Rebecca Brinbury, President
Rebecca Brinbury, an editor and literary arts administrator, enjoys supporting writers from both the editorial and programmatic sides. In 2014, Rebecca cofounded Seattle City of Literature and served for a year as its founding managing director; she also wrote both the 2015 and 2017 UNESCO Creative Cities Network applications for Seattle (and she is very pleased the second one stuck). As a development officer, Rebecca has raised several million dollars for organizations like ACT Theatre and Hugo House, where she was development director. She has also worked at other Seattle-area organizations, including the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, 826 Seattle (now the Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas), Poetry Northwest, where she is managing editor, and University of Washington Press, where she is assistant to the director. Rebecca also works as a freelance fiction copyeditor, specializing in works in translation.
Rebecca lives in North Seattle with her family and enjoys biking, knitting and crocheting, baking bread, working on projects around her house, and, when she gets the chance, traveling.
Juan Carlos Reyes, Secretary
Juan Carlos Reyes has published the novella A Summer's Lynching (Quarterly West) and the fiction chapbook Elements of a Bystander (Arcadia Press). His stories, poems and essays have appeared in Ascentos Review, KGB Lit, and Hawai’i Review, among others. He is a 2018 Jack Straw Writers Fellow and is currently an Assistant Professor of creative writing at Seattle University. He is also the chief editor at Big Fiction magazine. He is the recipient of the Artist Trust 2018 LaSalle Storyteller Award in Fiction.
Jim Cantu, Treasurer
Jim Cantú has penned poems, prose, and personal essays. His written work has appeared in the Raven Chronicles (2017), Seattle Poetic Grid (2017), the online Whirlwind Magazine (2016) and the 4Culture & King County Metro "Poetry on the Buses" project (2015). In August 2016, he was the ‘Writer-In-Residence’ for the month long ‘La Cocina’ a Pop-Up Latinx Artists’ Salon hosted by ‘La Sala’ and held in conjunction with the Seattle Art Fair. He is also a graduate of the Artist Trust 2016 Literary Edge program.
Jim is a volunteer radio producer with KBCS 91.3 FM where he produces the Morning Blend show. He also produces the Arts and Cultural affairs program “Hearts and Soul” on KVRU 105.7 FM. In June 2018 he will become one of the regular hosts on KCBS’s “Sabor” Latinx Music program. Jim’s community activities include KBCS 91.3 FM, KVRU 105.7 FM, La Sala Seattle, the Raven Chronicles and Seattle City of Literature.
Rick Simonson
Rick Simonson has worked as a bookseller at Seattle's Elliott Bay Book Company since 1976. He is a book buyer there and also coordinates, with Karen Maeda Allman, Elliott Bay's long-running reading series. Started in 1984, that series annually helps present over 400 authors from near and distant places. Writers from over 75 countries, presenting in over thirty languages, have appeared along the way.
Rick has served on boards for the King County Arts Commission, Copper Canyon Press, the Central District Forum for Art & Ideas, and the University of Washington Press, and has served as a juror for the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, Seattle Arts & Lectures, Hedgebrook, the National Endowment for the Arts, the STORY Prize, the National Book Award, and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.
He has participated and/or presented at book and literary festivals and conferences in the US, Canada, Mexico, China, India, the UK, Palestine, and United Arab Emirates.
Jeffrey Lee Cheatham II
Jeffrey L. Cheatham II's passion for storytelling was evident from his days as a student at Seattle's John Muir Elementary School, where every written assignment he submitted was in the form of a story or comic. Jeffrey has self-published two children books, The Family Jones and The Eggs of Rex and Why is Jane so Mad? He has been a passionate and ardent supporter of all things literary, even going so far as to create the Seattle Urban Book Expo: an organization that provides a platform for authors of color to showcase their Literary work and connect them with readers in their community.
Line Sandsmark
Line Sandsmark is currently Executive Director at Shunpike. In the past she has worked as artistic director, creative producer, or executive producer for various film organizations in Scandinavia. Since her return to Seattle, Sandsmark has worked with several local arts organizations through development and management roles, or through board service. She holds a BA in Comparative Literature from University of Washington, post-graduate studies in Critical Theory from University of Paris - Sorbonne, and a Masters in Arts Leadership from Seattle University.
Stesha Brandon, Program Manager
Stesha Brandon is a long-time advocate for the literary arts. As Program Director at Town Hall Seattle Stesha developed compelling programs focused on arts and ideas, in partnership with national and community partners. During her long tenure at University Book Store, she oversaw more than 500 events annually, and conceived of, edited and produced 110/110: A Collection Celebrating the One Hundred Tenth Birthday of University Book Store. She has also worked as an acquisitions editor, a reader for a literary agent, and served on numerous committees, including the Bumbershoot Task Force and the Washington State Book Awards jury. Having served as the Interim Executive Director for Seattle City of Literature, she is currently the Literature & Humanities Program Manager at The Seattle Public Library, and administers the designation on behalf of the city. She also sits on the board of Seattle Arts & Lectures. When she's not reading, Stesha keeps chickens, knits and bakes tasty treats.
Past Board Members
Thanks to past board members Allison Durrazzi, Hanady Kader, Colin McArthur, Bob Redmond, Eric Reynolds, Fleetwood Robbins, JC Sevcik, Garth Stein, and Alix Wilber for their service.
Learn more about these awesome folks here.
