Teachers & Staff

Vanessa Veselka

Adjunct Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Vanessa Veselka is the author of a novel, Zazen, was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and won the 2012 PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize for debut fiction. Her stories have appeared in Tin House, Zyzzyva, and SWINK. Her long form nonfiction can be found in GQ, The Atlantic, The American Reader, and Salon. She has also been, at times, a teenage runaway, a union organizer, a student of paleontology, a train-hopper, a waitress, and a mother.

"Often, authors fall into two distinct camps: those who write gorgeous sentences, but who can’t spin conflict-driven yarns, direct storytelling taking a backseat to narrative navel-gazing; on the other side are the ones who emphasize plot, building much more filmic stories, yet those authors never take the time to make each sentence stand on their own as pieces of art. The lucky few are able to do both of these things simultaneously—think Denis Johnson, John Fante, Lynda Barry—and Veselka is one of thEM. —Joshua Mohr / The Rumpus

"Veselka's prose is chiseled and laced with arsenic observations."  — Publisher’s Weekly

 

 

 

Emily Whitman

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

In Emily Whitman’s novels for kids and teens, myth and magic are part of everyday life. The Turning, a middle-grade novel based on Celtic folklore, won the 2019 Oregon Book Award for children's literature. Her YA novels are Radiant Darkness, number one on the IndieBound Kid’s Next List, and Wildwing, winner of an Oregon Book Award and a Bankstreet College Best Children’s Book. Emily grew up in Colorado and studied history at Harvard and UC Berkeley. She's worked in bookstores and behind library reference desks. Emily loves researching her books, whether by mining library treasures or learning to fly falcons. Come visit her at emilywhitman.com.

Wendy Willis

Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute of Arts and Letters

Wendy Willis is a poet and essayist living in Portland, Oregon. Her book of essays, These Are Strange Times, My Dear,  was published by Counterpoint Press in 2019. Her second book of poems, A Long Late Pledge, won the Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize and was released by Bear Star Press in September 2017. Her first book of poems, Blood Sisters of the Republic, was published by Press 53 in 2012. Her last two books have been finalists for the Oregon Book Award.  Wendy is a faculty member in poetry and creative nonfiction at the Attic Institute in Portland, Oregon.

Wendy is the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium and the founder and director of Oregon’s Kitchen Table. Wendy has served as a federal public defender and as the law clerk to Chief Justice Wallace P. Carson, Jr. of the Oregon Supreme Court. She graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law Center and holds a B.A. from Willamette University and an M.F.A. in poetry from the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.

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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.