Writers-in-Residence 2007-2008

Turiya Autry is a writer, performer, teacher and parent of two teen-agers. Her goal as an artist is to increase awareness, resistantce, and affirmation through written and spoken word. She holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Portland State University, where she teaches courses in Black Studies and Women’s Studies. In 2007, she received PSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences “John Eliot Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award.” Good Sista/Bad Sista, her duo with partner-in-rhyme Walidah Imarisha, appears in the recently released Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution. Turiya’s writing has also appeared in Oregon Literary Review, The Oregonian, Nervy Girl, and The Quotable Rebel. Her performances were featured on Oregon Art Beat, the documentary “Little City/Big Hip Hop,” AWOL Magazine and Sucka Punch’s “Psychopath Society” CD. She’s shared stages with a wide range of folks including Saul Williams, Lifesavas, Hillary Clinton and several Def Poets. Providing workshops and performances to youth through various organizations keeps her inspired and young at heart.

Lorraine Bahr is an award-winning actress and playwright, critically acclaimed director and experienced theater educator. She earned her MFA in acting and playwriting from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1998, she co-founded Sowelu Ensemble Theater, where she serves as the Associate Artistic Director, Outreach Director and an Acting Company member. Her produced plays include “A life Alone,” “Bottomless,” “Count Time Count Time,” “The Great Escape of Charlie Stone,” “Lost Dog,” “Carefree Highway,” and numerous short plays for The Haven Project, a theater arts program for inner-city kids. She has taught acting and playwriting through Portland State University, Washington and Oregon high schools, Young Musicians & Artists, Well Arts Institute and Oregon correctional facilities.

Carmen Bernier-Grand is a native of Puerto Rico who has lived in Portland for the past 28 years. She is a freelance writer and teaches for Community of Writers. Her books for children and young adults include Shake It, Morena, In the Shade of the Níspero Tree, Who Helped Ox?, Poet and Politician of Puerto Rico: Don Luis Muñoz Marín, Juan Bobo: Four Folktales from Puerto Rico and César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! Yes, We can!, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards and won the Pura Belpré Honor Award. Her most recent book is Frida: ¡Viva la Vida! Long Live Life! Bernier-Grand’s work has also appeared in Highlights for Children, Young American, Revista Cayey, The Oregonian, Faces and in the collections Period Pieces and Once Upon a Cuento. She holds a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Puerto Rico.

Carson Cistulli earned his MFA in poetry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he created and led two experimental writing workshops, one on sports writing and the other entitled Let’s Misbehave. Let’s Misbehave focused on the style of literature’s greatest smart-alecks. Most recently, he taught poetry as a writer-in-residence for Four Rivers Charter School. A finalist for both the Fence Modern Poets Series Book Contest and the Jack Spicer First Book Award, his full-length book of poems, Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated, was published in 2007. He’s the former host of “Goal: The Soccer Show” on Valley Free Radio in Florence, MA, and will begin hosting “The Shuttlecock Sporting Hour” on KPSU this fall.

Raphael Dagold is a poet, woodworker and photographer. His poems have appeared in Quarterly West, Indiana Review, two girls review, Frank, Shirim, The Oregonian, Born online mixed-media magazine and Bridges. His prose has appeared in the anthology Northwest Edge III: The End of Reality. Two fables from Versions of Aesop, a book in progress, appeared in Quarterly West, and two others appeared in Washington Square. Carbon, Dagold’s book-length poetry manuscript has twice been a finalist for the Anhinga Press Poetry Prize. He has received fellowships from Literary Arts, the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming and the Vermont Studio Center. Dagold was Visiting Assistant Professor at Lewis & Clark College during 2003-2004 and has taught writing and literature at Mt. Hood Community College, Beth Israel Synagogue, Portland State University, University of Oregon and Portland Art Museum.

Erin Ergenbright earned her master’s degree in English/fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she received a James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship. She is the co-author of The Ex-Boyfriend Cookbook with Thisbe Nissen and her writing has appeared in The Believer, Tin House, Colorado Review, The May Queen: Women on Life, Love, Work and Pulling It All Together in Your Thirties, Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, Portland Monthly, The Portland Tribune, The Portland Mercury, Nervy Girl, Indiana Review, Bellingham Review, Clackamas Literary Review and Oklahoma Review. Ergenbright has taught writing and composition at Clark College, Marylhurst University, University of Iowa and many middle and high schools in Portland through Writers in the Schools and Community of Writers. Ergenbright is co-founder of the Loggernaut Reading Series.

Ariel Gore is the author of How to Become a Famous Writer Before You’re Dead, The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show: a Novel, Atlas of the Human Heart: A Memoir and three parenting books. She received her master’s in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley, teaches at The Attic Writers’ Studio in Portland and edits and publishes the award-winning zine Hip Mama. Gore has written for Ms., Parenting Magazine, Pregnancy Today, Utne, Salon, The San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner, Willamette Week, The Portland Mercury, The Seattle Stranger and numerous other newspapers and magazines. She also edited the anthologies Breeder: Real-Life Stories from the New Generation of Mothers, The Essential Hip Mama and How to Leave a Place. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Mothers Who Think, Wild Child and Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation.

Liz Heichelbech is an educator, writer and performing artist. She has taught middle school English and creative writing. She earned her BFA in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Arizona and has completed graduate work in Creative Writing at Emerson College and in Education at University of Massachusetts, Boston. Heichelbech holds professional credits in ballet and modern dance, theatre and creative writing. In addition to producing original monologues and a one-act play, “Little Words,” her short fiction and poetry appeared in the publications Literal Latte, GSU Review, Coffee Times, Genesis and Ploplop. “In Tarsal Percussion,” her chapbook of original poems, was published in 1995.

Hunt Holman is a playwright, actor and director. He earned his MFA at Columbia University School of the Arts. His plays have been produced at New York’s Second Stage Theatre, Broken Watch Theatre Company, Hypothetical Theatre Company and elsewhere. He has acted in feature films and on stage at Seattle Repertory Theatre. His productions include “The Dawn Patrol,” “The Kidney,” “Gun Club” and “The First Time I Slept With Rosemary.” His play “Spanish Girl” appeared in New Playwrights: Best New Plays of 2003.

Chelsey Johnson received her master’s degree in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and a Stegner Fellowship in fiction from Stanford University. She teaches writing at Portland Community College, and has taught with Iowa Arts Share, Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls and the Navajo Cooperative Teaching Project. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Rolling Stone, Out, Heeb and Chickfactor and has been read on National Public Radio’s Selected Shorts program.

Joe Kurmaskie is a journalist, bike adventurer and the author of Metal Cowboy and Riding Outside the Lines. He is a regular columnist for Bicycling, where his “Ask the Metal Cowboy” column appears. Kurmaskie has written for Backpacker, Details, Outside, Portland Monthly and other publications. He frequently reviews books for The Oregonian. He has taught writing in the schools through Community of Writers, and he founded Camp Creative, a summer arts program for children and young adults in New Mexico. Kurmaskie has performed his one-man show, “Metal Cowboy Mayhem and Misadventure,” on over 200 stages across the country. His most recent books are Momentum Is Your Friend, Adventure Dad: Rescuing Families From the Couch One Expedition at a Time and Mud, Sweat and Gears: Cross Canada Family Saga on Six Wheels, which will be released in May of 2008.

Jessica Lamb is a poet and essayist. Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as Poetry, Willow Springs, Carolina Quarterly, Fireweed, Green Mountains Review, Hubbub, Open Spaces and The Southern Review. She received her master’s degree in Italian literature from Stanford. Lamb is a poetry instructor for Portland’s Community of Writers. Her first collection of poems, Night Feeding, has been a finalist for several first book prizes.

Jesse Lichtenstein holds a master’s degree in creative writing from Warren Wilson College and a bachelor’s degree in History of Science from Harvard. His prose and poetry appear in numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Gulf Coast, and Verse. He is co-director of the Loggernaut Reading Series.

Amy Minato is a poet and educator. Along with writing reviews of young adult literature for Publishers Weekly, she teaches writing classes for Washington State University and Saturday Academy and workshops for Breitenbush, Opal Creek, Sitka Center and Beargrass. She received her master’s of science degree in environmental studies and a master’s of fine arts in creative writing from the University of Oregon. Minato received a Walden Fellowship and an Oregon Literary Fellowship for poetry from Literary Arts. Her work has appeared in From Here We Speak: An Anthology of Oregon Poetry, Madison Review, Cottonwood Magazine, Cimarron Review, Wild Earth, Fireweed Magazine, Wilderness Magazine, Freshwater and Seneca Review, among others. Ice River Press published her poetry collection, The Wider Lens, in 2004.

Anis Mojgani received his master’s degree in media and performing arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design. An independent visual and performing artist, he is the 2005 and 2006 National Poetry Slam individual champion. Mojgani has appeared on National Public Radio and HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. His work has also appeared in “Rattle” and in the recent anthology The Spoken Word Revolution Redux. His books include The Birthday Yard, The Ballad of Nicor Misgoni and Where Are You Moon? He is currently working on an illustrated book of poetry to be published by House of Parlance.

Laura Moulton is co-founder of Project Hamad, which tells the story of a Sudanese man detained at Guantanamo Bay. While working toward her master’s degree from Eastern Washington University, Laura directed Spokane’s Writers in the Community program, setting up writing workshops in high schools, a prison and a drop-in homeless shelter for teens. She is an adjunct professor at Mt. Hood Community College and teaches workshops at the women’s prison in Wilsonville. Moulton’s stories and essays have been featured in Hip Mama, Nervy Girl, Portland Tribune, Brain Child and Fertile Ground.

Emma Oliver writes fiction in Spanish and English. She received a Bilingual Business Administration degree from La Universidad Femenina de Guadalajara, where she later taught English. Her short stories have been published in El Cuento, Revista de Imaginación, El Informador and El Andar. Currently, she is seeking a publisher for her first novel, A House in Los Potreros.

Mark Pomeroy received a master’s degree in English Education from Columbia University. He has taught in elementary and middle schools in Portland and New York and led workshops with Community of Writers. He has received an Oregon Literary Fellowship for fiction from Literary Arts and a residency at Caldera. His work has appeared in Open Spaces, The Oregonian, Portland Magazine and the Waco Tribune Herald. He has completed two novels, The Brightwood Stillness and Kingdom of Salzburg.

Donna Prinzmetal is a writing instructor, poet and psychotherapist. For twenty years she has taught writing to children and adults in various settings, including Community of Writers, Young Audiences, Portland Public Schools TAG classes and Saturday Academy, UCLA Extension and the Portland State University School of Extended Studies. Prinzmetal’s poems have appeared most recently in The Journal, The Pinch, 88, Cincinnati Review and New Ohio Review. One of her poems is anthologized in the national anthology Chance of a Ghost. Her book of poems, Snow White: When No One Was Looking, was a finalist in the Tupelo Books Prize the Four Way Books Intro and Levis Prizes. A former first-prize winner in California Quarterly’s poetry competition, she has won two Oregon State Poetry Awards.

Mary Rechner’s stories have appeared in Washington Square, The Kenyon Review, The Oregon Literary Review and Literary Mama. Her story “Hot Springs” was first published by Cloverfield Press and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Oregonian, Oregon Humanities, Columbia Gorge Magazine, Yoga Northwest and Willamette Week. She’s been awarded residencies at Caldera and the Vermont Studio Center and is a recipient of an Oregon Literary Fellowship. A former teacher of language arts, she also teaches for Community of Writers and is an adjunct instructor for Portland State University, University of Portland and Portland Community College. She completed her MFA in creative writing at Antioch University, Los Angeles.

Carlos Reyes is a poet and the editor and publisher of Trask House Books. His books of poetry include The Shingle Weaver’s Journal, Nightmarks, At The Edge of the Western Wave and A Suitcase Full of Crows, which was a Bluestem Winner and Oregon Book Award finalist. He has also published nine chapbooks, including The Windows, The Prisoner, The Orange Letters, At Doolin Quay and Open Doors, a translation of Ecuadorean poet Edwin Madrid’s “Puertas Abiertas.” He also translated Obra Poética Completa/Complete Poetic Works of Jorge Carrera Andrade. His poems and translations have appeared in Antioch Review, Chelsea, Poet Lore, Willow Springs, Black Warrior Review and Mississippi Mud, as well as on TriMet buses and Max trains through Literary Arts’ Poetry in Motion® program program. Reyes is the recipient of an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship for poetry. He is currently seeking a publisher for a new poetry manuscript, The Stones We Bring With Us.

Kirsten Rian’s poetry has appeared in Rhino, Upstreet and other literary journals. She was a top-25 winner in Glimmer Train’s final Poetry Open, and awarded a Soapstone artist residency. San Francisco Center for the Book recently printed a limited edition letterpress broadside of her work. She leads workshops using poetry as a tool for literacy, healing and storytelling within the refugee, immigrant and homeless communities in places as far flung as Finland and Sierra Leone. She also teaches poetry workshops through Multnomah County Library, most recently working with the Vietnamese community.

Joanna Rose is a poet, short-story writer and novelist. Her first novel, Little Miss Strange, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fiction Prize and was a finalist for an Oregon Book Award. She is a regular reviewer for The Oregonian.

Natalie Serber is a fiction writer and teacher. She leads fiction, poetry and fairytale workshops at Portland Sun School and for Write Around Portland. She holds a master’s degree from Warren Wilson College. Her work has appeared in Inkwell Magazine, The Bellingham Review, Fourth Genre and Gulf Coast. Her work has been short-listed for Best American Short Stories. Serber is at work on a novel with the working title, Boring, Oregon.

B.T. Shaw has worked with words for more than 20 years. Her poems and essays have been published by Field, Tin House, Orion and Poetry Northwest, and online at sites such as Born, Jacket and Caffeine Destiny. This Dirty Little Heart won the 2007 Blue Lynx Prize for poetry and will be published in the spring of 2008. Although her legs shake uncontrollably in front of audiences, she’s participated in numerous readings, including the Seattle Poetry Festival. She edits the Poetry column for The Oregonian, where her book reviews also appear. In 1999, she earned an MFA from the University of Washington. Since then, she has taught poetry and creative nonfiction.

JoNelle Toriseva is a poet, short-story writer, playwright and novelist. She received a master’s degree in creative writing from Mills College. She is the author of two books, Rodeo Day and Becoming Ballet. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Descant, Soundings East, The Fiddlehead, PRISM International, Fulcrum and 14 Hills. She has taught at Mills College, Universidad de Valle in Guatemala City, California Poets in the Schools and the San Francisco Arts Commission’s WriterCorps. She received a Breadloaf Writers’ Conference Scholarship.

Matt Zrebski is a playwright, director and composer with a bachelor’s of fine arts in theater from Southern Methodist University. Zrebski spent five years as the artistic director of Stark Raving Theatre, where he directed, wrote and scored numerous productions, and oversaw 31 plays as they went from page to premiere. As a playwright, his production credits include “The Vespiary,” “Ablaze,” “Darkstep and Dawning,” “After the Zipper,” “Parts,” “A Place Called Timothy,” “Neck” and “the planet ME.” Zrebski won a Drammy Award for music composition for “Prometheus Bound” and a Best of Dallas Award for Most Innovative Theatre. He is an active member of Playgroup at Portland Center Stage, where he has developed three new plays. Zrebski has taught acting, voice and playwriting at Studio Z, Clark Community College, Portland Actors Conservatory, Willamette University and through Portland Center Stage’s Visions and Voices program. In 2006, he became the playwriting instructor for The Green House School of Theatre at Portland Center Stage.

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