Last week I was at the Artist Communities Alliance Evolving Programs Conference. I was also working in the evening to send out all of the 2025 application notifications for Storyknife. (If you applied and didn’t receive an email from me, please just send me a note and we’ll see where your notification went astray.)
It was a busy week. The days were full of learning how to better support the mission of Storyknife, considering how to provide the writers with what they need to fulfill their goals, how to make the organization as strong and resilient as possible. And in the evenings, I was sending out hundreds of emails that made some people very happy and some people disappointed.
It adds up to wishing that there could be room at Storyknife for all of the writers who need what Storyknife has to offer. I can’t think of one person who has applied in the last five years who hasn’t deserved the time and space to devote to their writing. More than that, I know, as a struggling writer myself, every single writer needs to hear that their story is important, that their writing is worth nurturing.
Each cohort of writers at Storyknife brings a multiplicity of experiences. Katrina Carrasco, 2024 alum, wrote, “My time at Storyknife was exceptional. It was my great privilege to be in community with other women writers and learn from them in our conversations about books, craft, and life. I left Storyknife full of joy, having made progress on my new book and even better, having made friendships with other women artists that I hope to have for years to come.”
It’s that beautiful multiplicity of stories that can evolve the prevailing narrative. That community of voices that makes all stronger.
The Storyknife board and staff are so grateful that we get to be a tiny part of this organization. An even bigger portion of gratitude goes to the individuals and foundations that make it financially feasible to offer these residencies. Last year there were 237 people who found a way to help support the women writers of Storyknife. I know that the 52 writers who were in residency this year appreciate all that you have given them.
Many of you have already given, and next year’s writers (and all of us at Storyknife) are equally grateful to you. But if you’ve been putting it off, and if lifting and nourishing the voices of women writers matters to you, please consider an end-of-the-year gift to Storyknife. We’re still working toward our $50,000 Challenge Match. Time is getting shorter, so I hope you won’t put it off any longer. Please donate to help Storyknife reach that goal and make it possible for us to host fifty women writers in 2025!
Take care and be safe out there, Erin Storyknife Executive Director
Join us on Thursday, October 17 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring September’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading.
Alisha Acquaye is a Black queer writer, workshop facilitator and self portrait artist born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Their art embraces shapeshifting, myths, afrosurrealism and the elasticity of Black femme embodiment. Alisha’s writing is published in Carve Magazine, The Iowa Review, Plentitudes Journal, Allure, Teen Vogue, and more places.
Jordan Alam is a queer Bangladeshi American writer, performer, therapist, and former doula (forever #birthnerd) based in Seattle. Their writing has appeared in Joyland Magazine, the Atlantic, SeattleMet, Autostraddle, and Entropy among others. Currently, they write a mental health column for the Seattle Times and are revising a debut novel.
Mayra Cuevas is an award-winning author of books for children and adults. Her teen novel Does My Body Offend You? (co-written with Marie Marquardt) was long-listed for the PEN/Faulkner Award. She co-founded the Latinx KidLit Book Festival, recipient of the Library of Congress Emerging Literacy Strategies Honor, and its Latinx Storytellers Conference.
Chael Moore is Ts’ahyisk’idnii, born for Honágháanii. Her maternal grandparents are Tó’ahaní and her paternal grandparents are Tó’aheedlíinii. Her writing—spanning fiction and creative non-fiction—draws from her identity as a Diné woman, weaving together stories that honor her heritage and lived experiences. Originally from Tóniłts’ilí (Crystal), NM, Chael currently resides in Albuquerque, NM.
Debra J Stone writes essays, poetry, and fiction. She is a Jerome Hill Arts Fellow in Literature 2023-25 and The Loft Mirrors and Windows Fellow 2023 for writing books for BIPOC children and young adults. Debra’s forthcoming young adult novel published by the University of Minnesota Press available 2025. She resides in Minneapolis. https://www.debrajeannestone.com
A coalition of long-time supporters of Storyknife has offered a challenge. If we can raise $50,000 by December 31st, they will donate an additional $50,000 in funds. Help Storyknife unlock this challenge and make a difference in the lives of women writers. According to Women and Girls Philanthropy Index, women’s and girls’ organizations receive less than 2% of the overall charitable giving in the United States. Less than 2%!!!
You can change the narrative by giving time and space to women writers so that their stories can find their place in the world. This is a very steep challenge, but we have faith that enough people believe in Storyknife’s mission that we can make it. Give what you can today so that we don’t leave this gift on the table.
In order to give you an idea of what your donation will do, please read this paragraph from one of this June’s cohort, Lisa Bird-Wilson, “Storyknife is a magical gift to women writers. I have yet to fully process the profound impact of attending, but know it will unfurl over time and throughout my writing life. Storyknife offers relentless support to the women in residence, ensuring your ability to focus on the work you want to accomplish, with ample time and opportunities to engage with a community of women writers–your peers–from across the globe. I particularly appreciated the careful attention to the diversity of the writers selected to participate–supporting the voices less often heard/published/attended to is one of the most important aspects of Storyknife. My experience at Storyknife is in my blood and will continue to circulate, I’m sure, for my entire writing career. It’s an honour to call myself part of the Storyknife family. Maarsii (thank you in the Michif language).”
We have three months to do this. Storyknife’s Board of Directors has pledged $7,500 toward the challenge. That means that we’re turning to you, people who want to support women writers, to help us raise $42,500 in the next three months.
This week, the sandhill cranes have been making their test flights over Storyknife. First, we hear them far in the distance and then great squadrons mass over the water and fly toward the south. Any day now, we’ll see them leave for the winter and an important threshold for the autumn will be crossed.
In the Storyknife calendar, we are relishing our time with September’s writers and looking forward to October’s group, the last of the year. At the same time, adjudication for 2025 residencies is in full swing with many teams of former Storyknife writers in residence reading the outstanding work that has been submitted.
It’s hard to believe that we are heading toward the end of our fourth full year in operation. Four years is long enough to put together Storyknife’s first annual report! We’re excited to share the 2023 Storyknife Annual Report with you. You can download the pdf document by clicking here. We hope that you’ll enjoy this more in-depth look into Storyknife.
Don’t miss this month’s Live from Storyknife on Thursday, September 19 at 6pm Alaska Time. Just click this link at 6pm for the Zoom event! For those of you who can’t make it, the recording will be linked to the same page within a few days. In fact, you can find all of this year’s recordings at Storyknife’s Vimeo page.
In this time, more than ever, women’s stories are important. You can be part of changing the narrative by supporting the women writers of Storyknife. Please donate to support them. And for those of you who have given this year, or are sustaining members that give a little each month, thank you for sharing the vision that women’s stories will change the world!
Sincerely,
Erin Coughlin Hollowell Storyknife Executive Director
Join us on Thursday, September 19 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring September’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading
Arumandhira is a queer Blasian poet, musician, and creative marketer born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia (now surviving in Los Angeles, California). A Kundiman Poetry Fellow, she has work published or forthcoming in Honey Literary, The Boiler, The Offing,Wax Nine Journal, BRUISER Mag, and SWWIM.
Katrina Carrasco is queer and Latina, with roots in Southern California and home in Seattle, Washington. She has published nonfiction and short stories, as well as two historical novels set in the Pacific Northwest. Katrina is working on a new contemporary novel while at Storyknife.
Melissa Horner was born and raised in Montana, is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation, a descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, and has settler lineages including German and English. Melissa is currently working on her PhD in the sociology of Indigenous Peoples and Native Nations.
Kalehua Kim is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi poet living in the Pacific Northwest. Her poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Denver Quarterly, and ‘Ōiwi, A Native Hawaiian Journal. Her first poetry collection, Mele, is forthcoming from Trio House Press in July, 2025.
Reema Rao-Patel is a fiction writer from Chicago. A Best of the Net finalist, a Wigleaf Top 50 longlister, and a Pushcart Prize nominee, her work appears in The Los Angeles Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Witness, So To Speak, and elsewhere. She lives with her husband, son, and pup.
Selene Ross is an audio storyteller and writer. Her stories have aired on Radiotopia’s The Kitchen Sisters, KALW, NPR, and her writing appears in Literary Hub and Terrain.org. In both sound and story, her work explores questions of identity and wilderness. She teaches writing and storytelling at Portland Community College and Oregon State University.
The fireweed is blossoming closer to the top which every Alaskan will tell you means that autumn is coming soon. At Storyknife we have a few other indicators (other than the waning daylight).
The first and most time-sensitive reminder that August waits for no one – the 2025 application period is open now, but closing on August 31st. Just a suggestion: do not wait until the last day to submit. There can be technological challenges, and the application portal doesn’t allow us to accept any applications after midnight on August 31st. Please don’t set yourself up for possible disappointment. Also, do not rely on questions being answered outside of standard office hours.
.
Secondly, we hope that you’ll tune in on WEDNESDAY, August 21 at 6pm Alaska Time for this month’s Live from Storyknife. (THIS IS A DATE CHANGE from the original announcement.) Tune in and listen to the amazing writing of Rachel Blume, Melisa Casumbal-Salazar, Elaine Elinson, Karolina Letunova, Caron Levis, and Doreen Oliver. Every edition of Live from Storyknife is absolutely filled to the brim with talent and this one will be no different. (If the time change is messing you up, you can watch the recorded event a few days afterward.)
Thirdly, I’d like to remind you that according to Women and Girls Philanthropy Index, women’s and girls’ organizations receive less than 2% of the overall charitable giving in the United States. Less than 2%!!! Of the sectors within this 2%, Arts and Culture organizations that serve women are second to last on the list of giving by mission focus. We pay close attention to this because Storyknife depends on individuals and foundations to support the women writers who have residencies here.
In this time, more than ever, women’s stories are important. You can be part of changing the narrative by supporting the women writers of Storyknife. We ask that you donate to support them. And for those of you who have given this year, or are sustaining members that give a little each month, thank you for sharing the vision that women’s stories will change the world!
DATE CHANGE! Join us on Wednesday, August 21 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring August’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading.
Rachel Blume is a mom and writer from the Texas Gulf Coast pursuing her MFA in Interior Alaska. With a focus in fiction, her work has appeared in Flora Fiction, Glass Mountain, Continue the Voice, and others.
Melisa Casumbal-Salazar is the child of post-1965 Tagalog-Ilokano migrants. Find her poetry in Epiphany, Hot Pink & the Nightboat anthology Permanent Record. Their poetry collection-in-progress is titled amihan & dagat eat kamayaan / the north wind & ocean eat with their hands. She’s been in queer Filipinx community since Prince stopped touring with The Revolution.
Elaine Elinson is coauthor of the prize-winning “Wherever There’s a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California.” A former reporter with Pacific News Service and editor of the ACLU News, Elinson’s work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Nation, Ms. And elsewhere.
Karolina Letunova grew up in Western Siberia. She has an MFA from the University of Michigan, where she was a Rackam Merit Fellow and a 2020-2021 Zell Postgraduate Fellow. Her work appears or is forthcoming in AGNI, The Cincinnati Review, The Kenyon Review, The Threepenny Review, among others. Her short stories and novel-in-progress have been recognized with fellowships, grants, and residencies from the California Arts Council, Bread Loaf-Rona Jaffe, The de Groot Foundation, Ragdale, VCCA, Good Hart Artist Residency, and Monson Arts.
Caron Levis (MFA; LMSW) is the author of several star reviewed and award winning picture books including the Feeling-Friends collection: Mighty Muddy Us, Feathers Together, This Way, Charlie and Ida, Always which the New York Times Book Review calls, “an example of children’s books at their best.” Other titles include: Stop That Yawn! and Mama’s Work Shoes. She is the Coordinator and a Professor for The New School’s Writing for Children/YA MFA program. Caron uses a blend of drama and writing to create interactive SEL/literacy skills workshops for children and adults. Writing short things takes her a long time. Caron is so grateful to Storyknife for inviting her to migrate from NYC to the wonder of Homer. www.caronlevis.com
Doreen Oliver is an actor, writer, and speaker. Her award-winning solo show, EVERYTHING IS FINE UNTIL IT’S NOT, broke a record for the fastest sell-out in the NY Fringe Festival’s 20-year history. A 2022 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, Doreen’s essays about race, autism, and life’s contradictions have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Audible, The Root, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of Yale University, the Atlantic Theater Company’s Acting Conservatory, and Stanford Graduate School of Business. www.doreenoliver.com
It’s mid-July at Storyknife. This means that everything is very very green and the fireweed is fixing to bloom at any moment. It also means that we’re very very busy.
First of all, the application period is open for the 2025 residency season. In a separate email, I’ll explain how the adjudication process works which will give all of you a peek into what a labor of love Storyknife is. It takes a community of amazing women to put it all together.
Second, I hope you all have made space in your calendar for Live from Storyknife on Thursday, July 18 at 6pm Alaska Time. The bios for this month’s amazing readers are live and the Zoom link will be live on Thursday here . For those of you might miss it (because it’s late on the east coast), there will be a recording posted on the same page.
Finally, I wanted to briefly talk about fundraising. Storyknife is 54% toward meeting its 2024 fundraising goal. Donating money to an organization like Storyknife isn’t about instant gratification. It’s not like going to a performance the night after you donated to a ballet troupe. Instead, in six months or a year, you get to hold Jodi Savage’s The Death of a Jaybird: Essays on Mothers and Daughters and the Things They Leave Behind or Renata Golden’s Mountain Time: A Field Guide to Astonishment or Sara Daniel Rivera’s The Blue Mimes and sink into the artistry of their words on the page.
When you donate to Storyknife, you change the narrative. You support the vision of an incredible diverse group of women writers. You support relationships between women writers that build each other up. You put a payment forward toward a future when the women of Storyknife change the way you see the world, offer you stories you couldn’t have imagined, give you hope for healing and for building.
This may be a challenging year for tiny nonprofits like Storyknife to get your attention. It might seem more expedient to give to large organizations who can afford glossy mailers and advertisements on social media. I hoping that you’ll remember that a residency at Storyknife transforms lives. That you can be the person who makes that possible for a woman writer, who makes it possible for her to believe her words are important.
Join us on Thursday, July 18 at 6pm Alaska time for Live from Storyknife featuring July’s writers in residence. The session will be live on Zoom and the recording will be posted on this page after the reading.
A Chicanx writer and educator, Dr. Victoria Bañales is the founder and editor of Journal X, a social justice literary arts magazine. Her writing has been published in various journals and anthologies. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature and Feminist Studies from the University of California-Santa Cruz. More at vickybanales.com.
Jan Beatty’s eighth book, Dragstripping, is forthcoming (University of Pittsburgh Press, September, 2024). Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Recent books include The Body Wars and a chapbook, Skydog (Lefty Blondie Press, 2022). Beatty worked as a waitress, abortion counselor, and in maximum security prisons. www.janbeatty.com
Susan Nguyen’s debut poetry collection Dear Diaspora won the 2020 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, an Outstanding Achievement Award from the Association of Asian American Studies, and a New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. She likes nature, crafts, and starting a new hobby every other week. She lives in Arizona.
Dominica Phetteplace is a writer and math tutor from the San Francisco Bay Area. Her honors include two Pushcart Prizes, a Rona Jaffe Award and fellowships from MacDowell, Djerassi and Tin House.
Sierra Rosetta (she/her) is an Indigenous playwright and theatre artist currently based in Chicago, Illinois. Her first full-length play, FROM THE OLD WOOD FOREST, was selected by Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program as the Young Native Playwright winner in 2024.
Philadelphia native, victoria stitt is currently thinking about palimpsests, journeys home, and, most recently, lupines. Their poems have been nominated for Best New Poetry, Best of the Net, and have appeared in Poetry Daily, the Michigan Quarterly Review, and others. victoria received their MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College and teaches English in New Jersey.
Jan Beatty: Pink Poetry Prize, “If You Slice the Moon,” “Miraculous,” “Leaving Santa Fe,” “Junkie,” “I Ran Into Water,” “Scarline,” Great River Review, Issue 70, Spring 2024.
Kimberly Blaeser: Ancient Light, University of Arizona Press, January 2024.
Kersten Christianson: “The Challenge Is to Write Beauty Without Using the Word Beautiful,” Last Stanza Poetry Journal, Issue #14, Fall 2023.
Kersten Christianson: “Slice the Fruit Thin,” “Autumnal,” and “New Year Redux,” Sheila-Na-Gig, Volume 8.2, Winter 2023.
Kersten Christianson: “If Not Glitter, If Not Gold,” The Bluebird Word, December 2023/January 2024.
Kersten Christianson: “I Never Knew,” Sheila-Na-Gig, Volume 8.3, Spring 2024.
Kersten Christianson: “Concentric,” San Pedro River Review, Vol. 16, #1, Spring 2024.
Kersten Christianson: “Ode to the Coffee Grinder, My One True Love,” and “Woman Taken by the Wind,” Tidal Echoes, 2024 Edition.
Kersten Christianson: “Oceanic,” Three Hearts: An Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry, World Enough Writers, Spring 2024.
Lydi Conklin: “Last Time We Spoke,” The Yale Review, June 2024.
Ann Fisher-Wirth: Into the Chalice of Your Thoughts (with photographs by Wilfried Raussert; poems translated into Spanish by the Women in Translation group), University of Guadalajara Press, December 2023.
Ann Fisher-Wirth: “The Here of Here,” Terrain.org, March 2024.
Ann Fisher-Wirth: “‘Tis a Consummation,” Braving the Body, ed. Nicole Callihan, Pichchenda Bao, and Jennifer Franklin, Small Harbor Publishing, 2024.
Ann Fisher-Wirth: “Catalpa,” “Winter Day on the Whirlpool Trails,” “Val Corsaglia,” and “Sweetgum Country,” Poets for Science (online), ed. David Hassler, February 2024.
Sandra Jackson-Opoku: “African Artifacts on a Shelf of Antiquities, the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London,” Adi Magazine, Issue 18: Omens – Spirits & Specters, Feb 2024.
Sandra Jackson-Opoku: “In the Overseas,” Issue 5: About Place Journal, Strange Wests, June 2024.
Arielle Taitano Lowe: Ocean Mother, University of Guam Press, March 02, 2024.
Maryann Lesert: Land Marks, She Writes Press, April 16, 2024.
Kim Steutermann Rogers: “Mrs. Wilcox,” Lost Balloon, October 11, 2024.
Kim Steutermann Rogers: “Last Rites,” Reckon Review, September 25, 2024
Taté Walker: “Colonialism Ate My Body,” Good Eats: 32 Writers on Eating Ethically, NYU Press, January 2024.
Taté Walker: “The Desert is Abundant With Blessings,” Little Somethings Press , Issue 6, June 2024.
Taté Walker: “Mark Tilsen: ‘It Ain’t Over Til We’re Smoking Cigars on the Drill Pad’,” Studies in American Indian Literatures 35:3-4, University of Nebraska Press, Fall/Winter 2023.
Lucy Wang: “Mise En Place,” SUNY Potsdam, Sept 2023.
Lucy Wang: “Book Me!,” PlayGround Experiment Faces of America Festival #5, Marjorie S Dean Little Theater, NYC Nov 18, 2023.
Lucy Wang: “Mia Sees A Sign,” Benchmark Education, Jan 2024.
Lucy Wang: “Two Artists Trying to Pay Their Bill,” American School of Dubai, Dubai, UAE, Feb 21-22, 2024.
Lucy Wang: Excerpts from “Ode to Joy, ” LaMaMa Theater, Feb 29, 2024.
Lucy Wang: “Junior Moment,” Gi60 International Theater Festival, The Tank, NYC, May 16-19, 2024.
Storyknife Writers Retreat 