Faculty Bios

Angie Chatman has told stories on The MOTH Radio Hour, StoryCollider, Stories from the Stage (The World Channel), and Boston's Fugitive Stories. Her essays and short fiction are forthcoming or have appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, Taint, Taint, Taint, Pangyrus, the Rumpus, Blood Orange Review, Hippocampus, and Business Insider, among others. She has taught for the Boston Public Library and the University of Hartford. She holds an MBA from MIT-Sloan, and an MFA in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from Queens University of Charlotte.

Michael Dunphy has pubished articles and essays in CNN, USA Today, Forbes, Tablet, American Way, Travel + Leisure, Travel Weekly, Time Out, Virtuoso Life, TravelAge West, and Beer Advocate. He is a contributing editor to Fodor's travel guides, the former managing editor of FlyWashington, Air Chicago, and LAX magazines, and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper The Bridge in Montpelier, Vermont. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College.

Lara Ewen has published articles and essays in the New York Times, Business Insider, the Kansas City Star, Newsday, NYC&G, NPR, PBS, Retail Dive, Slate, and Zagat, and American Libraries Magazine, and she is the author of The Girlshop Guide to NYC Shopping (Shecky’s Media). She is formerly the senior editor of Fashion Dive, and worked as the U.S. market report columnist for Rapaport Magazine, editor-in-chief of the U.S. edition of Sportswear International magazine, a freelance digital editorial consultant for Rolling Stone, and a consulting editor at Women’s Wear Daily. She is also the former talent booker for the Free Music Fridays series at the American Folk Art Museum, and has taught at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She holds a BA from Boston University.

Janet Flora has published nonfiction in Yalabusha Review, Willow Review, Forge, and the Sanskrit Literary-Arts Magazine. Her short stories have appeared in New Orleans Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Portland Review, and Hawaii Pacific Review. She has taught at NYU and the School of Visual Arts. She holds a BA from City University, Richmond College, and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School.

Scott Alexander Hess is the author of five novels, including Skyscraper, a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, The Butcher's Sons, named a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2015 (both Lethe Press), and Drought (Rebel Satori Press), as well as the novellas, A Season in Delhi, The Root of Everything & Lightning (all Rebel Satori Press). His work has appeared in HuffPost, Genre Magazine, The Fix, and Thema Literary Review. He co-wrote “Tom in America,” an award-winning short film, and curates Hot Lit, an LGBTQ+ themed monthly newsletter. He holds a BJ from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MFA in Fiction from The New School.

Patty Lamberti is the director of multimedia journalism and a professional-in-residence at Loyola University Chicago’s School of Communication. She has served as an editor with Playboy, Latina, and Lifetime online, and is an editorial consultant for LawChamps, an online legal platform. Her nonfiction has appeared in Maxim, New York Metro, the New York Post, the Chicago Tribune, and Satisfaction. She has taught at the University of Illinois. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in Writing from the University of Illinois.

Beth Livermore has published nonfiction in Astronomy, E, Family Circle, Glamour, Health, Mademoiselle, National Geographic Adventure, National Geographic World, Natural History, Outside, Ski, Smithsonian, and Your Family. She has contributed to the nonfiction books The Blessing of a Mother’s Love (Ideals Publications), Early Childhood Education (McGraw Hill), MakingConnections (Seal Press), and Discovery Communications books, including Star and Sky and American Safari. She has been a science writing/journalism fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the Marine Biological Laboratory, and the University of California. She has taught at Columbia University, Rutgers University, and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She holds a BJ from the University of Missouri-Columbia and an MFA in Nonfiction from Columbia University.

Sarah McColl is the author of the memoir Joy Enough (Liveright Publishing). She was the founding editor-in-chief of Yahoo Food, and her food writing has appeared in Bon Appetit, Food52, Epicurious, House Beautiful, Edible Brooklyn, Smithsonian magazine, JSTOR Daily, and TakePart. Her essays have appeared in the Paris Review, McSweeney's, Story Quarterly, South Dakota Review, In Context Journal, and in the anthology The Shell Game (University of Nebraska Press). She’s been a senior editor and producer for Condé Nast Publications, and worked for Cambridge University Press. She holds a BA from Macalester College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College.

N. West Moss is the author of the memoir Flesh and Blood (Algonquin), the short story collection The Subway Stops at Bryant Park (Leapfrog Press), and the middle-grade novel Birdy, (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little Brown Books for Young Readers). Her short stories have appeared in McSweeney’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Stockholm Review, Blotter Magazine, and Westchester Review. Her nonfiction has appeared in Salon, the New York Times, Brevity, River Teeth, Dorothy Parker's Ashes, and Ars Medica. She has taught at William Paterson University, Montclair State University, and Passaic County Community College. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, a Master of Secondary Education from Mercy College, an MFA in Creative Writing from William Paterson University, and a CPA in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University.

Jessica Ogilvie has published articles and essays in Los Angeles Magazine, Playboy, the Washington Post, the New York Times, Dame, Condé Nast Traveler, LAist, Vice, Good, and the Hairpin, among others, and her work has been anthologized in Little America: Incredible True Stories of Immigrants in America. She has worked as a contributing editor at Playboy, a contributing writer at Los Angeles Magazine, and a section editor at LA Weekly. She has taught for 826LA. She holds a BA from New York University and an MFA from Bennington College.

Melissa Petro is the author of the narrative nonfiction book Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification (Penguin Random House). She is also a regular contributor to Business Insider and has published nonfiction in Allure, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, the Guardian, InStyle, the Kitchn, Marie Claire, Narratively, New York Magazine, Pacific Standard magazine, Real Simple, Salon, the Washington Post, and The Writer. She is the editor of two anthologies: Pros(e): Writings by Individuals with Experiences in the Sex Industries and Corner Stories: Writings by the Washington Heights CORNER Project Community, and one of her essays was included in the anthology Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo (Simon & Schuster).  She has been a finalist for the PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize. She holds a BA from Antioch and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The New School.

Alanna Schubach is the author of the novel The Nobodies (Blackstone Publishing). Her short stories have appeared in the Iowa Review, Sewanee Review, Massachusetts Review, Juked, and Electric Literature's Recommended Reading. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, Jacobin, the Washington Post, the Village Voice, and the LA Review of Books. She has taught at the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, the College Readiness Program, the Westchester County Department of Corrections, and Girls Write Now. She holds a BA from American University and an MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College.

Cullen Thomas is the author of the memoir Brother One Cell (Viking). His nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Salon, The Rumpus, The Sonora Review, World Hum, Current Biography, and Penthouse. He has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and the National Geographic channel and has taught at NYU. He holds a BA from Binghamton University.