Shawnie Hamer
Founder
Shawnie Hamer was born in the heat & dust of Bakersfield, CA. Her first book, the stove is off at home (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) is an experimental art & poetry book curated through a community ritual that focused on the identification & exorcism of trauma. Hamer is the founder of collective.aporia, & a co-conspirator of the off.collective. She proudly received her MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where she was able to befriend the most inspiring group of artists she's ever met. Her writing can most recently be found in publications such as More Revolutionary Letters: A Tribute to Diane de Prima, Entropy Mag, South Broadway Ghost Society & Tiny Spoon Lit Mag.
Founder
Shawnie Hamer was born in the heat & dust of Bakersfield, CA. Her first book, the stove is off at home (Spuyten Duyvil, 2018) is an experimental art & poetry book curated through a community ritual that focused on the identification & exorcism of trauma. Hamer is the founder of collective.aporia, & a co-conspirator of the off.collective. She proudly received her MFA from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University where she was able to befriend the most inspiring group of artists she's ever met. Her writing can most recently be found in publications such as More Revolutionary Letters: A Tribute to Diane de Prima, Entropy Mag, South Broadway Ghost Society & Tiny Spoon Lit Mag.
Sarah Richards Graba
Workshop Lead | Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Coordinator
Sarah Richards Graba is a writer, teacher, and artist. She has lived in Colorado, USA her whole life, though her DNA comes from all over the world. She has been published for creative work, critical theory, book reviews, and interviews, and she has been on numerous publishing projects involving both digital design and letterpress.
She currently teaches at Naropa University for writing, research, and literature for writers, and multicultural foundations for future therapists. She is also a freelance writer and writing coach. Sarah is interested in disruption and subversion, ritual and tradition, and how these intersect with community and hybridity.
She currently teaches at Naropa University for writing, research, and literature for writers, and multicultural foundations for future therapists. She is also a freelance writer and writing coach. Sarah is interested in disruption and subversion, ritual and tradition, and how these intersect with community and hybridity.
april joseph
Workshop Lead
april joseph is a poet and clarinetist from East L.A., CA. She received her BA in Literatures of the World from UC San Diego, and her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. She has taught high school, undergraduate and graduate students in Eugene and Portland, OR, Las Vegas, NV, and Boulder, CO. april creates mourning songs to heal ancestral trauma. Collaborative, student-centered, process-oriented learning inspires her to teach artistic expression to transform lives, to be free. Her most recent publications have been included in the literary journals: Morning/Mourning (2018) and TAYO Issue 6 (2016). You can learn more about april’s work at bodyfulspace.com.
Workshop Lead
april joseph is a poet and clarinetist from East L.A., CA. She received her BA in Literatures of the World from UC San Diego, and her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. She has taught high school, undergraduate and graduate students in Eugene and Portland, OR, Las Vegas, NV, and Boulder, CO. april creates mourning songs to heal ancestral trauma. Collaborative, student-centered, process-oriented learning inspires her to teach artistic expression to transform lives, to be free. Her most recent publications have been included in the literary journals: Morning/Mourning (2018) and TAYO Issue 6 (2016). You can learn more about april’s work at bodyfulspace.com.
Vera Linder
Translation & Publishing Coordinator
Vera Linder is a missed lawyer and
a poet. She wishes to live in a world ruled by Poetry. She writes, translates and works in the rights department of a publishing house in Milan, Italy.
Translation & Publishing Coordinator
Vera Linder is a missed lawyer and
a poet. She wishes to live in a world ruled by Poetry. She writes, translates and works in the rights department of a publishing house in Milan, Italy.
Andrea Becker
Innisfree Workshop Series Coordinator
Andrea Becker is a writer, editor and photographer (@a.ephemera) who believes that poetry is a force for radical expression, inclusivity and healing. She has a multidisciplinary and multicultural background: she has studied ecology, Japanese tea ceremony, lived in Russia, Spain and Bhutan, and is a resident in a queer, anarcho-communist co-op. She feels rooted in the rhythms of wind and water and works best in community with others (and with snacks). Andrea managed Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café in Boulder, but during COVID, tutors at-risk kids and plays with her dog.
Innisfree Workshop Series Coordinator
Andrea Becker is a writer, editor and photographer (@a.ephemera) who believes that poetry is a force for radical expression, inclusivity and healing. She has a multidisciplinary and multicultural background: she has studied ecology, Japanese tea ceremony, lived in Russia, Spain and Bhutan, and is a resident in a queer, anarcho-communist co-op. She feels rooted in the rhythms of wind and water and works best in community with others (and with snacks). Andrea managed Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café in Boulder, but during COVID, tutors at-risk kids and plays with her dog.
C. M. Chady
*apo-press editor
C. M. Chady holds her MFA Creative Writing at Poetics from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where she was the Anne Waldman Fellow of the graduating class of 2020. She received her BA in Anthropology and International & Area Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Tiny Spoon and Member of Wisdom Body Collective. In the past, she was a Contributing Editor of Bombay Gin and Managing Editor for River Styx. She is a cross-genre writer particularly interested in topics of memory, loss, time, and impermanence.
*apo-press editor
C. M. Chady holds her MFA Creative Writing at Poetics from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics where she was the Anne Waldman Fellow of the graduating class of 2020. She received her BA in Anthropology and International & Area Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Tiny Spoon and Member of Wisdom Body Collective. In the past, she was a Contributing Editor of Bombay Gin and Managing Editor for River Styx. She is a cross-genre writer particularly interested in topics of memory, loss, time, and impermanence.
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Shreeya Shrestha
In-house Transcriber and Subtitler Shreeya Shrestha is a writer currently studying under the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. Born and raised in Nepal, she now lives in Boulder, Colorado. Her current musing is exploring and writing from the space she calls the middle gaia, which is the intersecting space that connects her two lives: home and present. |
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Jenni Ashby
Workshop Lead Jenni Ashby is a grower; of words, children, plants, community. She is invested in people and process, and believes that every artist needs someone to champion their ideas/vision/projects, to be a voice of encouragement and inspiration louder than the self-doubt that can easily take over in moments of isolation. Jenni received her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. She lives in Colorado Springs, CO with her partner, sons, and cat. |
[ Read our team's personal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statements here ]
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