Assistant Editors

Barbara Ellen Baldwin has an MFA in Poetry, Creative Writing, and Literary Editing from Eastern Washington University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in: The Snail Mail Review, The West Wind Review, Fugue, Speakeasy, Blue Unicorn, The Gulf Stream Review, Plainsong, and elsewhere. Her memoir/vignette of friend, Carolyn Kizer, appeared in Poetry Northwest’s 2011 online Kizer tribute. She lives in Spokane, Washington, where she  tutors English, and reviews literary publications online.

Erin Christian received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Georgia, where she interned with The Georgia Review and the UGA Press.  She currently works as a Writing Consultant, freelance writer and freelance editor in Savannah, GA. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Staccato Fiction, Grey Sparrow, The Battered Suitcase, The Seersucker Rag, Little Patuxent Review, and elsewhere. For more about Erin, visit www.erinchristian.com.

Peter Clarke holds a BA in Psychology from Western Washington University and recently completed his JD from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. While in law school, he served as an Intern at Andrea Hurst Literary Management. His short fiction has appeared in Hobart, Elimae, Locus Novus, Denver Syntax, Orion Headless, Pure Francis, The Legendary, and elsewhere. Native to Port Angeles, Washington, he currently lives in Sacramento, California.

Kelly Davio is an MFA candidate in poetry at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her poems have appeared in Bellingham Review, Pank, Beeswax, Dos Passos Review and The Broome Review. She is an instructor of English as a Second Language in Seattle, Washington, where she lives with her husband. Read her blog at www.kellydavio.com.

Denise Dirks holds an MA in English from the University of New Orleans. She is currently in her second year studying at UNO for an MFA in Creative Writing, dividing her time between fiction and nonfiction. She has served as a reader for her university's national publication, Bayou, as well as the journal Memoir (and).

Gro Flatebo was born in Norway but grew up in Scandinavian-friendly Minneapolis.  She migrated to the East Coast thirty years ago to study trees and has worked extensively in environmental policy. Gro has lived in the Philippines, Australia, an elementary school on Minnesota's Canadian border, and a cabin in the mountains of Idaho. Gro received her MFA from the Stonecoast Program at the University of Southern Maine. Her work has appeared in the Boston Literary Magazine.  For more about Gro visit her at www.site.groflatebo.com/About.html 

Maddie Freeman is a 2010 graduate of Knox College, where she earned Bachelor’s degrees in English literature and secondary education. Her particular writerly interests lie in long-form creative nonfiction and fiction, with some poetry thrown in for good measure. Some of her essays have appeared in the campus literary criticism magazine Common Room, and others, critical and creative, have appeared in Catch, for which she was also a creative nonfiction editor in her senior year. Maddie aspires to be a writer of some sort — fiction or non-, she refuses to choose! — not least because the job allows her to wear jeans and a raggedy sweater whenever she’s “working.”

Nathan Fulkerson is a recent graduate of Northern Illinois University and holds a BA in English with a minor in Japanese Studies. While at NIU, he wrote numerous columns for the Northern Star and his story "Incarnation" was awarded Fiction Editor's Choice in NIU's Towers Literary and Creative Arts Magazine. His free time is spent working on a full-length novel manuscript. 

Adam Gallari received an MFA from the University of California, Riverside and is the author of the short story collection We Are Never as Beautiful as We Are Now. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Exeter. 

Yliana Gonzalez grew up along the Texas-Mexico border in a far away town named Pharr. After working with detained immigrants and asylum-seekers, she focuses on writing about immigration issues. Sheis an MFA candidate at Northwestern University and is currently at work on a novel. Her work has been published in Texas Monthly.

Katherine Hoerth holds an MFA from the University of Texas Pan American, where she served as chief editor of Gallery Magazine. She is the author of Among the Mariposas (Mouthfeel Press, 2010), a chapbook of poems which received the Nuestra Voz Prize. Katherine's work has also been featured in various publications, including Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Front Porch, and Conte. She is an English instructor and academic advisor at the University of Texas Pan American. Find her online at www.katiehoerth.blogspot.com

Susen James was born in Chicago and still lives in the reach of its concrete shadow. She writes poetry to remain sane in a world filled with uncertainty. She is a past winner of the Eileen Lannon Poetry Prize and was once named a Hemingway poet. She has been published in New American Writing, The Columbia Poetry Review and most recently Court Green. She has been a finalist twice in contests to get her manuscript, Possessed, published. Susen teaches Poetry & Fantasy Literature at Columbia.

Angela Just lives on Chicago’s Northside where she finds inspiration in lake, sand, sky, and denizens of the park — of which she is one on an almost daily basis. Her poetry has appeared in Free Lunch, MAKE, After Hours, A Prairie Journal, qarrtsiluni, HerMark, and Anthropology and Humanism. In 2008 she won the Editor’s Prize for a photograph featured in the inaugural issue of Fifth Wednesday Journal. Angela is a proud member of Chicago-based Egg Money Poets (www.eggmoneypoets.org).

Sarah Kelley is an MFA candidate in poetry at Columbia College Chicago. Prior to beginning the program, she received her BA from Indiana University in English, Spanish, and creative writing. While at Indiana, she was an editorial intern for Indiana Review and helped put together the winter, 2007 issue by reading and editing accepted manuscript. She also worked in textbook publishing for nearly two years as an independent contractor. There she gained experience in copy editing, proofreading, and writing material. She is now on the editorial board for Columbia Poetry Review. She has published her poetry in Avalanche and has work forthcoming in Columbia Poetry Review.

Christopher Lowe’s fiction and poetry have appeared widely in magazines and journals including Third Coast, Bellevue Literary Review, Zahir, and Stymie Magazine. His collection of interlocking short stories, Those Like Us, is forthcoming from Stephen F. Austin State University Press. Originally from Mississippi, he lives with his wife and daughter in Lake Charles, LA.

Sandra Marchetti tutors and teaches writing and humanities courses at Elmhurst College and Aurora University. In 2010, she completed her MFA in Poetry at George Mason University. Marchetti was a finalist in Gulf Coast’s 2011 Poetry Prize and Phoebe’s 2009 Greg Grummer Poetry Contest. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Phoebe, Nolos, The North Central Review, Tributaries, and The River Oak Review. She has written poetry reviews for PIF Magazine. Currently, she is the “Featured Poet” in Spurt Literary Journal’s inaugural issue, which can be found at spurtlitjournal.com.

Danielle Newton holds a master's degree in English from California State University, Sacramento, and has worked as a writing and development specialist for organizations such as the American Lung Association, the California Institute for Rural Studies, and Green River Community College. She has also taught at Deganawidah-Quetzalcoatl University, California's tribal college, and contributed to academic conferences and publications, focusing on women's studies and international development. Danielle is currently enrolled in the MFA Program in Writing and Literature at Bennington College, and is a writing curriculum consultant for Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco and editor for Ginger Post

Meredith Noseworthy is originally from a one-traffic-light town in Vermont. She's lived the past four years in the prairie, in Galesburg, IL, where she attended Knox College and double-majored in creative writing and theatre. A stranger to Chicago, she finds it a good place to be for a while. She has been recently published in Mason's Road and The Blue Route, and been the poetry editor for Knox's literary magazine, Catch. Meredith is thrilled to be helping out with Fifth Wednesday Journal, because the rest of the time she works in customer service.

A native Montanan, Sherry O'Keefe graduated from MSU-Billings with a degree in rehab counseling. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Switched-on Gutenberg, Terrain. Org., Barnwood Poetry Review, Avatar Review, Fifth
Wednesday Journal, Two Review, Babel Fruit, Soundzine, The High Desert Journal and Main Street Rag. Her chapbook, Making Good Use of August was released in October 2009 from Finishing Line Press. Currently she is working on a full-length manuscript, "Loss of Ignition." She is also working on her third serious non-fiction manuscript for Morgan Reynolds Publishing, a company that specializes in biographies and educational material for accelerated high school readers. She blogs at http://toomuchaugustnotenoughsnow.blogspot.com.

Susan Azar Porterfield is a Professor of English at Rockford College, where she teaches poetry writing. She is the editor of Zen, Poetry, the Art of Lucien Stryk, the author of a collection of poetry entitled In the Garden of Our Spines. Her chapbook, Beirut Redux, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. In 2007, she received a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.

Sandra Ramirez is an L.A. native and a photographer. She holds an MFA from Bennington College in Creative Writing and Literature. In 2007, she received the Emerging Voices  Fellowship from Pen Center USA. Her work has appeared in Strange Cargo, an Anthology. She lives  on the Northside of Chicago with her boyfriend and a cat named Mamas.

Laura Salamy lives in Massachusetts with her husband, a daughter, and two silly dogs. Her short stories and essays have appeared in get born magazine, the Inkspotter News (online), The Communal Desk (an anthology), the Albuquerque Arts (online edition), The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal.  She edits and proofreads documents of all types – fiction and not – through her business, The Polished Paragraph (thepolishedparagraph.com).  When she's not writing, editing someone else's work, or doing laundry, she hooks colorful rugs.  She can be reached at polishedparagraph@comcast.net.

Frank Schweihs is a writer and native Chicagoan who is currently finishing his final year at the Creative Writing Program of Columbia College Chicago. His essay, Personalizing the Service, was chosen by the literary anthology plain china as one of the best undergraduate essays of 2010. His current piece, Gauche Chemistry, is to be published in the fall 2011 issue of South Loop Review.