A retreat center for women in the arts, located in Shelton, Washington
Events
Events featuring current and past Holly House resident artists are free to the public as part of Hypatia’s effort to enrich the cultural life of the local community while supporting women in the arts and academia with unrestricted time to complete their projects at Holly House in solo residencies.
2025
Margo Davis – Ekphrastic Poetry Workshop
When: Thursday, May 1, 3:00 pm.
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 7th and Alder
A writer-in-residence at Hypatia-in-the Woods, Davis will focus on ekphrastic poetry—poetry that springs from the writer’s response to a work of visual art—for her reading and workshop. She says she loves ekphrastic poetry for its dialogue with other forms of art. She will read a series of ekphrastic poems written in response to Dorothea Lange’s photos of the 1930s Dust Bowl.
Margo’s workshop will focus on ekphrasis, “giving voice to what stirs in us when we see an art piece and simply can’t break away.” She adds, “Never written this type poem? There are no parameters other than delving in, experimenting, observing. You can describe, respond, argue, or record whatever thoughts surface. Reflect. Play. Risk words on the page. Join us! Sharing your work with fellow writers will be optional.”
Davis thrives on residencies in the Pacific Northwest—Hypatia-in-the-Woods and Centrum—as well as overseas, in Spain, Portugal, Budapest, and Italy. Margo’s poems include Pushcart nominees, and have appeared in Equinox Biannual Journal, Passager, Verse Daily, The Ekphrastic Review, Deep South Magazine, Midwest Quarterly, Panoply, and numerous anthologies. Her collections include Quicksilver (2022) and Uncoupling (Lamar University Press, 2026). She has a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of New Orleans, where she’s from.
September Herrin and Julia Oshiki — A Two-part Flash Fiction Workshop
When: Part 1: Friday, April 18, 2025 3:30 p.m. — 5:30 p.m. (September)
Part 2: Tuesday, April 22, 2025 3:30 p.m. — 5:30 p.m. (Julia)
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 7th and Alder
Two Hypatia-in-the-Woods writers in residence will collaborate for a two-session experience in writing flash fiction April 18 and 22 at the Shelton Timberland Library..
Novelists September Herrin and Julia Oshiki, each of whom will spend a week at Hypatia’s Holly House to work on their full-length story projects, will offer the workshops as a coordinated pair. However, participants are welcome to attend just one or the other if their available time is limited.
Herrin, who writes using the author name September Woods Garland, will lead off with a session starting at 3:30 p.m. Friday, April 18. “In Flash Fiction Part One,” she says, “we will learn about the artistic value and craft of flash fiction. Through analyzing sample texts and exploring our own ideas through guided writing exercises, we’ll come to understand the fundamentals of flash fiction writing. Rounding out this first of two parts, we’ll spend time drafting a flash fiction piece that can be workshopped in part two, led by Julia Oshiki.”
Julia Oshiki will pick up the thread with a second workshop at 3:30 Tuesday, April 22. She writes, “In this workshop, we will chat about what makes flash fiction great. We’ll try our hand at some writing exercises, and have an opportunity to share and discuss our flash fiction towards the end of the session. This workshop builds off of last week’s flash fiction session led by September Woods Garland – attendees are encouraged to bring any writing from that session, though newcomers are very much welcomed as well.”
September Herrin/Woods Garland hails from the Pacific Northwest where she enjoys long, romantic walks through haunted houses and feeding Bigfoot peanut butter and seaweed sandwiches. Her fiction is forthcoming or has appeared in The Stray Branch, Roi Fainéant Press, Crow & Cross Keys, and elsewhere. September is currently working on her debut novel and will be a Writer-in-Residence at Arteles in Haukijärvi, Finland in September 2025. She also works as a freelance book editor and serves as Editor in Chief at Weird Lit Magazine.
Julia Oshiki, who uses pronouns they/them, is a creative nonfiction writer living in Portland, OR. They received their MFA in creative nonfiction from Colorado State University and are the winner of the Hallie Brown Ford award in creative writing. They enjoy writing about gender, sexuality, and romance media.
Atia Sattar — A Reading
When: Thursday, April 10, 2025 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Where: Marmo Gallery and Caffè, 217 W. Cota Street, Shelton, WA 98584
Atia Sattar is a Pakistani-born poet whose writing explores the embodied intersections of grief, gender, race, and motherhood. Her creative work has been supported by PEN America, Anaphora Arts, the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow, and Hypatia in the Woods. Her poems have been published in Rogue Agent (Pushcart Nomination), West Trade Review, Michigan Quarterly Review: Mixtape, and SWWIM Every Day, among others. Atia’s essays appear in Lion’s Roar, Tricycle, Academe, and the Cambridge Quarterly for Health Care Ethics. She is Associate Teaching Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.
Sophia Deutsch – Sound Bath
When: Friday, March 21, 4 p.m.
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 7th and Alder
Join Minneapolis-based cellist and composer Sophia Deutsch for a 30-minute sound bath that blends amplified cello and electronics to create an immersive experience of resonant sound. Drawing on her background in both classical and experimental music, Sophia crafts a sonic landscape where overtones shimmer, dissonances unfold, and vibrations fill the space, inviting a deep connection with sound.
This sound bath offering is an invitation to engage in a communal meditation through waves of sound. As cello tones and electronic textures envelop the room, participants are encouraged to settle in, breathe, and allow the vibrations to wash over them. The experience is designed to foster relaxation, awareness, and creative inspiration, whether you’re seeking stillness, introspection, or a sense of sonic adventure.
Bring a pillow or mat, find a comfortable place to rest, and let the music guide you.
Sophia Deutsch is a Minneapolis-based cellist and composer whose work bridges experimental sound and classical tradition. Her music embraces a full spectrum of beauty—from the grotesque to the sublime—using electronics to enhance the subtle overtones of acoustic instruments and auxiliary percussion. As a performer, Sophia’s improvisational sensibilities and melodic creativity have made her a well-utilized collaborator across a range of genres in the Twin Cities, from drone and psych rock to experimental and techno. Her compositions evolve from live performance and improvisation into intentional explorations of new notation and form. Recognized by the Jerome Foundation and The Cedar Cultural Center, Sophia was awarded the 2022-23 Cedar Commission for Vis Vitae, a chamber ensemble piece blending traditional, aleatoric, and experimental notation. Inspired by vitalism, the piece explores the universe as a grand sonic experience—one in which we are both the audience and the composers. Currently, she is developing Pull, a dual memoir multimedia collaboration with harpist, vocalist, and filmmaker Victoria Carpenter, and looks forward to beginning her newest composition at Hypatia-in-the-Woods in March 2025.
Historical Character Workshop with Hypatia Resident Sally Bays
Where: Marmo Gallery, 217 Cota Street, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Saturday, March 8, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Uncovering historical characters and making them your own
In this workshop, participants will learn how to take characters from history and turn them into literary inspiration. The workshop includes lecture, discussion, and writing components.
Sally Bays is a northwest writer currently living in Sequim, WA, with her husband and four youngest kids. She has a BA in English from Colorado State and an MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University. When not writing or volunteering with her many organizations, she enjoys fiber arts and napping.
Dora Lanier – Intro to Improvisation
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Monday, February 10, 4:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Dora Lanier is a Seattle based actor, writer, director, and teacher. She has taught acting, movement, improvisation, and theater history to groups of all ages in the Puget Sound and UW Madison where she received her MFA in Theater.
Dora has performed as Wanda Flipplefairy, teaching water conservation to grade school students for Snohomish County PUD, and has been a member of several improv troupes in the Seattle area.
Her workshop will explore improvisation vocabulary and how to use it, incorporate play improvisation games and scenes, and discuss how improvisation is incorporated into many areas outside of theater or a comedy club.
Dora’s current writing project, Erasing Ophelia will be the
focus of her stay at Holly House this winter.
…
Meg Hayertz – How to Hug a Lion
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Tuesday, January 28, 4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Meg Hayertz (she/they) is the author of Tarot for Beginners (Althea Press). Meg holds an MFA from California Institute of Integral Studies and her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in The Louisville Review, CALYX, Press Pause, VoiceCatcher, and elsewhere. Meg lives in Portland, Oregon.
Meg will read from a work in progress, How To Hug a Lion…a novel that includes fun/satirical/poetic worksheets where the reader can reflect on their relationship to wildness and domesticity.
To open and close the reading, Meg will hand out copies of a worksheet attendees can do for fun, if they like (participation optional). Meg will then give folks a chance to share what they come up with, if they like, in pairs and in the larger group.
How to Hug a Lion
“When Kara, an anxious millennial working a shitty job at the San Francisco Aquarium gift shop and desperate to superglue her relationship with her girlfriend back together, meets a friend’s domesticated therapy lion, she’s tempted by the possibility of becoming healed. Despite glaring ethical concerns, she accepts the gift of a lion named Blueberry from her girlfriend (a confident,
fast-talking young lawyer trying to get Kara off her back). Kara hopes to learn courage from the lion (because if she were brave, she would be lovable, she believes), but life is asking her to learn courage from failure, repair her exploitative relationships and—when her lion regains his instincts—embrace the beast of karmic justice leaping towards her with its claws out and fangs bared.”
Rebecca Holbrook – Reading and Music
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Thursday, January 16, 2025, 4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
A storyteller steeped in the rich culture of the south, Rebecca Holbrook comes from generations of women with the Sight, a knowing of things to come, and other healing gifts. Her first novel, Omie’s Well, was inspired by stories about these women, handed down from her mother and aunts. In the tradition of her ancestors, she became a healer, working as an orthopedic massage therapist, and founded the Healing Arts Center & Massage School in Huntsville, Alabama. Along the way, she’s been carpenter, horticulturist, singer, songwriter, musician and poet. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Gary, and their dog, Liza Jane, where she writes, and offers courses on empowering women through carpentry.
Rebecca will read from her first book, Omie’s Well (published in 2023) and from its sequel, The Deer Stone, which will be published in 2025. She’ll also sing and play traditional music referenced in the books.
Set in the early 1900’s near Savannah, Georgia, both books are about legacies: the gifts and challenges we inherit and what we choose to do with them. They also capture the rich flavor of the south, its humor, the strength of its people, and the challenges a changing world brings to their doorstep.
https://rebeccaholbrookbooksandmusic.com
Kathryn Frey – Lyric Poetry Reading
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Friday, January 3, 2025, 4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Kathryn Frey is an artist, dancer, writer, and aspiring cartographer of liminal spaces. Her work emerges from the intersection of movement, memory, and critical inquiry. Sixteen years of classical ballet training provided a rich foundation for exploring how bodies archive experience, while deconstructing her religious upbringing created a pathway for challenging systemic narratives.
Kathryn will be reading (and maybe singing) from a work-in-progress of lyric poetry about friendship, love, grief, death, moss, and stones.
Kathryn’s process is rooted in self-inquiry, expression, and transformation. Her work combines performance, video, multimedia installation, and group facilitation. Whether decoding the origins of cultural mythologies or creating site-specific dance improvisations, Kathryn is most interested in the spaces where personal narrative meets broader cultural critique.
She graduated summa cum laude from Parsons Paris | The New School. Her thesis, “Variations on a Theme of Butterflies,” was an autobiographical multimedia installation that received departmental honors—a project that unpacked ballet’s historical narratives through an intersectional lens. She has continued her training with numerous workshops and intensives in New York, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and Estonia and has performed and exhibited internationally.
Along with Maile Crowder and Alicia Ralls, Kathryn co-founded Peace Tree Collective, an artist collective centered around processing grief through artistic expression, communal experiences, and spirituality. Learn more here: https://www.peacetreecollective.org/
Kathryn lives in Portland, OR where she guides one-on-one embodiment sessions, weekly yoga classes, monthly workshops, and seasonal retreats.
2024
Ame Gilbert – Cooking Memories
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Monday, December 9, 4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
A reading of excerpts from a work-in-progress—an (as yet) unnamed culinary memoir. What started with pondering her mother’s recipes after her mother’s death—a “grief journal with recipes” if you will, slowly transformed into a “coming of age tale” albeit coming of age in middle-age. Throughout, food plays a key character, speaking not with words, but with scent, taste, the dance of cooking, the interaction sharing a meal. Not a love language per se—food roots us in time, place, reveals our circumstance. All the things we long for, the things we feel we have to prove, the hurts, the things withheld—these too get mixed into the batter.
Artist Statement: “I’m a artist, food scholar and cook. Sometimes I teach cooking or art or a combination. I also write poems and essays about food, and create theme based menu’s for several NYC salons. What I love is pushing meals into the realm of ideas while still keeping them delicious. I like to think of cooking and eating as a form of storytelling, and I love sharing a good tale.”
Ame is an independent food consultant and writer in Brooklyn, New York. She was co-founder of Communal Table in New York City, where she developed and implemented themed performance events using food. She was also curator at Umami Food and Art Festival.
Ame studied Art, Ceramics, Glass, and Sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and a Masters of Liberal Studies from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, with independent study in food and art,and received a culinary certificate from the New York Restaurant School.
Nina Burokas Reading plus Poetry Open Mic
Where: Marmo Cafe & Gallery, 217 W. Cota Street, Shelton, WA 9858
When: Saturday, November 23, 5:00-6:30 PM
Photo credit: Blue Whole Gallery, Sequim, WA
Nina Burokas will be reading poetry from her chapbook, Wintering, the ekphrastic anthology Inspired by Art and current work under development.
Nina is a writer and educator living on Quimper Peninsula, the ancestral home of the Chemakum people in Washington State. Her poetry appears in Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s Webster Woods Sculpture Park, The Madrona Project No. 7 anthology This Machine is Made for Earth, Inspired by Art and her chapbook, Wintering. She frequently writes book reviews for Raven Chronicles, with a focus on poetry of place/presence. An adjunct business instructor at Mendocino College in California, Nina has been a contributing author/editor for five digital business titles.
Artist Statement:
I consider Terry Tempest Williams’ meditation on the question of how to live (How shall I live? // I want to feel both the beauty / and the pain / of the world we are living in….”) the essential dilemma of our time – of any time, perhaps.
My interest is the human condition, with particular attention to our interaction with/impact on other living elements in a complex system. I’m interested in our perception of self – of being and becoming – on an intimate and the broader societal, national, human impact scale. I’m particularly curious about nature as a teacher: what we can learn about living (and dying) from individual species such as salmon or trees and the dynamics of systems such as forests and bioregions. Can we learn/evolve fast enough to prevent extinction?
I’m a writer, first; primarily, a poet. However, I’m also interested in expressing ideas visually and exploring opportunities to collaborate on the creation of art and meaning. I find inspiration in a muddling of ideas, of cultures and methods of expression – enjoy experimenting with layering text, weaving in a favorite Italian phrase, the refrain from a French nursery rhyme, an excerpt from a poem in Spanish, a word with a distinct “foreign” history. I think of writing, my voice, as I do cooking: complex, evolving, distinct. One of the primary objectives of my residency is to find the thread of my voice as expressed in various forms and mediums and to weave that into a coherent body of work that will become my first full-length manuscript.
Artist: SandraRosa Bryant
Where: Shelton High School (Not open to the public — student activity sponsored by Shelton Timberland Library)
When: Tuesday, November 12
Young Adults Writing Workshop
On November 12th, writer and Teen Services Librarian SandraRosa Bryant will be offering a writing workshop at Shelton High School, sponsored by the Shelton Timberland Library. The workshop will include analyses of scenes in Middle Grade (MG) and Young Adult (YA) novels and writing exercises. Bryant’s passion for MG Fantasy combined with her work hosting and interviewing authors, make her an ideal presenter for aspiring young writers!
SandraRosa earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Puget Sound and a Master of Library and Information Science from Louisiana State University. She has worked in libraries since she was a teenager and became a librarian in 2016.
https://snappynewday.wordpress.com/
Artist: Holly Settoon
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Thursday, November 7, 4:00-6:00 pm
Playwriting Workshop
A series of writing exercises inspired by the teachings of the playwright Maria Irene Fornés.
Holly Settoon is an actress, playwright, and screenwriter from southeast Louisiana living in Brooklyn.
Holly’s work has been featured at HERE Arts Center, The Secret Theatre, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. Plays include Greek Play, Hospitality, and Grand Isle. As a writer, she is interested in exploring the crossroads of femininity, ambition, and small-town life. She is a current member of Youngblood, the OBIE-winning playwright collective for emerging writers at Ensemble Studio Theatre. She received her BFA in Theatre from Southern Methodist University.
Holly says: “The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is connecting with other people and feeling more connected to the world in general. I grew up in a really small town where art was not very pervasive or celebrated, so the fact that I get to do it at all feels very special and crazy to me and I feel very grateful that I have found a community that I get to share my work with! It just means so much to me when someone tells me that something I wrote or performed in affected them in any way whatsoever.”
Her plays are available on the New Play Exchange.
Artist: Josephine Ensign
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Wednesday, October 30, 4:30-6:00 pm
Way Home: What Works for Preventing and Ending Homelessness
Josephine Ensign is a professor of nursing at the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing, where she teaches health policy, public health, and health humanities. She is an adjunct professor at the UW School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies. Her scholarship focuses on health and social inequities for people marginalized by poverty and homelessness. Her essays have appeared in Front Porch Journal, Pulse, Silk Road, The Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine, Electric Literature, The Examined Life Journal, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, and theJohns Hopkins Public Health Magazine. She is an alumna of Hedgebrook, Centrum, The Community of Writers, Mesa Refuge, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Ensign’s medical memoir, Catching Homelessness: A Nurse’s Story of Falling Through the Safety Net, was named the American Journal of Nursing 2017 Book of the Year for creative works. Her second book, Soul Stories: Voices from the Margins, was published in July 2018 by the University of California Medical Humanities Press. Ensign’s third book, Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in an American City, was published in August 2021 by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was named a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. The paperback, Skid Road: On the Frontier of Health and Homelessness in Seattle was published in February 2023 by the University of Washington Press. Her book, Way Home: Journeys Through Homelessness, comes out in November 2024 by the Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ensign received a BA (Biology and Religion) from Oberlin College, her masters in primary care nursing from the Medical College of Virginia, and her doctorate in public health from the Johns Hopkins University Ensign has worked as a nurse and family nurse practitioner for the past forty years, providing primary health care to homeless adolescents, families, and adults.
Artist: Melissa Duclos
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Monday, October 21, 3-4:30 pm
Start Telling Your Story: A Writing Workshop
Whether you’re interested in telling stories from your life or your imagination, this 90-minute generative writing workshop, facilitated by novelist and essayist Melissa Duclos, will help you bring your ideas to the page.
Get inspired by writing prompts, exercises, and opportunities for feedback, and leave with suggestions to create a regular writing practice. This workshop welcomes teen and adult writers at all levels of experience. Please bring a notebook and writing implement.
Melissa Duclos is the author of the novel Besotted. Her essays have appeared in the editing anthology Feminists Reclaim Mentorship, The Washington Post, The Offing, and Salon.com, which awarded her Best Personal Essay of 2015. Learn more about her work at melissa-duclos.com.
Melissa has an MFA in fiction from Columbia University and studied nonfiction at Tin House. She has more than a decade of experience facilitating writing workshops through Write Around Portland, Clackamas Community College, and Portland Community College, among other venues.
melissa-duclos.com
Artist: Katherine Cusumano
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Thursday, October 17, 2024 4-6 pm
Tree Guy: Inside the World of Competitive Tree-Climbing
Each summer, arborists from across the Pacific Northwest gather for the annual Portland Tree Climbing Competition. They compete in events meant to simulate the perilous day-to-day work of tree care, racing up the dizzying heights of Douglas firs and swinging between boughs. In this reading and craft talk, journalist and essayist Katherine Cusumano immerses readers in the high-octane sport of competitive tree climbing — a process that resulted in her climbing more than a few trees herself.
Katherine Cusumano is a reporter, essayist, and editor whose work focuses on the intersections of culture, gender, and the outdoors. She is a regular contributor to the New York Times for Kids and W Magazine, and her work has also appeared in Outside Magazine, Climbing Magazine, and Bon Appétit, among others. She is also a writer-in-residence at Portland Public Schools through Literary Arts’ Writers in the Schools program, teaching nonfiction to high-schoolers across the city.
Her work has been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences, the Spring Creek Project, Hypatia-in-the-Woods, and the Oregon State University President’s Commission on the Status of Women. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from Oregon State University and a BA in comparative literature from Brown University. She is working on a collection of essays about the intersections of performance and the natural world, from which her reading is drawn. In “Tree Guy,” she enters the niche world of arborist competitions, exploring how one athlete’s career in the trees touches everything from assumptions about labor, class, and capitalism to climate change.
https://www.katherinecusumano.com/
Artist: Michelle Ross
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
When: Thursday, September 12, 5-6 pm
A Flash Fiction Reading
Michelle Ross will be reading flash fiction from her most recent book,They Kept Running,as well as from a work in progress.
Michelle is the author of three story collections:There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You(2017),winner of the2016 Moon City Press Short Fiction Award and Finalist for the2017Foreward INDIES Book of the Year Award for Short Stories; Shapeshifting,winner of the2020 Stillhouse Press Short Story Award (2021);and They Kept Running,winner of the2021 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction (2022).
Her fourth book, Don’t Take This the Wrong Way,is a short story collection she coauthored with Kim Magowan.It’s forthcoming from EastOver Press in early2025.
Her fiction has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Colorado Review, Epiphany,Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, TriQuarterly, Witness,and other venues.Her fiction has been anthologized in Flash Fiction America; Best Small Fictions 2021and2023; Best Microfiction 2020,2021,2023,and2024;and the Wigleaf Top502019and2022,among other anthologies.Her work has been spotlighted inBest Small Fictions and received special mention in the Pushcart Prize anthology.
She is currently on the staff of 100Word Story.Before that,she served as fiction editor of Atticus Review for about eight years and was a consulting editor for the2018 Best Small Fictions anthology.
A native of Texas, she received her B.A. from Emory University and her M.F.A and M.A. from Indiana University. She lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband and son.
Artist: Janet Rankin
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
Monday, August 26, 5-6pm
Seeing the Elephant: Women’s Voices from the Oregon Trail
Janet Rankin is a professor and cultural historian at Oregon State University – Cascades in Bend and her academic focus has been telling the stories of “the rest of us” – especially adding women back into history. When Janet lived in the foothills of Northern California, she studied and presented on the women of the California Gold Rush.
Now that she’s in the PNW, Janet’s curiosity has her delving into the women who uprooted their lives and wrote about their experiences along the Oregon Trail. Their journals provide a unique window into the lives of certain mid-19th century women (albeit those brave or foolhardy enough to embark on the journey). Previous scholarship has focused on geography or chronology, but Janet is taking a thematic approach, focusing on the commonplace and curious journal entries. Janet will read from her work in progress.
Artist: Megan Riggs
Where: Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder, Shelton, WA 98584
Thursday, August 15, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
“In My Bones”
Megan is a home-educating parent living outside of Seattle with her husband and three children.
At the age of 40 and with a nursing baby at home, she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a rare and aggressive cancer which occurs most frequently in people over 65. Megan writes about the intersection of parenting young children and being a partner just stepping into middle-adulthood while living with a sudden and life-altering health crisis.
Artist: Heather Hawk
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
Thursday, July 25, 4:30 – 5:30 pm
“What Is Still Wild: A Memoir”
Heather Hawk is a long-time community activist and volunteer with a graduate degree in Women’s Studies. She spent ten years working in violence reduction, intervention, and trauma-informed care. She writes from her home in the Pacific Northwest, where for the past ten years she has also run her own wellness practice (zenshiwellness.com). Her work has been published in Off Our Backs, Northwest Women’s Journal, 5×5, 100 Word Story, and elsewhere. What Is Still Wild was selected as a 2023 finalist for the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. A personal essay related to this project is forthcoming in Zone 3 literary journal.
From What is Still Wild: “In the U.S., about 80% of women will develop uterine fibroids by age 50, Black women at three times the rate of women of other races and ethnicities. Yet little is known about fibroids, a chronically underfunded area of medicine. At thirty-three, Heather Hawk is diagnosed with a massive uterine fibroid. Her desire for a child collides with her body’s failure: she looks and feels pregnant but isn’t, a sorrow compounded by her husband’s affair resulting in twins.” What Is Still Wild chronicles Hawk’s personal story of grief and three-year healing experience while navigating betrayal and divorce. Opening Hawk’s personal story onto larger social issues related to the body—menstruation, virginity, female agency, pleasure, and violence—What Is Still Wild is a kaleidoscope turning the question: “What does it mean to listen to and trust a body that lives in a world that doesn’t listen to women?”
Hawk will read from her memoir, What is Still Wild.
http://www.zenshiwellness.com/
Artist: Aimee Mattila
Where: by invitation only
Tuesday, July 9th
Hapazome and Monoprinting Workshop
Aimee Mattila is an extremely talented and versatile artist from Portland, Oregon. She presented an outdoor botanical printing workshop to Hypatia board members and volunteers on Tuesday, July 9th. She shared two techniques for botanical printing on paper…Hapazome and mono-printing.
Hapa zome, literally meaning “leaf dye”, is a Japanese printmaking technique where the natural pigments of plant specimens are transferred onto fabric/paper creating varied designs…fresh leaves and flowers are arranged on or between layers of paper and the dye is transferred by pounding with a hammer. This can be used as a stand alone print or as a background to mono-printing. Mono-printing is accomplished by painting the botanical specimen with acrylics or poster paint and then pressing on or between two pieces of paper.
Artist Statement: “Art is a way of life for me and life is an art in itself.” The true value of any piece of art is the special relationship you as an individual develop with the creation you have chosen and the artist who created the work.
Each piece of art Aimee creates reflects her ability to capture a harmonious balance connecting fortuitous experimentation, intellectual exploration and spiritual wisdom with her innate sense of design. Flexibility during the creative process allows for a natural spontaneity and rhythm to the flow of her artwork. Aimee’s exclusive creations express her perceptive eye for detail and dedication to quality craftsmanship. She is a highly skilled and unique artist that expresses her talent through the diverse mediums she utilizes.
Artist: Pamela Mitchell
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
Saturday, June 22, 5-6 pm
“Finding Lost Pond”
Pamela Mitchell is a retired nurse, poet and full time author who lives and writes in Bend, Oregon. She grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York, received her RN from SUNY Upstate Medical Center, Syracuse, and her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Vermont. She has lived and worked in New York, Seattle, and Bend. She taught writing at SUNY Adirondack Community College, Albany Institute of Art, and Saratoga Community Hospital (with patients). Pamela’s current work, upcoming memoir Bequeathed, is a book of essays about her work for Kitsap County Health Department in founding the AIDS program and winning an award from the local chapter of NOW in the 1980s.
Pamela will be reading from her first book of poetry, Finding Lost Pond, which was published in 2021, by Finishing Line Press. Finding Lost Pond has been awarded 2nd Place for Book of the Year Award 2021 in Creativity by The American Journal of Nursing. Finding Lost Pond is the story of a nurse’s life as she is bearing witness to and holding, the suffering of her patients, her parents, and her own life. As she moves into her elder years, the deep sustenance of wilderness and the innocent trust of children renew her spirit, becoming a benediction.
Artist’s Statement:
“I write about the interface between my nursing work and the wild places which sustain me.”
https://pammitchelldotblog.wordpress.com
Artist: Ahavani Mullen
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
Thursday, May 30, 4-5pm
“Imprinting Paintings with Vibration”
Employing a range of materials such as various paint media, transparent textiles, aluminum, copper, and sound vibration, Ahavani constructs paintings, sculptures and installations that have evolved from silence. Rooted in a long-held daily contemplative practice and study, she allows this perspective to inform her studio practice, creating a kind of bridge between the inner and outer worlds.
Ahavani will share details about her current work and process, which explores the ways in which subtle, ephemeral vibrations can be given form on a canvas, using energetically-charged paint to create fields of color, light, and texture. By directing audio into her raw materials, she captures the energetic imprint of specific sounds and texts, absorbing their vibration and distilling their qualities into the work.
Ahavani has been awarded many fellowships, grants, residencies, and solo exhibitions around the US. Her work can be viewed at: www.ahavani.com
Artist: Jennifer Badot
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
When: Thursday, May 23, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Jennifer Badot is the author of A Violet, A Jennifer (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022). A Pushcart Prize nominee, Badot’s poems and reviews have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Boston Phoenix Literary Supplement, Studia Mystica, the Lily Poetry Review, the Poetry is Bread Anthology (forthcoming) and elsewhere. She lives in Massachusetts.
Jennifer will read from her book A Violet, A Jennifer and from new work and then host an open mic.
Sign-up for the open mic will begin at 4:00 pm. Poets who read a poem with a flower in it will receive a signed copy of Badot’s book.
All are welcome.
Artist: Julene Tripp Weaver … Psychotherapist and Writer
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
When: April 29, 3:00 PM
Topic: Julene will be reading from her new book of poetry, which will be published in June.
Julene is a poet, author, and medical case management counselor.
Julene Tripp Weaver, a psychotherapist and writer in Seattle, has three prior poetry collections;Truth Be Bold: Serenading Life & Death in the Age of AIDS (Finishing Line Press, 2017), which won the Bisexual Book Award, four Human Relations Indie Book Awards, and was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards; No Father Can Save Her, (Plain View Press, 2011); and a chapbook, Case Walking: An AIDS Case Manager Wails Her Blues, (Finishing Line Press, 2007). Slow Now with Clear Skies will be available by June.
Her poems have appeared in many journals including: HEAL, Autumn Sky Poetry, Oye Drum, Poetry Super Highway, As it Ought To Be, and elsewhere. Recent anthologies include: Rumors Secrets & Lies: Poems about Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice; I Sing the Salmon Home; Writing Through the Apocalypse; The Power of the Feminine I: Poems from the Feminine Perspective, Volume 2; and Nerve Cowboy, Selected Works: 2004-2012. Find more of her work at www.julenetrippweaver.com
Artist: Kripi Malviya
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
When: Friday, April 26, 2-3 pm
Kripi Malviya is an existential psychotherapist and poet from India. Her work has been published in the World Literature Review, the Sky Island Journal, Muse and the Black Warrior Review. She is the winner of the 2017 Rhythm Divine International Poetry Chapbook contest for her first poetry collection ‘ale(theia)’. She runs an emotional well-being organization ‘TATVA’. It specializes in therapeutic residencies for international artists and creative communities, combining psychotherapy, nature therapy, social justice and cultural immersion together with creative exploration, emotional awareness and self-care. Kripi is also a co-founder of the Poetry Therapy Society of India.
Artist’s Statement:
The distinctive features of how, why and what thoughts, feelings and images are seized by my consciousness and deemed urgent enough to be the start of a poem; has to do with cultivated vulnerability. Its almost assuredly always in instances of self exposure and allowing myself to be changed by my lived experiences that I have ever produced what can be called a poem. Unshielded – ness or disclosure are one of the most significant forces behind my writing; unrelenting attempts to decipher and face all aspects of the emotional landscape . There is a constant flow in my identity as a poet and as a psychotherapist; with often no clear boundaries dividing my practice in both; hence they merge with each other seamlessly.
www.kripimalviya.com – www.tatvacenter.com
Artist: Lorelle Rau … Artist and Art Consultant
Where: Marmo Gallery, 217 W. Cota St., Shelton, WA 98584
When: Friday, April 5, 1-3 pm
Topic: Collage Workshop (limited to 20 particants, registration required, see below)
Lorelle Rau is an independent curator, art consultant, and the founder of Lorelle Rau Studios, an art consulting firm that offers a full line of services; through which artwork reaches beyond the artist’s studio to connect with its audience.
Throughout her early career, Lorelle worked closely with a number of important mentors. Having a mother as a sculptor, she experienced firsthand the challenges and rewards of being an artist, which motivated her to study art management at Appalachian State University. There she gained experience working in the college galleries and quickly moved up to curatorial assistant at the museum working closely alongside the curator. It was in these quiet, contemplative spaces in galleries and museums that she discovered a love and appreciation of art that grew into a lifelong passion. She continued on course towards an art career, building professional experience and connections through working for the Corcoran Gallery of Art and several commercial galleries. She later earned her master’s degree in arts administration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Before long, she established a niche working for a corporate art consulting agency. Realizing that she could turn this into a viable, fulfilling career, she set out on her own.
This workshop will use cut paper and appropriated imagery to investigate concepts of nature, place, and the environment. The substrate for the collage, collage papers, and some glue sticks and scissors will be provided. Participates may want to bring their own tools and materials.
Contact Marmo Gallery (isa@marmogallery.com) to register.
Artist: Caroline Holm … artist, nature poet and author
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
When: Thursday, March 28 … 5:00 pm
Topic: Poetry Reading and display of paintings from her debut book of poetry and prose.
Caroline Holm is an Oregon-based artist, mother, poet, printmaker and state-licensed psilocybin facilitator in support of healing. In 2022, she wrote, illustrated and published her first book of nature poetry and prose, Woodland.
Caroline is in the process of writing and painting a cohesive collection of work for her second book of poetry and prose which she hopes to complete during her residency at Holly House. For more information about Caroline’s previous work, check out the following web links: https://www.carolineholmpoetry.com/ or Carolineholmstudio.etsy.com
Artist: Liz Jones … author, journalist and creative writer
Where: Shelton Timberland Library
When: Friday, March 15 … 2:30-3:30 pm
Topic: Immigration Stories of the Pacific NW
Part of Liz’s memoir is based on her decade as an immigration reporter at KUOW Public Radio, including coverage in various rural NW communities. She will be talking about some of that reporting, ongoing local issues with a segue to open mic for Q&A.
Liz has consistently won top journalism awards while working at KUOW from 2005 to 2018 stating that “the greatest reward is when someone at the center of my stories tells me they feel seen and valued. It’s powerful to see how stories can make our world feel a little more connected, or help us grasp that potential.”
Liz’s current project is a memoir told through a collection of essays, weaving together themes from her Mexican-American heritage and her work as a journalist. For more information about Liz and her projects, check out the following web link: https://www.kuow.org/authors/liz-jones
Laura Busheikin, Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St., Shelton, WA, Sunday, February 25, 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Laura Busheikin is a writer-for-hire and a creative writer exploring the many subgenres of nonfiction. She is fascinated by the power of stories to connect us, delight us, move us, and unsettle us. In particular, she loves to write about the places she calls home—the Comox Valley, Denman Island, and the land cooperative she is part of—and to explore the rich complexities of human relationship to place and community. — The Collective Magazines
2023
Blogging with Jennifer Stoever, Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St., Shelton, WA, July 11, 4 pm – 5 pm.
Jennifer Lynn Stoever is Associate Professor of English at the State University of New York at Binghamton. She is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog
Botanical Printing with April Sproule, Mixed Media Textile Artist. Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W. Alder St., Shelton, WA, July 29, 2023, 10 am – 12 pm.
April Sproule will present her process and progress for her mixed media textile art piece, The Olympic Peninsula, A Sense of Place, created during her artist’s residency at Hypatia-in-the-Woods.
After a short discussion about her work, a demonstration and mini workshop on botanical printing will take place. Participants will create their own beautiful botanical prints on paper or fabric using plants of their choice. All supplies will be provided for a 9” x 12” print suitable for framing or using in other projects.