Our Crew
We are a community of islanders, authors, and artists from diverse backgrounds who share a passion for writing, spoken word, storytelling, and the literary arts. ​ Grow with us! Join our email list or come to an upcoming event.
Danny Sherrard
Founder and
Executive Director
Danny Sherrard is a performance poet and creative writing coach. In 2007 he became the youngest person to win the National Individual Poetry Slam in Austin, TX and the following year became the youngest to win the World Poetry Cup in Paris, France. Since then, his writing has appeared in numerous poetry collections, on international television, and, most recently, etched into sculpture on San Juan Island. Sherrard’s passion exists in assisting individuals explore their poetic voices and then to help lift their writing off the page and onto the stage. He is ecstatic to collaborate with Island Verse to amplify the craft of writing and performance in the San Juan archipelago.
Shauna Barrows
Program Coordinator
Shauna Barrows hails from the oak savanna hills of Orinda, California, but has been rooted in the Washington wilds for the last decade. Working predominantly as a field technician for land conservation organizations, her writing explores and facilitates the connection between word and place. She has been published in journals such as The Planet and Phantom Drift and wants to help facilitate a deeper relationship between Islanders and the magic woven by this ecocultural landscape.
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Essine Kilpatrick-Boe
Facilitator
Essine Kilpatrick is a multi-media artist from Friday Harbor, WA. Essine had a successful online following in visual art in her mid-to-late teens under the moniker Dreemboat. Simultaneously, she was acting on stage or working behind the scenes in at least one show per year (often more!) from ages 10 to 20, culminating in being cast as the lead of Henrietta Leavitt in SJCT's Silent Sky—her most treasured memory in theater arts, beyond leading workshops at the local elementary school. Forever a journal-er and writer in her big heart, she posts her sappy poems on @honeyjarspoems on Instagram. You can often find her overthinking, taking in a deep whiff of lilac in the spring air, deliriously typing ideas at 1 am, or carving out a sweet spot in her day for her beloved family and magical friends, who inspire her constantly.