Murmurations!

Murmurations is SAL's four-part reading series with the acclaimed poets, writers, and comics artists who teach in SAL’s Writers in the Schools (WITS) program or who serve as mentors in the Youth Poetry Fellowship (YPF). 

Join these writers at Common Area Maintenance on Tuesday, May 21, for a program featuring Amy Hirayama, Nanya Jhingran, Nhatt Nichols, Ricardo Ruiz, Ann Teplick, Acca, and Ankober Yewondwossen. These resident writers come together to read from their own works-in-progress, inspiring the same craft and performance skills they teach in classes and workshops. Celebratory karaoke to follow!

This is a free event and is open to the public!

Amy Hirayama is a Hapa writer and educator from Seattle, Washington. She works as the residential workshop administrator for Clarion West, a speculative fiction writer’s workshop. She is also one of the founders of Beam Pedagogy, which provides workshops and retreats focused on educator wellness and changing systems that lead to burnout. Food, family, humor and nature are her favorite things, so she writes about them a lot, sometimes all at once.

nanya jhingran is a poet, scholar & teacher from Lucknow, India currently living by the coastal margin of the Salish Sea, on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish People (upon which the city of Seattle was built). She serves as an Associate Editor at Poetry Northwest where she edits the book reviews section, reads poetry submissions, and pitches in with other editorial tasks. She also organizes the “Critics at Large” program, a paid yearlong cultural criticism residency for emerging poet-critics which announces its inaugural cohort in Summer 2022.

Nhatt Nichols is a multidisciplinary artist and writer raised on top of a mountain in the Okanogan, Washington State. A graduate of The Royal Drawing School in London, she uses drawing, poetry, and comics to break down political and environmental issues, finding new ways to meet people where they are, and ask them to reach deeper into their ability to care and take action.

Ricardo Ruiz holds a Associates Degree in Business and Accounting from Big Bend Community College where he was recognized as Student of the year in both Business and Economics and English Composition. He also holds a Bachelors of Art in English: Creative Writing from the University of Washington and is an Army Veteran. While in the military Ricardo was recognized as Distinguished Honor Graduate and Distinguished Leader during his Advanced Leadership Course. His debut collection of poetry was selected as a finalist for the Washington State Book Award in Poetry 2023 & reached #1 on the Hispanic American Poetry chart Amazon.

​​Ann Teplick is a poet, playwright, and prose writer, as well as a teaching artist who, for eighteen years, has worked with youth in schools, hospitals, psychiatric units, juvenile detention centers, and literary nonprofits. In 2010/11 she received funding from Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture, for a collection of poetry, The Beauty of a Beet, Poems from the Bedside. In 2011 she was a Jack Straw and Hedgebrook Fellow. In 2011/12, she was a member of the Washington State Arts Commission’s Teaching Artist Training Lab.

Acca

Ankober Yewondwossen is a writer & literary arts-focused community support specialist committed to inspiring authentic experiences, connections, and beings. My soul curriculum has led me down many winding roads, until a seeming path emerged; a calling turned practice. My vocational ethos is informed by instruction from St. Augustine, M. Scott Peck, Marsha Sinetar, Kathleen Norris, Parker Palmer, Paulo Freire, Natalie Goldberg, & perhaps most importantly, Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew. I’ve learned many things, but most summarily: that the practice of ritual—honoring the sacredness of ordinary existence—is an ancient, human necessity. Having studied and produced spiritual nonfiction for over a decade, my work is driven by a deep conviction that—whether personal or collective—organizational ethics centered on healing, fearless introspection & conscious community are incalculable gifts to this earth. It is my belief that ritual—a natural container for life giving activities—practiced individually or communally, is intrinsically entwined into the cultivation of a good life. You can find my offerings of poetry @ ankober.wordpress.com & essays on medium.com