Drawing from her own experiences abroad, Nassim Assefi creates true to life scenarios playing on today’s world politics. Her characters bring different perspectives to a story that requires multi-layered explanation. From the streets of Kabul, Assefi shares the world of war in a contemporary context.
Assefi is a novelist and global women’s health specialist. Author of Aria (Harcourt and 5 foreign publishers) and forthcoming Say I Am You, medical advisor to ZocDoc, practicing physician at Country Doctor Community Health Clinics, TED Global Fellow and TEDxRainier curator, Assefi’s most accurate description may be that of thrillionaire. Past incarnations include: academic at UW Medical School, humanitarian aid worker (and underground salsa dance teacher) in Kabul, aspiring musician in Havana, and writer in Istanbul. She serves on advisory boards for Hedgebrook, Whit Press, and the Guttmacher Institute. She was recently honored by the Feminist Press as one of the top 40 feminists under 40.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by Srivani Jade and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Larissa Min reflects on global migration through her own family’s journey from Korea to Brazil to the United States. Her intimate story is told with poignant lyricism and brings to light not only her own history, but also the transformations that families experience through migration.
Min is a fiction and non-fiction writer, photographer, linguaphile and fallen urbanite. She’s currently working on “Breaking English,” a creative non-fiction account of her family’s migration from Korea to Brazil and later the US as a lens through which to examine the experiences of global migration, displacement and remembering. She has received a City Artist award from the Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, a 2010 GAP grant from Artist Trust, the James Hall Prize for Fiction, and is a 2011 fellow at the Jack Straw Writers Program.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by Randal Bays and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In his exploration of trade, Donald Fels brings to light stories of rich, cultural heritage. As a world traveler, artist, and writer, Fels weaves together his experiences and research, resulting in an intricate account of history.
Fels is a visual artist and writer. For the past twenty-five years he has followed the trade in commodities around the world. People have always exchanged goods, and in the process have forever swapped stories, traded hopes and ideas. He is currently at work on a graphic non-fiction book, Placing Color, which looks at the rather incredible history of the mordant alum. His book Water’s Edge, about a year he spent as artist in residence at a decommissioned steel plant in Southern Italy, is being readied for publication.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by August Denhard and Munir Nurettin Beken and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Anne McDuffie creates a sensory portrait of fog in a set of essays from an earlier chapter in her life. Her descriptions are immersive, and saturated by deep hues. The reader learns of her time in Madrid as a student and joins her for a long walk through the fog.
McDuffie writes essays, poetry and book reviews. Her work has appeared in Colorado Review, Crab Creek Review, A River and Sound Review, Rattle, Poetry International, American Book Review, and the anthology Short Takes: Brief Encounters with Contemporary Nonfiction (Norton, 2005). She received her MFA in 2007 from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by the Black Cat Orchestra and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In his work, Harold Taw explores voice and perspective. Readers travel through cultural and emotional territory with complex characters, moving through stories with remarkable storytellers.
Taw’s debut novel, Adventures of the Karaoke King (AmazonEncore 2011), is a karaoke grail quest about transplanted people from around the globe who keep falling just short of their dreams. His second novel, Saturday’s Child, follows an adolescent girl’s journey from the Southeast Asian countryside to the city during politically tumultuous times. Harold’s screenplay Dog Park has been recognized in international film festivals and competitions, his personal essay on why he feeds monkeys was broadcast on NPR’s This I Believe, and he is currently collaborating on a musical. Harold is a 2011 fellow in the Jack Straw Writers Program.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by Victor Noriega and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In her Jack Straw residency, Ann Teplick shares her grief, wrestling the difficulties and pain of losing parents. Her poetry imparts sorrow, beauty, love, and loss. Each word is chosen with courage, leaving the reader absorbed in the fragility of human life.
Teplick is a Seattle poet, playwright, and prose writer, with an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College. For eighteen years she’s written with youth in schools, juvenile detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and literary non-profits. Her work has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Drash, Chrysanthemum, Hunger Mountain, and others. Her plays have been showcased in Washington, Oregon, and Nova Scotia. In 2010 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 will be a writer at Hedgebrook.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by the Bird Tribe Orchestra and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Through her study of a Mies van der Rohe glass house in Illinois, architect and poet Nora Wendl illuminates the life of Dr. Edith Farnsworth. Yearly visits to the home and extensive research inform Wendl’s portrayal of the house and the character of Farnsworth. With an architectural lens, Wendl brings life and sentiment to marble floors and glass walls.
Wendl is a writer and professor of architecture whose work (built and written) is influenced by the processes, products, history and discourse of the (silent) built and made things around us—particularly architecture. A native of Nebraska, she studied at Iowa State University and was 2005 Pearl Hogrefe Fellow in Creative Writing. She lives in Portland, Oregon and teaches at Portland State University Department of Architecture.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by the St. Helens String Quartet and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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In her writing, Maritess Zurbano depicts the little known world of a female magician. Her work brings to light racial and gender issues surrounding the art and captures the intrigue of performance. Original subject matter and dramatic delivery make for a captivating read.
Zurbano has been a practicing magician for 19 years, has competed internationally and performed around the world. Her memoir-based play, “Rites of Enchantment,” has won entry into the New York International Fringe Festival and the NYC Ars Nova Theater Festival. Her short stories have been published in The Chicago Reader as well as the literary magazine Snowbound. She is a contributor to Magic Magazine and has been profiled by Newsday, Lifetime Television, The BBC News, Epoch Times, and The Village Voice providing commentary on magic and the occult. Her literary awards include a 2010 Washington State Artist Trust Grant and a 2011 Jack Straw Fellowship.
SoundPages was produced by Jack Straw Productions as part of the Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music performed by the Owcharuk Sextet and recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Louise Spiegler lets her imagination take the reins to lead readers through life in early Rome. In her novel, history is intermingled with an engaging plot that’s suitable for both young and adult readers. Her careful research and original characters make for entertaining reading.
Spiegler writes fiction for young adults, though she knows the future may bring change (travel brochures? blues epics? get-well cards?). Her first novel, The Amethyst Road, was published by Clarion in 2005 and was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award (Hugo-Nebula Awards Program). Her next novel, The Jewel and the Key, is also set to be published by Clarion. The Jack Straw program is providing support and encouragement for her new novel, The Lares, set in Ancient Rome. She teaches History and English at Cascadia Community College, and lives in Seattle with her husband and two sons.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2010 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at www.jackstraw.org. Music in this podcast is performed by Sean Osborn and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Through her use of expressive language, Denise Calvetti Michaels creates poignant snapshots of her own experiences and those of others. Her writing takes different forms in order to capture the scene and the sentiment she’s depicting. Translating memories to poetry, Michaels gives voice to beautiful personal stories.
Michaels was awarded the Crosscurrents Prize for Poetry by the Washington Community College Humanities Association for her prose poem “Notes on New Orleans.” Her work is in anthologies such as In Praise of Farmland (Whit Press), Mute Note Earthward (WPA), Between Sleeps (En Theos Press), and Beyond Forgetting (Kent State University Press). “Polenta,” a memoir, is included in The Milk of Almonds, Italian American Woman on Food and Culture (Feminist Press, 2002). Denise teaches Psychology at Cascadia Community College where she also coordinates community service projects. She earned an MA in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College and received the Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award, along with her colleagues, for their work to address institutional racism.
This podcast was produced as part of the 2010 Jack Straw Writers Program. All of the writers heard in this series are published in the Jack Straw Writers Anthology, and featured online at http://www.jackstraw.org/.
Music in this podcast is performed by the St. Helen’s Quartet and was recorded as part of the Jack Straw Artist Support Program.
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Drawing from her own experiences abroad, Nassim Assefi creates true to life scenarios playing on today’s world politics. Her characters bring different perspectives to a story that requires multi-layered explanation. From the streets of Kabul, Assefi shares the world of war in a contemporary context.
