Participating Artists
This is a list of artists who participated in our May 2023 Spring Writes Festival.
Kenzie Allen
Kenzie Allen is a Haudenosaunee poet and multimodal artist; she is a lineal descendant of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. A finalist for the National Poetry Series, Kenzie has received a James Welch Prize for Indigenous poets, a 92NY Discovery Prize, and fellowships from Aspen Summer Words, Vermont Studio Center, and Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po). She was born in West Texas and currently lives in Toronto. kenzieallen.co
Scotty Arnold
Scotty Arnold is a NY-based musical theater writer. He wrote a musical with Alana Jacoby about the Black Death and a musical with Jenny Stafford about not leaving your room, both years before the pandemic. He’s also written musicals about a sasquatch, Olympic curling, and a fallen angel. He’s been lucky to develop work at places like Joe’s Pub, Ars Nova, and Vassar’s Powerhouse. http://scottyarnold.com
Aishvarya Arora
Aishvarya Arora is a poet, arts worker, and double Taurus from Queens, NY. They’ve received support from the Fulbright Program and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, where they were a Poetry Coalition Fellow. Currently, they're an MFA candidate in Poetry at Cornell University, where they write about grief, desire, and birds. You can read their work in harana poetry and in the zine To Us and Ours: An Asian American Feminist Collection.
Andrea Augustus
Andrea Augustus is a New York artist with over 6 years of performance experience. Oratory artist and writer, Andrea explores many artistic mediums in the name of healing and creating. Andrea is the owner of Poetic Black Gurl LLC a black woman-owned business that specializes in personal and professional development workshops rooted in mental health and wellness. Andrea is dedicated to offering creative outlets for individuals to begin or continue their journey of healing and self-expression. poeticblackgurl.com
nicole v. basta
nicole v basta is a poet, teaching artist, curator, and visual artist with proud roots in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Her poems have found homes in places like Ploughshares, The Cortland Review, RHINO, Plume, The North American Review, etc. nicole’s second chapbook the next field over was published by Tolsun Books in 2022. Her work has been generously supported by Art Farm Nebraska, Terra Cultura, and Community Arts Partnership. nicolevbasta.com
Nora Batya Marcus-Hecht
Nora Batya is a current student at Ithaca College getting my B.A. in writing with a minor in English. https://noramarcushecht.wordpress.com/
Mackenzie Berry
Mackenzie Berry is from Louisville, Kentucky. Her poetry has been published in Poetry Ireland Review, Up the Staircase, Hobart, and Blood Orange Review, among others. She received an MFA in Poetry from Cornell University, where she teaches. Her debut poetry collection is Slack Tongue City (Sundress Publications, 2022). mackenzieberry.com
Michelle Courtney Berry
Michelle Courtney Berry is an American writer and entrepreneur of African and English descent. The second Poet Laureate of Tompkins County and a published writer of fiction, non-fiction, prose, plays, and poetry, she holds an MPS degree in Organizational Communication (Cornell University) and a dual BA in English, Literature, and Rhetoric and Political Science (Binghamton University). This fall, she’s an Ignation Doctoral Scholar at LeMoyne. michellecourtneyberry.com
Yangzhou Bian
Yangzhou Bian is an English-Chinese translator and a professional thespian who is devoted in all kinds of creative and artistic endeavors, including but not limited to playwriting, painting, poetry, composing, and cooking. She is currently drafting the bilingual cookbook Rainbow Dumplings. Amazon
Janie E. Bibbie
Janie E. Bibbie is author of Alzheimer’s: Up Close and Personal and several books of poetry. She is a member of Business Leaders of Colors, and a Deaconess, Trustee, and Caregiver group leader of Calvary Baptist Church. As Tompkins County Poet Laureate, she hopes to encourage others join her in reading, writing, and sharing poetry.
BOGMOM
BOGMOM is an Ithaca-based duo comprised of instrumentalist Nick Scollard and poet/vocalist Marty Cain. Scollard has been active in the local music scene as both a performer and a producer, and Cain is the author of three books of poetry—most recently, The Prelude (Action Books, 2023). In 2023, BOGMOM put out Tolerance Break, a cassette that weds experimental poetry with swampy soundscapes. BANDCAMP
Cory Brown
Cory Brown grew up in Oklahoma, studied at Cornell University, and now teaches writing at Ithaca College. His latest collection of poems is from Cayuga Lake Books. He also publishes essays. https://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/cbrown AMAZON
Wayles Browne
Wayles Browne is a translator, linguist and retired teacher of Bosnian and other Slavic languages at Cornell. He studied and worked in the former Yugoslavia before its breakup. He lives with his wife and two cats in Ithaca. ewb2@cornell.edu https://linguistics.cornell.edu/wayles-browne
Regi Carpenter
Regi Carpenter is a storyteller, author, workshop leader and educator who focuses on writing autobiographical creative non- fiction.
regicarpenter.com
Tina Chang
Tina Chang is the author of three critically acclaimed poetry collections: Hybrida (W. W. Norton, May 2019), Of Gods & Strangers, and Half-Lit Houses. She was the first woman to be named Poet Laureate of Brooklyn and she served in this role for over a decade. Professor and Director of Creative Writing at her alma mater, Binghamton University, she oversees the initiatives under the Binghamton Center for Writers. tinachang.com
Amrita Chakraborty
Amrita Chakraborty is a writer and graduate student in comparative literature at Cornell University from Queens, NY. Her writing has been published in The Margins, Parentheses Journal, and more, and her microchapbook Cold Alchemy was published by Ghost City Press in 2020. In her work, she considers questions of gender, worldmaking, and utopianism. You can find her online at amritachakraborty.com.
Carolyn Clark
Carolyn Clark, Ph.D. Classics, was born in Ithaca, NY and often lived abroad. She studied at Cornell, Brown and Johns Hopkins (1998 diss. Tibullus Illustrated: Lares, Genius, and Sacred Landscapes). Her poetry books: Watershed - new Finger Lakes poems (Kelsay Books, 2023), Poet Duet: A Mother and Daughter (Aldrich Press, 2019), New Found Land (Cayuga Lake Books, 2017), a pair of Finishing Line Press chapbooks – Choose Lethe: Remember to Forget (2017) and Mnemosyne: the Long Traverse (2013). https://www.writer.org/connect/consultants/
Nancy Avery Dafoe
Poet/author/educator Nancy Avery Dafoe has 14 published books. Her most recent include poetry The House Was Quiet, But the Mind Was Anxious (2022), memoir Unstuck in Time: A Memoir and Mystery on Loss and Love (2021), and novel Socrates is Dead Again (2022). She is a member of the CNY of the NLAPW and lives in Homer, New York. http://nancydafoebooks.com http://dafoewritingandconsulting.com
Leslie Daniels
Leslie Daniels’ first novel, Cleaning Nabokov’s House has been published in translation in four languages and optioned for film. Her stories and essays have appeared in multiple publications. Her career includes a long stint as a literary agent in NYC and five years as the fiction editor of Green Mountains Review. Daniels has the pleasure of occasionally teaching writing. She lives in Ithaca, New York. https://www.lesliedaniels.com/
Julia Dath
Julia Dath is a fiction writer, blogger, and screenwriter from Springfield, PA. Her work has been published in Buzzsaw Magazine, Stillwater Magazine, Pile Press, and Applause Literary Journal. When she's not writing, Julia focuses on fundraising and advocacy work for Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital. https://juliasbookshelves.com
Rachel Dickinson
Rachel Dickinson writes nonfiction and essays. Her work has appeared in many publications including The Atlantic, Aeon, Salon, Smithsonian, Audubon, The Saturday Evening Post, and Men's Journal. Author of seven books, her latest, The Loneliest Places: loss, grief, and the long journey home, published by Three Hills Press in 2022, is a memoir in essays about her life after the death of her son Jack by suicide in 2012. Dickinson lives in Freeville, NY, with her husband Tim Gallagher.
Bethany Dixon
Bethany Dixon is a writer, baker, and pianist living in Ithaca, NY. Her poetry has been published in the Connecticut River Review, the North American Review, Tempered Runes, and For Women Who Roar, and is forthcoming in The Hopkins Review. Bethany's current work focuses on reclaiming female narratives from ancient Greek texts. http://piesandpinups.com
Daley Downing
An author, blogger, dance teacher, and part-time librarian, Daley Downing is also autistic, an endo warrior, and a lover of four-legged furry friends. https://daleydowning.wordpress.com/
Pat Dutt
Pat Dutt is a former science teacher and landscape estimator living in Ithaca, NY. Her non-fiction book about an Iranian immigrant, "The Good Moms, Their Children, and Friendship," was self-published in 2021. Her short stories and flash fiction has been published in The Louisville Review, Deep Overstock, America Writers Review and other literary magazines. She also volunteers for mental health organizations and at Loaves and Fishes.
Mona Eikel-Pohen
Mona Eikel-Pohen writes in German and English and often self-translates. She also uses creative writing and improv in her teaching of German as a new language at Syracuse University, and the third volume of Schrieben schrieb geschrieben s currently under way. Mona recently published her third collection, Sogar das Schweigen hat diakritische Zeichen, oder Vom Lesen wird man nicht satt. She plants trees and plays the eBass ukulele outside Ithaca, NY.
Julia Ellis
Julia Ellis is a lover of all forms of creative expression. She is an expressive arts therapist, a singer, a dancer, a clown, and of course, a storyteller. She loves to share traditional tales, as well as original stories that combine magic with personal transformation. Julia is also passionate about the intersection of healing, community and creativity, and leads people toward accessing their inner artist in both individual and group settings.
Marella Feltrin-Morris
Marella Feltrin-Morris is a freelance translator and contributor to Stories for a Year, a digital project that will provide the first complete English translation of Pirandello’s short stories. To date, eighteen of her translations of Pirandello have appeared in Stories for a Year. She is Associate Professor of Italian and coordinator of the Translation Studies Minor at Ithaca College.
Yvonne Fisher
Yvonne Fisher is a psychotherapist, writer, performer, and visual artist. Her recent projects have been 2 solo shows she wrote and performed: My Viennese Mother; and My Wedding Performance Piece. She is currently performing with Sue Perlgut and Leigh Keeley in The Abortion Play in many, varied venues locally in Ithaca and regionally.
Brenna Fitzgerald
Brenna is a writer, editor, coach, and host of Creative Recovery podcast. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing and has published work in a variety of literary journals. She is currently working on a Master’s of Social Work with plans to obtain her clinical license. As a coach, she shares tools and offers support, helping people make lifestyle changes to improve their health and well-being. brennacoaching.com
West Fox
West Fox is a multidisciplinary artist that works with sound, movement, and word. West has been particularly drawn to myth from African-American folktales to greek gods to Babylonian to the modern myths that inform the masses (like Black on Black crime). West has taught literacy to 4th, 5th, and 6th graders in NYC and to adults in Florida, and was a writing tutor or college applications and philosophy courses. West has also taught poetry workshops to incarcerated women in Upland, CA. https://linktr.ee/westdfox
Emily Fridlund
Emily Fridlund’s first novel, History of Wolves, was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. It was awarded the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. Her debut collection of stories, Catapult, won the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. She grew up in Minnesota and teaches at Cornell. https://www.emilyfridlundbooks.com/
Alison Fromme
Alison Fromme is a creative nonfiction writer based in Ithaca, NY. She’s currently working on her first book-length manuscript, The Wax Woman, which weaves the history of an 18th Century anatomical model with the story of her traumatic birth experience. The Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and the Tompkins County Community Arts Partnership have supported the development of this work, and excerpts have been performed on stage and published in literary journals. alisonfromme.com
Matthew Gardener
Matthew Gardener makes books, stories, and text objects. He's fascinated by how we understand the world—whether through science, art, or culture. He completed a B.A. in writing and minor in graphic design at Ithaca College, where he was Creative Director of literary magazine Stillwater. He is currently a technical writer for a small New York company providing components of employment-based visa applications.https://m-gardener.com/
Mary Gilliland
Mary Gilliland is the author of two award-winning collections: The Devil’s Fools (Codhill Press 2022) and The Ruined Walled Castle Garden (Bright Hill Press 2020), with poems anthologized most recently in Rumors Secrets & Lies: Poems on Pregnancy, Abortion & Choice; Nuclear Impact: Broken Atoms in Our Hands; and Wild Gods: The Ecstatic in Contemporary Poetry and Prose. marygilliland.com
David Guaspari
David Guaspari was trained as a pure mathematician and considers himself to be, of all post-19th century mathematical logicians, the funniest. In addition to technical papers, he has published short fiction, essays, humor, and reviews, and has had plays performed in states totaling 326 electoral votes as well as five foreign countries. A member of the Dramatists Guild, he lives in Ithaca, NY. dguaspari.com
Spencer Hadley
Spencer Hadley is a trumpeter, keyboardist, composer, improviser and producer. He is currently a PhD student in the department of German Studies at Cornell University, and his research on 20th and 21st century poetry, prose, and performance is informed by music and sound studies, Black German Studies, and performance studies.
Kris Haines-Sharp
Kris Haines-Sharp lives with her wife and pup in Ithaca, NY. She was a 2020-21 Craigardan writer-in-residence where she was selected to study with Kate Moses in the Bookgardan writing program. Her work has appeared in Entropy Magazine, Adelaide Literary Magazine, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Roi Faineant Press. krishainessharp.com
Roger Hecht
Roger W. Hecht teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at SUNY, Oneonta. He is the author of two collections of poetry: Talking Pictures (Cervena Barva Press) and Witness Report (Finishing Line Press). He lives in Ithaca. https://rogerwhecht.wordpress.com/
Esther Kondo Heller
Esther Kondo Heller (they/them) is a poet, writer, and experimental film and sound maker. They are a Barbican Young Poet 18/19, an Obsidian Foundation fellow, Ledbury Critic, and an Image Text Ithaca Junior Fellow.They are currently an MFA in Poetry candidate at Cornell University.
Gail Holst-Warhaft
Gail Holst-Warhaft is a poet, prose writer, and translator of Greek literature. She is the author of two collections of poetry, Penelope's Confession and Lucky Country, and a number of books about Greek music and poetry. She was Poet Laureate of Tompkins County for 2011-12. Her most recent book is Nisiotika: Music, Dances and Bitter-Sweet Songs of the Aegean Islands. gailholst-warhaft.com
Katharyn Howd Machan
Katharyn Howd Machan has been writing and publishing poetry for half a century. She lives and teaches in Ithaca, New York with her beloved spouse and fellow poet Eric Machan Howd. She directed the Feminist Women’s Writing Workshops, Inc., and served as Tompkins County’s first poet laureate. She belly dances. ithaca.edu/machan
Jack Hopper
Jack Hopper is a poet and editor. He served twice as Tompkins County's poet laureate and continues to write. He has four published collections of poetry and is working on a fifth, due later this year. He works as a freelance editor of scholarly texts.
Dr. Sarah Jefferis
Her poetry publications include Forgetting the Salt (Foothills Press, 2008) and What Enters the Mouth (Standing Stone Books, 2017) and poems in The North American Review, The Cimarron Review, Rhino, The American Literary Review, etc. Jefferis holds an MFA from Cornell, and a PhD from SUNY Binghamton. She is also an editor and speaker. She fosters generative writing workshops, and yogawriting workshops helping communities move from places of sorrow to spaces of triumph. https://sarahjefferis.com/
Clare Jones
Clare Jones is the recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Program, Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
clarejonespoet.com
JRose
JRose is a spoken word artist born and raised in Queens, NY. Her love for Hip Hop inspired her to start writing poetry at the tender age of 16. Her profound yet relatable poetry transcends time and covers a wide spectrum of genres, styles and perspectives. Her writing speaks unapologetically about love, heartbreak, mental health, sexuality , women's empowerment, trauma and everything in between. http://www.therosegardenevents.com
Kahsenniyo
Kahsenniyo is a spoken word artist from the Mohawk Nation Wolf Clan based in Six Nations. Kahsenniyo began utilizing her poetry as a tool for social change and community engagement in 2008. Her work is centred around the beauty and complexity of Indigenous issues. Kahsenniyo transforms her love for her community and people into passionate performances. Kahsenniyo.com
Leigh Keeley
Leigh Keeley has been attending Ellen Schmidt's writing workshop for the past 7 years. She has been a nurse for more years than she cares to count, still working part-time. Over the years she has appeared in productions at the Firehouse Theater, The Hangar and Kitchen Theater Company and has done voice-over work at Rep Studios. She joined End Abortion Stigma just before the Dobbs Decision was announced.
Sorayya Khan
Sorayya Khan is the author of We Take Our Cities With Us: A Memoir (2022) and three novels: Noor, Five Queen's Road, and City of Spies, which won the Best International Fiction Book Award at the Sharjah International Book Fair. Follow her on Instagram at @SorayyaKhan. https://sorayyakhan.com/
La Llorona
Alejandra is a musician who writes mainly music but also weaves carefully crafted words throughout her musical landscapes. A deep believer that music and art will shape the world, Alejandra writes enchanting songs that question and challenge the status quo. Haunting and spellbinding, Alejandra's solo project La Llorona merges worlds and genres together for a truly unique experience. https://www.lalloronamusicny.com/
Brooke Lange
Brooke Lange is a writer and visual artist living in Brooktondale, NY. Through poetry, photography, and mixed media collage she explores the world from queer and neurodivergent perspectives. Brooke's art has been featured locally at State of the Art Gallery and published by Ghostwatch Zine. She has an upcoming solo show at The Gallery in Ithaca, NY during June and July 2023. BrookeLangeArtist.com
Ja
y Leeming
Jay Leeming is a poet and performance storyteller who has spent years bringing the power of the spoken word to audiences in theaters, schools, libraries, and National Parks. He is the author of three books of poetry, the creator of the Crane Bag Storytelling Podcast and the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His performances of The Odyssey, the epic of Gilgamesh and numerous Norse and Greek myths can be found at JayLeeming.com
Jionghao Liu
Jionghao Liu is a graduate student majoring in Translation Studies at Binghamton University. She speaks Chinese, Japanese, and English. Her research project concerns Japanese adaptations of Chinese vernacular fiction, such as Water Margin, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, etc. Amazon
Eric Machan Howd
Eric Machan Howd (Ithaca, NY) is a poet, musician, and educator. His fifth collection of poetry, Universal Monsters, was recently published by The Orchard Street Press. His poetry has been seen in such publications as Nimrod, Dash, Caesura, Slant, and The Healing Muse. When not writing poetry, Eric directs the Office of Extended Studies at Ithaca College. Buy Universal Monsters
Ave Mack
Ave Mack, the locally and internationally known mc is the founder of the independent label and group called Empire Kings and has been sharing his stories in a melodic fashion by rocking crowds since 2005. He creates music with the belief that it serves in many ways - as a diary, best friend, love coach, or just a party starter, and trusts that it is the artist’s freedom to create with any and all of those things at heart. Apple Music
Lee-Ellen Marvin
Lee-Ellen Marvin has been engaged with storytelling since 1981. She has produced storytelling recordings, conferences, and concert programs, taught storytelling at numerous colleges and universities, and performed at festivals, community centers, and schools. She is the creator of the Story Shifters Game, a non-competitive card game that inspires people to take traditional tales as raw material for fresh stories.
Dr. Leslyn McBean-Clairborne
Dr. Leslyn McBean-Clairborne loves theatre. She is a writer, director, trainer, and actress who has graced the stage locally, nationally and internationally since age four. She last performed at Ford Hall, in 2022 as Narrator for COPLAND: Lincoln Portrait. In 2021, she directed a virtual dramatic reading of a play for Juneteenth. Leslyn also performed two of her original poems for 2019 Spring Writes.
Richard Mirabella
Richard Mirabella is a writer and office worker living in upstate New York. He is the author of the novel Brother & Sister Enter the Forest. https://www.richardmirabellawriter.com/
Jerry Mirskin
Jerry Mirskin lives in Ithaca. He is the author of three collections of poetry. His most recent collection is entitled, Crepuscular Non Driveway. Jerry's poems have been widely published and anthologized. He taught for many years at Ithaca College and Cornell and was a NYS Poet in the Schools. jerrymirskin.org
Keyturah Moore
Keyturah Moore has been writing since a child and has a desire to inspire through her words. Most of her writing is based off experience and learning how to cope and heal through grief, depression and other life lessons. She is a creative writer, songwriter, screenwriter, and poet.
Aiden Nelson
Aiden Nelson is a queer writer and creative. As a poet and essayist, their work hinges on their stark sense of honesty, with their work uncovering the nuances of grief, abuse, and trauma, while still showcasing the inevitability of joy and healing. Buy Lavender and Cigarettes
Elisabeth Nonas
Novelist and screenwriter Elisabeth Nonas taught screenwriting and writing for emerging media at Ithaca College for over twenty years. She condensed her pedagogy into the self-published Story Workout: Exercises to Help You Connect with the Stories You Want to Tell. She recently completed her fifth novel, Grace Period, and has started on her sixth, Away with Words. /elisabethnonas.com
Christa Núñez
Christa Núñez is the founder and Director of CAN Cooperative Media, the Learning Farm, and its non-profit sister organization Khuba International. In order to create sustainable food, land, and nature systems for systemically urbanized and displaced youth and families, this work includes the uplifting of stories that center people of color in dignity-affirming ways. LearningFarm.org KhubaIntl.org CANCoopMedia.com
Obvious Objects
Obvious Objects Is a collaboration with vinyl DJs Nicole Costa and Ben Marlan. Ben and Nicole have been playing records together for about four years. They like to select unique tracks to keep the dance floor energized. Expect the unexpected…from house to dIsco or 80s and 90s throwbacks. Instagram
Stephen Paling
Steve Paling is a poet and storyteller who lives in Ithaca, NY. His storytelling includes original and adapted tales based on the European folk and fairy tale tradition. He was recently the featured teller at Story Space (http://www.storyspace.org/Home.asp). In 2020 Cayuga Lake Books published his volume of poetry, Rooms in Old Houses. https://stevepaling.info/
Raul Palma
Raul Palma is the author of A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens (forthcoming from Dutton) and In This World of Ultraviolet Light (Indiana University Press). He is an associate dean in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Ithaca College and a member of the fiction faculty in the Department of Writing. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. raulpalmawriter.com
Sue Perlgut
Award winning documentarian Sue Perlgut runs CloseToHome Productions and has produced four documentaries that feature topical and socially relevant issues along with multi-media films/readings about women in Tompkins County. Perlgut founded The Senior Troupe of Lifelong in Ithaca. She has written a play/reading about abortion, appeared on national TV and has been interviewed by national media outlets about her pre Roe V Wade abortion story. CloseToHomeProductions.com
Kyara Lanee Perkins
Meet Kyara, also known as “KP the Intellectual” creator of Urban Confab LLC is a Bronx, NY native and dedicated community developer, writer, activist and organizer who’s passion resides in empowering and strengthening economic development within the community through creative pathways and mediums. KP continues to incorporate ancient concepts of wellness and personal development within community development with the hopes of building a more resilient and sustainable future within her community. http://Www.yoururbanshelf.com
Bob Proehl
Bob Proehl is the author of The Nobody People and A Hundred Thousand Worlds, a Booklist best book of the year. He has worked as a bookseller and programming director for Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, New York, a DJ, a record store owner, and a bartender. He was a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Fiction and a resident at the Saltonstall Arts Colony. His work has appeared on Salon, as part of the 33⅓ book series, and in American Short Fiction. http://bobproehl.com
Cai Quirk
Cai Quirk (they or other neutral pronouns) is a genderqueer/fluid multi-disciplinary artist who connects gender, mythology, restoryation, and nature-based spirituality through photos, poems, and stories. Cai’s book and photo series Transcendence: Queer Restoryation, has been exhibited locally and internationally. They received bachelor's degrees in music and photography from Indiana University. caiquirk.com
Jon Raimon
Jon Raimon teaches personal and creative writing at LACS (Lehman Alternative Community School) and has worked with Ithaca teens in a variety of ways over a bunch of decades. Inspired by their courage and craft, he writes alongside his students.
Amy Reading
Amy Reading is working on her second book, a literary biography of New Yorker editor Katharine S. White, which has received a National Endowment of the Humanities fellowship and is forthcoming from HarperCollins in 2024. She is on the board at Buffalo Street Books and writes a Substack newsletter on indie bookselling called Open Book. amyreading.com
Erin Riddle
Erin Riddle earned a B.A. at Ithaca College studying German, Spanish, and Art History and then worked for a small book publisher in Ithaca for seven years. She then attended Binghamton University and earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. studying translation and literature. She lives in Owego, NY, works as a language professional, and is translating an Argentine novel from Spanish to English. erinriddle.com
Carley Robinson
Carley Robinson is a theatre practitioner, arts educator, and community worker local to Upstate New York. She has worked with Civic Ensemble, Hangar Theatre, Clockmaker Arts and others to create engaging and healing theatre. A proud member of Black Artist Collective, she invites people to access their inner expertise, and challenges them to see their stories as gifts to our community.
Dan Rosenberg
Dan Rosenberg’s most recent collection of poems, Bassinet, was published by Carnegie Mellon University Press in 2022. His work has won the American Poetry Journal Book Prize and the Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest. Rosenberg teaches literature, creative writing, and translation theory at Wells College in Aurora, NY. danrosenberg.us
Laura Rowley
Laura Rowley (she/they) is a teaching book artist from Trumansburg, NY. She is the founder of Illuminated Press, a micro press that publishes small editions of handmade books and zines. These books feature handmade paper, letterpress printing, and hand bookbinding to connect the reader to our physical world. http://www.illuminatedpress.org
Collin Ryer
Collin Ryer is a senior writing major, with minors in screenwriting and history at Ithaca College, where they are also the fiction editor for the literary magazine Stillwater. They were born and raised in Hightstown, New Jersey. Collin has had short stories published in AHOY Comics and Gemini Magazine. https://collin-ryer-writer.weebly.com/writing.html
India Sada
India Sada is a Queer Poet, Scriptwriter, Editor & Biomythographist from Cincinnati, and Other Waters. She teaches Creative Writing and a First-Year Writing Seminar “Writing Memory from the Watery” at Cornell University. Her art installation, “Requiem” appeared in the Mellon Collaborative Studies for Architecture: Seeing to be in the Aftermath. She has workshopped with the Hurston/Wright Foundation and with the Watering Hole as a fellow-tribe. ishpage.press
Jennifer Savran Kelly
Jennifer Savran Kelly (she/they) lives in Ithaca, where she writes, binds books, and works as a production editor at Cornell University Press. Their debut novel ENDPAPERS (Algonquin Books) won a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and was selected as a finalist for the SFWP Literary Awards program and the James Jones First Novel Fellowship. Jennifer's short fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Potomac Review, Green Mountains Review, and elsewhere. jennifersavrankelly.com
Daniel Smalls
Dan Smalls is a concert promoter based in Ithaca, NY. He's taken to writing during the forced time of during the pandemic covering true stories from behind the scenes and a novel based loosely on past music industry experiences. His company DSP Shows promotes of 700 events around the northeast every year from Western Mass to Buffalo. danielsmalls.com
Sera Smolen
Sera Smolen, is a collaborator, improviser and recording artist. She collaborates with dancers, sculptors, painters, poets, and musicians and composes and records original music with her husband, Tom Mank, touring Europe eleven times. Smolen received her PhD in 2000, and teaches at Opus Ithaca School of Music in Ithaca NY. She was assistant director of the New Directions Cello Festival for 20 years. http://www.serasmolen.com
Jenny Stafford
Jenny is an award-winning playwright, bookwriter, and lyricist. Her works have been heard on Broadway, regionally, and internationally, including Lincoln Center, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and Joe’s Pub. Winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy Award, finalist for the Kleban Prize for Musical Theatre, the McKnight Fellowship, the Yale Institute for Music Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference. Nominee for Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. MFA NYU. http://www.jennystafford.net
Sara Stamatiades
Sara Stamatiades is a PhD candidate in the Literatures in English Department at Cornell University, where she specializes in early modern Spanish and English theater. This year, she co-faciliated "Stages of Life," an intergenerational playwriting workshop that brought together teens and elders through storytelling.
James Thomas Stevens
James Thomas Stevens, Aronhió:ta’s, (Akwesasne Mohawk) attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, and Brown University’s Graduate Creative Writing Program. Stevens, a 2000 Whiting Award recipient, has authored eight books of poetry including Combing the Snakes from His Hair and The Golden Book. He is a Full Professor of poetry at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Poetry Foundation
Story House Ithaca
Story House Ithaca is a community arts organization with an emphasis on “community.” Its mission is to bring people together to share, study, create, and enjoy stories in all their forms. Story House is a project of the nonprofit Center for Transformative Action. storyhouseithaca.org
Ami Tamakloe
Ami Tamakloe is human unraveling and reconstructing. Originally from Ghana, they are currently a PhD student in the department of Anthropology at Cornell University. Through artistry, activism and intellect, Ami resists by creating work that foregrounds accessibility around themes of Blackness, gender, sexuality and culture. http://www.amitamakloe.com
Melissa Tuckey
Melissa Tuckey is a poet, editor, and teaching artist. She is author of Tenuous Chapel, a book of poems and Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. She’s a former Tompkins Country poet laureate, an emeritus fellow at Black Earth Institute, and a co-founder of Split This Rock, a national literary organization that supports poetry of provocation and witness.
Chioma Ugwu
Meet Chioma Ugwu, a licensed Realtor and Recruiter and the owner of Connective Resolutions, a black-woman-owned staffing agency that connects BIPOC candidates with ideal jobs in Dental, Tech, and Trade fields. With her expert guidance, Chioma helps businesses build diverse and inclusive work environments, resulting in high retention, less turnover, and high-performing teams. Her passion for creating positive change makes her a valuable asset to both job seekers and organizations alike. https://www.connectiveresolutionstaffing.com/
Jaime Warburton
Jaime Warburton (MFA, Poetry and Creative Nonfiction, Sarah Lawrence College) is the author of the chapbook Note That They Cannot Live Happily, and her poems, stories, and essays have appeared in or are forthcoming from publications such as North American Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Hoxie Gorge Review, Sequestrum, Storyscape, and The Nervous Breakdown. Jaime also acts, sings, and does dramaturgical and theatre work. http://jaimewarburton.weebly.com
Gregg Weatherby
Gregg Weatherby is native to Central New York. He is a poet with four books so far. The most recent is Before We Forget, which continues his examination of the disappearing landscape and lifestyles in our local area. He is also a stage and film actor.
David Weiss
David Weiss's most recent books of poems are Perfect Crime (Nine Mile Books), Per Diem (Tiger Bark Press), Little Mirror (Lynx House Press), and No One Sleeps Tonight (Tiger Bark Press).
Winniebell Xinyu Zong
Winniebell Xinyu Zong is a Chinese poet and chapbook editor at Newfound Press. She was the 2020 Frontier Poetry editorial fellow and a spring 2021 publishing intern at Copper Canyon Press. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, Best of Net, and AWP’s Intro Journals Project, Zong holds an MA from Kansas State University and is an MFA poetry candidate at Cornell University. winniebellxzong.com
marc zuss
zuss has published two chapbooks, including Waking in Galilee and Reveries of My Hand. His work has appeared in Bitterroot, Beloit, Home Planet News, the Woodstock Poetry Review, WIN, Slow Motion and the Tompkins Journal. His academic publications include include Subject Present and The Practice of Theoretical Curiosity,