2021 Jack Straw Writers Program

S. Erin Batiste is an interdisciplinary poet and author of Glory to All Fleeting Things. In 2021 this year, she is the recipient of PERIPLUS, Jack Straw Writers, and the dots between fellowships, and is a Writer in Residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA, Prairie Ronde, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. Batiste is a reader for The Rumpus and her own Pushcart nominated poems are anthologized and appear internationally in Michigan Quarterly Review, Puerto del Sol, and wildness among other decorated journals.

2021 Writers Program

C. R. Glasgow is a non-binary, queer, first-generation Afro-Caribbean. Doc serves as writer, psychologist, spiritual creative, and public speaker. Doc has been writing since 7 years old, beginning with poetry. Doc won the NYC Borough President’s Award at the age of 10. Doc’s creative offerings compel the audience to feel the inseparability of composer and audience through time-bending arresting imagery, daring questioning, bold answers, and abstract glimpses of the mundane. Previous publications in Butch is Not a Dirty Word, Issue 6, “These Roots,” The Arrow Journal “Con*cept*ion” (Blogs & Essays -October 27, 2020) and upcoming pieces in anthologies Refuge in the Storm: Voices in Buddhist Crisis Care and Afrikan Wisdom: New Voices Speak Black Liberation, Buddhism and Beyond.

2021 Writers Program

Patrycja Humienik, daughter of Polish immigrants, is a writer and performer based in Seattle, WA. Her poetry is featured/forthcoming in Passages North, BOAAT Journal, Poetry Northwest, Redivider, Four Way Review, Sporklet, Guesthouse, and elsewhere. Patrycja works in the University of Washington’s Office of Equity & Justice in Graduate Programs, and serves as Events Director for The Seventh Wave and an Assistant Poetry Editor for Newfound.

2021 Writers Program

Born stateless in Seoul and raised on four continents, Grace Jahng Lee is working on a novel and an essay collection. Fragmented identities, memory, intergenerational trauma, and home are central themes in her writing. Her writing has been supported by VONA, Kundiman, Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Jentel, Hedgebrook, Caldera, AIR Budapest, Hambidge, the Paden Institute, the Jerome Foundation, the Brooklyn Arts Council, NYFA, Women Who Submit, and others. She is the managing editor at Guernica and the creative nonfiction and health editor at Hyphen.

2021 Writers Program

José Luis Montero is passionate about storytelling regardless of the medium. After dabbling in radio, photography and filmmaking, he recently turned his artistic attention towards the written word, both in English and Spanish. Born and raised in Mexico, but having lived most of his adult life in Seattle pursuing a career in software engineering, he is the embodiment of contradiction: someone who is proud of nurturing both hemispheres of his brain, but tormented by the dilemma of balancing his passion for technology with his innate call to contemplate and create beauty. He earned a certificate in Literary Fiction from University of Washington and a Master in Narrative from Escuela de Escritores in Madrid. Upon his return from Spain, he worked as a production intern for Copper Canyon Press and for a couple of years served as president of Seattle Escribe, a nonprofit promoting Spanish literature in Washington state. Currently, he serves on the board of Seattle City of Literature and is an assistant editor of poetry for Narrative Magazine.

2021 Writers Program

Originally from the northeast, Greg November has called the northwest his home since 2010. He earned his MFA at UC, Irvine and teaches writing at North Seattle College and Highline College. His stories have appeared most recently in Boulevard, Carve, Epiphany, and Juked. He reads submissions for New England Review and was a finalist for the 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Fiction.

2021 Writers Program

Tochukwu Okafor is a Nigerian writer whose work has appeared in the 2018 Best of the Net, the 2019 Best Small Fictions, The Guardian, Harvard’s Transition Magazine, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. He is a 2021 Frank Conley Memorial Scholar, a 2021 Albertina Tholakele Dube Scholar for Young Writers, a 2021 Longleaf Writers Conference BIPOC Scholar, and an alumnus of the 2021 Tin House Workshop. He is also a 2018 Rhodes Scholar finalist, a 2018 Kathy Fish Fellow, and winner of the 2017 Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction. He has been shortlisted for the 2017 Awele Creative Trust Award, the 2016 Problem House Press Short Story Prize, the 2016 Southern Pacific Review Short Story Prize, and has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He was a member of the 2016 Short Story Day Africa Writing Workshop and the 2015 Association of Nigerian Authors Creative Writing Workshop. He holds a master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University and has received scholarships and fellowship grants from the Worcester Arts Council, Kundiman, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, Etisalat (now 9mobile), the MTN Foundation, Grub Street, Fishtrap, Mendocino Coast Writers’ Conference, and Exxon Mobil. He lives in Worcester, USA, and is at work on a novel and a story collection. He is on Twitter @toch_okafor and Instagram @tochukwu_okafor.

2021 Writers Program

Michael Overa was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. An erstwhile bartender, Michael completed his MFA at Hollins University in Virginia before returning to Seattle. After working as a writer-in-resident with Seattle’s Writers In the Schools (WITS) program for five years, Michael transitioned to teaching composition at Shoreline Community College and Edmonds College. As a short story writer, Michael has published over thirty short stories and two collections of short stories, This Endless Road and The Filled In Spaces (Unsolicited Press). He is currently at work on his first novel No Way Home. His stories have been published in The Portland Review, The Heartland Review, Crosscurrents, and East Bay Review, among others.

2021 Writers Program

Paulette Perhach is an award-winning writer and writing coach. Her work has been in The New York Times, Slate, Hobart, The Journal, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Vice. She’s best known for writing the globally viral essay A Story of a Fuck Off Fund and for her book, Welcome to the Writer’s Life, which Poets & Writers selected for its list of Best Books for Writers. She continues the conversation at WelcomeToTheWritersLife.com. You can write with her every morning through her meditation and freewriting group, called A Very Important Meeting, by signing up at AVeryImportantMeeting.com.

2021 Writers Program

Abi Pollokoff is a Seattle-based writer and book artist with work in Denver Quarterly, Foundry, Poetry Northwest, and Black Warrior Review, among others. She has held fellowships or residencies with the Hugo House, the Seattle Review of Books, and more. Abi is the events manager for Open Books: A Poem Emporium, the managing editor for Poetry Northwest Editions, and a content director in visual communications. She received her MFA from the University of Washington.

2021 Writers Program

Kristie Song is a Chinese American writer, journalist, and illustrator from Southern California. She is a graduate student at UC Berkeley and is usually thinking about lost memories, childhood scraps, and her multilingual upbringing for her stories.

2021 Writers Program

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is the author of What Never Leaves and a contributor to the literary anthology, While We’re Here. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Literary Hub, The Huffington Post, Kitchen Work, The Shanghai Literary Review, and elsewhere. He has received honors and scholarships from the U.S. Fulbright Program, the New York State Summer Writers Institute, Kundiman, and the Yiddish Book Center. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. A Fulbright Research Scholar based in Taiwan, Daniel is currently writing a novel about identity, migration, and belonging, set against the backdrop of contemporary U.S.-China relations.

2021 Writers Program