Grammy award-winning musician Lucinda Williams reads "Compassion,” a poem written by her late father, the poet Miller Williams.

"Enterons" for the win!

Tournament Scrabble player Melissa Routzahn taught us how a love of language can be meaningfully blended with a keen awareness of probability and strategy.

“Every good story begins in medias res. There’s the part that’s Over. There’s the part that’s Next. In the middle gapes a gap. “Mind the gap” because the gap is the Now. The more we mind it, give attention—surrender—to the Now, the greater it seems to swell. The greater it seems imaginatively as we attend to what’s possible, perhaps especially to what’s improbable.”

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On September 8, 2022, award-winning poet and teacher Jeanine Hathaway delivered the inaugural talk for The Star-Splitter Academy’s school year.

In previous years, Jeanine has spoken to us about Joan of Arc, rhinos, kaleidoscopes, cephalopods, sound as touch, illuminated manuscripts, and the act of pilgrimage. This year, she contemplated transitions, in a talk entitled "Mind the Gap," which was followed by a conversation with the students.

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Jeanine Hathaway currently enjoys Professor emerita status from Wichita State University, having taught creative writing and literature there. She was a poetry mentor in Seattle Pacific University’s MFA Program.

Hathaway is the author of the autobiographical novel Motherhouse (1992), the 2001 Vassar Miller Poetry Prize-winning The Self as Constellation (2002), and a chapbook, The Ex-Nun Poems (2011).

Her most recent collection of poetry is Long After Lauds, published in 2020 by Slant Books.

David Rees Snell is an actor best known for his role as Detective Ronnie Gardocki on the crime drama The Shield. He has also had recurring roles on The Unit, Party of Five, S.W.A.T., and Silicon Valley. He has guest starred on such shows as Hawthorne, Numb3rs, Lie to Me, Sons of Anarchy, Last Resort, Criminal Minds, and Leverage. Snell also co-starred in the Hallmark TV movie Desolation Canyon.

He attended the University of Kansas as a theatre major and worked on the stage before becoming involved in TV work.

Snell is also a voice actor, who has appeared in such short films as P1 and Draw the Pirate. He also had speaking roles in a number of video games including Need for Speed: Undercover and Call of Duty 2 Big Red One.

Lars Larsen has been a creative brain in the advertising industry for over twenty-two years. He has focused his passion on shaping insights and unique creative expressions (making ads) for brands across the globe such as Kraft, Nabisco, Nestle, Kellogg’s, Oscar Mayer, Kimberly Clark, Heinz, Eli Lilly, Amgen, among others. H also spent time digging into diverse things such as Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, Miller Beer, The Memorial Golf tournament, and the Chicago Children’s Museum.

Jason Bailey is film critic and editor-at-large for Flavorwire and a regular contributor to The New York Times and The Playlist. A graduate of the Cultural Reporting and Criticism program at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, he is the author of four books and is currently writing his fifth, Fun City Cinema: New York City and the Movies That Made It, for Abrams Books. His byline has appeared at Vulture, Vice, The Atlantic, Slate, Indiewire, Gothamist, Rolling Stone, Uproxx, Pajiba, The Dissolve, Salon, Hyperallergic, and The Village Voice, among others; he also appeared in the CNN documentary miniseries The Movies. He lives in New York with his wife, Rebekah, and their two daughters.

Susan Lyles is the founder and producing artistic director of the Denver, Colorado based not-for-profit And Toto too Theatre Company, which produces new works written by women playwrights.

The inspiration for the company had been cultivated throughout her acting career, which began during her teenage years. Prior to creating And Toto too, Susan signed with Farrell Talent Management in 2001, providing her inroads where she appeared in several national commercials, industrials and local productions. She has a BA from Wichita State University, and has received certification from The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Shakespeare. She has worked onstage in London, Chicago and Denver and has also worked in film, commercials, print, industrials, and voice over. She has directed more than twenty plays, including the award winning Naked in Encino, Car Talk, and Heads.

She has designed costumes for more than fifty productions, including Lion in Winter (Denver Victorian Playhouse), 12th Night (Denver Victorian Playhouse), and Greater Tuna and Christmas Tuna (Denver Victorian Playhouse, Town Hall Arts Center). Susan was recently honored with a 2015 True West Award. She is branching out into film with her newly formed film/theatrical production company Ruff, Ruff Dog Productions.

Sunny Overholt is an artist and teacher in Wichita, Kansas. She teaches printmaking at Northwest High School, and is the only full-time printmaking instructor in the Wichita public schools.

Sunny graduated from Friends University in 2013 with a degree in art education after spending many summers teaching art classes at summer camps for incarcerated youth. She finds joy and meaning in teaching young people the power of creativity to change their lives, and is grateful to spend her days helping students learn new ways of believing in themselves. In her free time she works on her own prints, and this spring was featured in the international printmaking magazine, Pressing Matters.

Sabina Luu (aka Pixelpusher), a San Francisco-based visual artist, took us behind the scenes of her work of creating unique visual art for music events.

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Pixelpusher has been a visual contributor to the San Francisco bay area music scene for more than a decade. With a life-long love of music and driving curiosity to hear the latest creative sounds, she performs unique video art for music events. Her strong video background is evident by her style, which combines gorgeous video layers with digital effects to create cohesive and fluid animated compositions. These styles are unique and tailored to each musical performance, creating a rich layered harmonious effect. Always evolving and never satisfied to stay in one place creatively, she likes pushing boundaries with her video artwork and exploring new ways to create beautiful synergistic moments in time.