Bretty Rawson is a narrative & story consultant, dachshund dad, and editor who writes at the edge of boyhood, shadow, and dream.
Bretty is the founder and creative director of Slow Blink, a storytelling studio that combines craft, psychology, and linguistics to help organizations tell their stories in the ways they deserve to be heard. You can read more about “story anchors,” the narrative framework Bretty built Slow Blink around. Past clients include Runners for Public Lands, Center for Independence, Walla Walla Valley Wine, IBM, and more.
At the heart of Bretty’s work is community storytelling. In 2015, after receiving an MFA in Creative Writing (Nonfiction) from The New School, Bretty co-founded Seventh Wave, a BIPOC- and queer-run literary magazine that publishes art in the space of social issues. In 2021, Seventh Wave was a finalist for the Firecracker Awards for Best Magazine, and they’ve been featured in LitHub and Poets&Writers for their innovative approach to inclusive publishing practices. As director of programs, Bretty built their “Community Anthologies,” a cohort-based storytelling platform that gives TSW’s editorial keys to curators in the community, which received major funding in its first year. They also designed their digital residency program, a genre-agnostic incubator for community, mentorship, and accountability. A hand-writer at heart, you can see Bretty’s offline passion on the online platform, handwritten, which was featured in The New York Times, Heritage Radio Network, Atlas Obscura, Real Simple, among others, and which partnered with The New York Public Library, The Sketchbook Project, The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art, among others, to showcase the power of the pen. handwritten is resuming publishing in 2026.
CV available upon request.
Bretty’s own writing has been published in PANK Magazine, The Rumpus, Nowhere Magazine, among others, and they’ve received support from the Banff Center for Arts & Creativity for their fiction manuscript, Shadow Boys, a duology about the blurriness of boyhood. Bretty has spoken on stages and at schools about the art, act, and craft of story, and they are currently on the Board of Directors for both Seattle City of Literature and Born to Adapt, two nonprofits with missions to connect people across the globe. Bretty has also been a Teaching Artist at writing retreats, in charter schools, and with writers-in-the-school programs.
In past lives, Bretty worked an overnight shift for two years at a law firm in New York City to pay their bills and focus on writing; Bretty ran digital storytelling efforts for Washington State’s wine industry for four years, despite a penchant for IPAs; for three nonconsecutive summers, Bretty worked on slime lines in fishing canneries in Alaska, most recently in Unalaska, Alaska, whose island slogan is, Your unforgettable, undiscovered journey awaits you in Unalaska; and long ago, Bretty lived in Kisakata, a town of 8,000 in the northeast coast of Japan, where they taught English for two years to their favorite age: third graders.
Connect w/ Bretty.
Interested in Bretty’s work or in working with Bretty via Slow Blink? Curious about Seventh Wave, and/or how to join TSW’s community of 300+ writers and artists? Looking to build or refresh your website? Navigating the world of branding, craft, or storytelling in nonprofit, corporate, or tech environments? Fill out the form to the right and Bretty will be in touch within a week.