Anna Bálint, editor

Anna Bálint: London-born and raised Anna Bálint is a writer/poet/editor, and proud to have co-edited the anthology Take a Stand: Art Against Hate, Raven Chronicles Press, 2020. She also edited Words From the Café, an anthology of writing by people in recovery, Raven Chronicles Press, 2016, and was a long-time contributing editor to the Raven Chronicles Journal. Her fiction collection, Horse Thief (Curbstone Press, 2004), spans cultures and continents, and was a finalist for the Pacific Northwest Book Award. Two earlier books of poetry are Out of the Box and spread them crimson sleeves like wings. Anna’s poems, stories, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and magazines. All her writing is informed by her mixed ancestry (Irish/Hungarian/Roma), immigrant experience, and a sense of not belonging to any one group. From an early age she found herself drawn to and living among people of different cultures and parts of the world, and those on the margins of society. An alumna of Hedgebrook Writers Retreat and the Jack Straw Writers Program, Anna has received awards/grants from the Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture of King County. In 2001 she received a Leading Voice Award in recognition of her creative work with urban youth at Seattle’s El Centro de la Raza. In response to 9/11 she organized a 2002 event, Evidence of Compassion, A Reading of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Poetry & Literature, hosted by Elliott Bay Book Company. A passionate teacher, Anna has taught Creative Writing for many years and in many places, including in prisons, Writers in the Schools, Antioch University, Richard Hugo House, and Seattle’s Path With Art. Since 2012, she has taught creative writing at Seattle’s Recovery Café, where she founded and leads Safe Place Writing Circle to help adults in recovery heal from the traumas of homelessness, addiction, and mental illness.

Photo Credit: Willie Pugh