Our Board

Phosphor Emery Alethes (she/they), President, is a trans and autistic writer and actor. Though she has primarily been a fiction writer, she is currently at work on a memoir/essay/novel hybrid and prewriting for a play and a screenplay. 

Phosphor has extensive experience working in and around K-12 education, facilitating prose critique groups in person and online, and supporting writers and applicants in creative and academic pursuits.

She has acted in several plays and films, and her love of language led her to train specifically as a Shakespearean actor, in addition to contemporary techniques, all of which has subtly informed her craft and process as a writer.

Phosphor lives in Eugene with their daughter; their dog, Gilly; and their fish, Fishy and Swishy, whom they did not name. 

Eric Braman (they/them), Vice President, is a writer, theatre maker, visual artist, co-founder of Bring Consulting, and adjunct professor with the University of Oregon. Their poems and plays have been published by CIRQUE Press, High Shelf Press, Qu Literary Magazine, Moon Tide Press, and more. Their premier poetry collection, Bury Me in Cherry Blossoms, anticipates a Fall 2024 publication debut. Their plays have been produced across the United States, including their solo autobiographical show, To Myself, which was an honorarium recipient at the 2022 Oregon Fringe Festival.

Eric previously served as the Program Director with Lane Arts Council, co-founded the poetry collective Dead Parrots Society, and produced the NW10 Festival of Ten Minute Plays for a number of years. Born and raised in Michigan, Eric earned their BA in Theatre Performance and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University; then wandered their way to the PNW where they earned their MNM in Nonprofit Management from the University of Oregon. 

Eric loves a good hike, meditation by the river, and traveling to unfamiliar places. Learn more at ericbraman.com.

Carla Orcutt (she/her), Treasurer, is a science fiction writer with an extensive background in nonprofits and public service. She’s a former grants administrator at Hope & Safely Alliance (formerly Womenspace) and has worked with the State of Oregon as a fiscal analyst. 

Originally from Düsseldorf, Germany, Carla studied economics at Albertus Magnus University Cologne in Germany, then moved to the United States and obtained a Master’s in Sociology at Ohio University and a PhD in Sociology at the University of Oregon. She’s been on several nonprofit boards, and the executive director of a nonprofit providing housing for adults with developmental disabilities. 

Carla is a passionate supporter of the literary arts.

Annette Marcus (she/her), Secretary, is a writer, visual artist, and social worker. Her creative work spans poetry, memoir, and humor-infused essays that explore themes of love, loss, memory, and meaning. Current projects include a memoir-in-progress rooted in her unconventional childhood as the daughter of a glaciologist, and poems that range from meditations on cardinal sins to the existential reflections of a seedless watermelon. She shares visual art under the name #mamamammoth and reads regularly at local open mics.

Annette found Wordcrafters through the open mic and has become a devotee of the sense of community and spin of creativity that infuses every Wordcrafter event.

Annette is the Policy and Family Engagement Strategist at the Oregon Family Support Network, where she works at the intersection of advocacy, mental health, and systems change. A lifelong activist, she spent a year walking across the United States in 1986 as part of the Great Peace March for Nuclear Disarmament—a formative experience during which she met her spouse, Sarah. They now live in Eugene with two cats and five hens.  

Amalia Gladhart (she/her), is a writer, translator, and literary scholar. Her novel, Edge Pieces, is forthcoming from Regal House. Her short fiction has appeared in The Common, Leon Literary Review, Necessary Fiction, Portland Review, Cordella Magazine, Saranac Review, and Eleven, Eleven, among other journals. Detours, a sequence of linked flash fiction, won the 2011 Burnside Review Fiction Chapbook Competition and was published by Burnside Review Press. Her published translations include two novels by Alicia Yánez Cossío (Ecuador), The Potbellied Virgin and Beyond the Islands, and two by Angélica Gorodischer (Argentina), Trafalgar and Jaguars’ Tomb. Jaguars’ Tomb, supported by an NEA Translation Fellowship, was awarded the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute 2022 Translation Prize.

Amalia grew up in East Lansing, Michigan and learned Spanish during a year spent living in Ecuador. She was educated at Michigan State University (BA) and Cornell (MA, PhD). Amalia has worked as a bookseller and as a volunteer health care interpreter. A professor emerita at the University of Oregon, she has published widely on Latin American theater and narrative. She lives with her family in Eugene. 

Elizabeth Engstrom Cratty (she/her), Founder, is a sought-after teacher and keynote speaker at writing conferences, conventions, and seminars around the world.

She has written thirteen books and edited four anthologies, and she has over two hundred fifty short stories, articles, and essays in print. She was Director of the Maui Writers Retreat for ten years and is currently on faculty at the University of Phoenix.

An avid gardener and knitter, she also hikes the beautiful Pacific Northwest and puts her pen to use for social justice.

Patricia Marshall (she/her), Founder, is a writer, editor, and publisher with a passion for helping authors produce the best books possible.

She is the former editor of Forest Magazine, published by a national conservation group located in Eugene, Oregon, and has extensive experience producing marketing and promotional materials, both for print and online. She is currently writing a non-fiction book about Burley Design Cooperative.

Patricia has a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon, an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College in Baltimore, and a certificate in Digital Journalism from Media Bistro in New York. She is a member of the Northwest Independent Editors Guild, Willamette Writers, and the Eugene Chamber of Commerce. Patricia is the owner of Luminare Press.

Juanita Metzler (she/her), Founder, works at Travel Lane County as the Senior Convention Director. In her capacity, she works with a variety of markets such as medical, military reunions, faith-based, insurance, financial and legal; as well as the arts, crafts, and hobby markets and brings a unique view to that organization.

Prior to joining Travel Lane County, she worked in the financial market and as a professional event planner. At Travel Lane County Juanita works with planners as they consider location, speakers, and activities. She understands what the planners are looking for and helps them achieve their goals.

When Juanita is not at Travel Lane County she enjoys traveling with her husband, attending Oregon Duck sports events, trips to the beach, listening to music, and volunteering with many organizations.