both a cultural insurgency and
spiritual-political revival in celebration of the gospel according to women. A graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in Creative Writing, Bell has studied in France and lived in east Africa. She is the author of three collections of poetry, two spoken word CD’s and the creatrix of the one-woman phenomenon, “CoochieMagik: A SpokenWord Musical Comedy.” Christa is member of the Brooklyn, NY based performance arts collective, D Underbelly. She has shared stages with political and creative luminiaries such as Angela Y. Davis, Saul Williams, Muta Baruka, Ursula Rucker, Bill Frisell and many others. 
Emily Beyer grew up in Seattle and went to Nathan Hale High School where Writers in the Schools was piloting some of its first residencies. At Nathan Hale, her life changed when the writers who visited her classes ignited a passion for poetry and through their example
convinced her to pursue creative writing. She eventually completed an MFA at University of Iowa, where she taught creative writing, and is currently working on her first book of poetry.
Wendy Call (
Margot Case (TOPS) received her B.A. from Bates College and her M.F.A. from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Work Magazine, Pindeldyboz, and Ohioana Quarterly, and Publishers Weekly. Her biography Horses That Buck: The Story of Champion Bronc Rider Bill Smith earned her the Ohioana Library Association’s Walter Rumsey Marvin Grant in 2005 and will be published by the University of Oklahoma Press in May 2008. Margot has worked professionally as a freelance journalist, editor, speechwriter, and arts administrator. She currently manages youth writing programs at Richard Hugo House.
Aaron Counts (Denny Middle School & Garfield High School), in his career as an adolescent counselor and educator, helped young people locate and recognize their power through creative writing as a tool for transformation. He is a poet and essayist intent on dispelling the myth that literature is created only in the academy. With influences ranging from Chuck D to Charles Dickens, he tiptoes the line between spoken and written forms. His work has appeared online and on stage, as well as in ego trip's Big Book of Racism (Regan Books 2002), ColorsNW, the Seattle Times, and T-shirts across the country. In addition to coordinating programs with the intergenerational literary arts education organization Youth Speaks Seattle, he is the co-author of the workbook-style text, Reclaiming Black Manhood and the founding editor of Unblind Communications, an urban micro-press. 
Karen Finneyfrock is a poet, performer, host and teacher living in Seattle, WA. As an accomplished Spoken Word Artist and member of the Poetry Slam movement, Karen ‘s work was featured in the only two National Poetry Slam Anthologies (From Page to Stage and Back Again, 2003 and Freedom to Speak, 2002.) Karen was one of eight poets featured in the Women of Slam Showcase at the National Poetry Slam in Austin, TX. Karen has performed at Bumbershoot, the Seattle Poetry Festival, the Redmond Poetry Festival and Vancouver’s West Coast Poetry Festival. She has been featured in two national spoken word tours. Locally, Karen was Seattle’s SlamMaster and Host of the Seattle Poetry Slam from 2001 until 2005. Her full length book of poetry published by en theos press is titled “Welcome to the Butterfly House.” She is currently working on a book of young adult fiction.
Kathleen Flenniken’s first poetry collection, Famous (University of Nebraska Press, 2006) won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association in 2007. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals including Poetry, The Iowa Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, and the website Poetry Daily, and she is the recipient of literary fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust. Kathleen has taught creative writing in Seattle area public schools through a number of arts agencies, and is an editor and president of Floating Bridge Press, a nonprofit all-volunteer press dedicated to publishing Washington State poets.
Liz Gallagher's first novel, The Opposite of Invisible, about a fifteen-year old Seattle girl, published by Random House as the first in a two-book deal, will be available in January, 2008. She is a graduate of the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College. She has been a school assistant for the past five years, since moving to the city from the Philadelphia area. On a break from full-time teaching, she currently works as a writer for a handful of local publications and web sites, including Seattle magazine and the popular city guide for savvy parents, Red Tricycle. 
Laura Gamache (Hamilton Middle School), poet and educator. has recently published poetry in Crab Creek Review, Heliotrope, Pontoon 7, and other journals, online in LocusPoint and Avatar Review 6, andon the buses and on stage at Bumbershoot 2006. Her prose has appeared in anthologies including In My Life: Encounters with the Beatles, Classics in the Classroom, and The North Atlantic Review. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington in 1993, and directed the Writers in the Schools program there for nine years. She was selected to participate in the Jack Straw Writers Program’s Tenth Anniversary Celebration in 2006, after participating in 1999 and 2002. Her chapbook, nothing to hold onto, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2005.
Matt Gano (Ingraham High School) is a full time teaching artist, writer, and performance poet. He graduated in 2003 from Western Washington University with a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing. Matt was a member of the National Poetry Slam team for Seattle in 2004 and again in 2005. In addition to working for WITS, he teaches for Arts Corps and is an integral part of Youth Speaks Seattle, helping to provide safe and creative spaces for the youth to explore their voices.
Merna Ann Hecht (McClure Middle School and Foster High School), storyteller, poet and arts and literacy educator is committed to providing opportunities that will help support young people in holding to a vision of a more humane and peaceful world. She has built her life work around the vital role of story and spoken word in many cultures. Her years of work in specialized settings most recently include the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center School, BRIDGES: A Center for Grieving Children, detention centers and facilities for homeless youth. She is a recipient of the National Storytelling Network 2008 Brimstone Award for Applied Storytelling. Merna presents courses for educators on teaching humanities and social justice through integrated arts and she performs widely as a storyteller throughout the Northwest. Her essays and poems have appeared in Kaleidoscope, Out of Line, Talking Points: Journal of Whole Language, The National Storytelling Journal, Standing: An Anthology of Women Poets, The Storyteller’s Classroom, Chosen Tales and other books and journals.
Sibyl James (Showalter Middle School) has taught in the U.S., China, Mexico, and (as a Fulbright professor) Tunisia, and Côte d'Ivoire. Her publications include six books: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Her most recent work, Ho Chi Minh's Motorbike, is a Vietnam travel memoir. She has worked as a writer in the schools for the Seattle School District, Washington State Arts Commission, and the Alaska Council for the Arts. Her writing has received awards from Artist Trust and the Seattle, King County, and Washington State arts commissions.
Seattle Poet Populist Emeritus and Seattle Public Library Naturalist-in-Residence, Jourdan Keith, is a Griot, naturalist, educator, and storyteller. Her work blends the textures of political, personal and natural landscapes to offer voices from the margins of American lives. A Hedgebrook alum, she is a 2006 Jack Straw Writer’s Program recipient. In 2004 she was awarded an individual artists grant from the City of Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs for the writing and performance of her choreopoem, The Uterine Files: Episode I, Voices Spitting Out Rainbows. Her poems, essays and articles have appeared in magazines, and newspapers, as well as, on the radio, television and in video, including the Seattle Channel, Colors NW, Seattle Woman, SGN, and the anthology, Ma-Ka, Diasporic Juks. (Sister Vision Press). She is the Founder and Director of Urban Wilderness Project, which provides storytelling, restoration, adventure and wilderness programming for youth and adult participants.
Rachel Kessler (Ballard High School) is an avid collaborator. As a co-founder of the Typing Explosion, she has published 3 books, written and performed in 5 shows, and toured internationally with their unique style of automatic interactive poetry performances since 1998. Her most recent project with the Vis-à-vis Society was a book and record “WHO ARE WE?” and show “WE ARE YOU: a Statistical Musical” based on poem-surveys. She has written about eating, hair removal and book reading for Seattle’s premier alternative weekly The Stranger, and the Bay area’s Urban View. Ms. Kessler enjoys playing the accordion and dancing the polka. 
Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Maliha Masood moved to the States at the age of twelve and grew up in Seattle. Fluent in her native Urdu, Arabic and French, she studied International Business at the University of Washington and worked as a researcher and consultant specializing in technology and development. Winner of the 2005 Jack Straw award in creative nonfiction, Maliha's work has been widely anthologized and published internationally in Al-Ahram Weekly and Asia Times. Maliha also appeared in and co-wrote the independent documentary Nazrah, exploring gender, politics and Islam. She is the author of the travel memoir, Zaatar Days, Henna Nights, an intimate account of her year long adventure through Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. More information at 
Clare Hodgson Meeker is an award-winning author of eight books for children. She writes both fiction and nonfiction picture books and chapter books. Her book, Lootas Little Wave Eater, was selected for the 2005 summer quarter Washington Reads program by the Washington State Librarian, and as a 1999 Notable Book by Smithsonian Magazine. Her most recent book, Manorah The Bird Princess, is a bilingual adaptation of a Thai folktale. She also has an ongoing magazine series entitled The Backyard Adventures of Olive Opossum and Max Mole, published each month in the National Wildlife Federation’s “Your Big Backyard” magazine for young children. Clare is also a lawyer, a musician, and a founding member of The Righteous Mothers, a female vocal group that performs nationally. 
Alexandria Michelle Red (Big Picture) is a Seattle based poet. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana with a degree in Chemistry and from Seattle University with a Masters in teaching degree. One of seven founding members of the Oratrix Spoken Word group she was featured on the 2003 Oratrix CD., and traveled as a featured artist on the 2004 All Girl. All Word Oratrix tour. She performed nationally in theaters, festivals, cafes, bookstores and on university campuses. She has one self-published collection of poetry, "She's The Truth." She also taught high school Chemistry for seven years. Currently she is focusing her energy on completing a full-length poetry collection, Yellow Shotgun: An American Story and her M.F.A. in creative writing at Goddard College. Her work has been published in Quay and SNReview. 
Judith Roche is the author of three collections of poetry, Wisdom of the Body, Myrrh/My Life as a Screamer and Ghosts, is co-editor of First Fish, First People: Salmon Tales of the North Pacific Rim, which won an American Book Award. She has edited a number of poetry anthologies and has worked in collaboration with visual artists on several public art projects which are installed in the Seattle area. She is Literary Arts Director Emeritus for One Reel, an arts producing company and teaches poetry workshops and was Distinguished Northwest Writer in Residence at Seattle University in 2007. She is a Fellow in the Black Earth Institute. 
Elizabeth Ames Staudt (Roosevelt High School) earned her M.F.A. from the University of Michigan where she taught creative writing and composition for two years. In 2006, she was awarded the David and Linda Moscow Prize for Excellence in Teaching Composition. Through the Prison Creative Arts Project, based in Ann Arbor, she facilitated writing workshops with incarcerated women between the ages of 13 and 17. Her short fiction won a Hopwood Award, was nominated for Best New American Voices 2007 and appeared in Ninth Letter. In 2006 she was selected for a full-fellowship residency at the Vermont Studio Center. An ardent fan of storytelling in any medium, she loves museums, movie theaters, and bookstores. She’s at work on a collection of short stories and a novel. 
Anastacia Tolbert (Meany Middle School, Global Connections High School, Odyssey: The Essential School) is a writer, Cave Canem Fellow (2007), journalist, workshop facilitator and playwright living in Seattle Washington. She is author of the poetry book, Baring My Soul, andthe recipient of the 2004 San Diego Journalism Press Club Award for the article “War Torn.” Tolbert is a Seattle Arts and Lectures Writer-in-Resident, Writers in the Schools (WITS), www.lectures.org, and the Hugo House Youth Site Manager www.hugohouse.org. She is writer, co-director, and co-producer of GOTBREAST? Documentary (2007): a documentary about the views of women regarding breast and body image www.myspace.com/gotbreastdoc. Her poetry, fiction and nonfiction have been published in, Clamor Magazine, Check the Rhyme, An Anthology of Female Poets & Emcees (Nominated for the 2007 NAACP Award), I Woke Up and Put My Crown On: 76 Voices of African American Women, Essence Magazine, Number One Magazine, The Nubian Chronicles, San Diego City Beat, The Pitch Weekly, Hair Piecez Anthology and The Source Magazine.
Cody Walker (Hutch School and Kimball Elementary) holds an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas and a Ph.D. from the University of Washington. He taught writing and literature in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Taejon, Korea, and he served for five years as the theater and restaurant critic for The Olympian. He received the 2003 James Boatwright III Prize for Poetry from Shenandoah, the 2004 Harold Taylor Prize from the Academy of American Poets, and the 2005 Distinguished Teaching Award from the UW Department of English. His work appears on buses and bookmarks, as well as in Best American Poetry, Parnassus, Slate, Prairie Schooner, Subtropics, and Light. In 2007 Cody was elected Seattle Poet Populist. He teaches at the Richard Hugo House and the University of Washington.
Connie Weber (Daniel Bagley Elementary) has been a teacher and a traveler, working with students with severe and profound special needs in Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, Connecticut, Hawai’i and most recently in Washington. In early 2007, she received her MFA in creative writing from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is dedicated to encouraging young writers, supporting them as they express their creativity, and fueling their passion for the written word She currently facilitates a writing support group of eleven to thirteen year-olds, and plans to expand her reach to other young writers in the Northshore community. Her short stories for children and adults have appeared in The Arizona Literary Magazine and in the collection Beyond Time and Place Her first book for young children, The Hawaiian Goodbye Book, was published in 2006.