Bretty is a narrative & story consultant, dachshund dad, and writer examining the edges of boyhood, shadow, and dream.
In 2022, Bretty created Slow Blink, a storytelling studio that combines craft, psychology, and linguistics to help brands, organizations, and individuals tell their stories in ways they deserve to be told. You can read more about “Story Anchors,” the narrative framework at the core of Slow Blink’s work. 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 organization that publishes art in the space of social issues. Seventh Wave was finalist in 2025 for Best Organization Award (AWP Writing Organization Award) and a finalist in 2021 for Best Magazine (CLMP’s Firecracker Award). Bretty served as director of programs for Seventh Wave, building their Community Anthologies and digital residency programs. A hand-writer at heart, Bretty also co-created, handwritten, a place in space for pen and paper, 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 and paper.
CV available upon request.
Bretty is currently at work on a fiction manuscript, Shadow Boys, which follows the story of four neighborhood boys — The Goodbye Boys — who lose their shadows. Their 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. Bretty is currently on the Board of Directors for Born to Adapt, and was on the board of Seattle City of Literature from 2024-2026. Bretty has 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 at a law firm in New York City for two years to fund their writing; was lead storyteller for Washington State’s wine industry for four years, which was a hoot of various kinds; and for three nonconsecutive summers, 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. Long ago, Bretty lived in Kisakata, a town of 8,000 on the northeast coast of Japan, where they taught English for two years to their favorite age: third graders. One of Bretty’s favorite gigs was interpreting for Yayoi Kusama’s head architect of 20 years while they installed Kusama’s first-ever infinity room at the David Zwirner Art Gallery in 2016. Much was lost, and found, in translation.
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Interested in Bretty’s work or in working with Bretty via Slow Blink? Curious about joining Seventh Wave’s community of 500+ writers and artists? Looking for a new digital home? Navigating the business of branding, craft, or digital storytelling? Fill out the form to the right and Bretty will be in touch within a week.