At the Desk
At the Desk, features recorded PACT Craft Talks and Conversations. Images here are of our interviewed alumni writing desks and working areas.
SEASON ONE
Episode 6: (3/11/25@6:00PM PST)
Chante Owens is an emerging writer whose work explores various aspects of her intersecting identities. Her personal essays have appeared in The Sun Magazine, Well + Good, Healthline, The Muse, and more. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Pacific University, and is currently embarking on her next big project: a fictionalized memoir with a healthy blend of humor and lyricism.
http://chanteowens.squarespace.com/
Chante’s Desk
Caroline Catlin believes in the power and impact of shared truths. Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, Longreads, Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, Glamour, and elsewhere. Her photography & film can be found in Boston Globe, AliveNow, The New York Times, and Healthline.
Caroline’s background in behavioral health and grief care has inspired her to incorporate art into the process of caregiving and advocacy, as well as to work on reforming the way health, illness, and disability are portrayed in the media.
In addition to her creative work, Caroline leads grief support groups for children and teens, volunteers as an end of life photographer, and teaches writing workshops on similar topics. Her TED talk, Why I photograph the quiet moments of grief and loss has been viewed over 1 million times.
Caroline earned her MFA from Pacific University and is currently working on a memoir about living with incurable brain cancer, represented by Neon Literary. She is fueled most by connection, community, and sour candy.
https://www.carolinecatlin.com/
Caroline’s Desk
The interviewers will be:
Philippa Ribbink (Catlin)
SEASON ONE
Episode 5: (2/11/25@6:00PM PST)
Nancy Miller Gomez is the author of Inconsolable Objects (YesYes Books) and Punishment (Rattle chapbook series). Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, Prairie Schooner, Lit Hub, The Adroit Journal, New Ohio Review, The Rumpus, Rattle, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. She received a special mention in the 2023 Pushcart Prize Anthology. Nancy co-founded an organization that provides writing workshops to incarcerated women and men and has taught poetry in Prisons, Jails, and the Juvenile Hall. She lives with her family in Northern California where she serves as the Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz, County. More at: nancymillergomez.com.
Nancy’s Desk
Allisa Cherry (she/her) was raised in an irradiated, rural desert town, in a religious community in the southwest, where much of her poetry takes place. Her book, An Exodus of Sparks (MSU Press), was a finalist for the Persea Books' Lexi Rudnitsky first book prize and the 2024 recipient of the Wheelbarrow Books poetry prize awarded by the RCAH Center for Poetry. Her work has appeared in journals such as The McNeese Review, TriQuarterly, The Journal and The Penn Review. She currently lives in Portland, OR where she teaches workshops for immigrants and refugees transitioning to a life in the United States and serves as an associate poetry editor for West Trade Review.
Allisa’s Desk
The interviewers will be:
MC: Michele Knapp
SEASON ONE
Episode 4: (1/14/25@6:00PM PST)
Jacky Grey is a writer, artist and architect interested in place and belonging. Jacky received The Sewanee Review prize in nonfiction in 2023. Jacky earned their MFA in Creative Non-fiction from Pacific University. They were a participant of the Anaphora Arts Emerging Critics Program in 2023.
They write memoir, personal essay, poetry and criticism. Their work has been published in The Sewanee Review* and Oregon East. Grey is based in Western Oregon with their partner, daughter and dog. They maintain an Instagram that is a fan page for said dog and chaotically curated meme stream.
*First published in The Sewanee Review.
Instagram: @jaxmyjax
Substack:
Jacky’s desk
Jacky’s real desk
Mike Itaya is the editor-in-chief of DIRTBAG and writes about dirtbags, always.
The interviewers will be:
Benjamin Porter (Itaya)
SEASON ONE
Episode 3: (12/10/24@6:00PM PST)
Ben Porter is a short fiction writer who lives in Lafayette, Louisiana where he is a PhD student in English under the University Doctoral Fellowship. He is a graduate of Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing where he was the recipient of the Pearl Scholarship. Recently, he can be read in The Madison Review, Sandy River Review, BULL, and Miracle Monocle. When not writing, Ben wrestles with his kids, drinks wine he can’t afford, and tries with all his might to play country licks on his guitar.
He can also be found on:
on X: @Ben_S_Porter
Website: Benporter.info
Melissa McKinstry’s poetry has appeared in Adroit, Beloit, Rattle, Poetry Northwest, Tahoma Literary Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and Best New Poets 2023, among other places. She’s been a semifinalist for the Chad Walsh Chapbook Prize and the Persea Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize, a finalist for the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize, a nominee for Best of the Net, and a two-time nominee for Pushcart Prizes. In 2024, she was selected as second place for The Maine Review Environs Prize, finalist for the Tupelo Quarterly Poetry Prize, and finalist for the Ninth Letter Literary Awards, a Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit, the Honorable Mention for Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest, and inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland. In January 2025, she’ll serve as emcee for the Pacific University MFA residency in Seaside, Oregon.
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Melissa grew up on small farms in Oregon and Washington and later earned a BA in English Literature at the University of Washington, and more recently her MFA in poetry at Pacific University (Poetry 2022).
A love of literature, writing, problem-solving, and nurturing young artists and writers inspired Melissa’s career teaching high school English, working on a team to establish the Coronado School of the Arts, and designing a secondary humanities curriculum based on the question How are we to live?
In 1996, Melissa’s son, Charlie, was born with an undiagnosed genetic disorder and required full care from birth. With a loving family and care community, Charlie lived 26 years. He passed away in 2022, and some of Melissa’s poetry explores the uncertainty of mothering a child with severe disabilities. Melissa’s daughter, Sarah Rose, champions quality care for patients and providers at Health and Hospitals in New York City.
Melissa and her husband Doug live, write, and design in San Diego. Since 2016 they have curated a Poet Tree in their neighborhood to foster community, curiosity, and beauty. Melissa also teaches yoga and volunteers on the Alumni Council for the Pacific University MFA program. She is honored to be research, editorial, and production assistant for her mentor, poet Ellen Bass.
The interviewers will be:
Michele Knapp (McKinstry)
MC: Mike Itaya
SEASON ONE
Episode 2: (11/12/24@6:00PM PST)
Josh Cook’s writing has appeared VQR, the Washington Post, and LARB, among other places. He’s the recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant and a Loft Literary Center Teacher of Excellence fellowship. He graduated from Pacific, where he studied fiction, in 2011. He lives in Saint Paul with his partner, daughter, and the sweetest rescue dog of all time.
He can also be found on:
IG: @joshcook_writer
Website: www.joshcookwriter.com
Substack: joshcook.substack.com
Hillary Behrman’s award winning short stories have been described as deeply humane and unsettling and have been published in journals, magazines, short story dispensers and an anthology. Lake Effect, her debut collection of short stories, was chosen by Lauren Groff as the winner of the 2024 Mary McCarthy Prize for Short Fiction and will be published by Sarabande Books in 2026. Groff praises Lake Effect as a book of “great moral power and heart” by “an author of extraordinary grace." Hillary lives and writes in the Pacific Northwest and is a graduate of Pacific University’s MFA in writing program. Hillary’s work in the urban and rural west as a children’s civil rights lawyer and public defender lends urgency to her fiction. Her life and writing are rooted in a strong sense of place, family, community and connection to wild and natural spaces. Learn more at www.hillarybehrman.com.
She can also be found on:
IG: @HillaryBehrman
The interviewers will be:
Atina Hartunian (Cook)
Michael Hahn (Behrman)
MC: Michael Hahn
SEASON ONE
Episode 1: (10/8/24@6:00PM PST)
Maureen Bhutong Boyd is a Thai-Scottish North American writer and editor who uses the pronouns she and her.
Maureen worked as a union organizer and leader of campaigns around the United States for over fifteen years before she received her MFA in Fiction from Pacific University. Her stories appear in The Pinch, Bellingham Review, Joyland Magazine, and Buckman Journal, amongst others. She read from her unpublished novel at APAture, Kearny Street Workshop's Festival for Emerging Asian Pacific American Artists, and another excerpt was a finalist for Hidden River Art's William Van Wert Award for Fiction. She also wrote and performed an autobiographical monologue for "This is My Body,” a storytelling showcase for women of color in the California Bay Area.
She resides in Oakland with one husband, two teenagers, and three pugs. She is @maureenbhutongboyd on Instagram, and you can view her work at: www.maureenbhutongboyd.net
Allison C. Macy-Steines writes both prose and poetry, and she is passionate about bending the boundaries between genres. Macy-Steines earned her M.F.A in Writing from Pacific University and holds a B.A. in Journalism and Media Studies from UW-Milwaukee. She grew up in Rockford, Illinois, and now lives in Boring, Oregon, with her husband, daughter, and pup.
The interviewers were:
Kate Wylie (Macy-Steines)
Atina Hartunian (Boyd)
Tonight’s MC: Michael Hahn