2018 Readings

February 23, 2018 — Rena Priest (poet, performer)

Rena Priest is a writer and performer. She is a Lummi tribal member and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. She is active in efforts to strengthen community through participation in local arts and culture, and has taught subjects in comparative cultural studies, the humanities, and Native-American studies at Northwest Indian College, Fairhaven College, and Western Washington University. Her first collection of poetry, Patriarchy Blues, was published by MoonPath Press in June of 2017.

March 30, 2018 — Sue Swanson (historian)

Sue Cochran Swanson is an educator and a writer who received her BA in history from Mt. Holyoke College. She taught secondary school social studies and served as the official historian of Westchester County, New York. Sue is the author of Between the Lines: Stories of Westchester County, N.Y. During the American Revolution; Westchester County, N.Y., A Pictorial History; Freedom of the Press: From Zenger to Rushdie; and a recently completed memoir, The Time of My Life.

April 27, 2018 — Laura Allen (poet, book artist)

Laura Allen (formerly Laura Walton) is a visual artist, writer, and instructor. Laura’s visual art has been exhibited in numerous regional and national exhibitions, and her poetry has been featured in many journals, including Glitterpony, S/tick, and Pontoon. She recently published a chapbook of poetry and art, The Quiet Year, through Two Ponies Press. She lives with her husband and other assorted mammals in West Seattle, Washington.

May 25, 2018 — Jay Rubin (novelist, translator)

Jay Rubin taught at the University of Washington for eighteen years. He is an emeritus professor of Japanese literature at Harvard and a translator of Haruki Murakami and other modern Japanese writers. Jay is the author of Making Sense of Japanese, Haruki Murakami and the Music of Words, and The Sun Gods, and editor of The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (June, 2018).

June 29, 2018 — Sheely Mauck (memoirist)

Sheely Mauck was born in Bangalore, India and was adopted in 1986 by two loving parents. Sheely lives in Des Moines, Washington and works for a statewide nonprofit that supports youth programs across Washington. In her free time, Sheely enjoys swimming, spending time with family, and writing. She has begun writing her next book, which explores the intersections of race, ability, and gender through a collection of personal experiences, obstacles, and relationships. Her first book, Grabbing a Spoon, is available on Amazon.

July 27, 2018 — Jack Straw Writers:
Daemond Arrindell, Bryan Edenfield, and Natasha Kochicheril Moni (poet, writer, poet)

Daemond Arrindell is a poet, playwright, performer, and teaching artist, and the 2018 program curator for Jack Straw Writers. He is a faculty member of Freehold Theatre and the Washington State Teaching Artist Training Lab, adjunct faculty at Seattle University and Tacoma’s School of the Arts, and writer-in-residence through Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools program and Skagit River Poetry Foundation. Daemond was a 2013 Jack Straw writer, a VONA Voices Writers’ Workshop fellow, and his work has been published by City Arts, Poetry Northwest, Specter, and Crosscut magazines.

Bryan Edenfield was born in Arizona but has lived in Seattle since 2007. As the founder and director of the literary arts organization Babel/Salvage, he hosted and curated the Glossophonic Showcase and the Ogopogo Performance Series. His work has been published in Construction Magazine, Meekling Review, Dryland, Plinth, and Vanilla Sex Magazine, among others. He has a degree in philosophy and history from a mediocre university, so don’t worry.

Natasha Kochicheril Moni, a first-generation American of Dutch and Indian heritage, is a licensed naturopathic doctor in Washington State. Her publication credits include sixty journals such as Magma, Entropy, and The Rumpus. She has one full-length poetry collection, The Cardiologist’s Daughter (Two Sylvias Press, 2014), and two poetry chapbooks, Lay Down Your Fleece (Shirt Pocket Press, 2017) and Nearly (Dancing Girl Press, 2018).

August 31, 2018 — Renee Beauregard Lute (children’s literature)

Renee Beauregard Lute is the author of the “Winicker Wallace” children’s chapter book series (Calico, 2017). She is a member of SCBWI, and a graduate of the MFA program at Hamline University. Renee lives in Renton, Washington with her husband, three young children, and two cats. For more about Renee or Winicker, visit www.reneebeauregardlute.com.

September 28, 2018 — Rose Ramm Gamble (poet)

Rose Ramm Gamble is a corn-fed Nebraska revolutionary. A veteran of the Midwest punk scene and wannabe mystic of Catholic heritage, her dogma descends mostly from Beatles lyrics. Curriculum vitae: taught English, leads a theater costume team, and once served Kenny Loggins a Shakespearian minstrel song and an olallieberry muffin. When Rose stomps out her poetry, it’s a shaman journey through social justice covens, parochial school studios, redneck trailer parks, therapy couches, mosh pits, Satsang meditations, and briars of shiny black berries, ripe for the picking.

October 26, 2018 — Kevin J. O’Conner (poet)

Kevin J. O’Conner, according to his phone’s auto-complete function, “is a poet who is not sure what he does, but doesn’t have any other way to make sure he has a more appropriate experience with his own story.” This is not far from the truth. What Kevin is sure of is that his latest poetry collection is The Lilac Years. You can also read his blog, “Ordinary Average Thoughts,” at https://ordinaryaveragethoughts.com/. Kevin lives near Seattle with his cat, Trixie, who likes to sit on top of the refrigerator.

November 30, 2018 — Kate Walton (storyteller)

Kate Walton is a writer, a Moth Grand Slam storyteller, and the CEO and owner of Steyer Content, a company that partners with enterprise clients to make meaningful connections between people and information. Kate has a BA in English from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Her hobbies include hiking and looking for her keys.

December 7, 2018 — Holiday Party Celebration

It’s time to celebrate another outstanding RASPian year with a party—a night of gaiety, games, and glitter.

December 28, 2018 — Laura Lee Bennett (poetry and fiction)

Laura Lee Bennett received her MFA in creative writing from the University of Oregon in 1982. In the 1990s, she discovered Red Sky Poetry Theatre in Seattle, and was embraced by that community. Today she actively supports written and spoken arts in her Eastside community, including past service as president of the Redmond Association of Spokenword (RASP). Snake Medicine (First Step) is Laura Lee’s first chapbook.