Kim Cooper Findling is a sixth generation Oregonian and award-winning writer and editor of stories about her beloved home state. She is the author of Bend, Oregon Daycations: Day Trips for Curious Families, Day Trips From Portland: Getaway Ideas for the Local Traveler and Chance of Sun: An Oregon Memoir. For the last two decades, she has worked as a magazine editor, travel writer, memoirist, journalist, teacher and author from Bend, Oregon. See kimcooperfindling.com.

Krayna Castelbaum – Poetry Instigator at Large Krayna guides monthly Poetry Playshops and other poetry, writing and creativity events on a regular basis, publishes of Poem of the Month, and curates poetry for her semi-annual Poetic Journeys and other occasions in the Central Oregon community

Krayna also facilitates “uncommon conversations,” a process of inquiry and deep listening for both what is said and what is not said, with individuals, couples and groups. Dropping beneath social constructs and expectations into the vast, rich inner landscape has been her life-long passion. This style of engagement has served as formative ground for Krayna’s own poetry, writing and visual art-making.

Cultivating environments that free people to invest energy in the adventurous spirit of play and creative expression is pure joy for Krayna. Her humorous, warm, spontaneous style encourages surprise, exploration and meaningful connection. Learn more: www.clearlenscoaching.com

Emily Carr says she “writes murder mysteries that turn into love poems that are sometimes (by her McSweeney’s editors, for example) called divorce poems.” She has lived all over the world and is the author of several collections and chapbooks of poems. After she got an MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, she took a doctorate in ecopoetics at the University of Calgary. These days, she’s the program director of the low-residency MFA in creative writing at Oregon State University-Cascades. Her newest book, Whosoever Has Let a Minotaur Enter Them, Or a Sonnet—, is available from McSweeney's. It inspired a beer of the same name, now available at the Ale Apothecary. You can find her online at www.ifshedrawsadoor.com/ and as ifshedrawsadoor on Instagram.

Judith Montgomery lives in Bend, Oregon, where she writes and tries to keep dee r from eating her geraniums. She loves to teach and talk about poetry. Her poems appear in Valparaiso Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, the American Journal of Nursing, and Healing Muse, among other journals, as well as in a number of anthologies. Her first collection, Passion, received the 2000 Oregon Book Award for Poetry; Red Jess, a finalist for several national book awards, appeared in 2006; and a chapbook, Pulse & Constellation in 2007.

Her new manuscript, Litany for Bloom and Wound, has been assisted through residencies at Playa, and was a finalist for the 2016 Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize and was recently accepted for publication by Uttered Chaos Press in Eugene.

Better known as MOsley WOtta, Jason Graham is a consummate creative who has been featured internationally as a speaker, performer, poet, visual artist and educator for over a decade. A former slam poetry champion for the state of Oregon, Jason’s work focuses on the power of voice. He has been featured multiple times as a TED X speaker and performer. His CV includes Sundance Film Festival, Fiji International Jazz & Blues Festival, MAGIC trade show Las Vegas, Street Con Dubai, Valley Fiesta Australia, PBS Oregon Art Beat. .

Recently MOWO was selected as and Oregon Humanities Conversation Project leader. Additionally MOWO is an Art Ambassador with the RISE UP INTL and the US Embassy.

People need stories. They want their emotions jangled and their minds bent, their existence questioned, their reality suspended, their world taken apart and put back together again. They need us to write.

Mike is a graduate of the OSU MFA Writing Program. He writes short and long fiction, and co-facilitates Blank Pages Writing Workshops in Bend with his beautiful and gifted wife.

Irene Cooper’s poems have appeared in the Oregon Poetry Association anthology, Verseweavers, in Indolent Books’ anthology, Poems in the Aftermath, on the online project, What Rough Beast, and in The Feminist Wire. She co-edits The Stay Project, contributes to the blog, The (Eternal) Beginner's Guide to Bend, is a freelance copywriter, essayist, and a novelist in search of publisher.

Ms. Cooper earned an MFA in Poetry from OSU-Cascades, and co-facilitates Blank Pages Workshops in Bend, OR, with her handsome and talented husband.

Sarah Sennott Cyr teaches writing practice, the cultivation of a regular writing habit in response to prompts. Once your writing routine is established, it can be directed towards any writing project: a blog, personal essay, memoir, even oral storytelling. Sarah's work has appeared in Newsweek Magazine, ARTNews, The Boston Globe, and Cosmopolitan. Her teaching style is heavily influenced by Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down the Bones), who she has studied with in Santa Fe.

Carol Barrett is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator who has published two volumes of poetry, including the prize-winning collection Calling in the Bones (Ashland Poetry Press.) Carol has earned two master's degrees and two Ph.D.s - the first in Clinical Psychology and the second in Creative Writing. Her current research interest is the healing potential of poetry. She also writes creative nonfiction; Pansies was released in 2018, the first book in English about the Apostolic Lutheran community, a group of primarily Finnish descent, who forbid the practice of birth control.

Linden Gross, formerly special features editor for the Los Angeles Times Magazine and associate editor for the Ladies’ Home Journal, has ghostwritten two New York Times bestsellers in addition to co-writing or writing a handful of other books and authoring To Have Or To Harm (Warner Books, 1994), the first book ever written about the stalking of ordinary people.

Drawing on her editing and writing background, as well as her love and experience with teaching, Linden also works as a writing coach to help other authors write their books. She helps them organize their time, their thoughts and their material, and teaches them how to improve their writing. Finally, she edits chapter by chapter. No wonder she calls her company the One Stop Writing Shop.

Linden recently launched Incubation Press to help authors self-publish their books. Authors can hire Linden and her team for just one of their self-publishing steps or all seven. Either way, the goal is the same: simplifying the often-confusing self-publishing process and empowering their authors along the way.

Beth Alvarado is the author of four books: Anxious Attachments, a collection of essays;Anthropologies: A Family Memoir (University of Iowa Press); and Not a Matter of Love and other stories(Winner of the Many Voices Project Prize, New Rivers Press). Jillian in the Borderlands: A Cycle of Rather Dark Tales is forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in September 2020. Beth lived with her late husband and her two children in the Sonoran Borderlands for much of her life. She now lives in Bend, Oregon, where she teaches prose at the OSU-Cascades Low Residency MFA Program.

Deborah Reed is the author of four novels: The Days When Birds Come Back, Olivay, Things We Set on Fire, and Carry Yourself Back to Me. She has also authored two popular thrillers under the pen name Audrey Braun.

Deborah holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing and is co-director of the Black Forest Writing Seminars at the University of Freiburg in Germany. She teaches creative writing at workshops around the U.S. and in Europe.She lives on the coast of Oregon.

Hailing from the northernmost region of Illinois, Jenna is now a professor at OSU-Cascades. At both the University of Kentucky, and at Illinois State University where she completed her MA in 2010, Jenna taught first-year writing, creative writing, and literature. At the University of Kentucky she was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Certificate for Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in 2014, and in 2015, she received the inaugural Kentucky Writers Fellowship for Innovative Poetry from Louisville's Baltic Writers Residency. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships from the Acorn Equality Fund for LGBT researchers, the University of Kentucky Women's Club, and the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Jenna's teaching and research interests reside at the crossroads of writing pedagogy, environment, and creativity. She is interested in the linkages between composition pedagogy and creative writing pedagogy in space and place, often deploying her background in creative writing in the first-year writing classroom as a means of invention, research, and writing practice. Learn more about Jenna at her website: https://www.jennalgoldsmith.com/

Amber J. Keyser is a former ballerina and evolutionary biologist who writes both fiction and nonfiction for tweens and teens.

Her young adult novels include Pointe, Claw, an explosive story about two girls claiming the territory of their own bodies, and The Way Back From Broken, a heart-wrenching novel of loss and survival (and a finalist for the Oregon Book Award). She is the co-author with Kiersi Burkhart of the middle grade series Quartz Creek Ranch.

Her nonfiction titles include The V-Word, an anthology of personal essays by women about first-time sexual experiences (Rainbow List, Amelia Bloomer list, New York Public Library Best Book for Teens and Chicago Public Library Best Nonfiction for Teens) and Sneaker Century: A History of Athletic Shoes.

Amber lives on the dry side of Oregon with her husband, two kids, four chickens, and a dog who looks like a Muppet.

Born and raised in Memphis, TN, Maesie Speer is passionate about building inclusive and nurturing creative spaces. She is currently the Arts Center Programs Manager at the Caldera Arts Center outside Sisters where she lives and works. A life-long performance-maker, Maesie was a company member with Hand2Mouth Theatre for 10 years and participated in residencies at Playa, Caldera, and EMPAC and toured regionally and nationally. She has also performed with Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Sojourn Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Artists Repertory Theatre, among others. Maesie volunteers as a board member with the Arts & Culture Alliance of Central Oregon and as a program committee member with ScaleHouse.

Kimberly Bowker is a narrative journalist who loves to explore stories of the heart and how our lives intertwine. Growing up in Central Oregon, she served at The Bulletin newspaper, and appreciates how writing can strengthen our community. Her work has appeared in local publications and sources such as 1859 Magazine, CraftBeer.com, Fodor’s Travel, and Travel Oregon. Please say hi if you find her reading outside or out on the trail strolling beneath the sky – as this is where we all connect.

Playwright and Producer Cricket Daniel holds a Theatre Degree from UC Santa Barbara and studied Shakespeare in Cambridge, England. Cricket has an extensive background in stand-up and improv and has had her plays produced across the country. Full Length Plays by Cricket include Couple Dating, Love, Laughter and Lucci, Gina Galdi and Guest, Helen on Wheels, The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, I Shot Jennifer Lopez and The Lost Virginity Tour. Her 10 minute play, BREAK DREAMS, was adapted into a short film and made its world premiere in the 2014 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

Cricket also produces Bend’s annual 24/SEVEN Theater Project at 2nd Street Theater. Cricket is a member of the Dramatist Guild and is a 2011 recipient of Bend’s Arts, Beautification and Culture Award. Cricket lives in Bend with her husband of 24 years, Jason and their 14 year old daughter, Spencer.

To learn more about Cricket, please visit www.cricketdaniel.com.

Desmond Spann, aka DLux the Light is a spoken word poet, a positive emcee and hip hop artist, and an educator who works to help kids express themselves. To be light, pass the spark, and watch us glow is his vision. His creative expressions of emceeing, music, teaching, and writing seek true liberation-freedom from fear and its many forms. His performances and poetry were featured OPB's Oregon Art Beat. His first book Des Writes Bars and Poems Too (available on amazon) is a collection of verses and spoken word poems, expanding the definition of Hip Hop poetry

Lieve Maas is a designer, storyteller, and self-publishing coach. She is the kind of person who thrives on making life easier for others. Growing up in the Netherlands, she was constantly exposed to an intriguing world of galleries, art openings and powerful perspectives that inspired her to study Fine Arts at the Royal Art Academy and later at the University of Amsterdam. She fell in love with visual storytelling and the impact of thoughtful design in creating an emotional experience. In her words, good art is unforgettable.

Jane Kirkpatrick is a New York Times best-selling and award-winning author of over 39 books and numerous essays. Her many historical novels, most based on the lives of actual people, speak of timeless themes of hardiness, faith, commitment, hope, and love.

Kristin Dorsey is a Professor in the Humanities Department at Central Oregon Community College. She’s a generalist, which means that she teaches a variety of academic and creative writing classes, along with literature classes from Early American literature to Children’s literature. She used to read and write a lot. And then she had twins. And now she draws a lot of circles and reads a lot of Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? Teaching creative writing workshops in the community keeps her excited about her own writing and that of others.