POETRY CONTEST JUDGES 2025
Estrella Brown:
Estrella Brown's life began in the beautiful sunny state of Hawaii. She settled in Portland after attending the University of Portland and raised her family. She spent 33 years teaching English, 3 years in Portland and 30 enjoyable years at Camas High School in Camas, Washington. Now Estrella enjoys a quiet life in Clatskanie keeping herself busy with a variety of activities.
Marj Hogan:
Biography coming soon
Scott MacGregor:
Scott MacGregor lives in Clatskanie, Oregon and is a Jamestown S’Klallam member, farmer, and a part of the Skipper Jamestown Canoe family. He is also an indigenous drummer and storyteller. Scott is the author of Hookey Walker, illustrated by Tracy Prescott MacGregor.
Michael Calvin Mills:
Calvin Mills is a writer of fiction, essays, and plays. His short story collection, The Caged Man is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press (2025). His chapbook of creative nonfiction essays, A Handful of Tragic Days, will be released in April 2025. His stories and essays have appeared in Short Story, Weird Tales, and other magazines. He teaches writing and hosts The Raymond Carver Podcast at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington. calvinmillslit.com
Dayle Olson:
Dayle Olson is a recent Northwest Voices featured writer at Lower Columbia College and won first prize for prose in the 2024 Oregon Poetry Association poetry competition. Her work appears in The Salal Review, Cathexis Northwest, Rockvale Review, and The Poeming Pigeon, among others. She is a frequent contributor to the Columbia River Reader. She is currently working on readying her first poetry collection for publication.
Cliff Taylor:
Cliff Taylor is an enrolled member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. He is a writer, poet, speaker, and storyteller. His essays and poems have been published both online and in print. He is the author of two books, most recently a poetry collection, The Native Who Never Left. Learn more on his website, cliffponca.com.
Armin Tolentino:
Armin Tolentino is the author of the poetry collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press) and served as poet laureate for Clark County, WA from 2021-2023. In partnership with middle grade novelist, Kate Ristau, he's co-authoring a children's book about Filipino mythology. He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele player, and a bumbling, but enthusiastic, fisherman. More info at www.armintolentino.com.
2025 PRESENTER BIOGRAPHIES, RAYMOND CARVER WRITING FESTIVAL
Moe Bowstern
Biography coming soon.
Martha Gies
Portland writer Martha Gies has published widely over the last four decades in newspapers, magazines and literary quarterlies, including Gettysburg Review, Notre Dame Review, Orion, The Sun, and Zyzzyva. Her memoir, Broken Open, was published last fall by Wandering Aengus Press. A previous book, Up All Night (OSU Press, 2004) portrayed Portland through interviews with people who work graveyard shift, and was listed by the two major Oregon newspapers as one of “Ten Best Books of the Year.” In addition to her writing and teaching, she has been an activist for human rights and for maintaining housing affordable for the poor and elderly amidst a gentrifying city.
Holly Hughes
Holly J. Hughes is the author of Hold Fast, Passings, and Sailing by Ravens, coauthor of The Pen and The Bell: Mindful Writing in a Busy World, editor of the award-winning anthology Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease and co-editor of Contemplative Approaches to Sustainability in Higher Education. Her fine-art chapbook Passings received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 2017. Her poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, were featured in An American Life in Poetry, have appeared in many anthologies—most recently, Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems—and have been set to music by Minneapolis composer Edie Hill.
Mandy Ellen
Biography coming soon.
Laura Moulton
Laura Moulton is the founder of Street Books, a street library that serves people who live outside in Portland. She is the author of Loaners: The Making of a Street Library, co-written with Ben Hodgson. Moulton taught writing in Portland high schools for 20 years for Literary Arts, and for the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College. She is currently on the faculty of the Attic Institute. She is the founder of Truth & Dare, contemporary art/writing workshops created during the pandemic that is now a monthly community writing and art project published on substack. In 2025 Moulton received the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award from Literary Arts in honor of her contributions to the literary life of Oregon.
Dayle Olson
Dayle Olson is a recent Northwest Voices featured writer at Lower Columbia College and won first prize for prose in the 2024 Oregon Poetry Association poetry competition. Her work appears in The Salal Review, Cathexis Northwest, Rockvale Review, and The Poeming Pigeon, among others. She is a frequent contributor to the Columbia River Reader. She is currently working on readying her first poetry collection for publication.
Derek Sheffield
Biography coming soon. Derek Sheffield website
Armin Tolentino
Armin Tolentino is the author of the poetry collection We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press) and served as poet laureate for Clark County, WA from 2021-2023. In partnership with middle grade novelist, Kate Ristau, he's co-authoring a children's book about Filipino mythology. He is a phenomenal clapper, a passable ukulele player, and a bumbling, but enthusiastic, fisherman. More info at www.armintolentino.com.