WITS Writers

After earning an M.A. from the University of Texas at San Antonio, Jennifer Aguirre joined Teach for America and moved to Baltimore, where she was a high school English teacher and education student at Johns Hopkins University.  She is currently working on her Ph.D. in English literature at the University of Houston, where she is also a teaching assistant. Jennifer is beginning her third year with WITS.

Gloria Alvarez is a published novelist and freelance writer.  Her third book, Desert Kiss, won a Latino Literary Hall of Fame award.  She has lived in Mexico, Spain, and Indonesia and has served as a writer-in-residence with WITS for six years.  A member of Novelists Inc. and the Authors Guild, Gloria holds a B.S. in Spanish language and literature from Georgetown University and an M.A. in linguistics from Ohio State University.  She lives in Houston with one husband, two daughters, and three Indonesian felines.

Dr. Miah Arnold is a fiction writer from rural Utah educated at Carleton College, The New School for Social Research, and the University of Houston where she recently earned a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature. Miah also works for UH and Inprint, and has served as a fiction editor at Gulf Coast and a poetry editor at Lyric Poetry Review. She has also been a reporter at the Salt Lake City Tribune, a dog washer, and web programmer. Her stories appear in a number of literary magazines, including Confrontation, Painted Bride Quarterly, and the South Dakota Review. She won a Barthelme Award for nonfiction in 2006, and the Inprint/Diana P. Hobby Award for her fiction at the University of Houston in 2008. She is working on the last draft of a novel and relies heavily on the love and support of her daughter Lila and her husband Raj.

Despite his rugged cartoonish appearance, Jesús Ávila is a very down to earth person.  He has been a poet and musician for as long as he can remember—actually since he was nine.  He has performed all over Texas and parts of Northern Mexico as a Rocker and Hip Hop artist—not at the same time of course.  He has read his poetry at the University of Houston-Downtown, Borders Book Store, Diverse Works, The Menil Collection, and other locales.  Jesús is in his fourth year working with Writers in the Schools and has worked as an English tutor for the UH-D Writing Reading Center for nine years. 

Second year WITS writer Nancy Barnhart earned her M.Ed. in elementary education from the University of Houston and is currently pursuing a doctorate in instructional technology at UH. She has published journal articles in the Ohio Journal of the English Language Arts, The English Record, and RDH National Magazine and edited an online textbook for a digital history website developed by professors at UH. Before becoming a WITS writer, she attended the Greater Houston Area Writing Project and taught at Kids’ U summer writing camp at UH-Clear Lake. When she is not a student or teaching students, she enjoys kayaking with her husband. 

Emanuelee Bean’s (also known as Outspoken Bean) has roots in New Orleans. He graduated from Prairie View A&M with a B.A. in Theatre.  While attending Prairie View he started a poetry club and the first poetry slam team, called PV Productive Poets (Triple P).  Triple P, under the coaching of Outspoken Bean, was ranked #1 in Region 12 and #8 in the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational.  After graduating, Outspoken Bean became head coach of Houston's youth team Meta-Four for the 2009 season.

After receiving a B.A. in Economics and Political Science, the call to teach led Carolyn Bolton to the education program at the University of Houston-Clear Lake. Graduating with an M.S. in Early Childhood Education, she combined her two interests of business and education by opening a children's book store in 2002. After a successful and stressful year, Carolyn sold her business to focus on her family and her writing. She joined WITS in 2006 for the opportunity to share the excitement of reading and writing with young children. She is currently working on her first novel. Carolyn lives in La Porte with her husband of 13 years and their five young children.

Nancy Bonsembiante received a Spanish literature degree from the Ministry of Education in Argentina. She has taught Spanish literature at various middle and high schools and is a private Spanish tutor for adults. She won an Award for Excellence at Houston Community College after completing the ESL program. She has been working for WITS for four years and has written different poems to use in her classes as well as for personal achievement. She was one of the contributors of Illuminations Book: Expressions of the Personal Spiritual Experience, which approaches the different perceptions and spirituality. Her non-writing interests include dancing, reading, and spending time with her two kids and husband.

Lesa Boutin is a children’s author who discovered a love for every aspect of a book’s life, from concept to completion. With a background in education, Lesa started her own publishing company, Boot in the Door Publications, in 2006, followed by the release of her young adult novels, Amanda Noble, Zookeeper Extraordinaire in 2007, and Amanda Noble, Special Agent in 2008. Lesa enjoys sharing her imagination and passion for storytelling with her students.

Dr. J. Matthew Boyleston is an Assistant Professor in Creative Writing and English Literature at Houston Baptist University. He holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina. He has taught at Bloomsburg University, Pennsylvania and the Malahide Language School in Dublin, Ireland. His poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals including Puerto del Sol, The New Orleans Review, and Harpur Palate.

Rick Brennan graduated summa cum laude from the University of Houston in 1999 with a B.A. in history and a minor in Spanish and education. Since then, Rick has taught world cultural studies at Lanier Middle School, where he has been nominated for Teacher of the Year honors six straight. Additionally, he has taught poetry and photography with WITS and ethics, philosophy, and the politics of green energy for the Summer Institute for the Gifted at the University of California at Berkeley.  In 2007, Rick started a social studies curriculum development company called Histrionix and is currently finishing work on an interactive world history textbook called Historia.  He lives his happy life in the Montrose area of Houston with his wife Kate and his daughter Rhea. 

Lauren Burrow graduated with an Honors B.A. in Theatre Arts and holds an M.Ed. in reading and language arts from the University of Houston.  She has taught early childhood for seven years as a pre-school teacher and part-time drama instructor.  Currently she is an adjunct professor at the University of Houston in the Early Childhood Education department.  In addition to her academic experience, Lauren now proudly holds the new title of first-time mom.

Ryan Call received his M.F.A. from George Mason University. He is currently a Houston Writing Fellow at the University of Houston, where he teaches first year composition and introduction to literature courses. His stories appear or are forthcoming in Hobart, Caketrain, Sonora Review, Mid-American Review, sleepingfish, and elsewhere. He lives in Houston with his wife.

Chuck Carlise was born in Canton, OH, and has since lived in twelve states and two continents.  He holds degrees from Wittenberg University and the University of California at Davis, and has been awarded fellowships from the Mitchell Center, Wildacres, Inprint, and the Writers Colony at Dairy Hollow.  His poetry and nonfiction appear in Southern Review, Quarterly West, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cimarron Review, and others.  He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston, where he is the nonfiction editor of the journal Gulf Coast.  He has taught with WITS for three years.

Marcia Chamberlain has taught with WITS for 12 years.  She also teaches with non-profit organizations such as Inprint and Talento Bilingue de Houston.  In addition to receiving an Envision Grant from Rice University while a graduate student, she has also won a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Practicum Fellowship, a Teaching Tolerance grant from the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Emerging Filmmaker Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County (now Houston Arts Alliance), and was a finalist for the 2009 Bechtel Prize . She has published essays about medieval nuns and Chicano revolutionaries and is working on a collection of non-fiction. In her free time she cooks vegetarian hamburgers and attends doggie "kindergarten" with her puppy Cody.

Evan Cleveland has a B.A. in English from Rice University and is pursuing an M.F.A. in fiction at Warren Wilson College. For the past seven years, he has taught everywhere with WITS: magnet schools, charter schools, religious/secular private schools, hospitals, and juvenile detention centers.  His writing has most recently appeared in the journals Under Hwy 99 and Teachers and Writers.  He and his wife have two small children, which means he spends much of his time on the floor with toys, speaking in strange voices. 

Liz Countryman earned her B.A. from Tufts University and her M.F.A. from the University of Maryland. She has been awarded scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference and the Vermont Studio Center, from whom she received the Brown Foundation Award in 2008.  She is currently a Ph.D. student at the University of Houston, where she also serves as Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast.  Her poems have appeared in Black Warrior Review, Makeout Creek, Forklift, Ohio, and ink node.  The 2009-2010 school year will be her second year with WITS.  

Dr. Merrilee Cunningham holds a B.A. in creative writing from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature from Vanderbilt University. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, and she has won several teaching and poetry awards. Her work has been published in On, Versus, Visions, The Ball State Review, Renaissance and Reformation, The South Central Bulletin of the Modern Language Association, and many other places. She received an honorable mention in the Virginia Poetry Society Awards.

Ryan Dilbert earned his B.A. in Chinese at the University of Texas at Austin and his M.F.A. in Creative Writing at Antioch University LA. He has spent the last few years teaching in South Korea, Austin, Venice Beach, and China.  His story Anything was Anything was recently anthologized in Dzanc Books' Best of the Web 2009.  He is the editor of Shelf Life Magazine and has only imaginary pets.

A Los Angeles, California native, Mignette Patrick Dorsey moved to Houston, Texas and graduated cum laude with an English degree from the University of Houston. She began her journalism career as a staff reporter for Houston Community Newspapers and later the Houston Post where she won the Aldo and Atrium awards for fashion feature stories. After the demise of the Post, she worked freelance and on contract for the Houston Chronicle, later serving as an associate editor for a local magazine. She left to enter the world of public relations as a city of Houston spokesperson, followed by a career as a high school journalism and developmental reading educator. She currently teaches at a Houston-area community college, and recently finished a work of non-fiction with publication scheduled for summer, 2010.

Laurie Dreyfuss looks for the spark in every child she teaches. Laurie is approaching her 30th year in the elementary classroom both in public and private schools.  For the past several years Laurie has been involved in the School Culture and Literacy Project of the Rice University Center for Education. She gives workshops and enjoys mentoring new teachers.  She has helped write curriculum and enjoys sharing her ideas with her peers.  Laurie currently teaches third grade at The Fay School.  She enjoys spending time with her children and spoiling her rescue Springer Spaniel, Max.

Eric Ekstrand was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and received a B.A. in English Literature from Wake Forest University. He is currently an M.F.A. Candidate at the University of Houston where he holds an Inprint / Brown Foundation Fellowship.  He works as a Teaching Assistant at UH, is a Poetry Editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Art. As the Graduate Student Advisor for Glass Mountain, an undergraduate literary journal at UH, he helped to organize the first annual Boldface Writers Conference, a national conference for emerging writers.  His poems have appeared in the Black Warrior Review, Indiana Review, New South, and Poetry.  His reviews and interviews have appeared in Gulf Coast. He is a recipient of a 2009 Ruth Lilly Fellowship awarded by the Poetry Foundation.

Katherine Elliott is a third-year M.F.A. candidate in poetry at the University of Houston.  She grew up in Richmond, Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia.  She currently teaches composition and literature classes at the University of Houston. This is her second year with WITS.

Laura Eve Engel misses the Blue Ridge.  She grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she graduated with honors from the University of Virginia's Area Program in Poetry Writing and enjoyed a small but active stint as a working folk musician.  She then worked for a year at the local Department of Social Services before moving to Houston, where she's in her second year of study in the Creative Writing Program in poetry.  For the past three summers, she's worked at the UVA Young Writers Workshop, an intensive, residential workshop for high school writers.  Her arts reviews have appeared in Meridian and the C-Ville Weekly, and her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Third Coast, RATTLE, and Ink Node.

Dr. Mischa Enos received a B.A. in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton, an M.A. in applied English linguistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Ed.D. from Harvard Graduate School in Education.  She taught ESL and worked as a journalist in the U.S. and abroad before moving to Houston in 2001.  In addition to WITS, Mischa is a research consultant for Harvard and Strategic Education Research Partnership, conducting case studies on the implementation of a vocabulary enrichment curriculum in HISD middle schools.  In rare moments of free time, Mischa is busy reading, setting up house after a recent move, and telling and writing stories for her sons, Elias and Nathaniel, and her other captive audience--two cats, Peter and Eevee.

Mildred Espree is a native Houstonian who earned her M.Ed. in English Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Houston, and her Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. For over twenty years she was employed by Houston ISD as an AP English Language teacher, an AP Literature teacher, and a Lead Teacher in the Advanced Academics Department. Mildred has additional work experience as a Feature Writer with the Brazosport Facts, and has published her poetry and non-fiction work in Gulf Coast and Defining Moments. She is also a founding member of the Academic Alliance of the Center for the American Idea. Mildred is currently attending Spiritual Direction Formation classes through the Cenacle Retreat House, in addition to teaching English for San Jacinto College, North Campus.

Olga Feliciano was born and raised in New York City’s Lower East Side. She began her writing career in the first grade when she became obsessed with the quotation mark. She decided to channel her energy into a series of comic books with her best friend in the second grade and hasn’t stopped writing since. She earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Houston and a B.A. in English and African American literature from Queens College, CUNY.  She is currently working on a collection of stories and teaching.  When she is not writing, she loves to make arts and crafts, collect mini fashion dolls from the 1970s, and spend quality time with her pets, Bones and Mina.

Sharon Ferranti holds an M.F.A. in directing for film and theater from the California Institute of the Arts.  She is a published playwright and filmmaker.  Her short film, A Thousand Miles, was selected as one of the top ten short films for American Cinemateque in 2000.  Sharon’s feature film, Make A Wish, won the Best in Festival award at the Paris Women’s Film Festival and is distributed by Wolfe Video.  She currently owns her own production company, The Sharon Show, and received AVA and Telly awarda for documentary editing in the category of religion/spirituality.  She has been teaching with WITS for nine years and looks forward to many more.

Adrienne Fisher is currently a second year poet in the University of Houston M.F.A. program.  She attended the University of Virginia for her B.A. and participated in their poetry writing program. After graduation, she spent two years living and working in Prague, where she taught English and chased trams, then Canada, where she earned her bread cleaning pots, braiding onions, and running huskies in Quebec, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.  Last summer, she returned to Virginia for a counselor position at the UVA Young Writers Workshop, an experience she treasures.  This past summer in Houston she was a faculty member for the Boldface Emerging Writer's Conference and attended the Sewanee Writer's Conference on scholarship.

Christa Forster is a writer, performing artist, and teacher.  Since graduating with her M.F.A. from the University of Houston, Christa has taught at Johns Hopkins/CTY, Jesse H. Jones High School, Rice University’s Center for Education, Writers in the Schools, Inprint, and, the Upper School at St. John's School.  Her most recent one-woman show Antilogical Pedagogical premiered at DiverseWorks Artspace. She has performed her original, solo shows in Houston, Austin, NYC, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.  She helped found the cutting edge theater company, Infernal Bridegroom Productions, and Spacetaker, an artist resource center in Houston. Currently, she is working on a novel. She is married to David A. Brown and has two children, Clara and Diego.

Eva Foster earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Maryland, where she taught composition and creative writing, and is now a Ph.D. student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Houston. Her poetry is forthcoming in the Helen Burns Poetry Anthology: New Voices from the Academy of American Poets’ University & College Prizes, 1999–2008. She lives in Houston with her husband and three disobedient but photogenic cats.

Dede Fox earned an English degree and teaching certificate from Washington University in St. Louis. She also completed an M.Ed in Educational Supervision. Her career has spanned more than thirty years in public school classrooms from the inner-city to the suburbs.  Author of a TCU Press children’s novel and non-fiction articles for Highlights magazine, Dede discovered a passion for poetry when she participated in an Inprint Houston class.  A 2007 Houston Poetry Fest juried poet and winner of the 2008 Christina Sergeyevna Award at the Austin International Poetry Festival, Dede has a list of her poetry and short story publications on her website.

Deborah Frontiera grew up in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and came to Houston in 1985. She taught kindergarten, pre-K, and K-5 science in HISD for over twenty years, and was part of the Project A.C.C.E.S.S. curriculum writing project. Experienced at presenting workshops for teachers and writers, she is published in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s works with eight books currently in print. For more information, visit her website. 

Sarah Gajkowski-Hill is a 2000 graduate of the University of St. Thomas, where she studied English literature and creative writing. She published her first book Distracted and Other Poems the same year with a small publishing house out of Madison, Wisconsin. She has taught middle school English, worked as a technical writer, and she currently teaches in Houston Community College's Guided Studies Program. Although originally from Waukesha, Wisconsin, Sarah currently resides in Houston with her husband, a drama instructor for HISD, and their three children, Magdalena, Jude, and Frances.

Hannah Gamble is currently an M.F.A. candidate in poetry at the University of Houston, where she teaches Introduction to Poetry and serves as the Reviews Editor for Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts. She has worked as a writing instructor for Project Row Houses and the Summer Institute for the Gifted. In 2008, she won the Charles Simic Poetry Prize and received a summer writing fellowship from the Edward F. Albee Foundation. Later this year, she will be co-teaching a writing workshop focusing on collaboration, spontaneity, and various surrealist invention techniques at Houston's Jung Center. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Hayden's Ferry Review, Barnstorm, Cimarron Review, Third Coast, Mid-American Review, La Fovea, Anemone Sidecar, Ink Node, and Scarab Magazine. 

Leslie Gauna taught for seven years in the HISD system. She earned a teaching degree and an M.Ed. from the University of Houston. She is currently an adjunct professor at the UH School of Education, Department of Curricula and Instruction. She is also the Literacy Coordinator for Talento Bilingue de Houston. As a writer, Leslie was a 2007-08 recipient of an Individual Artist Grant Award funded by the city of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance. She acts out people’s life stories through Playback Theatre, where she is also the company director. She is a mother of three children who attend the Mark Twain Elementary Dual Language Program.

Jules Gibbs has had many job titles, including Altantic Monthly intern, newspaper reporter, advertising director, photography assistant, freelance writer, and poetry teacher. She has moved most recently from Syracuse, NY, where she was a writer-in-residence in city schools and taught poetry to adults at the Downtown Writers' Center. She's in Houston for a short spell, teaching with WITS and at Inprint. Jules holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.F.A. in Poetry from New England College. She has published poems in dozens of literary magazines, has been the recipient of a Ucross Fellowship, three prizes from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation, and was just selected for inclusion in the anthology, Best New Poets 2009, due out from University of Virginia Press this fall. Her commissioned poem, "Everything Comes Broken," currently accompanies a photography exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver.

Kasten Glover received his B.A. in literature with a minor in creative writing from the University of Central Missouri and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in poetry at the University of Houston.  He has worked with the National Young Scholars program as a student advisor and currently teaches writing for the University of Houston.  Kasten is also fortunate enough to have a loving and supportive wife of four years and a one-year-old son who daily reminds him the complex way he views the world is stupid, and he should delight in things such as popping bubble wrap or glittering a flower.

Manuel Gonzalez is completing his M.F.A. at the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program. He received an undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of Oklahoma, and his editorial experience includes work at World Literature Today magazine, the University of Oklahoma Press, and Pebble Lake Review. This is his first year with WITS.

Maryann Gremillion is a writer and visual artist. She created a writing group for women and is working on a collection of prose poems and personal essays. She is collaborating with a group of other artists in a year-long collage project, and her work has appeared recently in local studios and galleries. Maryann also taught elementary school for fifteen years. She studied the teaching of writing at Columbia University's Reading and Writing Project.

MaryScott Hagle is a native Houstonian who has taught high school English, theatre, swimming, public speaking, and woodworking. She currently teaches Nia, yoga, and studio art, as well as creative writing.  She was education director at the Alley Theatre for seven years and helped MTV Networks launch their newest web presence:  parentsconnect.com.  MaryScott has degrees from Wellesley College and UT Austin. She and her architect husband Daniel Kornberg live with their two daughters in the Historic Houston Heights, where they host regular live music performances in their restored 1904 bungalow. 

Eric Higgins writes poetry, non-fiction, and wee radio essays. He is pursuing a doctorate in creative writing and literature with a focus on postcolonial and ecocritical studies. Besides poetry, he's interested in ecology and film, and he loves to travel.

Salma Hooshmand grew up in Minnesota.  She graduated with a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota and is currently completing her M.A. in curriculum and instruction through the University of Houston.  Salma has taught English and language arts at the middle and high school level for several years.  In additon, she is an essay reader/scorer for a major testing company that scores college entrance exams. She lives in Katy, TX with her husband and two children.

Eric Howerton was raised in Espanola, New Mexico, a small community north of Santa Fe. He received B.A.s in English Philosophy and Psychology from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, before earning his M.F.A. from the Pennsylvania State University. During his time at PSU, he was the curator of the Grucci Room Poetry Center, director of the M.F.A. Reading Series, and the founder of Penn State's first graduate literary magazine, The Bigface. He primarily produces fiction, though he has dabbled as a manuscript editor, technical writer, independent researcher, newspaper editor, and journalist. When he's not writing, he enjoys cooking, skiing, and traveling. 

Larry Hunter attended Phillis Wheatley High School in Houston and Willey College in Marshall, Texas, on a baseball scholarship, where he studied history. Larry then moved to Carmel, California and studied creative writing under Beatrice Levine, an instructor and published author of four books, as well as other authors. He published his first book, The Whispering Call, in 1987, and a book of poetry, My Reflections, in 1996. He has staged over twenty plays as a playwright at locations such as the University of Houston, the Old Music Hall, and Houston Community College. In 2000, he founded Colourwhirl, Inc., a theater non-profit organization for inner-city kids that creates a comfort zone for writing and performing. Larry has been a writer with WITS for twelve years.

Artist and educator Carmen Erna Jacobsen got her first teaching experience in Mexico City. She worked for a private school teaching English as a second language, paying her way through medical school. Teaching was something that she felt came naturally, and it was a skill she could carry anywhere she traveled. She loves to write non-fiction and poetry. Carmen now lives in Houston where she has had the chance to produce musicals for a Montessori school at the Bayou Theater at UH Clear Lake.

Felicia Johnson-LeBlanc

Born in the Philippines, Janine Joseph is a Ph.D. student in literature and creative writing at the University of Houston, where she is also a senior reader for Gulf Coast. She holds degrees from UC Riverside and the Creative Writing Program at New York University, where she taught with the Starworks Foundation and Community Word Project. She is a recipient of a 2009 Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation Fellowship for New Americans. Her work has most recently appeared in Third Coast, Spoon River Poetry Review, Nimrod, and in the chapbook Here is a Pen: An Anthology of West Coast Kundiman Poets. When not in Houston, Janine is either riding the subway into Brooklyn or driving in California with her beagle, Tater.

Susie Kalil, born in Los Angeles, California, came to Houston in 1973 to complete a B.A. at Rice University. She is an art critic, curator and lecturer. She has published criticism in various magazines and newspapers, including Artforum, Art in America, ARTnews, Artweek, Cite, Sculpture, The Houston Post and The Houston Press. For the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, she co-curated with Barbara Rose the landmark exhibition "Fresh Paint: The Houston School" (1984) and curated "The Texas Landscape: 1900-1986." In 1995-96 she was Visual Arts Director for DiverseWorks, Houston. She is a former Core Fellow in Critical Studies at the Glassell School of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and was Managing Editor of the Texas journal ArtLies. Her recent books include Melissa Miller: Paintings and Works on Paper (University of Texas Press), James Surls: From the Heartland (the Grace Museum) and Sally Chandler: A Collection of Memories (Three Cranes Press). 

Irene Keliher holds an M.F.A. from the University of Houston, where she taught composition and creative writing and served as fiction editor of Gulf Coast. Her short stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Quarterly West, The Bellingham Review, The Potomac Review, The Mississippi Review, and elsewhere. She is the recipient of an Inprint/Barthelme Memorial Award for Nonfiction, the Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, and placed first in the Potomac Review Fiction Contest. Additionally, her essays have twice placed in the Atlantic Monthly Student Writing Contest. Currently, she is working on a libretto for the HGO's Opera To Go program and a novel.

Eric Kocher is currently working towards his M.F.A at the University of Houston. Originally from New York, he graduated from Binghamton University with a B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing. His poetry has appeared in DIAGRAM, H_ngm_n, Pebble Lake Review, RATTLE, Sixth Finch, and Third Coast. This past summer he worked as a songwriting teacher at the University of Virginia's Young Writers Workshop.

Emily Koehn was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and received a B.A. from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. from Purdue University. Last year, she moved to Houston from Portland, Maine, where she taught creative writing and literature at Bates College. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, including Denver Quarterly, Seneca Review, and Pleiades, and she has been nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. She loves walking around the Montrose area with her hound dog.

Jane Koh is currently a fiction writer, grad student, and teaching fellow at the University of Houston. Prior to working and living in Houston, Jane was employed as a freelance grants writer in New York and San Francisco. She also put in some time as an archivist for the Public Art Fund in New York. A firm believer in the transformative power of words, she has participated in events and workshops influenced by June Jordan's Poetry for the People. She occasionally performs through the NY-based group Agent 409 and is currently hard at work writing lyric fiction. She originally hails from Ohio and earned her B.A. in English at Amherst College.

Valerie Lawhorn received a B.A. in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Southwest Texas State University.  She later obtained a secondary teaching certification from the University of Houston and an M.Ed. in instructional technology, specializing in visual literacy.  She loves writing short stories, poetry, and fiction.  She lives in Houston with her husband, their cat, and two dogs.

Weezie Mackey works full time as a writer at Rice University and has been a writer and editor with Webster’s Dictionary, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Tootsietoy, Rotary International, and the Williams College Museum of Art. She holds a B.A. in English from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from American University in Washington, DC.  Weezie is the author of a novel, Throwing Like a Girl, which was nominated as Best Young Adult Book, 2007, by the Texas Institute of Letters.  She lives in the Heights with her husband and two sons and is currently working on another sports novel for girls called Kick.

Fiction writer Dr. Melanie J. Malinowski received her Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. She holds an M.A. in English from the University of New Mexico and a B.A. in English from Pennsylvania State University. Melanie has taught writing throughout Houston to elementary, middle, and high school students and has worked with children at Texas Children's Hospital. She lives in Houston with her daughter Echo and her dog Jezebel.

Kristina McDonald earned her B.A. in English from Rice University. Her passion for education and non-profit service has led her to work with a variety of agencies, including Rice’s Center for Education, The Rice Summer School for Grades 8-12, The Women's Resource of Greater Houston, and the Houston Area Women's Center. In addition to being a WITS writer, she also serves the organization as the Office Manager. Kristina enjoys bowling and is currently working on a young adult novel.

Kate Megear recently moved to Houston from Gainesville, where she completed her M.F.A. in fiction writing at the University of Florida while also teaching various English and creative writing courses.  Kate grew up in New York City and has also lived in Virginia and New Hampshire.  At the University of New Hampshire she earned an M.A. in English with a concentration in writing and worked as a poetry intern for The Paris Review.  Currently Kate is teaching at Houston Community College and working on a novel. 

Keya Mitra received her M.F.A. in fiction at the University of Houston, where she is finishing her Ph.D. in fiction and literature. She recently came back to Houston after spending a year in India on a Fulbright grant in creative writing.  Her fiction has appeared in Best New American Voices 2007, Ontario Review, Orchid, Event, Fourteen Hills, Torpedo, and Confrontation, and her nonfiction has been published in Gulf Coast and American Literary Review. She worked as a fiction editor for the Gulf Coast for over two years. Keya received a work-study scholarship to the 2005 Bread Loaf Writer's Conference and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in fiction. She was named an Honorable mention winner for the Atlantic's 2004-2005 student fiction competition and received the 2004-2005 Barthelme Fellowship in
fiction.

Diana Muñiz holds a bachelor's degree in Christian education from Twin Cities University, and a double major from the University of Houston in public relations and broadcast journalism. Diana has worked as a bilingual reporter, co-producer, and anchor of a Spanish news show for Pacifica radio station 90.1. She is both an artist and an arts educator who has taught visual art to all school grades and has been a creative writing teacher at the high school level in HISD. She has represented Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts as an artist-in-residence for the Texas Commission on the Arts. She also works for Children's Prison Arts Project, an arts education project for incarcerated youth within the Harris County Juvenile Probation Department. She loves caricaturing and crafting in her spare time.

Karen Perez has a B.A. in vocal music from Westmont College in Santa Barbara.  She discovered a love for teaching while subbing at an English language school back home in Houston.  A Masters in Education from the University of Houston was the next logical step. A closet poet since high school, she began writing more intentionally after going through a year long training to become a teacher trainer for writing in her school district.  “Nighttime Prayers” was her first published poem. She is currently working on a historical fiction novel. For the past 10 years she has lived in a loft designed by her architect husband and homeschools her two children, ages nine and twelve. Presently, she tutors writing and ESL, and is beginning her third year with WITS. She tries to make the mystery of writing accessible, less frustrating, and more fun. 

Moiya Press-Jackson, a New Orleans native, graduated from Dillard University with a B.A. in liberal arts/music education studies. She taught vocal and general music studies in the Orleans Parish school system, as well as worked with Xavier University’s summer arts program. Moiya has been a broadcaster in radio and on the Internet. She decided to return to the education field after moving to Houston in 2005. Currently Moiya works with a non-profit that allows her to mentor and teach middle school children practical life skills. She also volunteers with an agency that mentors children in the juvenile justice system and Child Protective Services.

Kiki Przewlocki received an M.Ed. from the University of Houston and a B.A. from Boston College. She has spent most of her adult life inspiring children and adults to explore the creative/performing arts. Her experiences range from editing a newspaper for an outdoor school in Boston, to teaching Navajo children in New Mexico, to directing of a local after-school theatre arts program. She is the recipient of grants from the University of Houston, CACCH, The Fund for Teachers, and the Waverly School (which hosted a summer workshop in old world bookmaking in the south of France). She performs her music in the rock band, Third Ear Caravan.

Julia Randle received her undergraduate degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and her Master of Social Work and mediation certification from the University of Houston. Her area of specialization is clinical practice with children and families. Through a Baylor doctor, she assisted with research aimed at establishing a therapeutic guide to help identify psychological undercurrents in children's writings. She has published several magazine articles and is currently working on a young adult novel called Nomad. Since WITS selecting her in middle school to read her short story at The Menil Collection, Julia feels passionate about building on that legacy to give youth a voice and a platform to be heard.

Harriet Riley is a free-lance writer focusing on non-fiction articles and grant writing. She has taught undergraduate writing classes at the University of West Florida in Pensacola where she lived for 11 years before moving to Houston in 2007.  She has also worked as a non-profit director, hospital marketing director, and newspaper reporter. She has her M.A. in print journalism from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.A. in English and journalism from the University of Mississippi.  She enjoys reading, running, and traveling with her family. She just completed her first year with WITS.

Eduardo Rodríguez-Solís attended the National University of Mexico and the University of California at Los Angeles. He is the author of more than ten books printed in Mexico, Spain, Venezuela, and Colombia and was a scholar at the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mexican Center of Writers, and the National Arts Council of Mexico. Before his residency in Houston, he worked for the Metropolitan University in Mexico, for the government of the State of Mexico, and as coordinator of the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Two Mexican films were based on Eduardo’s short stories, and one of his theater plays was performed off-Broadway. He has been stage director in theater in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States, and has worked in radio broadcasting and television. Eduardo is a novelist, ghost writer, journalist, and translator, and he has been teaching with WITS for more than 10 years.

Ian Schimmel grew up in Connecticut and received his B.A. in English from Tufts University in Boston.  After graduating, Ian traveled and lived overseas for two years, spending the majority of his time as an ESL teacher in Brazil working in high-need neighborhoods. Upon his return he joined the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston as a fiction writer. He currently teaches both at the university and through Writers in the Schools and continues to pursue his passion for writing. He lives in Houston with his fiancée Allison and their dog Layla.

Yolanda Schulte-Ladbeck, born and raised in Mexico, received an Associate’s degree in Audio Engineering from Houston Community College, where she interned and assisted with the music recordings at a local studio. Her incredible passion for working with children grew while serving as an assistant teacher at Big Little School for six years. Yolanda has been a substitute teacher for Spring Branch ISD, where she worked for four years with all grade levels, elementary through high school. Yolanda is currently working on her own poetry while raising two wonderful children, ages 1 and 6, with her husband.

Dr. Jacquelyn “Jacsun” Shah has taught for WITS for sixteen years. Her education includes both an M.F.A. and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Houston, where she received a Barthelme Fellowship in poetry.  She has also received grants from the Houston Arts Alliance in 2001 and 2008.  Her work has appeared in journals such as Margie, Cranky, Tar River, New Zoo Poetry Review, and, most recently, the British journal, Anon.

Glenn Shaheen is from Nova Scotia, and he received his M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Houston in 2008. He co-edits the journal NANO Fiction and runs the Nano Reading Series at Kaboom Books. His work has appeared in Subtropics, /nor, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. He teaches at Prairie View A&M University and is starting his third year with WITS.

Kent Shaw received a B.A. from the University of Missouri and an M.F.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught poetry and freshman composition. His poetry has appeared in Smartish Pace, Greensboro Review, American Literary Review, Quarterly West, and other journals. His book Calenture won the 2007 Tampa Review Prize for Poetry. He is a doctoral student in the Creative Writing Program at the University of Houston and a Poetry Editor at Gulf Coast.

Fiction writer Paul Slavin received his M.F.A. in English and creative writing from Mills College in Oakland, California.  His story “Bandera County Driving Lessons” was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2009 Austin Chronicle short story contest, and other works have been published in 580 Split, Potatoeaters Quarterly, and Fan Magazine.  He currently writes for a website dedicated to helping families find fun things to do around the Houston area.  More than anything in the world, Paul enjoys spending time with his two young daughters; tied for second place are reading, drinking coffee, and watching baseball.  This is his second year with WITS.

Sarah A. Strickley is the recipient of an Ohio Arts Grant, the Glenn Schaeffer Award for Fiction and the Swink Magazine Editors’ Award for Emerging Writers. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote fellow, and a graduate of the Program in Creative Writing at Ohio University. Her work has appeared in the Harvard Review, Oxford American magazine, Southeast Review, Swink Magazine, Seneca, and elsewhere. Before moving to Houston last year, she was the longtime facilitator of a grassroots community writing initiative, the InkTank Writers' Salon in Cincinnati, Ohio. She is currently the features editor of two leading fine art magazines, Watercolor Artist and The Pastel Journal, and is working on a novel.

Gabriela Villegas was born in Mexico City where she earned her degree in theater from El Centro Universitario de Teatro. She is the founder of Jaguar Sun, a non-profit organization that combines theater arts with education. Gabriela has written several plays for Young Audiences of Houston, and she is part of their roster of artists. She lives with her kids Marina, Claudia, and Patrick and spends two months of the year in Puerto Vallarta. 

Rebecca Wadlinger earned bachelor's degrees in English, art history, and studio art from Bucknell University and studied at Oxford for a year while working with the Bath Artist-Printmakers' Guild. She received her M.F.A. in poetry from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Houston. Rebecca has received fellowships and awards from the James A. Michener Center for Writers, the Tin House Summer Writers' Workshop, the Bucknell June Seminar for Younger Poets, and the University of Oslo. Her poetry can most recently be found in the Best New Poets Anthology, Cimarron Review, Anti-, and lafovea.org.

Margie Walker is a graduate of Colorado State University (radio/television), Texas Southern University (M.A., Speech Communication) and the University of Houston (anthropology). She has held a number of positions in the communications field from Program Director at KTSU, editor with the Houston Defender, and adjunct professor in the TSU School of Communications. A published author, Margie celebrates the fruition of ideas and characters beginning with Love Signals (Marron Publishers, 1991) and continuing with “Curtains” in the mystery anthology Where There’s A Will, (Dafina Books/Kensington Publishers, 2004). With eight novels and four novellas published in the romance, romantic suspense, and mystery genres, she has added shorts/screenplays to her writing repertoire, aspiring to include Producer/Director to her creative resume. She lives with her husband, Sherman, of 34 years, and her oldest son’s blue-eyed, white Siberian husky, Isis.

Deborah ''D.E.E.P'' Wiggins is an internationally known poet/vocalist/ songwriter. She published her first poetry anthology, Heartstrings and Lamentations, at the age of 19. She is a certified teacher and the current co-coach of Houston Meta-Four youth poetry slam team and the head coach of the Houston VIPer adult national poetry slam team. She has traveled all over the continent writing, performing, and leading workshops. In 2008, she was ranked as the #2 best female performance poet in the world.

Tria Wood is a native Texan who earned her M.A. in English from Texas A&M University, where she also served as an assistant lecturer before moving to Houston. In addition, she holds an M.Ed. in Art Education from the University of Houston. For three years, Tria served as Editor in Chief of Visual Arts for ArtsHouston magazine.  She is currently teaching English at San Jacinto College, collaborating on a visual arts project with artist Tara Conley, and working on a young adult novel.  Tria’s poetry, fiction, and reviews have appeared in a variety of publications.  She lives in Houston with her husband, her son, and their dog Cosmo.

Marilyn Young is originally from Venezuela and was raised partly in the U.K. She lives in Houston and has been a freelance writer on topics related to education, women’s issues, multicultural concerns, and counseling. Marilyn currently shares her poetry and memoirs through her blog and can be heard regularly on Houston’s 101.1 FM radio station. She lives happily with her husband, her ten year old son, and her one year old twins.