FRANKIE ROLLINS
FIFTH BRAIN COLLECTIVE FOUNDERYears of studying and working with writers taught Frankie Rollins something that transfers directly into all of the spaces she teaches and coaches in: every person carries strengths built from their exact experiences, their particular thought patterns, the roles they've played and the people who shaped them. Naming these our fifth brains, Frankie knows how to identify those strengths and point each person towards their own, unfailingly. She knows how to pay attention to the power within her own fifth brain and has learned how to teach others this skill. Leaving academia to launch the Fifth Brain Collective, Frankie has learned from members and clients that harnessing the writing life doesn’t just create new texts, it leads to more powerful living.
The author of Do You Feel Like Writing? A Creative Guide to Artistic Confidence (Fifth Brain Collective, 2023), a collection of short fiction, The Sin Eater & Other Stories (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2013), and a collection of flash fiction, The Grief Manuscript (Finishing Line Press, 2020). Publisher’s Weekly's review of The Sin Eater & Other Stories reads, “Unsettling imagery and hauntingly beautiful language characterize these stories, as ephemeral and indefinable as dreams.” Rollins is the founder of the Fifth Brain Collective, a warm and radiant collaborative of weekly writing memberships and 1-1 Coaching.
ames granados
DIRECTOR OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT & TEACHING ARTISTames granados [she/her] is an award-winning writer-performer whose creative nonfiction maps the brutal & beautiful through a neurodivergent lens. Her writing is published in anthologies from Dismantling Press, F*ST! (Female StoryTellers), which she co-edited, alongside a slew of academic publications co-authored by her research team at the University of Southern California. ames’ live performances have been recognized with the Hollywood Fringe Festival’s ‘Encore Producers Award’ and a Moth StorySLAM win in LA. Stay tuned for her memoir about late-realized Autism/ADHD, recovery, and irrational hope.
SANDRA SHATTUCK
VISIONARY ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER, CO-FACILITATOR OF FRUIT CUPI recently retired from a 40-year career in higher education teaching writing and literature, and published my first novel in 2023: The Electric Life of Lilah Browne, a middle-grade novel about a girls' computer science club. I have published academic essays and book reviews, creative nonfiction, and poetry, and have written with various writing groups over the last thirty years.
MARK PETTIS
CO-FACILITATOR OF FRUIT CUPI have had a 40-year professional career as a carpenter, general contractor, and project manager. I discovered a passion for creative writing in the last decade. I started writing as a way to record the stories I was formulating in my mind, and I have not stopped since. One of these stories is now being worked on with an editor towards publication. The Fifth Brain Collective and Fruit Cup enable me to continue pursuing my creative writing in a safe and welcoming environment.
KYE DAVOLT
GRAPHIC ARTIST & WEB DESIGNKye (they/them) is an artist, graphic designer and educator based in Tucson, Arizona. Their work is focused on using art and storytelling as a tool for political education, community organizing, and movement-building.
THE COLLECTIVE
The Fifth Brain Collective exists because of the people who show up and write.
These particular people listed above keep the lights on, host, create spaces, and untangle tech issues, but the writing and reading and listening we do is collaborative.
Get to know our collective on Substack, where you can read our monthly feature Meet Our Members or see what kinds of writing can get done in 20 minutes with our Occasional Daily Special.
