This four-part reading series features acclaimed poets, writers, and comics artists who teach in SAL’s Writers in the Schools program. Each event is free and open to the public. Tonight’s program features Samar Abulhassan, Cassidy Dyce, Danielle Hayden, and Putsata Reang! These resident writers come together to read from their own works-in-progress, inspiring the same craft and performance skills they teach in the classroom.
Join us in this free event at Common Area Maintenance to celebrate the brilliance of the WITS writer cohort!
Samar Abulhassan is a Jack Straw Writer and holds an M.F.A. from Colorado State University. She’s worked in California public schools for seven years. Born to Lebanese immigrants and raised with multiple languages, she is a 2006 Hedgebrook alum and the author of six chapbooks, including Farah and Nocturnal Temple. Samar has worked with Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools since 2008. Samar also recently participated in the 2018 Skagit River Poetry Festival. In 2016, Samar received a CityArtist grant to aid in completing a novel-in-poems reflecting on memory, longing, and the Arabic alphabet. Samar often finds inspiration in images and places and replicates these techniques in her teaching.
Cassidy Dyce is a storyteller exploring the creative world from the Pacific Northwest. Previously, she worked as the writer’s assistant for Newbery Award-winning poet and author Kwame Alexander. Her work appears on ABC Mouse and NPR. Cassidy became a Hugo House Fellow in 2020 and recently joined the WITS program at Seattle Arts and Lectures. Here, she ventures into public schools and partners with teachers to reintroduce the love of literature and creative writing. Standing on the shoulders of great Black Writers and Orators before her, Cassidy strives to better the world through the stories she weaves together.
Danielle Haydenis a former French, Algebra, and English teacher originally from Detroit who is excited to be returning to the classroom. She is currently a Writers’ Room Resident at the Seattle Public Library. Danielle received a 2022 fellowship from the Jack Straw Cultural Center and a 2022 Grant for Artists’ Progress from Artist Trust. She has completed workshops with Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and Yale. Her articles, essays and poetry have appeared in publications widely. Danielle is also the creator of the website 3pistolary.com, which encourages people to write and send three personal letters. She published a book for her young daughter called A is for Aria and is currently working on an essay collection as well as a novella.
Putsata Reang is a journalist and author of the debut memoir, “Ma and Me,” (FSG/MCD May 2022). Her writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Politico, The Seattle-Times, the San Jose Mercury News, Ms., and the Guardian, as well as anthologized in essay collections highlighting women’s and Khmer voices. She has trained reporters across the globe in conflict and post-conflict nations such as Cambodia, Afghanistan, Thailand and Bangladesh, Putsata is an alum of writers residencies at Hedgebrook, Mineral School and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, as well as the Jack Straw Writing Fellowship program. She has received grants from Washington State Artist Trust and the Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship foundation.