We proudly offer the bios of our accomplished teachers.
David Berner
is the author of the memoirs Daylight Savings Time (O-Books); Walks with Sam, October Song, (both Roundfire) and The Consequence of Stars (Adelaide); the novels Things Behind the Sun (Adelaide) and A Well-Respected Man (Strategic); and the novella Sandman: A Golf Tale (Roundfire). His essays and short stories have appeared in Chicagoland Journal, Clef Notes, Epiphany, Eunoia Review, Longshot Island, Under the Gum Tree, and Write City. He is a reporter/anchor for WBBM Radio-Chicago and a contributor to the CBS Radio Network. He is the producer/
Emily Rapp Black is the author of the memoirs Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg (Notting Hill Editions), Sanctuary (Random House), The Still Point of the Turning World (Penguin), and Poster Child (Bloomsbury), as well as the nonfiction craft book I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Art and Truth-Telling (Counterpoint). Her nonfiction has appeared in Vogue, the New York Times, LitHub, Die Zeit, The Times-London, The Sun, Time, the Boston Globe, the Wall Street Journal, O the Oprah Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times. She is a former Fulbright scholar and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. She has taught at the University of California-Riverside and the UCR School of Medicine. She holds a BA from Saint Olaf College, an MTS from Harvard University, and an MFA in Fiction and Poetry from the University of Texas.
Benjamin Buchholz is the author of the novels One Hundred and One Nights (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown) and Sirens of Manhattan (Bradley Publishing), and the nonfiction books Private Soldiers (Wisconsin Historical Society Press) and The Tightening Dark (Da Capo). His short stories have appeared in Storyglossia, Hobart, Mad Hatter’s Review, and Prime Number Magazine, and have been anthologized in the Dzanc Press Best of the Web collections. His nonfiction has appeared in Parameters, Military Review, Infantry, and The Writer. He has served as a foreign area officer and U.S. Army attaché in Oman, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Germany (in support of Ukraine) and lectured at Princeton University. He holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed the Omani Royal Air Force Staff College in Arabic Language, and holds MAs in Near East Studies from Princeton University and Strategic Studies from the US Army War College.
Carmen Bugan is the author of the memoir Burying the Typewriter (Picador), the essay collection Poetry and the Language of Oppression (Oxford University), and the poetry collections Tristia, Time Being, Lillies from America, Releasing the Porcelain Birds, The House of Straw (all Shearsman Books), Sulla Soglia Della Dimenticanza (Kolibris), and Crossing the Carpathians (Carcanet Press), as well as the monograph Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile (Routledge). Her poems and essays have appeared in the Irish Times, Harvard Review, the International Literature Quarterly, the Nieman Storyboard, and the anthologies Centres of Catacylsm (Bloodaxe Books), See How I Land (Heaven Tree Press), and Penguin’s Poems for Life (Penguin). She has taught at New York University in Abu Dhabi, Stony Brook University, the University of Michigan, Grand Valley State University, the University of Fribourg, the Geneva Writers’ Group, and Oxford University. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University, and a Master’s and Ph.D, both in English Literature, from Oxford University.
Kelly Caldwell is the dean of faculty at Gotham Writers Workshop. Her nonfiction has appeared in Vox, House Beautiful, SugarSugarSalt, Mizzou magazine, New York Newsday, Time Out New York, The Writer, and Essay Daily, and been named Notable by the editors of the Best American Essays series. She's also been anthologized in If These Walls Could Talk: Thoughts of Home (Hearst) and Getting to the Truth: The Craft and Practice of Creative Nonfiction (Hippocampus Books). She holds a BJ from the University of Missouri and an MS from Columbia University.
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.
Elizabeth Cohen is the author of the memoir The House On Beartown Road (Random House), the short story collectionThe Hypothetical Girl (Split Oak Press), and the poetry collections Mermaids of Albuquerque (Saint Julian Press), The Economist's Daughter (Ecstatic Utterance), What the Trees Said (Split Oak Press), Bird Light, The Patron Saint of Cauliflower (both Saint Julian Press), and Wonder Electric (Kelsay Books). She is also co-author of the nonfiction book The Scalpel and the Silver Bear (Bantam). Her nonfiction and poetry have appeared in Newsweek, People, the New York Times Magazine, and Yale Review, as well as the anthology Walk on the Wild Side. She has taught at SUNY Plattsburgh, Binghamton University, University of New Mexico, the New School for Social Research, and Western Connecticut State University. She holds a BA from University of New Mexico, an MA in Documentary Filmmaking from Temple University, and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University.
Cindy House is the author of the memoir Mother Noise (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books), and her essays and short fiction have appeared in Passengers Journal, Lily Poetry Review, Wig Leaf, Solstice Literary Magazine, Longleaf Review, and So To Speak, among others. She is a humorist who opens regularly for David Sedaris at Kennedy Center, Symphony Hall, and The Town Hall in New York, among others. She teaches in the MFA program at Lesley University. She attended the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and holds an MFA in Fiction from Lesley University.
Rax King is the author of the essay collections Sloppy: Or Doing It All Wrong and Tacky: Love Letters to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer ( both Vintage). Her essays, articles, and opinion have appeared in Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, Glamour, Vulture, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Slate, and Harpers Bazaar, and she wrote the Store Bought is Fine column for Catapult magazine. She co-hosts the podcast Low Culture Boil, and taught for Catapult. She holds a BA from St. John's College.
Scott LaCounte (also writing as Scott Douglas) is a long-time contributor to McSweeney’s, from which his humor series was turned into the memoir Quiet, Please: Dispatches From a Public Librarian (Da Capo Books). He has independently published a wide range of books on religion, as well as books for children and in the science fiction and humor genres. He holds a BA from California State University-Fullerton, and an MLIS in Library Science from San Jose State University.
Kyleigh Leddy is the author of the novel Worse Than Strangers (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster) and the memoir The Perfect Other: A Memoir of My Sister (HarperCollins), which is based on her New York Times Modern Love essay “My Sister Disappeared Years Ago. I See Her Whenever I Want.” Her essays and articles have also appeared in New York Magazine, Parents, People, QCODE, and the Journal of Experimental Psychology, among others. She has worked for Parents magazine. She holds a BA from Boston College and an MSW 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.
A. Hansen Miller has published essays, articles, and poems in the New York Times, Line of Advance, Columbia Journal, Salt Hill Journal, Raffish, and the Journal of Military Experience, and been anthologized in The Weight of My Armor (Parlor Press). His essay “Threads of Fiction” was adapted into the short film Solemn Return. Formerly he was an editor for the Syracuse Peace Council Newsletter, the nonfiction editor of the Journal of Military Experience, and the online managing editor of Columbia Journal. He served as an artillery officer in the US Army overseas in South Korea and Afghanistan, deployed to Afghanistan a second time as a military intelligence officer, and was honorably discharged at the rank of captain. He is a cofounder and board member of the Ivy League Veterans Council, a cofounder of the Charlotte Veterans Writing Group, a cofounder of the Moral Injury Project at Syracuse University, and a former group leader of the Syracuse Veterans Writing Group. He holds a BA from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University.
Nan Mooney is the author of the memoir My Racing Heart: The Passionate World of Thoroughbreds and the Track (HarperCollins), and the nonfiction books (Not) Keeping Up With Our Parents (Beacon Press) and I Can't Believe She Did That: Why Women Betray Other Women at Work (St. Martin's Press). Her nonfiction has also appeared in The Atlantic, the Washington Post,Slate, Motherwell, Alternet, and Babble. She holds a BA from Scripps 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.
Amanda Oliver is the author of the nonfiction book Overdue: Reckoning With the Public Library (Chicago Review Press), and her essays have appeared in Electric Literature, the Los Angeles Times, the Rumpus, PANK, and Medium, among many others. She is formerly the nonfiction editor of Joyland Magazine, and she has taught for the University of California at Riverside. She holds a BA and an MLS from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and an MFA in nonfiction from the University of California at Riverside.
Stacy Pershall is the author of the memoir Loud in the House of Myself (W.W. Norton), selected for the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and her work is included in the anthologies Lost and Found (W.W. Norton) and Spent (Seal Press). She has taught at Writopia, Pratt Manhattan, City College of New York, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. She holds a BA from the University of Arkansas and an MFA in Performance Art from the University of Cincinnati.
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.
Jil Picariello is the co-author of the memoir Jessica Lost (Union Square Press). She is the Theater Editor for ZealNYC, and her nonfiction has appeared in Afar, Food + Wine, New York, Seventeen, and USA Today. She has worked as a copywriter for New York and People, as copy chief for The Parenting Group at Time Warner, and as copy director for Reader’s Digest. She has taught at Media Bistro. She holds a BFA from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School.
Siavash Saadlou has published short stories, essays, and translations in Ploughshares, Southeast Review, the Bellingham Review, and New England Review, among many others. He’s the winner of several literary prizes, including the Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction, and his work has been named Notable in the Best American Essays series. He has taught at the University of British Columbia, St. Mary’s College of California, and the Quebec Writers’ Federation. He holds MFAs from St. Mary's College of California and the University of British Columbia.
Amy Scheiner is the author of the memoir Who I Once Was (Beacon Press, forthcoming). Her essays and short nonfiction have appeared in Slate, the Stonecoast Review, Blue Mesa Review, the Southampton Review, Longreads/Memoir Monday, Trouble Maker Fire Starter, and the Matador Network, among others. She has taught for Stony Brook University, the Young Artists and Writers Project, and the Community College of Philadelphia. She holds a BA from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Stony Brook University.
David Seigerman is the author of the nonfiction books Becky Sauerbrunn and Tamba Hali (both Aladdin), and the co-author of Take Your Eye Off the Ball, Under Pressure, and Quarterback (all with Triumph Books). He is the writer/producer/editor of his independent sports storytelling podcast Out of Left Field, and has been contributing features of Olympic athletes to TeamUSA.org. He has served as a senior producer for RealFootballNetwork, a senior analyst for Football.com, managing editor of College Sports Television, and a producer/writer for CNN-Sports Illustrated. He co-produced and co-wrote the feature-length documentary The Warrior Ethos: The Experience and Tradition of Boxing at West Point. He has taught at Manhattanville College. He holds a BA from Ithaca College.
Nelsie Spencer is the author of the novel The Playgroup, (St. Martin’s Press). She wrote the feature screenplay A Girl's Best Friend and co-wrote the feature film Valley Inn, which debuted at the Palm Beach International Film Festival. She wrote, produced, and co-hosted the radio show The Radio Ritas, (Greenstone Media) and hosted the podcast Losing It. She co-wrote and starred in the play My Heart Belongs To Daddy, produced at the Pittsburgh Public Theater and Duke University’s Pre-Broadway series. She performed her one-woman show Day of the Dead Daddy at the Chain Theatre in New York City, at the Denver Fringe Festival, and it won an honorable mention in Solo Fest at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. She studied dance and theater at Orange Coast College, and fiction at The New School.
Kashawn Taylor is the author of the essay and story collection Kites (Whiskey Tit Books) and the poetry collection Subhuman (Wayfarer Books). His short fiction, essays, and poetry have appeared in Poetry Magazine, the Indiana Review, the Offing, Miracle Monocle, Oyster River Pages, Minutes Before Six, the Union Spring Literary Review, and BULL, among others. He is the Audience Engagement Fellow for the Prison Journalism Project. He holds a BA from the University of Connecticut and an MA in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University.
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.
