Soraya Palmer

Soraya Palmer was born and raised in Brooklyn of Trinidadian and Jamaican parents. She considers herself to be somewhat nomadic and is always excited to be in a new place. She is interested in using writing for healing, and literacy for empowerment among various communities. She received her BA from Connecticut College in Africana Studies. Her short story was recently published in Woman’s Work. Currently she is interested in exploring magical realism, re-writing history/mythology, and the modern fairy tale as writing genres.

Michelle Potgeter received her B.A. in English Language & Literature from Grand Valley State University. During her time at GVSU, and her subsequent year and a half living in downtown Grand Rapids, MI, she began to focus her attention on poetry. She vacillates between works involving characters experiencing aspects of life she hasn’t yet experienced (having children, growing old, etc.), and distilling the simplest pixels of her own life into poems.

Though Grand Rapids has bloomed for her with its multiple coffee shops and messy garden front lawns, she is brimming with anticipation of living among mountains and fellow writers. She is also thrilled to be able to step both feet firmly into writing and teaching.

I served in the Marine Corps from 2001-2007. After my enlistment, I returned to school at the University of Toledo, and graduated in May.

Reading and writing are my main interests, but in the way of hobbies I'm all over the map. I like remodeling homes, carpentry, outdoor living, cinema, music, gaming. Sadly, I am also a huge computer nerd. We all have our faults.

Mike Roche

Mike earned a BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross in 2008 and began strumming his guitar in Austin, Texas not long afterward. To make rent, he edited letters for a life insurance company and tore tickets at Longhorn football games. After Austin, Mike returned to his hometown in Massachusetts, working on a landscape crew by day and his poems by night. He intends to work more on the latter in Blacksburg.

Meaghan Russell earned a B.S. in English Secondary Education from Towson University to mask early onset paroxysmal revision. Her Extreme Revision exhibitions gained a popular following among fellow majors, but Russell, seeking a heightened rush, turned to poetry writing. Her subjects have included myth, modern science, and other daedal visions of understanding. She is best known for her controversial public correction of a beau’s “Desiderata,” in which she not only moved a misplaced apostrophe but also replaced masculine pronouns.

Jennifer Schrauth earned her BA in English Writing and Rhetoric with an Emphasis in Creative Writing from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. Besides the obvious interests (literature, poetry, extended metaphors), Jennifer also likes photography, fashion, art history, puzzle games, cinematography, and people with a good sense of humor. Though she grew up in Texas, Jennifer was born in Virginia and looks forward to returning to the homeland, even if it means sacrificing access to good Mexican food.

Robert Uren

I accidentally swept chimneys, moved furniture, married a person, had a kid, and delivered pizzas before deciding—on purpose and mostly because of the kid, whose name is Felix—to write and teach writing. At Sam Houston State University, I picked up an MA in English for which I wrote a creative thesis about sadness, television, and fathers. Also, an elephant and Walmart. Now I teach composition. Rebecca, my wife, works with former prison gang members. Felix watches YouTube, but he’s not allowed to read the comments, which, you may know, are often awful. This fall we’ll suddenly be in Blacksburg and our cable channels will be different.

Quinn White

Quinn White likes to poetize things she can fit in her mouth: stamps, light bulbs, and cheeseburgers, for example. Lucille Ball, Dylan Thomas, and Charles Schulz are a few of her loves. She keeps a vial of holy water by her bed just in case. Quinn has worked as a fishwife, legal secretary, sushi chef, and florist. She teaches freshman composition at the University of Montevallo, where she also earned her MA in English literature. This past winter, in an effort to embrace the holiday season, she made paper snowflakes and strung them along her bedroom walls. Then, Alabaster, Alabama, had a white Christmas for the first time in recorded history. She hopes to continue her paper witchery while at Virginia Tech.