Janet Stilson writes stories in the sci-fi and fantasy genres that illuminate conditions that are present in the world today. Her film script JAGUAR TRAIL won the competition for the Writer's Lab for Women, sponsored by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. She also wrote a short story, IMAGINARY CHILDREN, which was published by Asimov’s magazine. Her novel, THE JUICE, which envisions what media companies might be like decades into the future, was published by Dragon Moon Press in 2021 to rave reviews. Janet is also a news editor and correspondent. She lives in New York City.
David Gillette is a California writer and teacher. His short fiction was recently included in the collection, "This Side of the Divide: Contemporary Stories of the American West,” and in the Spring 2019 edition of Raleigh Review. His stories have also appeared in The Valparaiso Fiction Review, The High Desert Journal, The Summerset Review, and other venues in the USA and abroad. In the last few years, he received a number of awards and notices on his fiction from Glimmer Train and Zoetrope: All-Story. More on his background and fiction can be found at davidgillette.net.
AnnaLeahy is the author of the nonfiction book Tumor and the poetry collections Aperture and Constituents of Matter and the co-author of Generation Space: A Love Story, Conversing with Cancer, and What We Talk about When We Talk about Creative Writing. Her essays have appeared at The Atlantic, Pop Sugar, The Southern Review, The Pinch, and elsewhere and won the top awards from Ninth Letter and Dogwood in 2016. She directs the MFA program at Chapman University, where she edits the international journal TAB and curates the Tabula Poetica reading series. Read Anna's latest book review in Entropy here.
Dr. Kate Gale is co-founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of the Los Angeles Review. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Nebraska. She is the author of The Loneliest Girl from the University of New Mexico Press and of seven books of poetry including The Goldilocks Zone from the University of New Mexico Press in 2014, Echo Light from Red Mountain in 2014, and six librettos including Rio de Sangre, a libretto for an opera with composer Don Davis, which had its world premiere October 2010 at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee.
The most popular and international name of Galician Poetry, Yolanda Castaño is a poet, essayist, editor, and curator. Director of the Residence for Writers 1863, in A Coruña (Spain), she has published seven poetry collections in Galician and Spanish and her poems have been translated into thirty-five languages. Winner of the National Critics Award, the Ojo Crítico (best poetry book by a young author in Spain), and the Author of the Year by Galician Booksellers’ Association. She has been awarded International fellowships including the IWTCR in Rhodes, Villa Waldberta (Munich), the HIP-Beijing (China), Hawthornden Castle (Scotland), and Fundación Valparaíso (Andalusia).
Australian-born,Jade Rosina McCutcheon, now lives in Salem, Oregon. Publications include SMALL FEATHER, Finishing Line Press, 2020, Edited volume Narrative in Performance, Palgrave Macmillan 2018, Edited volume Embodied Consciousness Performance Technologies, Palgrave Macmillan 2013, Awakening the Performing Body, (2008) Rodopi Press. Kay Snow Award for poetry, Rod Rose Award from Journal of Research Administration for an outstanding research article. Completed two artist’s residencies in 2021 with the Salem Arts Association and Dorland Mountain Arts Community. I am a member of the Salem Poetry Project, Artists in Action, Oregon Poetry Association, and the Mid Valley Poetry Society.
Jen Soriano (she/they) is a Filipinx-American writer and musician originally from Chicago. Her work explores intersections of race, gender, health, colonization, and power, as well as the pursuit of hope and beauty through spirituality and activism. Jen won the 2019 Fugue Prose Prize and the 2109 Penelope Niven Prize, and fellowships from Hugo House, Vermont Studio Center, and the Jack Jones Literary Retreat. She was also a finalist for the 2019 Ploughshares emerging writers contest. Her chapbook “Making the Tongue Dry” is now in its third edition, and her first full-length essay collection, Nervous, is forthcoming from HarperCollins/Amistad in 2023.
Kathleen Motoike's career is as a part-time instructor and building a retirement from teaching and participating in campus-wide programs (Equity and Diversity Committee, Campus Reorganization, Faculty Summer Institute participant and presenter, Reading Apprenticeship Coordinator and presenter). Rewriting her novel after her computer was stolen. It is now in the revision stage before sending it to Beta Readers. Starting again to submit her work. "Everyone likes to talk about their rejections. Mine was a decline from One Story with a personal note to send something else".
Nancy Maass Mosen, AKA Irene Dogmatic (her art name) has been active as an artist, primarily a painter, since 1972. She has lived and worked in SF, NY, and Berkeley, where she currently lives. She has been at two Artists' Colonies, Cummington Community of the Arts in 1988 and VSC in 2018. Painting has always been her first focus, but travel writing, punk rock, rock vocals, and correspondence art have enriched her experience as an artist. In the early 1980's she painted murals in a room at a hotel in Manhattan. Her website lists her shows and activities throughout her career, emphasizing the paintings since that is her main focus. The site is divided into categories. Paintings are her canvases, pet portraits are commissions she does, the florals are self-explanatory, and the wordplay pieces are quirky visuals.
EdithLynn Hornik-Beer is an author/journalist/lecturer whose writing has appeared in major magazines and newspapers both here and abroad including Elle magazine, New York Times, Denver Post, Toronto Star, Neue Zuercher Zeitung (Switzerland). She enjoys writing monthly columns in publications including PRforPeople and a column The Young World, which appeared in suburban newspapers on the East Coast. Today she works as an investigative reporter and essayist, and lectures at various colleges on successful writing for mainline publishers and the new media. She continues to write books. She is in the process of completing her novel, Need & Faith.
Jennifer Irani is finishing a memoir about her experience in Phoenix House while publishing short stories, essays, poetry, and op/eds. She is a member of environmental groups, racial justice organizations, and political organizations. Her art and writing are acts of activism. Her website combines her fine art and writing and offers a broader picture of her work. The mannequin heads titled “We Will Be Heard” are inspired by the #MeToo movement and Dr. Ford. She resonates with Deep Adaptation philosophy. Despite the challenges we face, she makes room for the awe and wonders through her craft.
Kristen Daniels studied creative writing at USC with T.C. Boyle and Aimee Bender, at UCLA Extension with Les Plesko, and at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She lives in Encinitas, CA with her husband and two daughters.
Mike Brosnan is a Los Angeles native and received his BA at Cal State University, Northridge in film with a minor in journalism. After long stints writing scripts and poetry (he studied under Eloise Klein Healy - named LA’s first Poet Laureate in 2012), he turned his eye towards fiction. Mike has worked at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and was for a time in the development departments of producer Edward R. Pressman, producer/director Oliver Stone and Miramax. He is currently employed at The Walt Disney Co. His essay on Irene Adler, a character found in the Sherlock Holmes canon, can be found in the book, Ladies, Ladies: The Women in the Life of Sherlock Holmes, Aventine Press, 2007. In addition to his writing and movie industry endeavors, he has been a wine director, wine bar manager and owned his own wine event planning business.
Steven Morris is an award-winning artist, author, business consultant, and speaker. As an artist, Steven is a figurative abstract painter, that extends the lineage of the New York School of Abstract Expressionist and European Surrealist painters. As a writer, he has written two books. His newest book will be released in the fall of 2021 entitled “The Beautiful Business.” Much of his business consultancy work is centered around evolving businesses, brands, and cultures to be more conscious and sustainable. When he’s not working or doing artwork, Steven is an avid outdoor enthusiast, surfer, beekeeper, husband, and father of two young men.
Lauren Lipinski Eisen received an M.F.A. in Art Studio from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, and a B.F.A in Fine Arts from Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio. She has shown her work in galleries in London, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Denver, and has participated in exhibits at The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, The Butler Institute of American Art, The SUNY Art Museum in Plattsburgh, New York, and the Masur Museum of Art in Monroe, Louisiana. Lauren’s work has received many honors and awards, and is included in several private, corporate, and public collections.
Sherri C. Perry is the author of Venn, a collection of short stories, Letters to Cadence, Musings of a Modern Grandmother and Slice, a collection of poetry. Her work has been featured in Streetlight Magazine, Tigershark Publishing, GNU Literary Journal, Dragon Poet Review, The Bayou Review, Emerge Magazine and The Storyteller Magazine. Her awards include the Write Partners of North Arkansas Award, Ozark Creative Writers Editor’s Award, Clouse Literary Arts and Theater Award, Saturday Writers Creative Non-Fiction Award, Porter Art Enterprises Award and The Caudle Memorial Award for Excellence in Storytelling. She is the head speech and debate coach at an all-girls college preparatory high school in Houston, Texas.
Daniel Getzoff is a Los Angeles-based community activist and organizer, a playwright, personal essayist, blogger, performer, and multi-faceted nonprofit sector worker. His first published story will appear in the upcoming 42 Stories Anthology Presents: Book of 42. Danny was awarded 2 residencies at Playa Summerlake in south-central Oregon to work on his first novel, Nicknames for Harold, the manuscript of which is nearly complete. He has published 80+ essays about his 3 solo cross-country bicycle trips at http://handlebarconfessional.blogspot.com and https://handlebarconfessional.com, which will be the subject of his upcoming memoir, Handlebar Confessional.
Chris Allen, born in Kingston, New York in 1959. Allen earned a BFA at the University of Minnesota in Printmaking and a Master of Fine Art in Fiber from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. A pivotal workshop from Joyce Scott ignited a passion for beadwork. Allen has exhibited for the past 30 years nationally. Allen won a Minneapolis College of Art and Design/McKnight Artists Fellowship in 1999/2000 for her beaded stones and stone textile installations. She currently lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her two adult daughters. She is a self-employed full-time studio artist.
Julia Mary Gibson grew up by the magical lakes of the North American Midwest, or occupied Anishinaabe territory, where her novel COPPER MAGIC takes place. She writes about the ways that human civilization intersects with mysterious wild nature and the sacred responsibilities we have to each other and to the planet. Dorland has been an instrumental element in manifesting her work. She lives in Hollywood, California, surrounded by her extended family of poets, thespians, dancers, illustrators, filmworkers, and urban farmers.
Erin Schalk is a visual artist, writer, and educator who lives in the greater Los Angeles area. She graduated with her MFA in Studio from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2017, and she has exhibited her art throughout the United States and in Japan. Her work has also been published in a variety of journals; highlights include The Tishman Review, The Woven Tale Press, Parentheses International Literary Journal, and Balloons Literary Journal — a publication based out of the University of Hong Kong. Today, Schalk is in charge of the arts education program and teaches art to blind and visually impaired students at the Braille Institute of America in Anaheim, a non-profit organization.
Ky-Phong Tran and his family fled to the United States at the end of the Vietnam War. His mother was six months pregnant with him at the time. He holds a BA in History and MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA and an MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside. He has been awarded fellowships to writing conferences at Voices of Our Nation, Napa Valley, The Community of Writers Valley, and Bread Loaf. His writing has appeared in the Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle, Hyphen Magazine, and the anthology Dismantle. He lives in southern California.
Darcy Vebber writes fiction and personal essays. She teaches fiction writing at Art Division, a nonprofit school for under-served young adults, and Writing Workshops L.A. Her work has been published in the Iowa Review, Tribe Magazine, The Jewish Journal, and others. She had a BA in Film from USC and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design.
At 3 years old, Danni Hart knew she was going to be an author when she grew up. But at 11 years old Danni decided that she could not stand being vulnerable. So, Danni stopped writing . . . for a very long time. Danni is trying to reconnect with her three-year-old self and forgive her eleven-year-old self in the process. Danni IS a writer. She just needs to remember and reconnect with that.
Leslie Wolcott is a graduate of UC Berkeley and University of London, England. She studied at Art Center and later became an Asian antique dealer. These drawings are from an Italian series made from her travels to Italy where last year some of her oil paintings were featured in an exhibition in Tuscany. She now spends time in Dorland with Robert Willis learning how to capture landscapes in watercolor.
Carol Aust is a figurative painter, living and working in Oakland, California. Her figurative paintings depict people on journeys, alone or in groups, traveling through emotional landscapes or being welcomed at their destinations. Determined travelers carry large suitcases on mountaintops, boats fly past thunderheads, couples pause to embrace, and friends gather around beach fires or dance in forests. She seeks to evoke an emotional experience that can't be communicated with words, a visual manifestation of an invisible reality. She is represented by galleries in the Bay Area and Cape Cod.
Ryuko Laura Burges, a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, teaches classes, lectures, and leads retreats in Northern California. A teacher of children for 35 years, she now mentors aspiring teachers. Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland. Shambhala Publishers will be offering two of her Buddhist children’s books next year, a collection of Jataka Tales reimagined for today’s readers, and a book about Zen for kids. Laura is currently working on a book about Buddhism and recovery.
Los Angeles-based writer, editor, and ghostwriter Sarah Tomlinson is the author of the memoir, Good Girl, and has ghostwritten or co-written 21 books—five of which were NYT bestsellers. Her debut novel, How to Be a Ghost, is forthcoming from Flatiron Books in early 2024. Her personal essays and articles have appeared in publications including Marie Claire, MORE, Westways, Publisher's Weekly, The Boston Globe, and The Los Angeles Times, and in essay collections such as He Never Came Home and Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing by Joan Didion’s Light.
A Professor at RISD, Elinore D. Hollinshead studied at Oxford University and holds a BFA cum laude with Distinction in the Major (Art) from Yale and an MFA in Painting from Indiana University. Selected Fellowship Residencies include Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, CA, Ballinglen Foundation for the Arts, Ireland, The Julia & David White Colony, Costa Rica, La Muse Artists and Writers Colony, France, Artist's Enclave at I-Park CT, and VCCA Colony, VA. Selected solo and two-person exhibitions include The Rusk Gallery, NYC, The Nature Conservancy, NY, The Painting Center, NYC; Greenberg Wilson Gallery, NYC; Nancy Moore Gallery, NYC; The Drawing Center, NYC, Lenore Grey Gallery, Providence, RI; and Eastwick Art Gallery, Chicago, IL.
Cathy Wilson is a writer, a teacher, and an artist. She has been a teacher in university, public school, and juvenile-corrections classrooms. In juvenile corrections, she fine-tuned the arts-based pedagogy in Brain-Friendly Teaching. She is a dancer, a drummer, a classical musician, a published author, and a craniosacral therapist. Her recent publications include Brain-Friendly Teaching and a small book about terpenes. She is currently working on her memoir as a recovered Mormon and mother of nine. Funny and smart as a sought-after professional-development speaker, Cathy loves to help teachers and parents bring joy and academic excellence to homes and classrooms everywhere.
Luong (Louie) Nguyen works at the intersection of films and social impact, striving to bring to global audiences films that prompt conversations and social changes. He is the executive producer of films that are both critically acclaimed and box office successes. He is also a Board Member of HKFilm, Vietnam's largest film studio. As a Board member, Louie works with senior management on strategic decisions and as well as with directors and screenwriters on creative content. He is currently writing scripts for concepts for NetFlix and Amazon, with the goal of shattering prevailing Asian stereotypes in the face of the current environment of AAPI hate.
Ella Martinsen Gorham lives and writes in Los Angeles. Her story “Protozoa” was selected for Best American Short Stories 2019. Her fiction has appeared in New England Review, ZYZZYVA, and Carve, and she was named a finalist in the 2020 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. She is at work on a collection of stories and a novel.
Diana Daniele (she/her) is a writer and literary publicist living in Los Angeles. Her book-in-progress is "Out of the Dark: A Memoir of Migraine and Madness.” Two excerpts were published in literary journals in August and December 2021. Daniele graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA and received her M.A. in Journalism from the University of Southern California. Daniele has also studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge in England and Philology at the University of Madrid, Complutense in Spain
Ellen Ancui writes female-driven comedies for TV, film, and theater. She obsesses with characters who are excluded or feel like imposters, and her stories are often dark, playful, and always filled with sexual irreverence. Ellen’s feature, SILICON GIRLS has placed in 12 competitions and is currently optioned. She wrote for the animated series, BROWN & FRIENDS (on Netflix August 2022) and her one-act play, SIZZLER, will be published this spring. Her ensemble plays have been produced in NYC and LA, she is a member of the WGAw and is working on her first cookbook, SAUCY!
Catherine Elcik’s fiction and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in Creative Nonfiction, Brevity Blog, Carve, and Narrative. She has worked as a reporter, a magazine editor, a creative writing instructor, and a tutor. Catherine holds an MA in creative writing from Boston University. She is currently revising her second novel and seeking representation for her first.
Felistus Chama is a self-taught Zambian Artist who has been drawing and painting professionally for the past 7 years. Her artistic style involves contemporary paintings, sculptures, and digital art. Felistus is an award-winning artist who won the professional award for the 2021 drawing competition held by the European Commission in Zambia. She is currently using her talent to help create awareness on various social issues in Zambia through her affiliation with local and regional organizations. She runs a creative website called youngcreativez.com to create exposure and opportunities for young talented Zambians.
W. Eliot Jordan is a professional tea taster and singer-songwriter. After a lifetime cupping and buying tea, recording and performing his songs, and composing two musicals, he now returns to his love of prose. His debut fantasy novel, The Aether Glass, is in no small part inspired by his career in the international tea trade, blending his love of literature and history with exposure to Asia's fascinating rural cultures. Three Turns of the Sun, the second in a series of linked stories, is currently in the rewriting stage. He lives in his native Berkeley, California.
Originally from Detroit, Amy Spade lives and writes in Oakland, California. She holds an MFA from the University of Houston. Her largely formal poems have appeared in many journals, including Nimrod, North American Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Cottonwood—and most recently Lesbians are Miracles and Lavender Review. New poetry is forthcoming in Sinister Wisdom.
Patsy Creedy is a native Californian who lives and works in San Francisco. She received an MA and an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State. She recently completed a memoir, The Blue Valiant. She has published poetry in Transfer 110 and 112 and was awarded their Mark Linenthal prize for poetry. She has also published poetry in Dragon’s Leap and Inlandia. She published a nonfiction piece, The Stud in a San Francisco Anthology, and was awarded an honorable mention for a flash fiction piece, Burger, in Glimmertrain magazine. She was accepted to the Dairy Hollow Writer’s Residency 2019. She has been a member of the San Francisco Zen Center since 2000 and she co-leads a writer’s retreat several times a year, Writing the Way, with her teacher Laura Burges.
Hilary Weisman Graham is the creator/showrunner of the Netflix anthology series, Social Distance. Her other TV writing/producing credits include Kidding (Showtime), Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), and Bones (Fox), as well as numerous screenplays and pilots. She is also the author of Reunited, a young adult novel published by Simon & Schuster.
Suhasini Yeeda is a first-generation queer Indian American from Dallas, Texas. Her work appears in Ms. Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Indian Review, Madcap Review, Packingtown Review, and the Arroyo Seco Press Anthology Redshift 5. Her work can be found at suhasiniwrites.com. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a one-time nominee for The Best American Short Stories and Best of the Net. She earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and BA from Texas Wesleyan University. Suhasini is a 2021 California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles, loves to bake, and is passionate about the oxford comma.
Shannon Kuykendall is an illustrator, novice filmmaker, and flight attendant, living and working in New York City. While flying, she carries a tiny sketchbook, and occasionally gets lambasted by co-workers for constantly doodling. She is currently illustrating and writing a story, about a little pink crab, that she would like to bring to fruition. Recently, besides illustration and flying, she wrote and directed a faux-Hallmark short film alongside her group of improv and college friends from her Appalachian State University alma mater.
Ed Aust is a poet, fiction writer, and photographer living in Oakland, California. His poems have been published in Stonecoast Review, California Quarterly, Coal City Review, Avocet, Watershed Review, and Reed Magazine.
Thea Pueschel is a nonbinary writer and multimedia artist in Southern California and the winner of the TAEM Flash Fiction Summer 2020 Contest. Thea dances between the shadows and plays with the psychosocial aspect of the human condition with a hint of nostalgia, a dash of hope, a skosh of whimsy, and a heaping dose of suffering. Thea has been published by The Abstract Elephant, and Short Édition, among others.
June Kino Cullen is a first-generation American, born in Yokohama, Japan. She immigrated to the United States at the age of nine. Being biracial, her stories deal with the racism she endured in both countries. She is currently working on her memoir. Three of her short stories, adapted into plays, were performed at the Aratani Japan Theater in LA. Her work has been published by Small Print Magazine, Barnstorm Journal, Adelaide Magazine, Inlandia Journal, and others. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from California State University, Los Angeles. She resides in Claremont, California with her husband.
Thea Pueschel is a nonbinary writer and multimedia artist in Southern California and the winner of the TAEM Flash Fiction Summer 2020 Contest. Thea dances between the shadows and plays with the psychosocial aspect of the human condition with a hint of nostalgia, a dash of hope, a skosh of whimsy, and a heaping dose of suffering. Thea has been published by The Abstract Elephant, and Short Édition, among others.
Edan Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels California and Woman No. 17, and the editor of Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them. Her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and The Cut, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Melanie Thorne is the author of the novel Hand Me Down (Penguin), acclaimed by People, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Associated Press, and named a Kirkus Reviews Best Fiction Book of the year. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in Good Housekeeping, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. She received the Maurice Prize in Fiction, an Alva Englund Fellowship, residencies at Hedgebrook and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, fellowships to the Tomales Bay Workshops and the Virginia Quarterly Review Conference, earned an MA in Creative Writing from UC Davis and was a PEN Center Emerging Voices Mentor. Find her online at www.MelanieThorne.com.Type your paragraph here.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is author of Palm Springs Noir (Akashic). Her stories are in Orange County Noir, Coolest American Stories, 2022, USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series, Rock and A Hard Place, Dark City Crime Mystery Magazine, and Literary Hatchet. She received a Distinguished Instructors award from UC-Irvine and is adjunct professor of creative writing at Chapman University and Saddleback College. Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Igniting the Writer Within, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. For the last 24 years she has hosted Writers on Writing. For 23 of those years, the show broadcast on KUCI-FM.
Ellen Ancui writes female-driven comedies for TV, film, and theater. She obsesses with characters who are excluded or feel like imposters, and her stories are often dark, playful, and always filled with sexual irreverence. Ellen’s feature, SILICON GIRLS has placed in 12 competitions and is currently optioned. She wrote for the animated series, BROWN & FRIENDS (on Netflix August 2022) and her one-act play, SIZZLER, will be published this spring. Her ensemble plays have been produced in NYC and LA, she is a member of the WGAw and is working on her first cookbook, SAUCY!
Karina Muñiz-Pagán is a writer, literary translator, and organizer, born to a Scandinavian mother and Mexican father in San Francisco, California. She has an MFA in Prose from Mills College where she was the Community Engagement Fellow and taught creative writing to members of Mujeres Unidas y Activas; a Latina immigrant rights base-building organization where she also served as Political Director. As a result of the generative workshops, Karina co-founded the writers’ group, Las Malcriadas, and edited and translated the bilingual anthology Mujeres Mágicas: Domestic Workers Right to Write, published in 2019 by Freedom Voices Press. She has also earned MAs in Urban Planning and Latin American Studies from UCLA and has written and led campaigns focused on place-based storytelling and the power of understanding the social history of the built environment.
Christina Perez Brubaker is a fellowship recipient from Chapman University, where she received an MFA in creative writing. She lives with her family in Costa Mesa, California. She teaches creative writing at Orange County School of the Arts. Her work has appeared in Coast Magazine, CRAFT, Fourteen Hills and Gulf Stream.
Darcy Vebber writes fiction and personal essays. She teaches fiction writing at Art Division, a nonprofit school for under-served young adults, and Writing Workshops L.A. Her work has been published in the Iowa Review, Tribe Magazine, The Jewish Journal, and others. She had a BA in Film from USC and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design.
A native of the Washington, D.C. area, D. Gause currently resides in Las Vegas. Performer, composer, educator, writer, consultant, advocate, grant writer, coach are some words to describe her
daily work. In her spare time, she reads, cooks, bakes, and volunteers.
“I am a sphere, not a slice.” ~D.G.
Stacy Nixon, creating from her ranch in Northern New Mexico and the San Diego backcountry, artist Stacy Nixon explores the magical realities of life and the subconscious through her painting and sculptural practice. In her most recent work, she says “I am not interested in visual reality, I am interested in the way our internal stories shape our lives.” Much of Nixon's artwork utilizes gouache, pigment, oil, and gilding. The visual alchemy of these materials proves to be both timeless and truly contemporary.
Ellen Ancui writes female-driven comedies for TV, film, and theater. She obsesses with characters who are excluded or feel like imposters, and her stories are often dark, playful, and always filled with sexual irreverence. Ellen’s feature, SILICON GIRLS has placed in 12 competitions and is currently optioned. She wrote for the animated series, BROWN & FRIENDS (on Netflix August 2022) and her one-act play, SIZZLER, will be published this spring. Her ensemble plays have been produced in NYC and LA, she is a member of the WGAw and is working on her first cookbook, SAUCY!
Patrick Brown is a screenwriter living and working in Los Angeles. He has an MFA from the University of Southern California in Film Production and Screenwriting, as well as a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Chicago in Cinema & Media Studies. He's written for Barrelhouse Magazine and The Millions. He currently has a screenplay in development with Cold Iron Pictures.
Laura Schmitt (she/her) is a multiracial writer with roots in Hawai’i and the Midwest. Her fiction can be found in the New England Review, The Pinch, Boulevard, Indiana Review, The Florida Review, and elsewhere. She was a finalist for the New England Review‘s 2021 Award for Emerging Writers, received a 2019 Hedgebrook residency, and holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Laura was born in Southern California and currently lives in Los Angeles, where she is at work on a novel and a collection of stories.
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Tennessee Reed is the author of seven poetry collections, a memoir, and a novel. She has read her work around the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, England, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel, and Japan. Her seventh poetry collection, "Califia Burning," was published by Dalkey Archive Press on November 3, 2020. Her most recent readings include the Whitney Biennial in New York City and Write America. She attended an artist residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Florida in October of 2021. She is the chairperson of PEN Oakland and the managing editor of Konch Magazine.
Natasha Harrison uses glass as a medium to express feelings about fear, fragility and intensity present within relationships. She is also the Executive Director of the Norman Bird Sanctuary in Paradise Valley, Middletown, Rhode Island.
Alicia Walter is a composer, vocalist, and performing artist in New York City. Known for her “near-cosmic voice” (WIRED) and “stratosphere of songwriting all her own” (Consequence of Sound), Walter released her debut solo album in September 2021 with art-pop tastemaker label, Sooper Records. Walter rose to acclaim as bandleader of the art-rock outfit, Oshwa. In 2019, Walter performed as a featured solo vocalist with Pacific Northwest Ballet in the world premiere of "The Trees, The Trees." She has been commissioned to write works for ESOPUS Magazine and percussionist Evan Chapman.
Jane McMackin's interest in writing spans decades, starting with journaling in college. She continued to write poems and essays reflecting on nature and life. When perusing her journals at 60, she realized she had some good stories to tell about her life; and that some of these stories could be fodder for a screenplay. Through UCLA Extension, she took courses in screenwriting and earned a Certificate in Feature Film Writing. Not quite satisfied that the screenplay she was writing captured the full meaning of her experiences, she next completed coursework in nonfiction and memoir writing. She has produced a 200+ page manuscript for a memoir. She intends to develop this into a screenplay.
Ross Alan Modin retired from teaching after thirty years, he writes Middle-grade picture books, novels, and poetry, as well as some YA. He has been a member of SCBWI since 2011. He holds an M. Ed. with emphasis on the creative arts, a BA in early childhood education, and a BA in drama. He has three family musicals published with Big Dog Publishers. He performed and co-wrote children’s plays at The Old Eagle Theater in Sacramento. His radio play “Dying to Die” was performed by Vashon Island Radio Players. He received a fellowship grant for a two-week residency at the Vermont Studio Center.
Dian Greenwood holds a BA and MA in English - San Francisco State University; an MA in Counseling Psychology - California Institute of Integral Studies. For five years, she taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. For the past thirty years, she’s worked as a psychotherapist. Her novel, About the Carleton Sisters, debuts from She Writes Press in Spring 2023. More recently, she’s published essays in The Big Smoke online magazine. In October 2021, another essay appears in the anthology, 2020: The Year of the *, University of Hell Press.
Edan Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels California and Woman No. 17, and the editor of Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them. Her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and The Cut, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Douglas DeChow is the co-author of Generation Space: A Love Story and The Craft of Librarian Instruction and the co-editor of Intertwingled: The Life and Influence of Ted Nelson. His writing has appeared at The Atlantic, Scientific American, The Post Game, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Curator, and others. He is the Digital Humanities and Science Librarian at Chapman University, the Curator of the Boisjoly Challenger Disaster Collection, and actively involved in the Center for American War Letters.
RESIDENTS: 2022
Matt Lasensky is a design engineer and artist currently living in Claremont, CA. Matt’s passion lies at the intersection of art and science. His fabrication design experience spans from high-end staircases in New York City to live entertainment sets at the Grammy’s and Super Bowl. Matt’s art focuses on mixed media collage because of the freedom it allows to experiment with drawing, painting, printmaking, and other mediums. He views art a way to interpret the world around us and as a form of therapy. Matt studied Industrial Engineering and Studio Arts at The University of Pittsburgh.
Ali Beheler is a poet and philosopher whose writing occupies the space between these disciplines. Her poetry aims to explore the entwinement of body, language, nature, and memory, as well as the entwinement of poetic and philosophical language and thought. Her philosophical work combines the work of non-philosophers and philosophers to address the above issues from a feminist lens. Published in both disciplines, and recipient of an award for scholarship and teaching, she is currently a tenured Associate Professor at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska.Type your paragraph here.
Greg Hrbek is the author of "Not of Fire, but Burning," a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and an NPR Best Book of the Year. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has received a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton and a Creative Artists' Fellowship from the Japan-US Friendship Commission. His other books are "The Hindenburg Crashes Nightly," awarded the James Jones First Novel Award, and a story collection, "Destroy All Monsters." His short fiction has appeared in Harper’s Magazine, Tin House, and numerous literary journals, and in "The Best American Short Stories" anthology.
Branden Boyer-White is a fiction writer whose debut YA graphic novel HOLLOW, co-authored with Shannon Watters (LUMBERJANES), is forthcoming from Boom! Studios in Fall 2022. Previously, her stories have appeared in places like Alaska Quarterly Review, Third Coast, Los Angeles Review, and Anthropoid. Her work has been named a runner-up for the inaugural Miami Book Fair/De Groot Prize for a Novella, been awarded a grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial/Money for Women Fund, and won the Orlando Prize, among other honors. She lives in Los Angeles with Shannon, her partner. Her website is at www.brandenboyerwhite.com
Chad Michael Lange is a San Francisco-based fiction writer who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California. He has received two residencies at The MacDowell Colony, and The Jentel Foundation, The Millay Colony for the Arts, The Ragdale Foundation, Hambidge Center, and Osage Arts Community have also given him fellowships. He has been awarded grants from the California Arts Council and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Lange’s short fiction has appeared in Catamaran, fourteen hills, and ZYZZYVA.
OCTOBER - DECEMBER
Aleta Barthell is a playwright and screenwriter. She is excited to have received a grant from the William Male Foundation to develop a play called MY OWN WILDERNESS. In 2021, Aleta received a grant from California Humanities for a project called SAVING STORIES: A Toolkit in the Age of Covid-19. Her play, WINDOW OF SHAME, was a finalist for the 2021 National Playwrights Conference at the O’Neill Center and the 2016 HUMANITAS/CTG Playwriting Prize. Her play, NIGHT WITCHES: FLIGHT INTO FANTASY, was a part of the New Village Arts Theatre’s “2019 Final Draft Festival.”
Elizabeth Taliaferro (Bessie is a writer living in New York City. She received her MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Sarah Lawrence College in 2020. Her work has appeared in HASH, The Chicago Review of Books, Kirkus Reviews, and The Rumpus, among other publications. Bessie writes nonfiction and fiction. Her work features humorous coming-of-age stories, book reviews, and a novel in progress. Bessie is currently a grant writer at an arts-focused afterschool program.
Luong (Louie) Nguyen works at the intersection of films and social impact, striving to bring to global audiences films that prompt conversations and social changes. He is the executive producer of films that are both critically acclaimed and box office successes. He is also a Board Member of HKFilm, Vietnam's largest film studio. As a Board member, Louie works with senior management on strategic decisions and as well as with directors and screenwriters on creative content. He is currently writing scripts for concepts for NetFlix and Amazon, with the goal of shattering prevailing Asian stereotypes in the face of the current environment of AAPI hate.
Leslie Johansen Nack’s debut, Fourteen, A Daughter’s Memoir of Adventure, Sailing and Survival received five indie awards, including the 2016 Finalist in Memoir at the Next Generation Indie Book Award. Before she started writing, she raised two children, ran a mechanical engineering business with her husband, took care of her aging mother, and dreamed of retirement when she could write full-time. She did everything late in life, including getting her degree in English Literature from UCLA at age thirty-one. Her first historical fiction novel The Blue Butterfly, A Novel of Marion Davies will be released on May 3, 2022.
Natalie Hirt is a writer with deep family roots in the Inland Empire, California. She grew up just down the street from the university where she earned an MFA from UC Riverside. She is the 2019 Oregon Literary Arts Fellow for women's fiction.
Jill Badonsky is the author/illustrator of three books on creativity and an inspirational humorist. She has facilitated 100s of creativity workshops and training since 2004, is a mindfulness/yoga teacher and publishes a humorously inspirational radio show called A Muse's Daydream.
Barbara DeMarco-Barrett is the founder and host of "Writers on Writing," which airs every Wednesday morning at 9 a.m. PT on KUCI-FM. She's the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller Pen on Fire: A Busy Woman's Guide to Igniting the Writer Within (Harcourt) and has stories in Orange County Noir and USA Noir: Best of the Akashic Noir Series. She's also written essays and articles for the Los Angeles Times, Poets & Writers, The Writer, Writers' Digest, The Authors Guild Bulletin, Orange Coast magazine, and more. She teaches an online class for Gotham Writers Workshop, and two private workshops in Southern California where she lives with her husband and son, both musicians, and 13 typewriters, and counting.
Michael Jon Fink is a composer/performer who resides in the San Fernando Valley just north of Los Angeles. For over forty years he has served on the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts where he teaches Composition, Orchestration and Analysis. He has composed concertos for soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, violin and cello as well as incidental music for two plays by W.B. Yeats and four by Wajdi Mouawad. He currently plays electric guitar with the Feedback Wave Riders (Free Improv), and Spectral Dawn Spirits (Hierophanic, somewhat metallic, post-psychedelic ambient instrumental music). His music appears on the Cold Blue record label.
Jen Bergmark's fiction has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Bellevue Literary Review, Indiana Review, Harpur Palate, The Lascaux Review, Cream City Review, and other journals, and in the anthology New California Writing (Heyday Books). She received the John Gardner Memorial Prize in Fiction and was a finalist in Poets and Writers Magazine California Exchange Award. She recently relocated to Rhode Island from Los Angeles.
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Emily Zeamer’s storytelling builds on serious research into the social history of early 19th century America and Europe, as well as a background in sociocultural anthropology. As an anthropologist, her work has focused on the relationship between religious traditions and urban modernity in Thailand. She currently teaches Anthropology at the University of Southern California.
Sarah Z. Sleeper's debut novel, Gaijin, came out in 2020 with glowing reviews. Her short story, “A Few Innocuous Lines,” won an award from Writer’s Digest. Her non-fiction essay, “On Getting Vivian,” was published in The Shanghai Literary Review, and her poetry was exhibited at the Bellarmine Museum. In the recent past, she was an editor at New Rivers Press and editor-in-chief of the literary journal Mason’s Road. Prior to completing her MFA in 2012, she was a reporter, winning three journalism awards and a fellowship at the National Press Foundation.
Tressa Berman, Ph.D., is a visual ethnographer, poet, and creative coach. She has published two non-fiction books, poetry chapbooks, art essays, and countless academic articles she hopes someone has read. Current works-in-progress include Postcards from Indian Country, USA and My Life as Faye, an “inspired-by” fictional memoir for the page and stage. She is the recipient of Rockefeller and Mellon Fellowships, and received the 2022 Judy Chicago Art Education Award. She has received recognitions from the Ventura Poetry Project, the Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and the Jack Grapes Poetry Prize, and serves on the Advisory of Wordswell literary journal.
Jeannette Mohr is a native of Germany. She is a writer and lives in La Jolla, Southern California. She worked as dramaturg/director in Oldenburg, Germany and wrote screenplays for German television shows. Until mid 2017 she taught German at UCSD. She returned to Germany and was invited as artist resident in Christoph Schlingensief's opera village in Burkina Faso, where she organized a theater workshop and realized “kawule” a short experimental film. She is back in the US since 2020. Her short story "On the Fence" was published in "A Year in Ink", Volume #15, San Diego, 2022
Kristine L. Schomaker is an Art Historian, Curator, Publisher, Art Manager, and multidisciplinary artist living and working at the Brewery artist complex in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BA in Art History and MA in Studio Art from California State University at Northridge. Kristine’s art practice includes painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, performance, and conceptual art based focused on body image and society’s perception of beauty. In 2014 Kristine founded Shoebox Arts to support and empower artists while building community and creating new opportunities. Kristine is also the publisher of Art and Cake a contemporary L.A. Art magazine.
D.W. White is a graduate of the M.F.A. Creative Writing program at Otis College in Los Angeles and Stony Brook University's BookEnds Fellowship. Currently seeking representation for his first novel, he serves as Founding Editor for L'Esprit Literary Review and Fiction Editor for West Trade Review, where he also contributes reviews and critical essays. His writing further appears in Florida Review, Necessary Fiction, and Chicago Review of Books, among several other publications. A Chicago ex-pat, he now lives in Long Beach, California, where he teaches writing and frequents the beach to hide from writer's block.
Edan Lepucki is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels California and Woman No. 17, and the editor of Mothers Before: Stories and Portraits of Our Mothers as We Never Saw Them. Her nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and The Cut, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Jen Wyrauch Edson received her MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2007. She writes fiction and poetry. She has taught English, ESL, and Conversation and Culture classes with the Tustin Unified School District and at UCI for over two decades, and ran the Poetry Slam Team at Beckman High School for many years. She was a judge at the International Poetry Slam at Berkeley in 2004. Currently, Jen teaches GED and High School Diploma classes for adults at the Tustin Adult School. She enjoys supporting dog rescue and spending time with her husband and grandchildren in Dana Point California.
Nancy Marie Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache) is a professor of gender studies and core faculty with the American Indian Studies Interdepartmental Program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mithlo’s curatorial work has resulted in nine exhibits at the Venice Biennale. Mithlo has taught at the University of New Mexico, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the Santa Fe Community College, Smith College, the California Institute of the Arts, Occidental College, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her 2020 book Knowing Native Arts was published by the University of Nebraska Press. www.nancymariemithlo.com
Monica J. Brown is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the intersections between visual art, sound, movement, poetry, prose and performance. Her visual art has been exhibited widely throughout Chicago, including the DuSable Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Hyde Park Art Center. She has also exhibited nationally and internationally including Juijiang University in Jiujiang, China. She created two murals with the Hubbard Street Mural Project in Chicago, and her artwork was published in Woman Made Gallery's Her Mark: a journal of art + poetry 2009. She has been the recipient of the Weisman Award, the City of Chicago DCASE Grant and Illinois Arts Council's Grants. Monica has performed at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Prop Theatre in Chicago; and the Bucktown Center for the Arts in Davenport, IA.
Mailing address: P.O. Box 6, Temecula, CA 92593 ~ Physical Address: 36701 Highway 79 South, Temecula, CA 92592
(951) 302-3837 ~ www.dorlandartscolony.org ~ info@dorlandartscolony.org
A California 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Kristen Daniels studied creative writing at USC with T.C. Boyle and Aimee Bender, at UCLA Extension with Les Plesko, and at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She lives in Encinitas, CA with her husband and two daughters.
Combining her science and engineering education with design practice and enterprise, Heidrun Mumper-Drumm has developed a unique sustainability curriculum for art and design students. At ArtCenter College of Design, Prof. Mumper-Drumm teaches, conducts research, and serves as the college’s Director of Sustainability Initiatives. Her academic classes and studio courses challenge designers to create sustainable product-service systems that improve environmental performance while considering social and economic impact. Her research interests include methodologies that incorporate life cycle thinking and lead to design innovation. Her art-making, as a typographer, letterpress printer, and visual and book artist, reflects her lifelong exploration of earthlings and earth systems.
Ellen Yaffa tiptoed into flash narrative in 2008 and has been hooked on short-form writing ever since. She is an active, enthusiastic member of weekly writing practice groups and an alumna of workshops emphasizing flash narrative and “short shorts.” Her work has been published in anthologies such as "Dime Stories," "A Year in Ink," and "University of Hell Press" as well as The Sun Magazine. Ellen also creates multi-media art on paper and canvas and has exhibited at Expressive Arts San Diego. "Through My Eyes," her first book, is a collection of flash narratives and original art, available on amazon.com.
Katherine Vondy is a Los Angeles-based writer and director working in theater, film, and literature. Kat is the recipient of the 2015 Davey Foundation Theatre Grant and has developed and produced plays with the Athena Project, Salt Lake Acting Company, Fresh Ground Pepper, Campfire Theatre Festival, The Blank, HBMG Foundation, Paper Wing Theatre Company, The Script Readers, All Terrain Theater, CalArts TSA, and The Vagrancy (where she currently heads the new play development program). Writing residencies include the Vermont Studio Center, Hambidge, Wildacres, Starry Night, Fresh Ground Pepper, Palazzo Stabile, and the HBMG Foundation.
Maureen Loftis is currently on sabbatical writing her first novel. The book is an historical and psychological fiction, set in Reno, Nevada, that explores a family's dysfunctional past and how the youngest daughter, driven to fix and rescue her loved ones, discovers she has to let them go in order to get them back. Topics of clergy abuse, trauma, and addiction are explored. Maureen is studying writing craft and revision of her novel under the brilliant expertise of Mark Sarvas and Janet Fitch. She has completed several UCLA advanced writing workshops and was admitted to the prestigious Community of Writers workshop in Olympic Valley. Maureen hopes to have her novel completed in 2022.
Jessica Dunne’s solo shows include the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, the Fresno Art Museum, and the Flaten Museum. Her latest solo shows were at B. Sakata Garo in Sacramento and FOG in San Francisco. She has been included in shows at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the SFMOMA Artists Gallery. She has been a resident at the Bemis Center, Yaddo, and Ucross. She received the James D. Phelan Award, a Kala Fellowship, and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. Her work is collected by the Oakland Museum of California, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Stanford. www.jessicadunne.com
Kara Mae Brown is a writer of memoirs, essays, short fiction, and exactly one poem. About Place, Crack the Spine, Plainsongs, and Hawai’i Review have most recently published her work. Her nonfiction has been awarded the Green Briar Review and Flint Hills Review prizes. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Emerson College and is currently an Associate Teaching Professor of Writing & Literature in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara.
Dian Greenwood holds a BA and MA in English - San Francisco State University; an MA in Counseling Psychology - California Institute of Integral Studies. For five years, she taught composition, literature, and creative writing at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. For the past thirty years, she’s worked as a psychotherapist. Her novel, About the Carleton Sisters, debuts from She Writes Press in Spring 2023. More recently, she’s published essays in The Big Smoke online magazine. In October 2021, another essay appears in the anthology, 2020: The Year of the *, University of Hell Press. Her website: www.Diangreenwood.com
James Combs' musical ride has included a BBC Peel Session, a Lollapalooza, a co-written True Blood end title sung by Iggy Pop, nine albums, live performances from Berlin to San Francisco, and stages shared with Jackson Browne, Van Dyke Parks, Marianne Faithfull, more. New album: FALLING UNDER SPELLS.
JoBeth McDaniel an author and journalist with work published in LIFE, AARP Magazine, House Beautiful, Veranda, Islands, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek and Business Week. She wrote for LIFE under five managing editors, operating LIFE’s LA bureau. She was a Working Woman columnist for four years, and Investors Business Daily columnist for three. Her bestselling biography A Special Kind of Hero (Doubleday, Dell) was named a Library Journal “Best Book” and a Literary Guild selection. JoBeth’s essays appear in several anthologies. Two were selected for college textbooks.
NathanFleetwood is originally from Nashville and his first career was in business (Venture Capital and Management Consulting) which brought him to live in Asia (Hong Kong and Singapore) for the last four years. But he's since made a pivot to TV/film screenwriting and currently has two projects well underway -- one movie feature with producers attached which we're finalizing the script for now, and one TV pilot that has an actor attached and the two of them are about to begin the pitching process.
Kristine L. Schomaker is an Art Historian, Curator, Publisher, Art Manager, and multidisciplinary artist living and working at the Brewery artist complex in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BA in Art History and MA in Studio Art from California State University at Northridge. Kristine’s art practice includes painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, performance, and conceptual art based focused on body image and society’s perception of beauty. In 2014 Kristine founded Shoebox Arts to support and empower artists while building community and creating new opportunities. Kristine is also the publisher of Art and Cake a contemporary L.A. Art magazine.
Jennifer Vandever is an author and screenwriter living in Los Angeles where she teaches at Emerson College. She is the author of the novels THE BRONTE PROJECT and AMERICAN TANGO and was the co-screenwriter and associate producer of the film JUST ONE TIME. Her work has appeared in First City, Redbook, The New York Times and The Village Voice.
JULY - SEPTEMBER 2022
Kristine L. Schomaker is an Art Historian, Curator, Publisher, Art Manager, and multidisciplinary artist living and working at the Brewery artist complex in Los Angeles, California. She earned her BA in Art History and MA in Studio Art from California State University at Northridge. Kristine’s art practice includes painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, performance, and conceptual art based focused on body image and society’s perception of beauty. In 2014 Kristine founded Shoebox Arts to support and empower artists while building community and creating new opportunities. Kristine is also the publisher of Art and Cake a contemporary L.A. Art magazine.
Loretta Williams is an award-winning public media writer, producer, and editor whose work tackles some of the most important issues of our day – climate change, race, and other hot button topics that divide America. She’s worked for NPR and SoundVision Productions and has been a freelance journalist since 2008. She now edits and/or produces podcast series such as "Seeing White", "The Reckoning", "Us & Them", and the "Spiritual Edge". She's been part of reporting teams that have won broadcasting's top honors, the George Foster Peabody Award and the Columbia DuPont Award.
Lisa Cupolo is the winner of the 2020 W.S.Porter prize for Short fiction. Her stories have appeared in Narrative, Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Idaho Review, and her story collection, Have Mercy On Us, is forthcoming from Regal House Press. A native of Canada, she now lives in Southern California and teaches at Chapman University.
Emily Wiseman’s practice is split between Northern and Southern California. She earned her BFA Sonoma State University and her MFA from California State University, Northridge. She exhibits across California including the Museum of Art and History, Lancaster, CA, ARC Gallery, San Francisco, and California State University, LA, Fulton Crossing, Santa Rosa. Community involvement is a big part of Emily's life and practice. Activities include grant panelist for CA and LA County, Rohnert Park's Cultural Arts Commission and the Sonoma County 2014/15 Civil Grand Jury. Other activities include public art projects, her PBS affiliate and Pacific Standard Time in LA.
Katinka Clementsmith is a working, teaching artist in Southern California. She loves to be the creative vessel for whimsical expressive works to come into creation. She often paints with migraines and credits the migraines for both her use of color and the disproportion of features that are essential to her signature style. Katinka has shown at art shows and galleries throughout the country, and her work is in private collections throughout the world. She teaches a variety of art classes in person and online.
John Wuchte has been an actor/writer/director/theater creator for more 35 years. He started his acting career in NYC in the 80s and wrote and directed his first play Vivian Vance is Alive and Well in '91. He was Artisitc Director of RAKKA-THAMM!!! theater for 10 years, notable for adapting/staging Greek tragedies outside in Washington Square park. Moving to Los Angeles in 2000 he has been part of Sacred Fools Theater for 20 years. Last year he created Scarlett Fever, a physical theater movement piece that was the hit of the Hollywood Fringe festival. His latest work Housewife 1952 was derailed due to pandemic.
Kim Steutermann Rogers spent a month in Alaska as a fellow at Storyknife Writers Retreat in 2016 and, again, in 2021. She was recognized for “Notable Travel Writing 2019” in Best American Travel Writing. Her science journalism has been published in National Geographic, Audubon, and Smithsonian; and her prose in Atticus Review, Bending Genres, CHEAP POP, Hippocampus, and elsewhere. She lives with her husband and 15-year-old poi dog named Lulu in Hawaii. Read more of her work at kimsrogers.com and follow her on social media at @kimsrogers.
January - March Residents
Mike Brosnan is a Los Angeles native and received his BA at Cal State University, Northridge in film with a minor in journalism. After long stints writing scripts and poetry (he studied under Eloise Klein Healy - named LA’s first Poet Laureate in 2012), he turned his eye towards fiction. Mike has worked at the UCLA Film and Television Archive and was for a time in the development departments of producer Edward R. Pressman, producer/director Oliver Stone and Miramax. He is currently employed at The Walt Disney Co. His essay on Irene Adler, a character found in the Sherlock Holmes canon, can be found in the book, Ladies, Ladies: The Women in the Life of Sherlock Holmes, Aventine Press, 2007. In addition to his writing and movie industry endeavors, he has been a wine director, wine bar manager and owned his own wine event planning business.
Annie Halvorsen, a retired RN with no formal art training, began painting in pastel in October of 2019. In spite of the pandemic restrictions occurring about six months later, Annie has had one work juried into a national pastel show, been accepted to a residency in Europe (Chateau Orquevaux). She has been offered solo shows at the Concord Free Public Library (MA) and the Eastman Community Center (NH). She paints primarily in pastel, has studied online with several well-known pastellists, and has been juried into the Pastel Society of America. See her work at
Judy Reeves is a writer and teacher who has published four books on writing including the award-winning A Writer’s Book of Days, and the critically acclaimed Wild Women, Wild Voices. Her work has appeared in the San Diego Reader; The Frozen Moment; A Year in Ink; Connotations Press; Serving House Journal; Waymark; Expressive Writing, Classroom and Community, and other journals and anthologies. She is also an editor and has edited manuscripts, journals, and chapbooks. She has been leading writing groups and teaching creative writing for 27 years at writing conferences internationally and at San Diego Writers, Ink, a nonprofit literary center she cofounded.
JoBeth McDaniel is an author and journalist with work published in LIFE, AARPMagazine, House Beautiful, Veranda, Islands, Reader’s Digest, Newsweek and Business Week. She wrote for LIFE under five managing editors, operating LIFE’s LA bureau. She was a Working Woman columnist for four years, and Investors BusinessDaily columnist for three. Her bestselling biography A Special Kind of Hero (Doubleday, Dell) was named a Library Journal “Best Book” and a Literary Guild selection. JoBeth’s essays appear in several anthologies. Two were selected for college textbooks.
Ella Martinsen Gorham lives and writes in Los Angeles. Her story “Protozoa” was selected for Best American Short Stories 2019. Her fiction has appeared in New England Review, ZYZZYVA, and Carve, and she was named a finalist in the 2020 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. She is at work on a collection of stories and a novel.
WickiVanDeVeer is a painter who lives in Hanalei, Hawaii and Fallbrook California. Her paintings in oil, encaustic and watercolor are available for viewing at her website: wicki-van-de-veer.pixels.com. They are inspired by travels in Nepal, Japan and Tibet as well as by the rich cultural life and landscapes of the island of Kaua'i. Wicki also teaches painting and drawing to adults and children. Her residency in 2019 will be devoted to developing a series of drawings and poems.
Sheli Silverio is a fine art artist and illustrator living and working in Los Angeles. She has studied studio arts and humanities at Pasadena City College, California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and California State University Northridge. Her work explores the complexity of identity in regards to the perception and representation of self. An integral part of the LA Art World, Sheli is a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, The Shed Collective and currently working for Shoebox Arts, offering valuable resources to emerging artists. She recently became a board member of the arts non-profit January Arts.
Willow Healy was a 2020 Adventure Writers Competition semi-finalist and a 2018 Daphne du Maurier Award finalist for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense. She was a resident representative in Lesotho, Africa creating and supervising projects and bringing out Canadian volunteers. She was marketing manager for a resort in Nepal and worked on Japanese television and radio.
Phoebe Merten is a poet and fiction writer who grew up in the Oregon woods and now lives in the urban California desert. Appreciation for the unidealized aspects of nature and biology is a recurring motif in her work. Her residency at Dorland comes shortly before her final year at Chapman University's MFA program, and therefore will focus on progress toward completion of her thesis project, a cross-genre work exploring inner/outer worlds, thanatos/eros, and human/nonhuman connection. Her writing has appeared in Vine Leaves literary journal and on Splickety's Lightning Blog.
Tony Eprile is a South African writer & photographer now living in Vermont. His novel, The Persistence of Memory, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, longlisted for the Dublin Impac Prize, and won the Koret International Jewish Book Award for Fiction. His writing has appeared in O Magazine, The New York Times, Details, The Nation, Gourmet, and the Washington Post. His photographs have appeared in Discover Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, National Geographic (online), Gourmet, Pacific Standard, and elsewhere. Awards include National Endowment for the Arts, Ingram Merrill Foundation, Djerassi Foundation, MacDowell Colony and other fellowships.
Suhasini Yeeda is a first-generation queer Indian American from Dallas, Texas. Her work appears in Ms. Magazine, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Indian Review, Madcap Review, Packingtown Review, and the Arroyo Seco Press Anthology Redshift 5. Her work can be found at suhasiniwrites.com. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee and a one-time nominee for The Best American Short Stories and Best of the Net. She earned her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and BA from Texas Wesleyan University. Suhasini is a 2021 California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles, loves to bake, and is passionate about the oxford comma.
Francesca Bell is a poet and translator. Her debut collection, Bright Stain (Red Hen Press, 2019), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Julie Suk Award. Her translation, New and Selected: Poems by Max Sessner, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in 2023. Her work appears in journals such as the Los Angeles Review of Books, North American Review, Massachusetts Review, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle. She is translation editor of Los Angeles Review and lives with her family in Novato, CA.
April - June Residents
Raised in Kernersville, North Carolina, Kate Hampton has lived in Washington D.C., Nairobi, and now Los Angeles, where she is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Chapman University. Kate Hampton co-founded and was Deputy Managing Editor of the pan-African writers’ collective Jalada, the former Assistant Editor of Kwani, and she has edited many books for publishers and individual authors. In addition to writing fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, she is a freelance copywriter and technical editor, and she does typography and interior design for Open Country Press. Chat her up on Twitter @KateCHampton or Instagram @kchampton1 or linkedin.com/in/katechampton.
Diana Daniele (she/her) is a writer and literary publicist living in Los Angeles. Her book-in-progress is "Out of the Dark: A Memoir of Migraine and Madness.” Two excerpts were published in literary journals in August and December 2021. Daniele graduated Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA and received her M.A. in Journalism from the University of Southern California. Daniele has also studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge in England and Philology at the University of Madrid, Complutense in Spain
Sheryl Stradling is an award-winning artist and author. Her book, Faith, Power, Joy: Spiritual Guidance from 5 Generations of Remarkable Women, highlights her maternal ancestors. It was an Amazon bestseller and won the 2018 Body Mind Spirit book award for Spiritual Healing. Stradling is also a contributor to Journey of an Empath, a compilation of empaths’ stories. Stradling is a mixed media abstract artist. Her eclectic work is inspired by nature and symbols. Her work has won numerous awards. Stradling minored in fine art at Western Washington University and studied at Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle, Washington.
Creative and critical writer and performer Rosamond S.King’s poetry publications include All the Rage, the Lambda Award-winning Rock | Salt | Stone, and poems in more than three dozen journals, blogs, and anthologies, including The Feminist Wire, Hyperallergic, Harriet, and The Caribbean Writer. King has performed at biennales, festivals, bookstores, and other venues around the world. Her scholarly book Island Bodies: Transgressive Sexualities in the Caribbean Imagination was named “Best Book” by the Caribbean Studies Association. King is creative editor of sx salon and Professor at Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York.
Kaylee Michelle is a fine artist and professional painting instructor born and raised in Arizona. She creates vivid, colorful landscapes, mainly of places close to her heart. She teaches paintings at a local paint and sip studio and has created arts and crafts at a wonderful summer camp. She is currently working on a Bachelor in Art Education, with plans to bring art into high school programs across central Arizona.
Kristen Daniels studied creative writing at USC with T.C. Boyle and Aimee Bender, at UCLA Extension with Les Plesko, and at the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She lives in Encinitas, CA with her husband and two daughters.
Composer and violinist Tommy Dougherty (b. 1990) is a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and solo works. This year, Tommy is in residence at the Winterthur Museum as a Maker-Creator Fellowship Scholar. In 2021, Tommy received a joint commission from the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra and Laurel Arts to compose a work as a tribute to the people of Somerset for the 20th Anniversary of September 11th. He has since been commissioned to write a new work for the JSO’s 2022-2023 season finale. Over the past several years, his music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the Modern Violin Ensemble (MoVE), Alarm Will Sound, and Kinetic Ensemble. As a violinist, Tommy currently serves as Acting Section Violin with the San Diego Symphony.
John Wuchte has been an actor/writer/director/theater creator for more 35 years. He started his acting career in NYC in the 80s and wrote and directed his first play Vivian Vance is Alive and Well in '91. He was Artisitc Director of RAKKA-THAMM!!! theater for 10 years, notable for adapting/staging Greek tragedies outside in Washington Square park. Moving to Los Angeles in 2000 he has been part of Sacred Fools Theater for 20 years. Last year he created Scarlett Fever, a physical theater movement piece that was the hit of the Hollywood Fringe festival. His latest work Housewife 1952 was derailed due to pandemic.
Elizabeth Podolinsky’s creative non-fiction work includes "Pretending to Pray In French", a memoir that uses humor to describe her unique perspective on French culture, including French men, bras, and a rural convent where she finds a group of foreign young women – fellow convent workers – who help her rediscover herself. Published in 2017, her memoir continues to sell. She has also published personal essays on traveling for food, a Buddhist retreat, and health products, in national and local media. She was featured at San Francisco’s LITQUAKE. Currently an advisor for the state of California, she advises on energy and safety issues affecting Californians.
Sharon O’Brien teaches creative writing and American Studies at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. She has long been drawn to life stories and the process of storytelling. Her first book was a biography of Willa Cather (Willa Cather: The Emerging Voice, 1987) that was the first to explore this writer’s life from a feminist point of view. Her second book, The Family Silver (2004) was a memoir of family and depression that explored the concept of inheritance in a cultural context. Recently she has been writing personal essays that address such topics as the American cult of productivity, the politics of the food industry, and American attitudes toward grief. She is working on an academic memoir that explores how academic writing is shaped by history and politics.
Lynn Mundell’s writing has been published in literary journals including Tin House, The Sun, Booth, and Five Points, and in the W.W. Norton anthology New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction. Her work has placed in the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions short and long lists between 2017 and 2020, and earned the 2019 Lascaux Prize in Creative Nonfiction. She is co-founder and co-editor of 100 Word Story and co-editor of its anthology, Nothing Short Of. Her chapbook Let Our Bodies Be Returned to Us won the 2021 Yemassee fiction chapbook award and will be published in 2022.
Anita Cabrera, work has appeared in The Berkeley Fiction Review, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Brain, Child Magazine, Colere, Acentos Review, and other journals. My short story That Thing won the 2017 New Guard's Machigonne Fiction Award. My fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Award and most recently, adapted for the stage by Word for Word Theater Group. Ms. Cabrera lives and teaches San Francisco, CA.
Jamie Mayer is a screenwriter/director and published novelist. An alum of Harvard and the Sundance Writers' & Directors' Labs, she's worked in features, episodic & gaming. Jamie is currently on the writing team for Insomniac Games, working on Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine games. She's written features and television pilots for studios and independent producers, and is aiming to direct a feature film that she's written in 2023. Her YA novel “Painless” was published in 2017. Jamie lives in Los Angeles with her musician/music supervisor husband and their 12-year-old son.