Gamut is a quarterly literary series featuring readings by current students, alumni, and faculty of the University of Washington Bothell’s MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics. The name refers to the program’s interdisciplinary nature, which encourages and challenges students to experiment between genres and mediums, resulting in a wide range of creative works. Curated by alum Woogee Bae (’19) and current students Matt Porter and Ashley Noelle.
This month’s event will also celebrate the launch of the ecopoetics journal, Snail Trail, which includes works by readers Ching-In Chen, Allison Morton, and Katelyn Oppegard.
About November’s readers:
Ching-In Chen is a genderqueer Chinese American hybrid writer, community organizer and teacher. They are author of The Heart’s Traffic (Arktoi/Red Hen Press, 2009); recombinant (Kelsey Street Press, 2017; winner of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry); how to make black paper sing (speCt! Books, 2019); and Kundiman for Kin :: Information Retrieval for Monsters (forthcoming from Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs and a Finalist for the Leslie Scalapino Award). Chen is also the co-editor of The Revolution Starts at Home: Confronting Intimate Violence Within Activist Communities (South End Press, 2011; AK Press 2016) and Here Is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets (Achiote Press, 2009). They have received fellowships from Kundiman, Lambda, Watering Hole, Can Serrat, and Imagining America, and are a part of Macondo and Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation writing communities. They are currently Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences and the MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics at the University of Washington Bothell. www.chinginchen.com
Amy Jones is an educator and animal lover. She received her MFA from the University of Washington, Bothell. She is interested in what is both real and dreamy within the many layers of existence. She is comforted by curiosity and connection. She owes much to what other beloved beings have taught her.
Allison Morton is a poet, visual artist and filmmaker originally from Apollo Beach, Florida. She received her BFA in filmmaking from Ringling College of Art and Design, and her MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington Bothell. She currently lives and works in Seattle, Washington. Her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Clamor, The Sonder Review, Peach Magazine and others.
Ashley Noelle is a current graduate student and ambassador of UW Bothell’s MFA program in Creative Writing and Poetics. She is a curator of the Gamut quarterly literary series and intern at Wave Books in Seattle. Her creative work is both written and performative with a focus on mental illness, trauma (personal and vicarious), resiliency, and searching for redemption. Ashley works professionally as a yoga teacher and studio manager in Edmonds. She lives in Shoreline with her partner and their cat named Bruce.
Katelyn Oppegard is a former UWB MFA student, a current Seattle poet, and some future thing to be determined. She is lucky to have Snail Trail Press house a few of her poems in its shell.