POETS
Nicole Greaves (My Mother's Dresden..., Having Witnessed..., Awakening With A Voice..., We Are Planets..., Child On A Tricycle, The Rhyme Game) teaches English and various electives at The Crefeld School in Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University, and a certification in secondary English from Bryn Mawr College. Her poetry has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Philly Edition, Jacaranda, Calliope, Cleaver Magazine, Acentos Review, and Friends Journal. It has been awarded prizes by The Academy of American Poets and the Leeway Foundation of Philadelphia. In 2003, she was the poet laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. She lives right outside of Philadelphia with her husband and two children and is currently pursuing a master's degree in special education.
A poet, fiction writer, and essayist, Charlotte Holmes (Utilities, Shattered Ice, Embroidery, Oath, White Evidence, Starring Mary Burton) teaches in all three genres at Penn State University, where she directs the creative writing program. Her new collection of short stories, The Grass Labyrinth, will be published by BkMk Press in 2016.
Beth Marzoni’s (Anecdote of the Border Crossing 1, 2, 3) work has appeared in American Literary Review, Cimarron Review, Crazyhorse, Hayden’s Ferry Review, and New Ohio Review, among others. Her collaborations with Monica Berlin have appeared in Boston Review, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Meridian, Midwestern Gothic, New Orleans Review, and Water~Stone Review. Their book, No Shape Bends the River So Long, was awarded the 2013 New Measure Poetry Prize. Marzoni co-edits Pilot Light, a journal of 21st century poetics and criticism, and teaches at Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Nominated for Best New Poets 2012, Alexandra Lytton Regalado's (La Moneda, La Jarra, La Escoba, La Gallina, La Madre, La Virgen) poetry and short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Puerto del Sol, Phoebe, The Notre Dame Review, MiPOesias, Narrative, OCHO, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from Florida International University and an MFA in fiction from Pacific University. Her full-length manuscript was a finalist for the 2014 Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and her chapbook won Honorable Mention in the 2012 Center for Book Arts Competition. Co-founder of Kalina publishing, Alexandra is author, editor, and/or translator of ten Central American-themed books, most recently the bilingual Salvadoran poetry anthology Theatre Under My Skin (2014).
Nicole Santalucia's (Marianne Moore..., Mapping The Susquehanna, First Presbyterian..., Ode to Locker #17.., Somewhere in Pennsylvania) first book of poems, Because I Did Not Die, is forthcoming from Bordighera Press in 2015. She is a recipient of the Ruby Irene Poetry Chapbook Prize from Arcadia Magazine for her manuscript Driving Yourself to Jail in July (2014) and the 2015 Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize from the Tishman Review. She currently teaches at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and brings poetry workshops into the Cumberland County Prison.
VISUAL ARTISTS
Williamson Brasfield (from Creosote Garden, from Barrier Islands, from Barrier Islands) received his MFA from Yale School of Art, and his BFA from Penn State University. Working in a variety of media, his work has been included in the Nicaraguan Biennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud; Come Together: Surviving Sandy, curated by Phong Bui; Jungle Assteria at Beverly’s; and is a member of Jugo Del Cuerpo, with a forthcoming collaborative show at Harbor Gallery. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Deanna Dorangrichia (Fall On A Dining Room Table, Ants On Apple, Fire Pit, Cow And Calf) studied at the Art Institute of Boston and Binghamton University where she graduated with a BA in Studio Art. She is a visual artist whose work focuses on the exploration and sentiment towards her subject matter. The generative process is intimate and personal and the artist hopes that the finished result evokes this emotive process. There is importance and weight in the viewer not only seeing the work, but feeling something from it as well.
Shannon Estlund (Silence, Cold Air, Midnight's Children, The Devil, Wolf, Under) is an artist and educator originally from Jacksonville, FL now living in the Twin Cities, MN with her husband, Mark Estlund, and two daughters. She currently teaches at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at Augsburg College. She received her MFA from MCAD in 2013 and her BFA from the University of Florida. Shannon is a 2014 Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant recipient, and has shown regionally and nationally, most recently in an exhibition at the Soo Visual Art Center in Minneapolis. Upcoming exhibitions include the Crisp-Ellert Art Museum in St. Augustine, FL in May-June of 2016, and the Haskell Gallery in Jacksonville, FL in the summer of 2016. Learn more about Shannon's work at shannonestlund.com.
Graphic artist and painter Allen Forrest (Lillian, Forrest Family..., The Masters Revisited..., Beaux Arts..., Palos Verdes..., Femme Noir #14) was born in Canada and bred in the US. He has created cover art and illustrations for literary publications and books. He is the winner of the Leslie Jacoby Honor for Art at San Jose State University's Reed Magazine and his Bel Red painting series is part of the Bellevue College Foundation's permanent art collection. Forrest's expressive drawing and painting style is a mix of avant-garde expressionism and post-Impressionist elements reminiscent of van Gogh, creating emotion on canvas.
Amalia Mayita Mendez (Tita Shines, Hola Mama, Casa La Mercedes, Time-Out, Lean In, Sister, Birth) was born in El Salvador and has lived in New York most of her life. She received her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and has worked as a photojournalist in NYC for publications such as Newsday, The Daily News, and The New York Times. She is in her second year of her current #project365 which she posts a photo day on her Instagram account @iseeyouiloveyou. Aside from photography, she also dedicates herself to her family coffee growing business and works with Irving Farm Coffee Roasters in New York City. Learn more about Amalia's work at mayita.com.
Jessica Nordell (Getting Better Every Day) grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She received her post-bac certificate in visual art from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the Renk Distinguished Graduate Fellow in Poetry. Her short film 4000 Years of Leaving Home has shown at film festivals around the world, and her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in the New York Times, FIELD, Slate, Salon, and the New Republic. She lives in Minneapolis and works for the innovation consultancy Zeus Jones. Learn more about Jessica's work at jessicanordell.com.