Contributors & Reviewers

Sarah J. Donovan’s professional interests include ethical, inclusive curriculum, methods, and assessment practices in secondary English classrooms.  She is a former junior high English language arts teacher of fifteen years and an Associate Professor of Secondary English Education at Oklahoma State University. She wrote Genocide Literature in Middle and Secondary Classrooms and the young adult novel, Alone Together (2018).  Sarah also edited Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance, Words That Mend, and 90 Ways of Community.

Kristin Bartley Lenz is a writer and social worker in metro Detroit. Her young adult novel, The Art of Holding On and Letting Go, was a Junior Library Guild Selection and a Great Lakes Great Books Award honor book. You can find more of her writing at www.kristinbartleylenz.com.

Tamara Belko is a reader, writer and teacher. As a middle school English teacher and Power of the Pen Creative writing coach, Tamara has spent her career sharing her passion for reading, writing and poetry with her students. Tamara is the author of young adult verse novel Perchance to Dream.

Joe Bisicchia has nearly four decades of experience in language arts, from journalism and broadcasting, to teaching, marketing, public affairs, and poetry. An Honorable Mention recipient for the Fernando Rielo XXXII World Prize for Mystical Poetry, he has written four published collections of poetry.

Stefani Boutelier, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Education at Aquinas College in Michigan. She teaches courses for pre-service and in-service teachers focused on instructional design, diverse literacy, technology integration, and research methods. Her K-12 teaching was in Southern California before moving into teacher preparation.

Taylor Byas, Ph.D. (she/her), is a Black Chicago native living in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has authored two chapbooks and her debut full-length I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times, which has won multiple awards. She is also a co-editor of Poemhood: Our Black Revivial, a YA poetry anthology.

Dana Claire is an award-winning author whose stories explore identity, fate, and destiny in the crossroads of romance and adventure. Her love of romantic tension, the supernatural and non-stop action has elicited positive feedback from many readers, as their online reviews reveal her flair for spine-tingling action and unforgettable characters.

Mary E. Cronin is a poet, author, and Literacy Coach who lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Her picture book biography of PFLAG founder Jeanne Manford, LIKE A MOTHER BEAR, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster/Atheneum. Her poetry has been featured in The New York Times, Radical Teacher, Rise Up Review, and in Rhyme and Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes. She is represented by Lori Steel of SteelWorks Literary. You can reach her at www.maryecronin.com.

Christopher Crowe is an American professor of English and English education at Brigham Young University specializing in young adult literature. In addition to his academic work, Crowe also writes books for the young-adult market, including Mississippi Trial, 1955.

Kacie Day is a rising poet and author whose work explores the beauty and challenges of the human experience. She resides in rural North Dakota with her husband and son, finding inspiration in nature and her close-knit community.

Sarah J. Donovan’s professional interests include ethical, inclusive curriculum, methods, and assessment practices in secondary English classrooms.  She is a former junior high English language arts teacher of fifteen years and an Associate Professor of Secondary English Education at Oklahoma State University. She wrote Genocide Literature in Middle and Secondary Classrooms and the young adult novel, Alone Together (2018).  Sarah also edited Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance, Words That Mend, and 90 Ways of Community.

Carlos Greaves is an Afro-Latino engineer, writer, and filmmaker. His writing can be found in The New Yorker, NPR, McSweeney’s, and his Substack newsletter, Shades of Greaves. His debut book, Spoilers: Essays That Might Ruin Your Favorite Hollywood Movies is available wherever you get your books.

Zetta Elliott’s poetry has been published in numerous anthologies. Her first YA collection, Say Her Name, won the 2021 Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. A Place Inside of Me: A Poem to Heal the Heart was named a 2021 Notable Poetry Book by the NCTE.

Federico Erebia, a retired physician, woodworker, author, poet, and illustrator, is the recipient of the 2024 Lambda Literary Award for Exceptional New Writer. His debut novel, Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido 2023), has received awards and other critical acclaim. He lives in Massachusetts with his husband. Visit https://FJEbooks.com for more details.

Kennedy Essmiller is a queer writer who earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Oklahoma State University. Her short story, “Mountains” won second place in the University of Western Alabama’s 2017 Sucarnochee Review Fiction contest.Her work is published in Frontier Mosaic and The Good Life Review. You can follow her on Instagram at @kennedywogan.

Jen Ferguson is Métis with ancestral ties to the Red River and white, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD. She is the award-winning (and award-losing!) author of The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Those Pink Mountain Nights and A Constellation of Minor Bears.

Glenda Funk taught English and speech communication. She serves on NCTE’s Children’s Poetry Awards Committee. Her poetry is featured in Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance: An Oral History of COVID-19 in Poems and Rhyme and Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes. Glenda has written for California English and blogs at Swirl & Swing: www.glendafunk.wordpress.com

Hope Goodearl is a high school English teacher with a love for creative writing of all aspects, even if she has a love-hate relationship with poetry. She has previously published 6 other poems to various journals and magazines with the hope of one day publishing a full-length novel.

Jennifer Guyor Jowett teases stories and writers into being. She is the author of Into the Shadows, a middle grade historical fiction based on true-life events, the creator of the #dogearedbookaward, and a defender of fierce girls. Jennifer is a 7th/8th ELA teacher in the mitten state.

Regina Harris Baiocchi is a composer, author, and poet. Her music is recorded and performed by renowned orchestras and acclaimed artists. Her byline appears in Modern Haiku, Obsidian, Fire This Time, and elsewhere. She wrote urban haiku, blues haiku, and at the gate of the sun. Regina’s fiction includes Indigo Sound, Finding Déjà, and Scuppernong.

Christine Hartman Derr is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She runs the website PawPrintsInTheSink.com and is a contributor to an upcoming YA anthology from Heartdrum.

Melissa Heaton has taught for 24 years and currently teaches 8th grade English at Mapleton Jr. High School in Nebo School District. She is an active fellow of the Central Utah Writing Project. When she is not teaching or writing, Melissa enjoys baking, reading, and traveling to national parks.

Rajpreet Heir received her B.A. in English Writing from DePauw University and her M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction from George Mason University. An assistant professor of creative nonfiction at Ithaca College, she now lives in Ithaca, New York. Rajpreet has work in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Brevity, The Normal School, and others.

Jamie Jo Hoang is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees. She grew up in Orange County, CA—not the rich part. She is the author of My Father, the Panda Killer and Blue Sun, Yellow Sky. Her work has also appeared in TIME, SALON and TinyBuddha.

Val Howlett is a folktale lover, curious researcher, and bookish florist. Their fiction has appeared in Lunch Ticket, Hunger Mountain, and two anthologies: Ab(solutely) Normal: Short Stories That Smash Mental Health Stereotypes and We Mostly Come Out at Night: 15 Queer Tales of Monsters, Angels & Other Creatures.

Valerie Hunter teaches high school English and has an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her stories and poems have appeared in magazines such as Cricket, Cicada, and Paper Lanterns, and anthologies including I Sing: The Body and Brave New Girls.

Stacey Joy is a National Board Certified Teacher who has taught for 38 years in Los Angeles. Stacey is a self-published poet and has poems published in various anthologies: Out of Anonymity, Savant Poetry Anthologies, Teacher Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance, and Rhythm and Rhyme: Poems for Student Athletes.

Shih-Li Kow is the author of Ripples and Other Stories and Bone Weight and Other Stories. The French edition (translated by Frederic Grellier) of her novel, The Sum of Our Follies, won the 2018 Prix du Premier Roman Etranger. She lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. www.shihlikow.com

Laura Kuzmicz is a young writer who has just graduated with a BA in English Writing and Journalism from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids Michigan, her hometown. In her spare time, she writes fiction and poetry, mainly focusing on grief, magical realism, and unique femininity. Laura is also an aspiring screenwriter.

Sandra Marchetti is the author of two full-length collections of poetry, Aisle 228 from Stephen F. Austin State University Press (2023) and Confluence from Sundress Publications (2015). She is also the author of four chapbooks of poetry and lyric essays. Sandra’s poetry and essays appear widely in Blackbird, Ecotone, Southwest Review, Mid-American Review, Fansided and elsewhere.

Lee Martin is the author of fifteen books, including the Pulitzer Prize Finalist novel, The Bright Forever. He teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at The Ohio State University and the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University.

S Maxfield is a genderqueer, bi+, and disabled writer. Their flash fiction has been published by WinC Magazine and Voyage YA by Uncharted, and s/he has a short story featured in the anthology We Mostly Come Out at Night (Running Press, 2024). linktr.ee/essmaxfield

Jonathon Medeiros, former director of the Kauaʻi Teacher Fellowship, has been teaching and learning about Language Arts and rhetoric for nearly 20 years with students on Kauaʻi and he frequently writes about education, equity, and the power of curiosity. He believes in teaching his students that if you change all of your mistakes and regrets, you’d erase yourself.

Linda Mitchell is a family girl, school librarian and creative person. She hangs out with her laptop, scissors, glue and paper from discarded books to make crafts with two mischievous young cats. Her favorite game is cribbage. She has published in several journals and weekly to her Poetry Friday blog, A Word Edgewise.

Alana Mondschein (she/her/hers) is a third year student at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs studying Middle Eastern Studies. She was the 2023-2024 Jewish Student Association Co-President and Israel Policy Forum Atid Fellow. Alana delivered the above speech at the GW Summer Institute on Antisemitism.

Erin Murphy is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, most recently Fluent in Blue (Grayson Books). Her work has appeared in The Best of Brevity, Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Rattle, Women’s Studies Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is professor of English at Penn State Altoona. www.erin-murphy.com

Aimee Parkison has published eight books and won FC2’s Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize and North American Review’s Kurt Vonnegut Prize. She is Professor of Fiction Writing at OSU. Her work has appeared in North American Review, Puerto Del Sol, Five Points, and Best Small Fictions. www.aimeeparkison.com

Poet and human rights activist Alicia Partnoy is the author, translator or editor of twelve books and the chapbook Ecos lógicos y otros poemares. Her work is published in Spanish, English, Hebrew, Turkish, Bangla, and French. Partnoy is best known for The Little School: Tales of Disappearance and Survival, about her experience as a “disappeared” in Argentina in the 70’s. Partnoy is Professor Emerita at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Sonia Patel is a psychiatrist and author of the Morris Award finalist Rani Patel In Full Effect and In the Margins Book Award winners Jaya and Rasa: A Love Story and Bloody Seoul. Her fourth YA novel, Gita Desai Is Not Here to Shut Up, will be published September 2024.

Darius Phelps is a PhD candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University. An educator, poet, spoken word artist, and activist, Darius writes poems about grief, liberation, emancipation, and reflection through the lens of a teacher of color, as well as experiencing Black boy joy.

Brittany Saulnier is on a quest to inspire readers to find their own connection to nature. She is inspired by nature’s secrecy and often blends environmental science with whimsy. Her short stories have been longlisted for anthologies and competitions. In addition to writing, Brittany co-created the Read to Write Kidlit Podcast.

David Schaafsma is a Professor of English at the University of Illinois at Chicago where he directs the Program in English Education. He teaches courses in English teaching methods, and literature. He’s the author or co-editor of six books and is in the process of writing more.

Laura Shovan is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet and a middle grade novelist. Among her award-winning children’s books are The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary, Takedown, and A Place at the Table, written with Saadia Faruqi. Laura is a longtime poet-in-the-schools. She teaches at Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Kate Sjostrom is a writer and writing teacher educator based in Oak Park, IL. Her work has been published in Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, RHINO, English Journal, and elsewhere.

S. is a college student and English teacher in Armenia.

Samuel Stinson began developing an interest in writing after he began reading the novels of R.A. Salvatore in 1994. These days, Samuel teaches English and writes for a variety of publications. His most recent publication is Embodied Environmental Risk in Technical Communication, co-edited with Mary Le Rouge.

Rachel Toalson is the author of The Colors of the Rain, The Woods, The First Magnificent Summer, and Something Maybe Magnificent (Simon& Schuster, 2024). Her poetry has been published in print magazines and literary journals around the world. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband and six sons.

Padma Venkatraman’s novels The Bridge Home, Born Behind Bars, A Time to Dance, Island’s End and Climbing the Stairs, have secured over 20 starred reviews, won multiple awards and sold > 250,000 copies. Visit www.padmavenkatraman.com to read more about oceanographer-turned-author Dr. Venkatraman and contact https://theauthorvillage.com/presenters/padma-venkatraman/ to arrange a visit.

Karen J. Weyant’s first full-length collection, Avoiding the Rapture was published last fall by Riot in Your Throat press. Her poems have appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Copper Nickel, Harpur Palate, Fourth River, Lake Effect, Rattle, River Styx and Slipstream. She lives, reads and writes in Northern Pennsylvania but is an Associate Professor of English at Jamestown Community College in Jamestown, New York.

Kayla Whaley holds an MFA from the University of Tampa and is former senior editor of Disability in Kidlit. Her work has appeared in anthologies including Unbroken, Vampires Never Get Old, Game On, and Allies. She is also the author of chapter book series A to Z Animal Mysteries.

Emanuel Xavier is author of several poetry books including Selected Poems of Emanuel Xavier and Love(ly) Child. His books have been finalists for International Latino Book Awards and Lambda Literary Awards and his work has appeared in Poetry, A Gathering of the Tribes, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere.  www.emanuelxavier.org

Aida Zilelian is a first generation American-Armenian writer, educator and storyteller from Queens, NY. She is the author of The Legacy of Lost Things (2015, Bleeding Heart Publications) which was the recipient of the 2014 Tololyan Literary Award. Aida’s most recent novel, All the Ways We Lied, released in January 2024 (Keylight Books/Turner Bookstore).

Laura Zucca-Scott, Ph.D., is a bilingual writer and educator. Her works have been published in English and Italian. Recently, her work was featured in the North Dakota Quarterly. In December 2023, she was the recipient of the Third Prize of the International Literary Prize, “Florence, Capital of Europe,” Italy.

Diana M Bayona (she/her) is a Colombian native who lives in Tulsa. She climbed the education ladder by entering the education field as an EL aide, moving into the classroom to teach first, second and Kindergarten, to be an EL Instructional Coach for elementary schools the last 6 years and this year moving her coaching skills to High School. She is an LLCE PhD candidate at OSU.

Henry “Cody” Miller is an associate professor of English education at SUNY Brockport. Prior to that role, he taught high school English in Florida for seven years.

Akira Park (she/her/siya) is an English Secondary Education major and a McNair Scholar at Washington State University. Her research interests include culturally sustaining pedagogy and BIPOC representation in young adult literature with a focus on Asian American narratives.

Robin Pelletier is a secondary educator in Las Vegas, Nevada where she’s taught ELA for 9 years. Since 2019, she has been a professional reader for NetGalley. She has worked for Barnes and Noble for the past 3 years. She participates in many book studies, professional development trainings, and conferences, presenting annually at the Summit for the Research and Teaching of Young Adult literature with her students.

Laura Swigart (she/her) is a secondary educator in Oklahoma City, OK, and a Master’s student at Oklahoma State University. She has taught for 8 years, and has served as an Instructional Coach and Professional Development leader, focusing on literacy strategies in content classrooms, and culturally sustaining pedagogy. 

Lauren Vandever has been teaching middle school Reading and English for over 10 years. She has a Master’s degree in Reading and Literacy instruction and is currently serving as an instructional coach in her district while pursuing a doctorate.

Sidra Zaheer is a second-year PhD student in Language, Literacy, and Culture at Oklahoma State University. As a Graduate Teaching Assistant, she teaches the undergraduate course “American Stories: Diverse Peoples in YA Literature.” Sidra’s background includes experience as an ESL and IELTS instructor, as well as teaching secondary students. Her research interests focus on innovative English language instruction, technology integration,and  diversity in young adult literature. Sidra has presented at conferences on topics such as digital storytelling and gender representation in YA literature.

Sarah J. Donovan’s professional interests include ethical, inclusive curriculum, methods, and assessment practices in secondary English classrooms.  She is a former junior high English language arts teacher of fifteen years and an Associate Professor of Secondary English Education at Oklahoma State University. She wrote Genocide Literature in Middle and Secondary Classrooms and the young adult novel, Alone Together (2018).  Sarah also edited Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes, Teacher-Poets Writing to Bridge the Distance, Words That Mend, and 90 Ways of Community.