Role: Writer

Brett Campbell is Senior Editor of Oregon ArtsWatch and a frequent contributor to The Oregonian, San Francisco Classical Voice, Oregon Quarterly, and Oregon Humanities. He has been classical music editor at Willamette Week, music columnist for Eugene Weekly, and West Coast performing arts contributing writer for the Wall Street Journal, and has also written for Portland Monthly, West: The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Salon, Musical America and many other publications. He is a former editor of Oregon Quarterly and The Texas Observer, a recipient of arts journalism fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (Columbia University), the Getty/Annenberg Foundation (University of Southern California) and the Eugene O’Neill Center (Connecticut). He is co-author of the biography Lou Harrison: American Musical Maverick (Indiana University Press, 2017) and several plays, and has taught news and feature writing, editing and magazine publishing at the University of Oregon School of Journalism & Communication and Portland State University.

Brian Benson is the author of Going Somewhere, and co-author, with Richard Brown, of This Is Not for You. Originally from the hinterlands of Wisconsin, Brian now lives in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches creative nonfiction at the Attic Institute, facilitates free Write Around Portland workshops, and is a Writer in the Schools. His short nonfiction has been published or is forthcoming in Hunger Mountain, Hippocampus, Oregon Humanities, Off Assignment, and Blood Tree Literature, among other publications. He is at work on his third book, an essay collection focused on questions around masculinity. Learn more at brianbensonwrites.com.

Emma Marris writes about the environment and other topics for National Geographic, Nature, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, among others. Her book on changing relationships between humans and animals, Wild Souls, came out in July 2021. She lives with her husband and two children in Portland, Oregon. Learn more at emmamarris.com.

Joe Wilkins is the author of a novel, Fall Back Down When I Die, praised as “remarkable and unforgettable” in a starred review at Booklist. A finalist for the First Novel Award from the Center for Fiction and the Pacific Northwest Book Award, Fall Back Down When I Die won the High Plains Book Award and has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and German. Wilkins is also the author of a memoir, The Mountain and the Fathers, andfour collections of poetry, including Thieve, a finalist for the Oregon Book Award, and When We Were Birds, winner of the Oregon Book Award. His second novel, The Entire Sky, is slated for publication in 2024 with Little, Brown. Wilkins directs the creative writing program at Linfield University and is a member of the low-residency MFA faculty at Eastern Oregon University. He lives with his family in McMinnville. Learn more at joewilkins.org.

Jennifer (JP) Perrine is the author of four books of poetry: Again, The Body Is No Machine, In the Human Zoo, and No Confession, No Mass. Their latest poems and essays appear in Cincinnati Review, Pleiades, Nimrod, New Letters, Poetry Northwest, Orion Magazine, Southern Indiana Review, Plant-Human Quarterly, Harpur Palate, Oregon Humanities, and Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, and Poetry. Perrine’s recent work has been recognized through the Arts and Culture Diversity and Inclusion Award from the Asian American Journalists Association, an Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling Fellowship, a Make | Learn | Build grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, and residencies at Caldera Arts Center and the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Perrine lives in Portland, Oregon, where they cohost the Incite: Queer Writers Read series, teach writing to youth and adults, and guide nature-based mindfulness experiences. Learn more at jenniferperrine.org.

Putsata Reang is an author and journalist whose debut memoir, “Ma and Me” (MCD/FSG May 2022) was a recipient of the 2023 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association award for nonfiction and finalist for a 2023 Lambda Literary Award. Her writing has appeared in national and international publications including the New York Times, Ms magazine, the San Jose Mercury News, Politico, and the Guardian. She has lived and worked in more than a dozen countries including Cambodia, Afghanistan and Thailand. Putsata is an alum of Hedgebrook, Mineral School and Kimmel Harding Nelson residencies, and was a fellow of the Jack Straw writers program. In 2005, she was awarded an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship that took her back to her homeland, Cambodia, to report on landless farmers. She currently teaches memoir writing at the University of Washington School of Professional & Continuing Education and with Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program.

Anne Liu Kellor is a mixed-race Chinese American writer, editor, creativity coach, and teacher based in Seattle. Her memoir, Heart Radical: A Search for Language, Love, and Belonging, was a 2021 IPPY Bronze Winner, a Foreword Indie Finalist, and a Washington State Book Award Finalist. Anne’s essays have appeared in publications such as YES! Magazine, Longreads, Fourth Genre, Witness, The Normal School, New England Review, and many more. She has received fellowships from Hedgebrook, The Whiteley Institute, The Seventh Wave, Jack Straw, 4Culture, and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. Anne facilitates creative nonfiction writing workshops, including a seasonal online generative series for womxn, an annual workshop for multiracial people, and a yearlong manuscript program for women and nonbinary writers. Learn more at anneliukellor.com.

Daniela Naomi Molnar is an artist, poet, and writer collaborating with the mediums of language, image, paint, pigment, and place. She is also a wilderness guide, educator, and eternal student. Her book CHORUS was selected by Kazim Ali as the winner of Omnidawn Press’ 1st /2nd Book Award. Her work is the subject of a front-page feature in the Los Angeles Times, an Oregon Art Beat profile, an entry in the Oregon Encyclopedia, and a feature in Poetry Daily. Her next book, Light / Remains, is a blend of poetry, essay, and visual art and will be out in 2025 from Bored Wolves Press. Her visual work has been shown nationally, is in public and private collections internationally, and has been recognized by numerous grants, fellowships, and residencies. She founded the Art + Ecology program at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and helped found the backcountry artist residency Signal Fire. A cornerstone of her practice is to be resolutely non-competitive, non-expert, and committed to always changing. She can be found in Portland, Oregon, USA and exploring global public wildlands. Learn more at danielamolnar.com.

Kristen Millares Young is a journalist, essayist, and 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. Winner of Nautilus and IPPY awards, Subduction was shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and named a finalist for two International Latino Book Awards and Foreword Indies Book of the Year in 2020. Her essays, book reviews, and investigations appear in the Washington Post, the Guardian, Literary Hub, and the anthologies Advanced Creative Nonfiction, Latina Outsiders, and Alone Together, winner of a 2021 Washington State Book Award. A former Prose Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House, she is the editor of Seismic: Seattle, City of Literature, a finalist for a 2021 Washington State Book Award. Kristen was the researcher for the New York Times team that produced “Snow Fall,” which won a Pulitzer Prize. She is the 2023 Distinguished Visiting Writer for Seattle University and the University of Washington Bothell Master of Fine Arts program. Learn more at kristenmyoung.com.

Kate Gray’s passion stems from writing, teaching, and volunteering. For Every Girl: New & Selected Poems was published by Widow & Orphan House in 2019. Her first full-length book of poems, Another Sunset We Survive (Cedar House Books, 2007) was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and followed chapbooks, Bone-Knowing (2006), winner of the Gertrude Press Poetry Prize and Where She Goes (2000), winner of the Blue Light Chapbook Prize. Kate’s first novel, Carry the Sky, (Forest Avenue, 2014) stares at bullying without blinking. Her poetry and essays have been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. In her novel-in-progress, she narrates, in Sylvia Plath’s voice, what led to The Bell Jar and her suicide attempt in 1953. Over the years she’s been awarded residencies at Hedgebrook, Norcroft, Soapstone, and Storyknife, and a fellowship from the Oregon Literary Arts. After 25 years teaching English at a community college, she retired to coach writers. Kate and her partner live in a pine-and-oak forest in the mid-Columbia River Gorge with two impetuous dogs.