KAMI WESTHOFF

After receiving my MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, I returned to the west coast where I teach creative writing to the brilliant, kind, and vigorous students at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. I am the author of the story collection, The Criteria, and three poetry chapbooks. My poetry and prose and have appeared in various journals including The Boiler, Carve, Fugue, Meridian, Redivider, Passages North, Waxwing, West Branch.

As a writer, I seek to explore and complicate perspectives of voices that have been silenced and call attention to the systems that continue to protect abusers. My chapbook Sleepwalker received the 2016 Dare to Be Award from Minerva Rising, a great honor to be sure, but an even greater honor has been the continued relationship with Minerva Rising’s editorial team which allows me to experience and encourage these voices beyond the pages of my own work.