Resident Roster: WITS 2026!
In partnership with and with support from Seattle Arts & Lectures, which administers Seattle’s Writers in the Schools (WITS) program that brings working artists into kids’ classrooms, MARS is excited to host a special “winter break” residency session for four remarkable, deserving artists who spend time in schools helping nurture creativity among youth. For one week in February, these four special souls will get to spend a week living and working from their own classroom, with hosting by WITS writer and MARS alum Acca Warren. They (and any interested public) will also enjoy a visit from Seattle author Kirsten Sundberg Lunstrum, who teaches creative writing and English in Seattle, who has both a new novel Elita (TriQuarterly, 2025) and a new story collection Outer Stars (UNT Press, 2025).
Now, meet the writers!
Ankober Yewendwossen is an Ethiopian first-generation writer born in Seattle & creatively raised by the Seattle Hip Hop scene at the height of its renaissance. Surrounded by a milieu of ingenious, burgeoning artist-groups from Hella Dope to theeSatisfaction; it was Hip Hop, and the Hidmo, which cultivated her pedagogy for community & critical race theory, while grounding her in the ultimate tenet of the art form—being true to oneself. A legacy student of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina; she studied non-fiction writing while pursuing a self-designed major in Womanist Spiritual Quest—melding her love for Plato’s Republic with Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf.” Previous apprentice roles include a Monastic Apprenticeship in the Garifuna populated region of Honduras where, while living in a Quaker nunnery, she surveyed and studied the intersections of writing & spirituality. Ankober believes writing, in its highest form, is prayer, and, as Paulo Freire once said “there is, in fact, no teaching without learning.”
Monique Franklin is a multidisciplinary artist, scientist, healer and arts educator best known for her performance poetry. She has been referred to as “The Unofficial Poet Laureate of South Seattle,” “The Billie Holiday of Spoken Word,” and “The Verbal Manifestation of Nina Simone’s Soul”. Monique’s passion for equity and belonging is woven into everything that she does. Her poetry gives voice to social justice issues, Love, Self-discovery, Purpose, Healing, Liberation, Power, and Self-actualization. As a performer you can find her poetry commingling with the ancestors, musicians, vocalist and dancers. Locally she has performed in every manor of venue from Seattle Parks to Benaroya Hall. Monique is a 15+ year member of African American Writer’s Alliance and has self-published three volumes of poetry and has released three spoken word albums. She is also the Mother of the Mama’z Muezz Project which Includes Mama’z Muezz ( One woman play and book of Poetry), Mama’z Muezzic ( Live Show and Album), and The Mama’z Muezzeum. Monique has created, produced and .hosted poetry shows and open mics for artist expression and development for over a decade such as The Children’s Open Mic, Poetry & Jazz , Muezz Infuezzion, Acoustic Accolades, and Afrodisiac Erotic Poetry Show and the Verbal Oasis Spoken Word Festival. Monique is the Founder and Director of Inspired Child and the Founder and Board President of Inspired Child Community
Gabriella Garcia sees writing as a celebration of language and our interconnectedness. It is her favorite way to uplift the beauty of everyday life. She is a poet and librettist. Her chamber opera, A Spring Like This, a collaboration with composer Nehemiah Jones, premiered in 2025 with the support of Seattle Opera’s Jane Lang Davis Creation Lab. She holds a B.A. in linguistics from Wellesley College. She grew up in Phoenix and now lives in Seattle, WA.
Ann Teplick is a poet, playwright, and prose writer with an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. For twenty-three years, she’s been a teaching artist in Seattle public schools; Hugo House; Coyote Central; and Pongo Teen Writing, at King County juvenile detention and the Washington State psychiatric hospital. She has received funding from Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, 4 Culture, Artist Trust, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is also a Hedgebrook, Mineral Arts and Residencies, and Jack Straw alumna.
