Introducing Piper, Our New WITS Program Associate!
March 3, 2020
Meet Piper Daugharty, SAL’s new WITS Program Associate! Piper is originally from Homer, Alaska and is recent a graduate of the University of Washington’s M.F.A. in Creative Writing program. She sat down with us to answer five questions about what she does, where she comes from, and more . . .
Welcome aboard! Your position at SAL is the WITS Program Associate. What does that really mean?
I get to bop around Seattle supporting all our brilliant writers who work in our public schools. Each day looks very different, but I help organize and coordinate writing residencies, curating relationships all throughout WITS.
Favorite book as a kid?
I loved the Ramona Quimby series and the Junie B. Jones series as a kid. Both Ramona and Junie B. were strong-willed, outspoken, and hilariously wild, which spoke to who I was and who I wanted to be. Plus, they were always getting into trouble, going on adventures, and being the boss (I got called bossy a lot).
What’s on your desk?
On my desk, you can find a collection of animal bones (my most prized a delicate song bird skull, found in Eastern Washington), anything I can find that reminds me of salmon (a mug, a framed painting by a friend, postcard of women in XtraTufs), and a framed letter from Anaïs Nin to Clementine Von Radics, reminding me how strong women are for each other through poetry.
Where are you from?
I grew up in the small inlet town of Homer, Alaska on Kachemak Bay. Before I came to SAL, I taught for many years at several universities, most recently at University of Washington. I also commercial fished for salmon each summer in Alaska.
What’s your ideal Sunday?
If I’m not in the woods, on a boat, or floating a river (all ideal), the perfect Sunday includes a sunny early-morning stroll around an old neighborhood I used to live in, popping in to grab a mini-quiche with buttery crust from the local bakery, and looking at all the fresh spring flowers and roses with my partner and my lab-mix pup. I get some writing done revising the novel in the afternoon. Maybe a yoga or spin class. In the evening, we have people over to our home for a big potluck dinner, play games outside, and have a bonfire as it gets dark.
Thank you, Piper!