2025 Faculty

Raised within the four sacred mountains of Dinétah. Aspaas’s first published work was included in Yellow Medicine Review and since then his writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Aspaas’s writing revisits the destruction of sacred land and engages his readers in a dialogue about preserving Diné culture and land. He uses imagery and persona to present explorations of language, landscape, and identity. Byron is faculty at San Juan College’s English Department and Western Colorado University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing Program.

Brynn Saito is the author of two chapbooks and three collections of poetry including, most recently, Under a Future Sky (Red Hen Press, 2023). She co-edited with Brandon Shimoda The Gate of Memory: Poems by Descendants of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration (Haymarket Books, 2025). She’s the recipient of the Benjamin Saltman Award and was a finalist for the Northern California Book Award, the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and the Paterson Poetry Prize. Brynn’s writing has appeared in the New York Times, VOGUE, and American Poetry Review, among other journals and anthologies. She’s received funding from the California Arts Council, the California State Library, the Santa Fe Art Institute, Densho, and Hedgebrook. Brynn teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at Fresno State, located on Yokuts and Mono lands.

Linda Ravenswood (BFA, MA, MA, PhD abd) is an Oxford Prize winning Poet and Performance artist from Los Angeles. 

Her books -- girls in the desert (FlowerSong Press 2025) and The 500 (Alternating Currents Press 2025) are forthcoming this summer and winter. 

Recent books include Cantadora -- Letters from California (Eyewear London/The Black Spring Press Group 2023), The Stan Poems (Pedestrian Press, 2022), XLA POETS (Hinchas Press, 2021), You Will Not Be Forgotten - Tlacuilx (Hinchas de Poesia 2021), and Hymnal (Mouthfeel Press, 2012). The Arthur Smith Prize winning collection --  -- a poem is a house -- (Madville Press 2024) was also nominated for The National Book Award 2024 and The Pushcart Prize 2024. 

Linda is the founding Editor in Chief of The Los Angeles Press, est. 2018. She collaborates on the programmes Poets Cafe and Teach Me on KPFK radio 90.7 FM -- available on air and online at kpfk.org.

She is the founder of the poet laureate programme in Glendale, California (2022) and is at work making poet laureate programmes for Burbank, California and Pasadena, California as well.  She curated the first Long Beach New Poetry Festival in 2023.

Accolades include an Oxford Prize, The Edwin Markham Prize from Poet Laureate of The US Juan Felipe Herrera, The Arthur Smith Prize, Finalist for The Donald Hall Prize from AWP 2024, Finalist for The Ottoline Prize 2025, Finalist for The Rachel Wetzsteon Prize from MAP Press (2023), Finalist for The Gunpowder Prize from Alta (2023), Finalist for the Hilary Gravendyk Prize (2017 and 2018), seven time nominee for The Pushcart Prize for Poetry, Shortlist for Poet Laureate of Los Angeles 2017, Shortlist for The International Beverly Prize 2019.  

Linda Ravenswood is a mixed indigenous / Jewish artist and scholar. She is NDN / First Nation, (Pokanoket, Wampanoag) and an Mayflower descendant on her mother’s side, and an Indigenous / Mestizaje from Baja California Sur on her father’s side. She was raised in Los Angeles by Jewish Holocaust survivors from WWII. 

Katya Apekina is a novelist, screenwriter and translator. Her debut novel, The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish, was named a Best Book of 2018 by Kirkus, Buzzfeed, LitHub and others, was a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and has been translated into Spanish, Catalan, French, German and Italian. Her second novel, Mother Doll, was named a Best Book of 2024 by Vogue. She has published stories in various literary magazines and translated poetry and prose for Night Wraps the Sky: Writings by and about Mayakovsky (FSG, 2008), short-listed for the Best Translated Book Award. Born in Moscow, she grew up in Boston, and currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter and dog.

Greg Mania is a writer whose words have been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, HuffPost, and elsewhere. He is the author of the celebrated debut memoir, Born to Be Public, which was named a Best Book of 2020 by NPR, O, The Oprah Magazine, Electric Literature, among others. He lives in Los Angeles, where he co-hosts Empty Trash, a bi-monthly reading series. He is currently working on his debut novel.

Kimberly King Parsons is the author of the national-bestselling novel We Were the Universe, number two on TIME Magazine’s Best Books of 2024 and a Dakota Johnson Book Club pick the New York Times calls “a profound, gutsy tale of grief’s dismantling power.” Parsons’s debut collection, Black Light, was longlisted for the National Book Award and the Story Prize. A recipient of fellowships from Yaddo and Columbia University, Parsons won the 2020 National Magazine Award for “Foxes,” a story published in The Paris Review. She lives with her partner and children in Portland, Oregon, and teaches fiction in the MFA Writing Program at Pacific University. She is the co-creator of The Fountain, a platform of meditations and visualizations for artists, with the writer Chelsea Bieker.

Tomas Moniz is a latinx writer living in East Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/Hemingway and the LAMBDA. His new novel, All Friends Are Necessary published by Algonquin Books, was named a finalist for the California Golden Poppy Award. He teaches at Berkeley City College and the Antioch MFA program. He has stuff on the internet but loves penpals: PO Box 3555, Berkeley CA 94703. He promises to write back.

Allison Saft is the New York Times, Sunday Times, and USA Today bestselling author of A Dark and Drowning Tide, A Fragile Enchantment, and other romantic fantasy novels. After receiving her MA in English Literature from Tulane University, she moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, where she spends her time practicing aerial silks. She lives with her partner and an Italian greyhound named Marzipan.

Sarah Gerard is an award-winning author of four fiction and nonfiction books including Sunshine State: Essays and, most recently, Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession With the Unthinkable. Her next novel is forthcoming from Zando Projects in 2026. She is a private investigator in Denver.

Rosiee Thor began their career as a storyteller by demanding to tell their mother bedtime stories instead of the other way around. They spent their childhood reading by flashlight in the closet until they came out as queer. Now, they write stories for all ages, including young adult novels Tarnished Are The Stars and Fire Becomes Her, the picture book The Meaning of Pride, and tie-in novels for franchises like Life is Strange and Firefly. Their short fiction appears in anthologies including the Lambda award nominated Being Ace, and they are the editor of Why On Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology and This is How We Roll. Their debut cozy mystery, The Dead & Breakfast, is forthcoming from Berkley Press and co-written by Kat Hillis. Rosiee lives in Oregon with a dog, two cats, and an abundance of plants.

Kit Vincent is the bestselling author of LGBTQ+ Science Fiction and Fantasy, including Love Immortal and Us, Et Cetera. Kit’s books have been featured in the New York Times Book Review and Boston’s local NPR Arts and Culture. In addition to writing stories, Kit has moved continents as a first-generation immigrant, produced award-winning indie films, studied film scoring at UCLA, and is a proud parent of a potbelly pig and two rescued tortoises.

Kit is third gender (any pronoun) and is based in New England.

Adriana Mather is the New York Times bestselling author of the How to Hang a Witch series and the Killing November series, with family roots that go back to Sleepy Hollow, the Salem Witch Trials, and the Titanic. Most recently she has embraced her love of swoon with her newest novels Mom Com and The Breakup Artists. She's also an actor and producer and co-owns Zombot Pictures, a production company that makes feature films. 

James Bird is an award winning Native American middle grade author. His novels include The Brave, The Second Chance of Benjamin Waterfalls, No Place Like Home, and Wolf Club. When not writing books, James is writing screenplays and directing movies. He was born and raised in Southern California but now lives on the North Shore of Boston with his wife, and fellow author Adriana Mather, and their son Wolf. Currently, with MacMillan publishing, he will be releasing a new book in 2025, 2026, and 2027.