Seattle City of Literature

José Luis Montero is passionate about storytelling regardless of the medium. After dabbling in radio, photography and filmmaking, he recently turned his artistic attention towards the written word, both in English and Spanish. Born and raised in Mexico, but having lived most of his adult life in Seattle pursuing a career in software engineering, he is the embodiment of contradiction: someone who is proud of nurturing both hemispheres of his brain, but tormented by the dilemma of balancing his passion for technology with his innate call to contemplate and create beauty. He earned a certificate in Literary Fiction from University of Washington and a Master in Narrative from Escuela de Escritores in Madrid. Upon his return from Spain, he worked as a production intern for Copper Canyon Press and served as president of Seattle Escribe, a nonprofit promoting Spanish literature in Washington state. Currently, he is a 2021 Jack Straw Writers Fellow and assistant editor of poetry for Narrative Magazine.

Bretty Rawson (he/they) is a writer, artist, and co-founding member of The Seventh Wave, a literary arts nonprofit that publishes art in the space of social issues. At TSW, Bretty oversees their digital community and residency programs. They also run the storytelling agency Slow Blink, which builds websites for writers, story anchors for nonprofits, and content ecosystems for companies. Bretty's work has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Poets & Writers, Heritage Radio Network, among others, and has earned his organizations national attention and awards, like Best Website (for Washington Wine) and Best Magazine (for The Seventh Wave). Bretty's past collaborations and clients include The Smithsonian Archives of American Art, IBM, New York Public Library, Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance, The Sketchbook Project, and others. With an MFA from The New School in nonfiction, Bretty's writing has been published in PANK, Narratively, Nowhere Magazine, among others, and they have received international artist residencies. They are an artist member at Common Area Maintenance, where they are at work on an hybrid art and prose poetry project. You can see more about Bretty's work at www.brettyrawson.com.

Kalani Kapahua is a bookseller from Seattle. He studied creative writing at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, and graduated from the University of Denver's Publishing Institute. He currently works as the Store Manager of Third Place Books Ravenna. He was previously a featured playwright at the American Repertory Theater's Annual Young Playwright's Festival and has held roles with the Washington State Book Awards and the Seattle Public Library Literature and Humanities Community Advisory Group. He currently is a contributing reviewer at The International Examiner. He is a Korean American adoptee.

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 serves on the board of Seattle Arts & Lectures. When she’s not reading, Stesha likes to bake tasty treats.

Ching-In Chen is descended from ocean dwellers and author of The Heart's Traffic: a novel in poems and recombinant (2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry) as well as chapbooks to make black paper sing and Kundiman for Kin :: Information Retrieval for Monsters (Leslie Scalapino Finalist). Chen is co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities and currently a core member of the Massage Parlor Outreach Project as well as a Kelsey Street Press collective member. They have received fellowships from Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole, Can Serrat, Imagining America, and the Intercultural Leadership Institute as well as the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Exceptional New LGBTQ Writers. They teach in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and the MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics at University of Washington Bothell and serve as Writer in Residence at Hugo House. They are currently collaborating with Cassie Mira and others on Breathing in a Time of Disaster, a performance, installation and speculative writing project exploring breath through meditation, health and environmental justice. www.chinginchen.com

Jennie Shortridge is a writer, teacher and active literary community supporter. She has published five bestselling novels, including Love Water Memory and When She Flew, and contributed to anthologies, including Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of Covid-19. Her novels have been translated, optioned for screen, and selected as ABA Indie Next picks and Library Journal’s Editors’ Picks. As the cofounder and director of Seattle7Writers (2009-2019), she worked to connect Seattle’s large community of published book authors with readers, writers, independent booksellers and librarians through programming and events that raised money and awareness for local iterary organizations. When not writing, teaching, mentoring or volunteering, Jennie sings in a band.

Daniel Tam-Claiborne is a multiracial essayist and author of the short story collection What Never Leaves. His writing has appeared in Literary Hub, Off Assignment, The Rumpus, The Huffington Post, The Seventh Wave, and elsewhere. A 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, he has also received fellowships and awards from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Kundiman, Writing By Writers, the Jack Straw Cultural Center, and others. Daniel serves as Co-Executive Director at The Serica Initiative and Speaker Series Producer at Hugo House in Seattle. He holds degrees from Oberlin College, Yale University, and the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and is currently completing a novel about identity, migration, and belonging, set against the backdrop of contemporary U.S.-China relations.