Trinity Herr is a poet and storyteller from the mountains of the Oregon Coast Range. Her first job was baiting hooks, casting poles, and gutting fish for visitors at the pay-to-fish ponds adjoining her family’s roadside diner. A Breadloaf Fellow and Winner of the Madeline DeFrees Prize, Trinity’s writing can be found in High Desert Journal, Modern Huntsman and Sonora Review among others. She currently lives in Missoula where she is pursuing her MFA at the University of Montana.
Melissent Zumwalt is an artist and administrator who lives in Portland, Oregon. She has been recognized as a Best of the Net finalist and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her written work has appeared in Arkana, Hawaii Pacific Review, Hippocampus, Mud Season Review, Rappahannock Review and elsewhere. Read more at: melissentzumwalt.com
2025 Summer Fishtrap Fellowship Judging Process
Fishtrap staff screen all applications for eligibility then send the writing samples to our preliminary judges, all who were former Fishtrap Fellows and know the importance of this opportunity to emerging writers. A group of 11 finalists were selected from more than 30 applications and sent to the 2025 Fellowship judge, Adam Davis who had the difficult task of narrowing the field of candidates to just two.
Adam Davis has been the executive director of Oregon Humanities since 2013 and directed the Center for Civic Reflection in Chicago before that. In these jobs, Davis has trained thousands of discussion leaders across the country, facilitated hundreds of community and workplace discussions, moderated onstage conversations with community-builders, office-holders, and authors, and worked on organizational planning, support, and growth. He also writes regularly for Oregon Humanities Magazine (and intermittently for other outlets), hosts Oregon Humanities’ podcast and radio show, The Detour, and has edited books including Taking Action, The Civically Engaged Reader, and Hearing the Call across Traditions. Davis received his PhD from the University of Chicago, and used to lead wilderness trail crews in the Pacific Northwest.
