Teachers & Staff

Ruben Quesada

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Ruben Quesada is editor of Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry (2022), author of two poetry collections Revelations (2018) and Next Extinct Mammal (2011), and the translator of Exiled from the Throne of Night: Selected Translations of Luis Cernuda (2008). His writing appears in Harvard Review, Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and Pleiades. 

He has been honored by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events in the City of Chicago, Canto Mundo, Lambda Literary Writers’ Retreat, Napa Valley Writers Conference, and Vermont Studio Center. In addition to the Attic Institute, Quesada has taught courses on poetry and poetics for Vermont College of Fine Arts, UCLA Writers’ Program, Northwestern University, Chicago High School for the Arts, School of the Art Institute, Columbia College Chicago, and University of California, Riverside. He lives in Chicago.

WHAT STUDENTS SAY ABOUT RUBEN QUESADA:

"I just wanted to share the wonderful experience I had in Ruben Quesada's class on Saturday (6/12/2021). I really enjoyed his generative teaching style. I am reinvigorated to write more prose poetry and left with so much material to work from! I look forward to participating in future Attic Institute classes with Ruben!"  Maria Guzman

"Can’t say enough about how I enjoyed and learned from Ruben Quesada on Saturday.  He is an inspiring teacher who is well prepared, insightful, and highly skilled with Zoom mechanics. He treated each participant with respect and was neither “stuffy” nor too erudite.  I would happily take another workshop from/with him!"  M K Moen

"This class was excellent, one of if not the best class I've taken at The Attic. He gave us tools, time to write, time to share, examples, etc. I am so impressed." Pattie Palmer-Baker

"Really enjoyed Ruben Quesada’s prose poetry workshop. He’s a wonderful teacher. Ruben's course was well-organized, well-paced, and well-prepared. I loved the readings that were sent ahead of time, and those that we read closely in classes. I usually struggle with generative exercises in 3-hour workshops -- there doesn't seem to have any time, or it's hard to get into the mindspace to write anything. I found that not only Ruben created a safe and supportive space that made writing easy, but his prompts were effective in generating work. I am looking forward to taking more workshops taught by Ruben at the Attic Institute."  Mariko O. Gordon

"I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed Ruben Quesada's prose poem class.  I found it to be informative, inclusive, and practical.  I am looking forward to implementing the new information and skills he introduced us to.  I am definitely looking forward to  joining more of his classes in the future to continue to improve my craft.  Thanks so much for providing the opportunity." 

"I just wanted to let you know what a great experience I had in Ruben Quesada's poetry workshop this past Saturday. I attend these types of offerings quite often but this one stood out for several reasons. First, the material was organized and accessible, providing clear and useful illustrations of the topics being covered. I am somewhat new to prose poetry and felt that this class cleared up a lot for me. Second, and in my opinion most importantly, the prompts we were given in combination with the example poems were dramatically more effective for me in the generation of new work than any other class or set of prompts I have looked at. Generally I don't care much for prompts, but the way Ruben introduced each with a sample from a lauded contemporary (mostly) poet was just the magic formula. And finally, his welcoming, positive demeanor was very encouraging."  S.K.

 

Jon Raymond

Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Jon Raymond is the author of the novels Freebird, Rain Dragon and The Half-Life, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2004, and the short-story collection Livability, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and winner of the Oregon Book Award. He is also the screenwriter of the film Meek’s Cutoff and cowriter of the films Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy, both based on his short fiction, and the film Night Moves. He also cowrote the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, winner of five Emmy Awards. Raymond’s writing has appeared in Playboy, Zoetrope, Tin House, Bookforum, Artforum, and other publications. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

 

 

Joanna Rose

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Joanna Rose is the author of the award-winning novel Little Miss Strange (Algonquin Books).  Other work has appeared in ZYZZYVA, Story Magazine, Artisan Journal, Northern Lights, Oregon Humanities, High Desert Journal, VoiceCatcher, and Portland Review and the anthologies The Night and The Rain and The River and Brave on the Page  (Forest Avenue Press). Her poetry has appeared in Windfall,  Bellingham Review,  Cloudbank, and the on-line journals 2Grlz Review, and  Four and Twenty. Her essay, "That Thing With Feathers," was honored as Notable in 2015 Best American Essays. Her novel, A Small Crowd of Strangers, is forthcoming from Forest Avenue press in Fall 2020.

Ed Sage

Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Ed Sage teaches writing and literature. His poetry and creative nonfiction appear in ZYZZYVA, Verseweavers, The Portland Review, 4th Street Journal, The Ponder Review, Plainsongs, BULL Lit and The Passionfruit Review.

Natalie Serber

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Natalie Serber is the author of a memoir, Community Chest, and the story collection, Shout Her Lovely Name, a New York Times Notable Book of 2012, a summer reading selection from O, the Oprah Magazine, and an Oregonian Top 10 Book of the Pacific Northwest. Her fiction has appeared in The Bellingham Review, Gulf Coast, Inkwell, and Hunger Mountain and is forth coming in Zyzzyva. Essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian, The Rumpus, Salon, and Fourth Genre. Natalie has received the John Steinbeck Award, Tobias Wolff Award, and H.E. Francis Award, and has been short listed in Best American Short Stories. She teaches fiction and the personal essay in and around Portland, and at various conferences including Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Natalie received her MFA from Warren Wilson College.

Joel Shupack

Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Joel Shupack is an independent radio and podcast producer, sound designer and audio storyteller. He began telling stories in sound in 2013 with a project called CommonPlace - a podcast chronicle of a cross-country bike trip and the stories he came across. Later, he was lead writer with the Steam Radio Syndicate, helping to produce a live variety show inspired by American folk songs. He was also the audio editor for The River Signal, a serialized radio drama. He currently produces his own podcast called SquareMile where each episode is a poetic exploration of a different square mile of land. His work has also been featured on the Out There podcast and KNKX's Sound Effects.

Ed Skoog

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Ed Skoog is the author of two collections of poems, Mister Skylight (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) and Rough Day (Copper Canyon Press, 2013). His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Paris Review, The New Republic, Poetry, Narrative, Ploughshares, Tin House, and elsewhere. His work has received awards from the Faulkner Society and the Poetry Society of America. Skoog has taught at the Idyllwild Arts Foundation in Idyllwild, California, the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, and Tulane University. He has been the Jenny McKean Moore Writer in Washington at George Washington University and writer-in-residence at the Richard Hugo House. 

Cheryl Strayed

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Cheryl Strayed's memoir, Wild, was published by Knopf to great acclaim in 2012. Her novel, Torch, was published by Houghton Miflin in 2006 and was selected by the Oregonian as one of the top ten books of the year by writers living in the Pacific Northwest.

Cheryl's personal essays have appeared in The New York Times magazine, The Washington Post magazine, the Sun, Allure, Self, Brain, Child, and other places and have twice been included in the Best American Essays. 

On Valentine's Day in 2012, in San Franscisco, Cheryl announced that since 2010 she has been the anonymous writer, "Sugar," of the Dear Sugar advice column on the Rumpus. 

Paige Thomas

Teaching Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Paige Thomas is a writer and visual artist. She has been awarded the Hogue Family Centennial Literary Scholarship, the Leishman Reid English Award, and residencies through Spring Creek Project and Hypatia-in-the-Woods. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Oregon State University. Her work appears in New Delta Review, Diode, Columbia Journal, Playground Gallery’s Little Things, Big Thoughts Exhibition, and elsewhere.

 

Ashley Toliver

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Ashley Toliver is the author of Spectra (Coffee House Press, 2018), a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Oregon Book Award, and a chapbook, Ideal Machine (Poor Claudia, 2014). A poetry editor at Moss, her work has been supported by fellowships from Oregon Literary Arts, the Cave Canem Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets. She received her MFA from Brown University in 2013. 

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A Statement of Our Values

The Attic Institute of Arts and Letters opposes the legitimation of bigotry, hate, and misinformation. As a studio for writers, we do not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. We embrace and celebrate our shared pursuit of literature and languages as essential to crossing the boundaries of difference. To that end, we seek to maintain a creative environment in which every employee, faculty member, and student feels safe, respected, and comfortable — even while acknowledging that poems, stories, and essays delve into uncomfortable subjects. We accept the workshop as a place to question ourselves and to empathize with complex identities. We understand that to know the world is to write the world. Therefore, we reaffirm our commitment to literary pursuits and shared understanding by affirming diversity and open inquiry.