Yvette DeChavez was born and raised in San Antonio and earned a PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin. Her writing can be found in American Short Fiction, Colorado Review, Passages North, and elsewhere. She is this year’s Rona Jaffe Fellow for Storyknife.
Beste Filiz was born in Istanbul, Türkiye. She became a child asylum seeker and refugee at three years old when her family was forced to flee to London, England. She holds a MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She writes for young people about difficult topics with hope and magic.
Liz Iversen‘s fiction and essays explore migration, motherhood, and the history of the Philippines, where she was born. Her work has appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Passages North, Room, and Fourteen Hills, and has been supported by Tin House, VCCA, and Monson Arts. She lives with her family in Maine. She is this year’s Katahdin Fellow for Storyknife.
Margarita Ramirez Loya is a Mexican writer. She writes in Spanish and English while exploring hard topics of the borderlands. Her work-in-progress YA novel has been supported by Hedgebrook, Mesa Refuge, Looking Glass Arts, Border Arts Corridor, and Storyknife. She is currently a fellow for the Naco Heritage Alliance working on a picture book.
Emily Shoteen Si’al believes creative expression is a vital component of wellbeing. She seeks to tell stories through her work that speak to reclamation, strength, empowered healing, and of voices once unheard made known. Emily is a proud citizen of the Tlingit and Haida Nations. Emily is this year’s Fireweed Fellow for Storyknife.
Lesley Wheeler, Poetry Editor of Shenandoah, is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Mycocosmic. Her other books include the hybrid memoir Poetry’s Possible Worlds and the novel Unbecoming. Wheeler’s work has received support from the Fulbright Foundation, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers, and the Sewanee Writers Workshop. She teaches in Lexington, Virginia.
Storyknife Writers Retreat 