2003 Retreat Faculty

First Retreat for Committed Women Writers

Bios for AROHO 2003 Retreat Workshop Leaders and Visiting Writer

Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio is a passionate poet, fiction writer, and teacher, finalist for the 2000 National Book Award, and recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, and a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal. Her dynamic energy and keen poetic sense make her workshops unforgettable experiences.

Kim Addonizio is the author of three books of poetry from BOA Editions: The Philosopher's Club, Jimmy & Rita, and Tell Me, which was a finalist for the 2000 National Book Award. A book of stories, In the Box Called Pleasure, was published by Fiction Collective 2. She is also co-author, with Dorianne Laux, of The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (W.W. Norton). Her awards include two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Pushcart Prize, and a Commonwealth Club Poetry Medal. Her poetry and fiction have appeared widely in anthologies and literary journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Chick-Lit, Dick for a Day, Gettysburg Review, Paris Review, and Threepenny Review. She currently teaches private workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kim recently co-edited, together with poet Cheryl Dumesnil, Dorothy Parker's Elbow: Tattoos on Writers, Writers on Tattoos, Warner Books. Contributors include Mark Doty, J.D. McClatchy, Elizabeth McCracken, Rick Moody, Sylvia Plath, and a bunch of other unlikely bedfellows who all wrote stories, poems, or essays about tattoos.

Kim's previous occupations include waitress, tennis instructor, Kelly Girl, attendant for the disabled, and auto parts store bookkeeper. She has a daughter, Aya Cash, 20, who is currently pursuing a BFA in the University of Minnesota/Guthrie Theater Acting Training Program. Aya has promised that when she becomes famous she will buy her mother a house in the Hollywood Hills.

Rebecca Brown

Rebecca Brown is the author of nine books, including novels, memoir, and short stories. She has been awarded the Boston Book Review Award for fiction, The Lambda Literary Award, The Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award, and a Washington State Governors Award. Her work has been translated into six languages, and she is an indefatigable and enthusiastic teacher of broad experience.

Rebecca Brown's new book, The End of Youth will be published by City Lights in May, 2003. Her book Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary will be released by University of Wisconsin in Fall 2003. Books already published include Excerpts from a Family Medical Dictionary (Grey Spider Press, 2001), The Dogs: A Modern Bestiary, What Keeps Me Here, Annie Oakley's Girl, The Children's Crusade, The Haunted House, The Gifts of the Body, and The Terrible Girls. Rebecca's work has also been widely anthologized, including stories in the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women and The Penguin Book of Lesbian Short Stories.

Rebecca has taught in numerous settings including Goddard College, where she is currently on the MFA faculty, the University of Washington, Extension, Pacific Lutheran University, prisons, senior citizen's homes, libraries, and bars. For two years she was Writer-in-Residence at the Richard Hugo House Literary Center in Seattle where she served as Senior Teacher, met community members for writing consultations, curated an eclectic reading/performance series for The Jack Straw Foundation, Red and Black Books, and the local NPR affiliate.

Rebecca's current creative projects include a Polaroid/text pseudo-diary, and several fantasy-memoir hybrids. She has lived in London and Italy and now makes her home in Seattle with her spouse, their cats, and an impressive collection of rock-n-roll, classical, and weird CDs.

Denise Chávez

Visiting writer Denise Chávez is a novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, actress, director and teacher who refers to herself as a "performance writer." Winner of many prizes, including the American Book Award and the Puerto del Sol Fiction Award, Denise has published two novels, Loving Pedro Infante and Face of an Angel, a collection of short stories entitled The Last of the Menu Girls, a wealth of poetry and short fiction, more than twenty plays, and a magical fable for children, The Woman Who Knew the Language of Animals / La Mujer Que Sabia El Idioma de Los Animales. She has edited five collections of literature, often on Chicano themes, and her own works have frequently been anthologized. Founder of the Border Book Festival and a delegate in May 1989 to an International Arts Commission sponsored by the Forum for U.S.-Soviet Dialogue, Denise has been honored for her philanthropic work, as well as her writing, with awards including the New Mexico Community Foundation's Luminaria Award, the Soroptimist International Woman of Distinction Award in Education, the New Mexico Governor's Award in Literature and El Paso Herald Post's Writers of the Pass award. Denise has taught at Northern New Mexico Community College, the University of Houston, the American School of Paris, the College of Santa Fe, and New Mexico State University. She was writer in residence at La Compania de Teatro in Albuquerque, and Theatre in the Red in Santa Fe. Denise has presented readings and workshops for students from kindergarten through college, the elderly, the developmentally disabled, women and men in prison, and various at-risk, underserved audiences.

A native of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Denise still lives in the house where she grew up and writes in the room where she was born.

Breena Clarke

Breena Clarke, author of River, Cross My Heart, an October 1999 Oprah Book Club selection, is a native of Washington, D.C. Ms. Clarke is the recipient of the 1999 award for fiction by the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association and the Alex Award, given by the Young Adult Library Services Association, for her debut novel.

Breena, who has survived the death of her only child, writes with depth and clarity about grief. Her work is marked by compassion and magnificent use of language. She is also a keen observer of the relations between humans and their canine partners. Fascinated by the vast array of small and insignificant objects that contain finely detailed denigrating images of African-Americans, Breena is a passionate collector of Black Memorabilia as well.

A graduate (B.F.A.) of Howard University, Breena Clarke is co-author with Glenda Dickerson of "Remembering Aunt Jemima: A Menstrual Show," which is anthologized in Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and Colored Contradictions, An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Plays. Her short fiction is included in Black Silk, A Collection of African American Erotica, and Street Lights: Illuminating Tales of the Urban Black Experience.

Breena has been published in Time, Black Masks, Women and Performance, Conditions, Attaché, Essence Magazine, Dog Fancy, The Chicago Tribune Book World and others. While administering the Editorial Diversity Program at Time Warner Inc. in New York City, Breena mentored a number of young journalists and writers. Since leaving Time to write fiction full time, Breena lives with her husband and two dogs in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Anne Finger

Anne Finger is a writer of fiction and creative non-fiction. She has published three books, Basic Skills, a collection of short stories (University of Missouri Press), an autobiographical essay, Past Due: A Story of Disability, Pregnancy and Birth (Seal Press) and a novel, Bone Truth (Coffee House Press). Her work has also been published in Germany and in the U.K. Her short fiction has appeared in Southern Review, Kenyon Review, Discourse and Ploughshares, among other journals.

Anne has taught creative writing at Wayne State University in Detroit and at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as teaching workshops in the community as writer-in-residence at the Woman's Building in Los Angeles, at the San Francisco Independent Living Resource Center and in elementary, middle and high schools.

Anne fell in love with New Mexico when she received the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship and lived on the Lawrence Ranch outside of Taos for a summer. She has also been awarded residencies at Yaddo, Djerassi, Centrum and Hedgebrook.

Anne has long been active in social movements, the anti-war movement, the women's movement and the disability rights movement. Currently she is president of the Society for Disability studies, a group that fuses an academic approach to the issue of disability with activism. She lives in Oakland, California with her 17 year-old son, Max who is a rugby player (among other things) and her dog, Squirt.

Gail McMeekin

Gail McMeekin, LICSW, is a writer and career/creativity coach, and the owner of Creative Success in Newton, Massachusetts. She is the author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor (Conari, 2000) and The Power of Positive Choices (Conari, 2001). Gail is an expert in personal growth and empowerment, and draws on over 25 years of experience to offer inspirational and practical help to envision and achieve personal, professional, and creative goals. With creative sensitivity and practical advice, Gail addresses issues of creativity, positive life choices, stress management, positive management strategies, time management, professional development, and women's issues. Gail has been featured in Redbook, Woman's Day, Health, Shape, New Age, The Boston Globe, USA Today Career Network, Investor's Business Daily, The Improper Bostonian, and ABCNews.com, etc., as well as on national radio and television.

Gail lives in Boston with her husband and enjoys watercolor painting, travel, and the adventures of life. Her website is www.CreativeSuccess.com.

Ellen McLaughlin

Ellen McLaughlin's plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, and Infinity's House. All three of these plays premiered at Actors' Theater of Louisville and Days and Nights Within won that theater's Great American Play Contest. A Narrow Bed was produced Off-Broadway by the New York Theater Workshop and was co-winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1987.

Iphigenia and Other Daughters was written for the Actors' Gang in Los Angeles and premiered there. It was produced Off-Broadway at The Classic Stage Company in February of 1995. Her play Tongue of a Bird premiered at the Intiman Theater in Seattle and was subsequently produced by the Almeida Theater in London, the Mark Taper Forum in L.A., the Public Theater in NYC and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among other venues. It was published by Samuel French. Ellen's latest play, Helen, was given a workshop at Seattle's ACT Theater and premiered at The Public Theatre in March 2002.

Ellen McLaughlin is a recipient of a grant from the NEA and is a winner of the writer's award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. In 2000, she also won the Berilla Kerr Award for playwriting. Ellen teaches playwriting at Barnard College, and is also an actor. She is most well known for having originated the role of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production, from its earliest workshops through to its Broadway run.