This four-part reading series features acclaimed poets, writers, and comics artists who teach in SAL’s Writers in the Schools program. Tonight’s program will feature Karen Finneyfrock, Vivian Li, Ell Lin and Cypress Manning! 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.
Free (no RSVP necessary; just come)
Karen Finneyfrock is a poet and novelist. She is the author of two young adult novels: The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door and Starbird Murphy and the World Outside, both published by Viking Children’s Books. She is one of the editors of the anthology Courage: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls, and the author of Ceremony for the Choking Ghost, both released on Write Bloody press. She is a former Writer-in-Residence at Hugo House.
Vivian Li is a comics artist and illustrator from a small town in western Illinois called Macomb. She likes drawing comics because they’re a fun, accessible storytelling tool. Her work is rooted in finding joy in everyday experiences — from connections with family and friends to exploring trees and the nature around her. In 2023, she published the first volume of her comic cookbook, ABC Cooking, with her mom, containing stories from her adventure in learning to cook Chinese food at home. She has also contributed comics to Papeachu Review, Fogland Press, and Portland Zine Symposium. You can find her on her Instagram @vivianlikesfruit posting sketches that make her smile. Since 2015, Vivian has been working with kids with a focus of education through project-based learning and hopes to give them the tools to create things that they want to share.
Ell Lin ta̍k-ke hó! ell (伊/they/she) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator of Native Pacific Islander ancestry with a background in community-rooted written, visual, and performing arts. ell has facilitated multigenerational antiracist theater, developed poetry and creative writing performances with incarcerated youth, taught multilingual language arts courses as well as elementary education, and won awards in photography, teaching, instrumental music, and poetry. ell’s most recent poem is locally featured in a community celebration coupling food with poetry. Her doctoral writing is inspired by the blazing legacy of warrior poets, including Audre Lorde and Gloria Anzaldúa, who urged reclaiming language as bridges to liberatory relationship and action. The sacred mists of Coast Salish mountains, protagonist of ell’s first published poem as a child, continue sparking wonder, healing, and dreams.
Cypress Manning is a queer trans writer, artist, and educator from Taos, New Mexico. They received their MFA in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in 2019, and are current Hugo House Fellow (2022-2023). For Cypress, writing is a process of self-making, a way of engaging with/in community, and a powerful practice of embodiment for all people, young and old. They are in a two-person cribbage league with their mom, and live in Seattle with their partner.