Meet our
course fellows
Scroll to learn more about our Summer 2026 Meditative Writing Course Fellows, Diane, Liv, Roy, Kaleiheana, Andrea, and Fatima.
Diane Macklin
Diane has been on a unique pilgrimage for the past ten months, steeped in renewal and re-visioning her spiritual and creative walk in this wonder-rich, gravity world. As an artist, she is a storyteller in the tradition; teaching artist for ages zero to seniors; an advocate (who recently served on the Maryland Governor’s Arts Incubator Workgroup investigating statewide, artist sustainability); a published poet, editor, and writer; plus, upon occasion, she draws to practice a medium that is less familiar than her roots in the narrative arts.
roy zhu
Roy Zhu (they/them) graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in environmental science and creative writing. Their honors thesis under Professor Rachel Webster explored themes of toxicity, ancestry, and environmental remediation. A recipient of Northwestern’s 2025 Jean Meyer Aloe Academy of American Poets Prize, Roy has worked as a museum educator and program facilitator at the Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art. Passionate about transformative ecology, eco-poetics, and ethnobotany, Roy’s creative work has taken many forms, including producing leading a mural project on the Neponset River Greenway trail in Boston, Massachusetts. Roy was born in Boston, Massachusetts and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois.
olivia behr
Olivia (Liv) is an essayist, interactive telephonic theatre writer, and aspiring novelist from West Penn and Allentown, Pennsylvania. After graduating from Northwestern University (under Rachel’s mentorship!) she lived in the Chicago area for 4 years working on Candle House Collective’s flagship telephonic theatre experience “Lennox Mutual”. Liv now lives in Brooklyn, NY where she’s been writing her novel, getting involved with local immersive theatre, telephone plays, and learning jazz standards. She loves work that is fragmented, lusciously specific, queer, and interrogates the uncanniness of white nationalist and neoliberal culture.
Kaleiheana Stormcrow
Kaleiheana Stormcrow (they/them) is a queer Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) poet, writer, ritualist, artist, hair wizard, and dreamer. They live off-grid with their partner, three dogs, chickens and a collection of endangered native plants on the slopes of Kīlauea in the illegally occupied sovereign Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. They have a B.S. in Wildlife Sciences from Oregon State University and an M.S. from UH Mānoa in Natural Resources and Environmental Management—and they think calling more-than-human ancestors "resources" is gross. Currently Kaleiheana is writing a biocultural memoir, making feather lei, and searching for portals.
Andrea goodman
Andrea Goodman is a priestess, vocalist / composer, sound-healer, mythic astrologer, poet, spiritual teacher and counselor, has been part of a groundswell of innovative women’s creative and spiritual emergence. She was an original member of the Meredith Monk Vocal Ensemble, performing, recording and touring worldwide, 1974-1991, singing without words in the universal, timeless language of sound. Andrea is a co-founder, with Rev. Mother Ione and Pauline Oliveros, of the Ministry of Maåt in 1997, and holds the title of High Priestess of the Double Maåti. She lives on an island on the Maine coast, where she offers teaching and counseling in person or remotely, and hosts circles, retreats, blessings and ceremonies. Andrea’s recordings include Divine Doorways, The Moon’s Daughter & Other Song-Stories, and Songs of Sappho. Her book is called Lightning Holds My Hand, A Woman’s Journal of Guidance.
Fatima b jalloh
Fatima B. Jalloh (they/them) is a queer Black storyteller from Jacksonville, Florida, now based in Brooklyn, New York. A Northwestern University graduate (Journalism, Black Studies, and Creative Writing), their work blends reporting, literature, and lived experience to explore origin, identity, community, liberation, and theology—often through Afropessimism, nihilism, and a touch of absurdism. At Northwestern, they co-founded the Queer Media Association, helped revitalize the university’s NLGJA chapter, served as Opinion Editor of the historic Black student publication BlackBoard Magazine, worked as Outreach Director for CRUSH Magazine, contributed to Stitch and North by Northwestern, and mentored 150+ first-generation, low-income first-years. They have worked as an editorial intern with The Nation and In These Times, and their writing has appeared in The Nation, In These Times, The Creative Independent, FRUITSLICE Magazine, Ebony Tomatoes, and more. Beyond the page, they’ve led workshops with their poets-of-color collective Eye to Eye and with community organizations including the Mycelium Mutual Aid Collective and Evanston Township High School. More work: @justfatimata.
atarah lael
atarah lael is a word-dancer at heart, who loves to pair vivid images with emotionally resonant language to create poetry as delicate yet deadly as a spider's web. She deeply identifies with her Aquarius sun — independent, free-spirited and profoundly one of a kind. Their work is one-part gentle recollection, two-parts ardent lyric, and entirely Black. Their writing has been published or is forthcoming in Helicon, Ebony Tomatoes Collective, The Rebis, and Lucky Jefferson. You can read their latest musings on their Substack blog, Be(Longings).