2026 Writers’ Room Residents
Meet the 2026 cohort of Writers’ Room residents.
2026 Residents
Adam Graham-Silverman
Phinney Ridge
Currently writing: A biography of the political strategist who pioneered last-minute smears and identity politics.
Past works: Political journalist; government and nonprofit communications; and middle-school teacher.
Adriana Gomez-Weston
Green Lake
Currently writing: Music journalism for The AuralisMag and as a freelancer. The AuralisMag has a special focus on music from the Pacific Northwest.
Alina Melnik
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: Debut fantasy novel about resilience and being unrecognizable.
Past works: collections of poetry, poetry comics, and short stories.
Amontaine Aurore
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: Novel set in 1960s and ‘70s.
Past works: Plays including Don’t Call it a Riot; The Ever-Expanding Moment; Legacies: A Ghost Story.
Amy Zhang
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: My Butcher: A Novel
Past works: Falling into Place, This is Where the World Ends; The Cartographers.
Amy Jean Bailey
Roosevelt
Currently writing: The Crow Party, full-length poetry book.
Amy Y.Q. Lin
Green Lake
Currently writing: A novel about tech
Past works: Short stories, literary criticism, and interviews in Catapult, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Creative Independent, One Story, and elsewhere.
Andrew Lee Creech
Georgetown
Currently writing: A hybrid history and workbook on Black American playwriting.
Past Works: Last Drive to Dodge, Golden (Concord Theatricals, forthcoming), Riverwood (1319 Press, forthcoming).
Astro Belacqua
North Seattle
Current Project: My C- Valentine, a queer YA romance and coming of age novel about grief, first love, and imagination.
@astrobelacqua (IG)
@astrobelacqua (Substack)
Audrey Auerbach Nelson
Ballard
Currently writing: Bylined (contemporary romance novel).
Past works: Room & Board (rom-com novel).
Brianna Martinez
Capitol Hill
Currently writing a collection of short horror fiction stories.
C. S. Rogers
Seattle
Currently writing: Re-imagined Wizard of Oz set in the modern-day “Emerald City” of Seattle, Washington.
Past works: New adult fiction, observational essays, and creative non-fiction.
Catherine Broadwall
Bridle Trails (Bellevue)
Currently writing: A yet-to-be-titled novel and a mixed-genre project on Iceland.
Past works: Aftermath (Girl Noise Press, 2026), Water Spell (Cornerstone Press, 2025), Fulgurite (Cornerstone Press, 2023).
Dayjha McMillan (they/she)
Columbia City
Currently writing: a memoir-in essays about memory as: dream magic, time-travel, geographies of Blackness, land, and childhood.
Past work: Abolition Feminisms Vol. 2 with Haymarket Books, the Faoileánach Journal, Substack, and forthcoming with CHUM news.
@93percentlesbian (IG)
@93percentlesbian (Substack)
Dino Kladouris
Madison Valley
Currently Writing: The Best of Nel West, a novel about a fictionalized Old Hollywood star struggling with borderline personality disorder and bipolar.
Dorcas Olatunji
Downtown Seattle
Currently writing Mother's Nest, a feature film project & a Proof of Concept short film title TBA.
E. L. Wafler
North Seattle
Currently writing: A novel about a modern rural town that believes the seizures affecting the women of the community are signs from God.
Elle Zi Dong
Wallingford
Currently writing: YA cosmic horror
Past works: They Must Be Angels (The Dark), Marionette (Tales to Terrify), and other YA novels.
Emily Pattyn
Pioneer Square
Currently writing: The Quiet Inheritance of Lovelessness - Novel exploring the legacy of lovelessness across three generations of women.
Past works: Two Months Gone - Novel tracing the unraveling of a whirlwind romance.
Emily Iris Degn
Mukilteo
Currently writing: A cli-fi novel that explores the link between climate crisis and identity crisis
Past works: Warmly, The Wild; dozens of published nature poems, ecofeminist essays, & short stories.
Emily Joy Oomen
Seattle
Currently Writing: Cover Girl (a debut
poetry collection of feminist poetics)
Past Work: Contributed journalism to Vice, BBC, and The Wall Street Journal. Poetry published in The Rumpus, Breakwater Review, and the Athens International Video Poetry Festival.
Erika Almanza Brown
Broadview
Currently writing: A novel about Texas Rangers in the 1920s & current day ICE raids; A collection of short bios of not-so-famous Americans.
Past works: Numerous articles and blog posts for Seattle magazine, Seattle’s Child magazine, and Seattleite.com.
Frank Abe
Mt. Baker
Current writing: No-No Boy, a play
Past works: We Hereby Refuse; The Literature of Japanese American Incarceration; John Okada
Galle Ascencio Baca
Lake Stevens
Currently writing: An impactful autofiction novel that confronts loss, death, transition, and disability head-on. Title yet to be determined. In Spanish.
Past Works: Various articles and chronicles from local media in Mexico.
Greg Salvatore
Wedgwood
Currently writing: Memories of a Foreign Land (novel), My Years of Solitude (novel), Substack, short stories, fanfic.
Past works: Maturation: Selected Poems, Digging Up the Past: Poetry from High School (1994-97), blog posts.
Jae Steinbacher
Central District
Currently writing: drafting/researching a second world fantasy novel.
Past works: Short fiction.
Jaime Evans
Bothell
Currently Writing: A novel about ambition, grandmothers, and flight attendants in space.
Past Works: ""Sign My Book?"" in Northern Light Vol. 8.
Jazmine Chilo
Renton
Currently Writing: Black Belly, a YA/NA murder mystery set in the Pacific Northwest.
Jeremiah Henderson
Seattle
Currently Writing: Infallible, 2700 miles of Forest & Cooper, Everett takes the stage.
Julene Tripp Weaver
Seattle
Currently writing: A memoir about her experience being a long-term survivor living with HIV/AIDS, and her work in AIDS services.
Past works: Four poetry books, latest: Slow Now with Blue Skies.
Kara Uranga
Downtown Seattle
Current writing: Mato Sapa, Waste Win (A Good Woman is Hard to Find).
Past works: Los Leones, Judy's Turn to Cry.
Katura Reynolds
Green Lake
Currently writing: Round and Round, a children’s activity book exploring history, art and science via bicycle wheels
Past works: Essays and articles for the Los Angeles Times, Bitch Magazine and Taking the Lane zine.
Lauri Watkins
Capitol Hill
Currently working on: Godless Jack, a novel set in Seattle.
Past works: Essays & poetry in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, ParentMap, & The Seattle Star; creator of www.SeeANeedle.com.
Livvy Hall
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: IMMRAM, a text game about sailing a magical sea.
ManChui Leung 梁 文 珠
Renton, Rainier Beach, Beacon Hill
Current writing: Creative non-fiction on the interconnected flow of plants, wildlife and folks across three Seattle neighborhoods.
Past works: Poetry and creative non-fiction in The Brooklyn Review; Social science and health articles and edited books.
Marissa Lilli Nicole
Yesler Terrace
Currently Writing: Waiting for Words to Fly, Sunday After Next.
Past Works: Julius the Moodiest.
Mica Johnson
Everett
Currently Writing: Psychological horror/crime thriller focused on a serial killer and his relationship to his family, partners, and friends.
Nadir Hashmi
Roosevelt
Currently Writing: An auto-bio fiction/memoir set in the heart of Pakistan, about the heart of Pakistan.
Past Works: Miscellaneous poetry and short fiction.
Patrick Milian
Madison Valley
Currently writing: We Take You Now, a novel about recovery, resilience, and the radio.
Past works: Nighttown (Counterpoint Press, forthcoming), The Unquiet Country (Entre Ríos Books, 2024).
Robert Penley
Capitol Hill
Currently writing: Ali Ikeda and the Sky Painter, a horror novel, a graphic novel, a screenplay, some stage plays, and some short stories.
S. A. Chant
Magnolia
Currently writing: A sword and sorcery novel, a novella, and a graphic novel.
Past works: Peter Darling (novel), Caroline's Heart (novella), assorted short stories.
Shelby Handler
Mt. Baker in South Seattle
Currently completing a book of poems about grief, estrangement, kinship, and the General Jewish Labor Bund.
Sid Orlando
West Seattle
Currently writing: A Siculu-American family drama, the tail end of a punk rock murder mystery, side quest food essays.
Past works: Assorted poems, stories, essays, ghostwriting.
Steve Bryant
Downtown Seattle
Currently writing: Theatrical presentations of classical music, autofiction, short stories, biography.
Past works: Partners Newsletter for Gay and Lesbian Couples.
Taylor Andresen
Seattle
Currently Writing: A cancer memoir turned poetry collection centering queer love, disability, & learning to laugh with Death.
Past Works: Featured in poetry anthologies by Arcana Poetry Press (2025, 2026), 40 West Arts (2025), & Carbonation Press (2026).
Thorn Michaels
University District
Currently Writing: The Floor Beneath. Horror. A young fitness influencer inadvertently becomes the only tenant in a giant new apartment complex during pandemic lockdown.
