Meet our 2024 Festival Poets!
Samar Abulhassan
Samar Abulhassan is a Jack Straw Writer and holds an M.F.A. from Colorado State University. She’s worked in California public schools for seven years. Born to Lebanese immigrants and raised with multiple languages, she is a 2006 Hedgebrook alum and the author of six chapbooks, including Farah and Nocturnal Temple. Samar has worked with Seattle Arts & Lectures’ Writers in the Schools since 2008 and as a teaching artist for the Skagit River Poetry Foundation since 2010. Samar also participated in the 2018 Skagit River Poetry Festival. In 2016, Samar received a CityArtist grant to aid in completing a novel-in-poems reflecting on memory, longing, and the Arabic alphabet.
Roberto Carlos Ascalon
Originally hailing from NYC, Roberto Carlos Ascalon has lived in Seattle for over 25 years. He is a Kundiman, Jack Straw, and Artist Trust fellow, a two-time Seattle Sl