Staff

Anaphora is run by a community of passionate and dedicated folks, including an advisory council of writers, editors, literary agents, volunteers and interns. Admission to the application-based programs is highly competitive, and determined by an anonymous admission board, which rotates every other year. Anaphora relies on its fellows and our extended community at large to continue to grow and develop new programming.

If you’d like to be involved with Anaphora, please send us a note!

Mahtem Shiferraw, Founder & Executive Director

Mahtem Shiferraw is a writer and visual artist from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Her work has been published in various literary magazines, including Callaloo, Prairie Schooner, Poets.org, The 2River View, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Numero Cinq, and more. She is the author of three books of poetry, Fuchsia (UNP ‘16), which won the Sillerman Prize for African Poets, Your Body Is War (UNP ‘19), and the chapbook Behind Walls & Glass. Her next collection is forthcoming from BOA Editions Ltd. in 2023. Her work has been anthologized widely. Most recently, she curated the Black Voices series, and the New African Voices portfolio for World Literature Today, where she also serves on the editorial board.

Mahtem works as a creative strategist with arts and literary organizations, with a particular focus on inclusive program design, strategic planning, and nonprofit leadership and management, focused on sustainable diversity, equity and inclusion practices. She holds an MFA from Vermont College, and teaches at Pacific University’s low-residency program. Find out more about her writing here.

Beatriz Brenes Mora, Program Assistant

Beatriz Brenes Mora is an award winning actress, film editor and writer from Costa Rica. She's currently pursuing her MFA at Pacific University, and working on a collection of stories and essays about women's identities at the" border" (identity as an immigrant, identity in a second or third language, identity of women who are not mothers, identity of WOC who've been systematically sexualized, and what does freedom really mean in this country that seems to be obsessed with that word. Her work has been workshopped at the Tin House, the Macondo Writers Workshop, Anaphora Arts, The Lighthouse's Writing in Color Retreat and she was a semi-finalist for the Key West Literary Seminar Emerging Writer Award. She lives in Seattle with her partner and three dogs.

Genevieve Hartman, Publicity Assistant

Genevieve Hartman (she/her) is a Korean American writer based in upstate New York. She is the Social Media & Outreach Coordinator of Adi Magazine and an Art Editor for Gasher Journal. Her poems and reviews have been published or are forthcoming in The Rumpus, Stone Canoe, EcoTheo, Singapore Unbound, River Mouth Review, and others. Find more about her writing at genahartman.com.

Atina Hartunian, Teaching Fellow & Events Coordinator

Atina Hartunian is a first-generation Armenian-American creative writer with a passion for storytelling. She was the recipient of of scholarships and fellowships from Pacific University, Cambridge Writer’s Workshop, Anaphora Arts, and more. She is an avid community organizer, a fierce advocate for writers of color, and a prolific writer who is committed to exploring the human experience through her writing and is constantly seeking new ways to challenge herself creatively. She believes life is too short for crappy coffee. She is a native Los Angel-ian.