Yours Truly 2016 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA | Page 115

Denise Calvetti Michaels Justin Masi

Cascadia College Faculty
Denise Calvetti Michaels’ poetry and lyric
essays appear in Paterson Literary Review;
San Diego City Works Press; Crosscurrents;
Yours Truly and other publications, including
anthologies The Milk of Almonds, Italian
American Women Writers on Food and Culture,
Feminist Press, 2010; and Embroidered Stories:
Interpreting Women’s Domestic Needlework
from the Italian Diaspora, University Press of
Mississippi, 2014. Rustling Wrens, her poetry
collection published by Cave Moon Press
partners with Solid Ground to foster social
justice. Prose poem “Notes from New Orleans”
was awarded the Crosscurrents prize
from the Washington Community College
Humanities Association. Denise participated
in the Jack Straw Writers’ Program, and is
a King County 2012 4Culture Artists Grant
recipient. Psychology instructor at Cascadia,
Denise earned a BA in English from University
of South Florida and the Human Development
MA from Pacific Oaks College. She’s currently
enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing and
Poetics at University of Washington, Bothell.

Cascadia College Student
One year ago: When the sun hit the
windshield I knew it was time to go. The
inside of the car was starting to heat up. I
had slept for five, six hours; that should be
enough to get me to Seattle. I was outside of
a diner somewhere in Montana, in the
foothills of the Rockies. I remembered an
image from a dream I had had the night
before: seventeen cicadas suffocating in a
desk drawer. My legs were cramped, but I
felt surprisingly rejuvenated. I was relieved
when my car started on the first try. I just
needed it to get me over the mountains and
to the ocean, then I could start over. Every
beautiful thing I’d left in Texas was so far
away now. Pulling out onto I-90, I looked at
my dog in the rearview mirror, still asleep,
nestled in the back seat amongst the boxes
and clothes and paintings, and I thought: if
I’ve made it this far I can surely go all the
way.

Israel Medrano

Marissa Mathews

Cascadia /Bothell Community Member
Israel Medrano is a filmmaker and
photographer located in Seattle, who has
traveled all over the world working on
personal projects and commercial work with
the goal that his work inspires other artists.

Cascadia College Student

Marissa Matthews published the short story
“Gizelle” in this 2016 issue of Yours Truly.

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