BOLD Presents: Write Around Portland Author Reading and Fundraiser

Join us at BOLD for a fundraiser for Write Around Portland and readings by facilitators of the organization.

Astra Lincoln is an essayist whose work has been published in LA Times, Undark, Noema, Outside Magazine, High Country News, Pleiades Magazine, and elsewhere. Two-time winner of the Banff Mountain Book Competition’s ‘Best Article’ award, her work has also been nominated by publishers for a National Magazine ‘Best Feature’ award, a Pushcart Prize, and for inclusion in the Best American Essays anthology. In 2024, she served as an Oregon Humanities Community Storytelling fellow. Astra has taught and facilitated writing workshops with the Juneau Icefield Research Program as well as Write Around Portland. She is currently working on her first book, which was selected as a finalist for the Yale Nonfiction Book Prize this summer.

Jessica Yen is a Chinese American author who explores the intersection of memory, family, culture, language, identity, and history. Her work has been supported by the Regional Arts and Culture Council, Caldera Arts, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, Voices of Our Nations Arts, and an Oregon Literary Fellowship. She is a twice-Pushcart Prize nominated essayist whose work has appeared in Fourth Genre, The Masters Review, Oregon Humanities, and Best American Travel Writing, among others. She is currently working on a memoir. By day, she writes grants and edits academic manuscripts for non-profits, university departments and scholars, and clinics who seek to address health inequities. You can find her online at www.jessicayen.com.

Armin Tolentino served as poet laureate for Clark County, WA, and is the author of the poetry collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press 2019). Armin earned an MFA at Rutgers University and works for Multnomah County. He is a Write Around Portland facilitator and a passable ukulele player.

Holly Trusiak believes in the inherent power of everyone’s story. As a workshop facilitator for Write Around Portland, Holly is dedicated to helping others illuminate the stories that they want and need to share. Holly has been an editor for more than 15 years and has had the honor of helping thousands of stories come to life. In her own writing, Holly explores the what it means to be human through poetry and personal essays.