2005 Jack Straw Writers Program

Anna Bálint is the author of Horse Thief, a collection of short fiction spanning cultures and continents that was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. Two earlier books of poetry are Out of the Box and spread them crimson sleeves like wings. Her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in various journals and magazines; also as part of a sound installation in the Beacon Hill branch of Seattle Public Library. A novel, rooted in the Roma (Gypsy) experience of the Holocaust, is close to completion (she hopes). Anna is an alumna of Hedgebrook Writers Retreat, the Jack Straw Writers Program, and has received awards from the Seattle Arts Commission. She has taught creative writing for many years and in many places, including in prisons, community centers, Antioch University and Richard Hugo House. In 2001 she received a Leading Voice award in recognition of her creative work with urban youth at El Centro de la Raza. Currently she teaches at Recovery Cáfe in Seattle, where she leads Safe Place, a weekly writing circle for people in recovery.

Artist Support Program 2015: Words from the Café, a book/CD of ten emerging voices from Seattle’s Recovery Café.

2009 Writers Program

2005 Writers Program

Jaime Curl is a native Washingtonian and a recent graduate of Eastern Washington University’s MFA program. He works for Western Washington University’s teacher preparation program and teaches English for the Seattle Community College District. His recent publications include Midwest Quarterly, LitRag, Crab Creek Review, and The Sycamore Review.

2005 Writers Program

Brenda Givens is a poet, storyteller and writer. Born in Ruislip, England, she has spent the majority of her life in the Northwest and currently lives in Everett, Washington. Brenda has spent many years presenting her work in a wide range of venues including Barnes and Noble Bookstores, the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Museum, Seattle Folk Life Festival, 3rd Place Books, Auntie’s Bookstore, and the Tacoma, Olympia and Federal Way Public Libraries. Her writing has been published in Las Cruces Poets and Writers Magazine, Brothers and Others (an anthology of African American women writing about African American men), the Seattle City Council Session, Pralines and Cream (a chap book) and the Tacoma Literary Guild publications. Brenda is also a storyteller, retelling the traditional stories of Anansi the Spider from Africa, and the Brer Rabbit stories of the American South. Her latest work in progress, a novel, is currently under submission.

2005 Writers Program

Steve Hernandez Effingham was born in Queens, New York in 1953. He moved to Los Angeles in 1975, determined to pursue a career as a Jazz journalist. After accidentally discovering the writing of Henry Miller (he thought he was purchasing a book by Arthur) and becoming a fixture at several Venice, CA jazz clubs where he befriended the musicians playing there, Steve decided to take the same creative risks as the musicians he watched perform each night. Thus began his pursuit of creative writing. He soon published poetry in the Free Venice Beachhead, and performed with local Jazz players such as John Carter, Vinny Golia, and Nels Cline. He was editor of Griot, A Journal of Native Consciousness, for more than ten years and has published poetry in a variety of journals. Steve currently resides in Seattle and is working on an historical novel about Jazz musicians in turn of the century New Orleans.

2005 Writers Program

Fredda Jaffe currently works as a family therapist. She volunteers with Powerful Schools as a writing consultant at Beacon Hill Elementary and writes poetry.

2005 Writers Program

Bharti Kirchner has published four critically acclaimed novels: Shiva Dancing, Darjeeling, Sharmila’s Book, and her latest, Pastries: A Novel of Desserts and Discoveries. Her first novel, Shiva Dancing, was chosen by Seattle Weekly to be among the top 18 books by Seattle authors in the last 25 years. Kirchner’s novels have been translated into German, Dutch, Spanish, Thai and other foreign languages. She has won two Seattle Arts Commission literature grants and an Artist Trust GAP grant. An award-winning cook, Kirchner is also the author of four popular cookbooks, including The Bold Vegetarian. Her first, The Healthy Cuisine of India, was named by Food Arts magazine as one of the best cookbooks of 1992. Her second, Indian Inspired, was selected as one of the top ten cookbooks of 1993 by USA Today. Kirchner has also written numerous articles and essays for magazines and anthologies and book reviews for major newspapers. Prior to becoming a writer, Kirchner worked as a systems engineer for IBM and as a systems manager for Bank of America, San Francisco. She has also worked in Europe and other parts of the world as a computer systems consultant. She holds advanced degrees in Mathematics.

2005 Writers Program

1999 Writers Program

Carlos Martinez lives in Edmonds, WA, earned an MFA at Antioch University LA, and teaches literature and creative writing at Western Washington University. He’s been published locally in Cranky, Crab Creek Review, Poets West Literary Journal, Jeopardy and 4th Street, as well as the local anthologies Vox Populi (1999 Seattle Poetry Festival), Pontoon #5 (Floating Bridge Press), and The Sound Close In (2004 Skagit River Poetry Festival). He’s also published nationally in Morpo Review, Yawp, The Pittsburgh Quarterly, Black Bear Review, Poet Lore, and Firefly, as well as in the anthology An Eye for an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11.

In 2000, he was one of two featured poets at Poetrymagazine.com and in 2004 he was a featured reader and participant at the Skagit River Poetry Festival. His chapbook, The Cold Music of the Ocean, was published in August 2004. In 2003, he took second prize in the Americas Review poetry contest.

2005 Writers Program

Maliha Masood is a writer, traveler and activist. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, she has lived in Paris, Rome, Cairo, Damascus and Beirut, while considering Seattle, WA home since 1982. Her forthcoming travelogue, In the Middle of the East: A Muslim-American Woman’s Odyssey from Cairo to Istanbul will be published by Cune Press in 2005. Maliha is also the co-producer of Nazrah, a documentary film exploring the perspectives about American-Muslim women from the Pacific Northwest. She is currently in the process of establishing Diwan: Dialogue on Islam, a Seattle based cultural institute. The organization aims to engage interactions between Muslims and Americans through radio and TV talk shows. Maliha has a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She frequently writes essays and commentaries on Islam, gender and culture. Her languages include French, Arabic and Urdu.

2005 Writers Program

Jeanne Morel lives in Seattle and teaches writing at Bellevue Community College. She has an MA in Adult Education from Antioch Seattle and an MA in Southeast Asian Studies from the University of London. She writes poems and short prose pieces. She is currently working on a poetry manuscript entitled Big Guns Big Elephants that reflects her experience living in Cambodia, and on a series of essays and stories that reflect her experience working with prisoners in this country. Her poetry has been published in Cranky, Chrysanthemum, The Texas Observer, and Washington English Journal.

2005 Writers Program

Nhien Nguyen was born in Vietnam and grew up in Portland, Oregon. She is currently editor-in-chief of the International Examiner, a news journal for the Northwest region’s Asian American communities. Prior to her editorship position, Nhien was a freelance writer for the Examiner and other publications such as A. Magazine and Colors Northwest. As former interim development director at the Wing Luke Asian Museum, Nhien has skills in fundraising and community development. Attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, she participated in the Asian American Renaissance programs, including mentoring high school students in creative writing. In 2003, she led high school students in Jack Straw Foundation’s Vietnamese writers program. Her short film “Hamburgers & Salsa” premiered at the Vietnamese International Film Festival, and she is now producing her first feature film. Nhien is currently a recipient of the City of Seattle CityArtists literary project award and received a 2002 Seattle Arts Commission Literary Award. She has also completed her first novel based on her experiences as a Vietnamese American.

2005 Writers Program

Susan Rich is the author of six poetry collections including, Blue Atlas, Red Hen Press and Gallery of Postcards and Maps: New and Selected Poems, Salmon Poetry. Rich is co-editor of Demystifying the Manuscript: Creating a Book of Poems. She’s published in the New England Review, Poetry Ireland, and The Slowdown. She has received awards from PEN USA, The Times Literary Supplement, and Peace Corps Writers. Her fellowships include an Artist Trust Fellowship from Washington State and a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa. She has worked as a staff person for Amnesty International, an electoral supervisor in Bosnia Herzegovina, and a human rights trainer in Gaza and the West Bank. Rich lived in the Republic of Niger, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, later moving to South Africa to teach at the University of Cape Town on a Fulbright Fellowship. Rich’s international awards include a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Ireland and a residency at Fundación Valparaiso in Spain. Other poetry honors include a 4Culture Award, a Seattle CityArtist Project Award, a GAP Award, and a featured reader in the Cuirt Literary Festival in Galway, Ireland.

2024 Jack Straw Alumni Poetry Series:

“The remarkable poems of Blue Atlas chart an expansive life. Rich describes an imperiled young adulthood that culminates in a coerced midterm abortion. Blue Atlas exquisitely performs the way trauma—the utter loss of self-determination—can turn a life to seawater, to drift, to a space outside of the circumference of longing, where poetry lives.”
–Diane Seuss

Crepe Myrtle

I should have been a crepe myrtle, resistant to pests and disease—
should have been known by my nicknames: Purple Magic, Ebony Flame.

I’d have passed my life as a hip resting spot for cardinals, larks, and bluetits.
Could have been a pine siskin—an elegant flash of wing. Been a star

magnolia, close to extinction in the wild, child world—
sexy as a fragrant fringe cup drinking it up along riverbeds. A salmon-

berry. A lady fern. I should have kept the baby. All the best flowers,
single blooms. All the boy birds, yellow bellied sap suckers.

Could have nested in the cavity of a blue atlas; become a field
note, bilingual, old; fought romantic battles with stinging nettles—

avoided mildew and armored scale. Now I night jasmine,
I honey suckle, I myrtle—requiring little water or microbial soil.

                                                Schmitz Preserve, West Seattle, WA

2011 Writers Program (curator)

2005 Writers Program

Laurel Anne White began writing at the age of four, primarily oral histories for the benefit of Fuzzy Creature, Lambchop, and Tedward Bear. Throughout her youth she composed many plays, poems, speeches, and short stories until she was wooed away to a life in the theatre. Years of fast living in regional repertory theatre as actress, director and producer found Ms. White returning again and again to the comfort of the written word. As Artist in Residence for the Washington State, Seattle and King County Arts Commissions, schools, hospitals, corrections facilities and other diverse organizations, and with Jack Straw, Laurel has written or co-created over 200 scripts. Also a voice and acting coach, she thinks of writing as “giving back by giving voice” to the silenced and unheard. Her latest work is River Bed, a full-length magical-realist play inspired by the women whose voices were stolen by the notorious Green River and Ciudad Juarez murders and a dismissive media. Laurel earned her MFA in the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Washington, and is currently working toward her MEd at Antioch University. She is the delighted recipient of a 2004 Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship in Theatre.

2005 Writers Program