Holly J. Hughes

Holly J. Hughes is the author of four collections of poetry, including Sailing by Ravens, written about her years as a salmon gill netter in Alaska, and most recently Hold Fast. She’s also co-author of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, and editor of several anthologies, including Keep a Green Bough: Voices from the Heart of Cascadia, and Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease. Her fine art chapbook Passings
received an American Book Award in 2017 and her poems and essays have been nominated for Pushcart prizes, set to music and performed in New York city and Sitka, Alaska. She served on the staff of Pacific Lutheran University’s low-residency MFA program for 13 years, in addition to teaching writing at the college level for several decades, as well as at Fishtrap, the North Cascades Institute, LitFuse and other regional conferences. In 2022, she became co-publisher of Empty Bowl Press. She also directs Flying Squirrel Studio, which offers writing residencies for women, and consults as a writing coach. She divides her time between a log cabin in Indianola and her home in the Chimacum valley and is grateful to the Chemakum, S’Klallam and Suquamish peoples for their ongoing stewardship of the land and waters she’s grateful to call home.