Twelve Branches

Nora Murphy is the author of two books for young readers, A Hmong Family (Lerner) and African Americans in Minnesota: Telling our Own Stories (Minnesota Historical Society Press), co-authored with Mary Murphy-Gnatz. Her article have appeared in Minnesota History, A View From the Loft, and The Circle. Murphy has also written and edited works for many community organizations including the Minneapolis American Indian Center, the Hmong American Partnership and the Chinese American Civic Association. She has an MFA in Writing from Hamline University and an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago.Joanna Rawson is a poet, journalist and creative writer. She has taught writing at the high school and college levels, and has worked with many diverse groups of writers, including prison inmates, American Indian Teens, and senior citizens. As long-time staff writer and editor for City Pages, Rawson is also a member of the Rain Taxi Review of Books board of directors. She is the author of a collection of poems, Quarry, and has also published more than 200 articles and reviews in Salon, Utne Reader, Mother Jones, and other publications. Rawson holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa Writers workshop. She has received a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the Society of Professional Journalists.Short-story write Julia Klatt Singer is a rostered artist for COMPAS and the Minnesota State Arts Board, working as a writer-in-residence in schools across the state. She has published over thirty-six short stories and poems in various publications, including Slant, Buffalo Bones, and Woman's Words, and edits the online journal writeworks, which features the writing of her students. Her writing has won awards from The Loft and Rambunctious Review. Singer has an MA degree from Hamline University and an undergraduate degree from St. Olaf College.Diego Vzquez, Jr. is a poet and novelist. He is a writer in residence through the COMPAS Writers and Artists in the Schools program. He is the founder and former Slammaster of Slam MN! (Minnesota Poetry Slam). Vzquez is the author of a novel, Growing Through the Ugly (W.W. Norton), and the editor of two COMPAS anthologies, Rooftop Jailbirds and River Pigs.