The Heart and Soul of The Cabin

Tomás Baiza is originally from San José, California, and now finds himself in Boise, Idaho. He is the author of the novel, Delivery: A Pocho’s Accidental Guide to College, Love, and Pizza Delivery, and the mixed-genre collection A Purpose to Our Savagery. Delivery was selected as the 2024 Treasure Valley Reads featured novel, and Tomás’s manuscript Mexican Teeth won the 2024 Eliud Martínez Prize and will appear on Inlandia Press in 2026. Tomás has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net, and Best American Short Stories anthologies. Sherman Alexie has called Tomás’s writing “painful, scary, hilarious, incredibly vulnerable, and powerful in equal measure.” Tomás has fenced in Italy, been rescued by helicopter from the Sierra Nevada, was escorted by security out of the Pebble Beach & Tennis Club, fended off wild dogs while hitchhiking in rural Morelos, México, and once delivered a dozen pizzas to a Klingon-themed orgy at a sci-fi convention. When he is not writing, Tomás is running trails, sharpening knives, or obsessing over bonsai trees.

Guisela Penados Baldizón is a writer of fiction, poetry, and prose. She has been working with young writers for more than fifteen years. A native of Guatemala, Guisela has lived in Boise for 25 years where she was a Top Ten Scholar at Boise State University and earned her M.A. in Literacy. She has been teaching since 1977. She has provided literacy and whole language Spanish workshops throughout the Northwest. One of her favorite projects has been to work with street children in Guatemala, showing them how to use literacy to find their voices. She runs La Tertulia Spanish Learning Center in Boise, an organization that aims to promote bilingualism and the benefits of multiculturalism.

Being charged by a grizzly in Denali National Park, to being bitten by piranhas in the Amazon Elizabeth Barnes is an avid adventurer and outdoor enthusiast. She loves reading, writing, cooking, and parenting. A lecturer at Boise State University, Elizabeth teaches writing by day and by night battles dragons via her pen.

Colleen Brennan is a freelance writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher with an MA in linguistics. Her stories appear in the Boise Weekly, Writers in the Attic, and A Year in Ink. A native Minnesotan, she has lived and worked in San Diego, Boulder, Paris, Bordeaux, and Boise. She is the recipient of a literary arts grant from the Alexa Rose Foundation.

Jesse Cole is a traveler and emerging writer from Idaho who attended The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and received her MPhil in Education from the University of Cambridge. She has taught English in Italy, led creative writing workshops in Mexico, and edited children’s stories in Scotland. Most of her writing takes place en route (somewhere) between here and there.

Kira Compton is currently pursuing an MFA at Boise State, where she serves as the Associate Editor of The Idaho Review. Her writing has been published or is forthcoming from The Florida Review: Aquifer, Saranac Review, hex literary, Into the Void, and others. Stalk her professional life at kiracompton.com and her personal life @kirajcompton.

Natalie Disney recently earned her MFA in creative writing from Boise State University, where she served as Associate Editor of The Idaho Review. Her work has been published in The Florida Review, The Mississippi Review, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the PEN America Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. She is a recipient of the 2017 Glenn Balch Award for fiction. She teaches writing at BSU and is at work on her first novel.

Rebecca Evans is a memoirist, poet, and essayist. She’s a military veteran, a serious gardener, and often engages in self-hand-to-hand combat. You can find her writing in her hammock, under the stairwell, or stuck in a fluffy chair. She teaches. A lot. She also co-hosts a radio show, Writer to Writer, on Radio Boise and lives in Idaho with sons and Newfoundlands and a squawky Calico cat.

Her poems and essays have appeared in Narratively, The Rumpus, War, Literature & the Arts, The Limberlost Review, and a handful of anthologies. She’s co-edited an anthology of poems, WHEN THERE ARE NINE, a tribute to the life and achievements of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Moon Tide Press). Her full-length poetry collection, a memoir-in-verse, TANGLED BY BLOOD, is available wherever fine books are sold.

Evans earned two MFAs, one in creative nonfiction, the other in poetry, University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.

Alli Frank has worked in education as a teacher and assistant head of school for over 20 years. She is the co-author, with Asha Youmans, of Tiny Imperfections, Never Meant to Meet You, The Better Half, and Boss Lady, and the upcoming On Being Jewish Now, available October 2024. Tiny Imperfections is being adapted into a television show by Lionsgate TV. A graduate of Cornell and Stanford University, Alli lives in Sun Valley, Idaho with her husband and two daughters.

Meg Freitag was born in Maine. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and has an MFA in Poetry from UT Austin's Michener Center for Writers, and an MFA in Fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her first poetry collection, EDITH, was published by BOAAT Press in 2017. Individual poems have appeared in Tin House, Boston Review, and Black Warrior Review, among other journals. She's currently at work on a second poetry collection, a short story collection, and a novel. She lives and works in Boise, Idaho.

Desmond is The Cabin’s Education Programs Coordinator. He assists Hillary C. in coordinating The Cabin’s summer writing camps, community writing workshops, and Writers-in-the-Schools program. He might even teach one of The Cabin's drop-in workshops from time to time.

He holds a BA in English and Spanish from Portland State University and an MFA in fiction writing from Boise State University. He was the 2023 associate editor of The Idaho Review, a 2023 Sun Valley Writers Conference Fellow, and 2021 Glenn Balch Award Recipient. Desmond has taught creative writing for The Cabin and Boise State University, and currently teaches in Boise State’s First-Year Writing Program. His fiction has been nominated for Best Small Fictions and appears in Gulf Coast, Nashville Review, Grist, Indiana Review, Zone 3, The Florida Review, and other publications.

Sharon Hanson has been a high school language arts and creative writing teacher for over thirty years, most recently retired from Boise High School. The core of her teaching has always been the power of narrative. Writing is her parallel passion; she cobbles words together to make sense of the world. Sharon has worked as a freelance writer in the past and continues to write with her students. Her daily writing has taken shape as a book for Scholastic and a Fiction 101 First Place. Currently she works as a trainer for Narrative 4, furthering her belief that by sharing our stories we grow community.

Kelly Harwood earned her MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2015. She has taught English and creative writing for over twenty years. Kelly believes that life, like writing, is a creative act. To do it well, we must see ourselves as the protagonist of our own story. To that end, narrative writing at its best, can be a vehicle for growth, purpose, compassion and connection. Along with her work as a teacher and freelance writer, Kelly is a certified life coach specializing in narrative coaching—a practice that combines the tenets of professional coaching with narrative writing strategies and techniques. More about Kelly and her writing can be found at kellyharwood.com

Michelle Hazen is the award-winning author of nine novels. Her work has been honored as Booklist's Best Books of the year, several times for Amazon's Editors' Picks for Best Romance, have received a stack of starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Booklist, and have won the Book Pipeline Award, Lonestar Award, Great Expectations Award, and Linda Howard Award of Excellence. She loves encouraging authors and helping them find their authentic voice through her work as a writing coach and freelance editor with Sanctuary Editorial. She's been traveling as a digital nomad for fourteen years now, and her travels have greatly informed much of her writing. Traveling writing sprints like these are her way to pay it forward and show writers how the world and people around them contains every spark of inspiration they'll ever need!

Chris Mathers Jackson is a freelance writer and editor, an aspiring novelist, a teacher, a mom, an artist, and a lover of the natural world. Chris received her MA in English Literature from University of Montana in 2005. She taught English Composition at UM from 2003-2006, both during and following completion of her master’s (as a TA and then an adjunct instructor). She worked in the administration of Missoula International School from 2006-2010 before becoming a full-time freelance writer, editor, and graphic designer. After several years, she stopped doing design work professionally to focus on her growing family and her passion for the written word. In 2019 she established a book review website (LitReaderNotes). In addition to teaching, writing, and editing, Chris enjoys spending as much time outside as possible, adventuring both near and far, with her husband and two daughters.

Josephine Jones has won numerous awards for her writing and poetry, including a fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. Her work has been published in many journals and anthologies, and she performed with artists and musicians across the west coast. Jones directed programs and the Colorado Center for the Book for Colorado Humanities and taught humanities for the University of Denver. She is the author of Sane in Pain, a writing approach to healing. She holds an M.A. in Education from Boise State University.

Riley Jones is a poet and teacher from Massachusetts. She holds an MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her writing appears in Annulet, Common Place, Harper's, and Little Mirror.

Jake Campbell Kirby is a writer and teacher originally from Massachusetts. Jake is a graduate student in Boise State University's Creative Writing program and likes nature.

Playwright and writer across disciplines Heidi Kraay examines the link between brain and body, seeking empathy with fractured characters. Her work pulls myth, metaphor and monsters together to discover connections across difference. Plays include Unwind: Hindsight is 2020, see in the dark, How to Hide Your Monster, New Eden and Kilgore, as well as co-devised plays, one-acts, plays for young audiences and short plays. Her work has been presented in Boise, regionally, in NYC and internationally, most recently through the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, MING Studios, Mission at Tenth’s podcast Artifact, Boise Contemporary Theater, Storyfort, Climate Change Theatre Action, The Bechdel Group, West of Lenin Theatre, Spark! Creative Works and Oregon Contemporary Theatre. Recent publications include Smith & Kraus and Magical Women Magazine. Heidi holds an MFA in Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts from California Institute of Integral Studies and is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. www.heidikraay.com

Aurora Mehlman is an emerging fiction writer who works with The Cabin, College of Western Idaho, and Boise State University teaching classes in Creative Writing, English, and Digital Arts. She is also active in her local community. Mehlman is staff at Treefort’s Storyfort, where she organizes and facilitates great programming from both local acts and visiting authors, and she is the co-director of the Bishop’s House Writing Collective. Recently, she has been published in 45th Parallel and Boise Weekly, and she shared her stories at the Idaho Botanical Garden, Scaryfort, and Story Story Night’s Grand Slam. Mehlman is currently at work on a novel.

Caleb Merritt is completing his MFA in Poetry at Boise State University. A self-proclaimed “typophiliac,” he also tends to write on whatever medium he can find closest to him: Blackwing pencil, crunchy keyboard, 1954 Smith-Corona typewriter, or otherwise. You can find some of the things he writes for pay-what-you-want (or free) online at literarymerritt.gumroad.com, which is supposed to be a clever pun on his last name. He attempts to live with gratitude and to write bios that don't make him seem closed off and aloof. Before graduate school, he worked for Habitat for Humanity.

Hannah Phillips is a fiction and screenwriter originally from the Endless Mountains region of Pennsylvania. She has her MFA in Fiction from Boise State, as well as BAs in creative writing and English education. Currently, Hannah is at work on her first novel. She is also the creator of the TV pilot, OUT, which was produced by Boise's Narrative TV Initiative and premiered at the Egyptian Theatre in 2024. Hannah has been a teaching-writer with The Cabin for four years and loves working with a wide range of K-12 students in schools and juvenile detention centers.

Katrin Tschirgi is a fiction writer and poet from Boise. She earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southern California and her MFA in Fiction from Bowling Green State University. Her poetry and prose have been featured in journals such as The Literary Review, Washington Square Review, Quarterly West, Post Road, and The Normal School. Currently, she is working on a short story collection and a novel.

Hannah Rodabaugh is the author of Lost Cathedral (forthcoming, Cornerstone Press/University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point) and four chapbooks of poetry. Her poetry is featured in The Indianapolis Review, Camas Magazine, Glassworks Magazine, Plant-Human Quarterly, The Westchester Review, EcoTheo Review, and Berkeley Poetry Review. She is the recipient of a Literature Fellowship from the Idaho Commission on the Arts and has twice been an Artist-in-Residence for the National Park Service. She teaches at Boise State University and the College of Western Idaho.

Daisy Clar Rosenstock is a third year poetry MFA student at Boise State University. When not writing or reading, she can be found daydreaming about abandoned houses or chatting with the local dying pine tree.

Benjamin Schwarting is a fantasy author, high school English teacher, and co-owner of Williams & Rose Publishing. Author of The Sum of Ages series, Ben's work emphasizes writing complex fantasy cultures that highlight real-world issues of systemic oppression and social injustice. After earning his MAT, Ben has taught as an adjunct professor of Education at the College of Idaho and designed creative writing and young author's courses for high schoolers.

Kalee Schwarting is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor with a background in trauma, grief, and crisis intervention. She studied psychology and creative writing at the College of Idaho and received her M.S. in counseling from Northwest Nazarene University. Kalee writes poetry & fiction when she isn't seeing clients at her clinical practice.

Daniel Stewart, a poet, is the author of the collection The Imaginary World, and a teaching-writer for The Cabin’s Writers in the Schools. A Pushcart Prize nominee, he won the Erskine J. Poetry Prize from Smartish Pace, and has published in BOAAT, Graviton Lit, NightBlock, Prairie Schooner, Puerto Del Sol, RATTLE, Sixfold, Skidrow Penthouse, Thrush Poetry Journal, Yes Poetry, and elsewhere.

Tracy Sunderland loves storytelling and the particular demands of writing plays and screenplays. Her short films have won multiple festival awards and her first feature film script Tailor played in festivals all over the world and won the 2021 Best Screenplay award at Festival 36 Mostra de Valencia in Spain. Tracy holds an MA in filmmaking from London Film School and received the 2015 Fellowship in Filmmaking from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. She also teaches at Boise State University and received the Adjunct Faculty of the Year Award in 2015.

Ayotola Tehingbola is earning her MFA in Creative Writing at Boise State University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Quarterly West, Passages North, Hawaii Pacific Review, Pidgeonholes, You Need To Hear This, Kalahari Review, etc., and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions. She is the recipient of the Winter 2022 Karen Finley Scholarship for Women and Nonbinary Writers at Hudson Valley Writers Center. She is also the recipient of a 2022 Glenn Bach Award for Fiction and an Alexa Rose Grant for her photography.