Amanda Borquaye is a creative nonfiction writer from coastal Georgia. Her work largely focuses on exploring how the young adulthoods of her Ghanaian immigrant parents were shaped by larger systemic phenomena of colonialism, racism, sexism, and classism and what stakes those realities present for her as a second-generation immigrant. She is an alum of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, and Lighthouse Writers Advanced Workshop. Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and can be found in Roxane Gay's Emerging Writer Series and Longleaf Review. She holds a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and currently lives in Washington DC where she works in international development and humanitarian response.

Read about Amanda’s week at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House here.

Charlotte Van Schaack is an early career writer and editor with American Literary Magazine. She hails from Greensboro, North Carolina, and has spent the last three years in Washington, D.C. studying Creative Writing and Secondary Education as an undergraduate at American University. Her recent works have largely been inspired by place. The poems don’t just remember locations, but also consider moments from past times persist into the present through physical and metaphorical scars left in a place. In 2021, Charlotte was awarded the John Carlton Myatt Scholarship for Creative Writing by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. Her writing is published in AmLit, both in print and online at amlitmagazine.com in editions from Spring ‘24, Fall ‘23, Fall ‘22, and Spring ‘22. 

Read about Charlotte’s week at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House here.

Hannah Finnie is a nonfiction writer and speechwriter living in Washington, DC. Her current writing and research focuses on how emerging types of pop culture labor are outpacing existing employment law concepts. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and represented workers experiencing wage theft. She received her B.A. in mathematics and political science from Emory University. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic and The Nation, among others.

Read about Hannah’s week at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House here.

Bex Pachl (they/them) is an emerging nonfiction writer from Colorado. They are an incoming Creative Nonfiction MFA Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant at George Mason University. In their writing, Bex connects public, historical landscapes to deeply personal themes, exploring gender, gendered violence, identity and family. Bex earned their B.A. in Sociology from Wellesley College. They reside in Washington, DC.

Read about Bex’s week at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House here.

Sean Felix (He/Him) is a rare black man born and raised in the transient government city of Washington, DC. He has performed poetry all over the city, in Maryland, and Virginia. He’s been writing for over 30 years, and is a middle school teacher, and adult arts and poetry educator at the National Gallery of Art. He's been commissioned to write and read his ekphrastic poetry with several galleries in Washington, DC and Maryland, including the IA&A Hillyer and the Gateway Arts Center. His work is published in multiple poetry anthologies including with Sunday Mornings at the River and Beyond the Veil Press and has also published poems in Bloodroot Journal, with the Mid Atlantic Review Online, and with the Washington Writers Publishing House. He published his first poetry book, Did You Even Know I Was Here? in 2019. Sean is an award winning haiku writer, loves the natural world, and exploring small moments in time. He currently lives in Hyattsville, MD with his partner and 2 very silly, and very smart kids.

Read about Sean’s week at Woodlawn & Pope-Leighey House here.