Artist Bios
Erika Meitner is the author of five books of poems. Her first book, Inventory at the All-Night Drugstore, won the 2002 Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry, and was published in 2003 by Anhinga Press. Her second book, Ideal Cities, was selected by Paul Guest as a winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series competition and was published in 2010 by HarperCollins. Her third collection, Makeshift Instructions for Vigilant Girls, was published by Anhinga Press in 2011. Her fourth collection of poems, Copia, was published by BOA Editions in 2014 as part of their American Poets Continuum Series, and her newest collection, Holy Moly Carry Me, was also published by BOA Editions in September 2018. Holy Moly Carry Me is the winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in poetry, and a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. Her sixth book of poems, Useful Junk, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in Spring 2022. She is currently an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech, where she directs the MFA program in creative writing.
Rashad Hawkins is an author and spoken word poet from Jacksonville, Florida. He has three published works of poetry; Women and Other Catastrophes (2017) Pendulum (2018) and Making Noise (2020). Much of Rashad’s work is inspired by his life experiences, music, and personal relationships.
Mark Ari won the World Figure Skating Championship in 1993, a remarkable comeback after his 1936 Olympic Bronze (Long Jump) in Berlin. He is the inventor of the spring-mounted jumping frog, blow dart mouth wash “for the other guy,” edible cowboy boots, and the windproof perforated umbrella. He has kissed the belly of Maharani Gayatri Devi, and he learned the art of ventriloquized chuckling while sojourning with an offshoot branch of Mandaean nomads.
Ari has made cheese with mosquito netting. He is currently the world record holder for extended, wake-initiated lucid dreaming, and he has listed, in ink, 1,346 things that can be done with a spoon. He does not eat butter beans.
www.arifiles.com.
Eddy Kwon (they/them) is a violinist/violist, vocalist, composer, improviser, and interdisciplinary performing artist based in Brooklyn. They are a United States Artists Ford Fellow, Hermitage Fellow, and Johnson Fellow for Artists Transforming Communities. In addition to a rigorous and evolving solo practice, they collaborate with artists of diverse disciplines, including The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Senga Nengudi, Tomeka Reid, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Jens Lekman, and Lizzy DuQuette. They have performed throughout the Americas and Europe, including the Kennedy Center, Big Ears Festival, SESC Pompeia, Barbican Centre, Berlin Jazz Festival, Festival Banlieues Bleues, and more. Recent commissions include the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, National Performance Network, and Colorado College Creativity & Innovation.
www.eddykwon.net
Daniel Khalastchi is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He is the author of two poetry collections—Manoleria (Tupelo Press, 2011) and Tradition (McSweeney’s, 2015)—and his writing has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Believer, Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Fence, Iowa Review, Ninth Letter, Octopus Magazine, Poetry Northwest, and Best American Experimental Writing. A former fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, he currently serves as Director of the University of Iowa’s Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing. He lives in Iowa City and is the co-founder and managing editor of Rescue Press. His recent awards include a residency at the prestigious Hermitage Artist Retreat.
Myxolydia Tyler: Theatre: Berta in the world premiere of Berta, Berta! at The Everyman Theatre 2021. Television: Season 6 Homeland Showtime Season 3 of I am Homicide Discovery ID Teaching: Lincoln Center Education, Harlem School of the Arts, The Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts of Film and Television, and The Acting Studio. She is a Hermitage Artists Fellow and a Michael Bradford Writing Fellow with QuickSilver Theatre. In 2020 she premiered her first written play production of Freebird: The Early Life of Sarah Vaughan for NJPAC Education Assemblies Program.
Jennie Ziegler received her M.F.A. from the University of Arizona and currently resides in the Southeast where she teaches at the University of North Florida. Her writing has been featured in Mother.ly, The Normal School, Essay Daily, Appalachian Review, Folklore Thursday, among other outlets. Find more of her work at
JennieZiegler.com.
Michael J Seidlinger is a Filipino American author of My Pet Serial Killer, Dreams of Being, The Fun We’ve Had, and nine other books. He has written for, among others, Buzzfeed, Thrillist, and Publishers Weekly, and has led workshops at Catapult, Kettle Pond Writer’s Conference, and Sarah Lawrence. He is a co-founder and member of the arts collective, The Accomplices, and founder of the indie press, Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM). He lives in Brooklyn, New York, where he never sleeps and is forever searching for the next best cup of coffee. You can find him online on Facebook, Twitter (@mjseidlinger), and Instagram (@michaelseidlinger).
Will Pewitt Will Pewitt is from Austin, TX and now lives in Jacksonville, FL where he teaches creative writing and global literature. His works as a translator, poet, and fiction writer have appeared in publications such as The Columbia Journal, Shenandoah, and The Literary Review. More of his writing can be found at
WPewitt.com.
Cassie Hottenstein currently lives in Denver, Colorado. Her poetry and stories have been featured in lit mags like Boulder Weekly, the Talon Review, Every Pigeon, and the Tampa Review Online. When she’s not writing poetry, she’s probably playing Animal Crossing or staring at a computer screen in exchange for money.
Mark Creegan is an artistsongmakerteacher. His ongoing efforts to make things (visual and auditory), even into his late adulthood, remain a mystery to his deceased parents. Under scrutiny, Creegan’s ego is a large mountain made of mashed potatoes. He hopes that he will be able to redeem himself one day and not forget that he is a little people. And, as always, Creegan oftenly makes blanket-statements because he is oftenly cold.
Josip Novakovich emigrated from Croatia to the United States at the age of 20. He has published a dozen books, including a novel, April Fool's Day (in ten languages), four story collections (Infidelities, Yolk, Salvation and Other Disasters, Heritage of Smoke) and three collections of narrative essays as well as two books of practical criticism. His work was anthologized in Best American Poetry, the Pushcart Prize and O. Henry Prize Stories. He has received the Whiting Writer's Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, the Ingram Merrill Award and an American Book Award, and in 2013 he was a Man Booker International Award finalist. He teaches creative writing at Concordia University in Montreal.
Tim Gilmore is the author of 20 books, including Murder Capital: 8 Stories, 1890s-1980s, The Book of Isaiah: A Vision of the Founder of a City, Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity and The Mad Atlas of Virginia King. He teaches Writing at Florida State College at Jacksonville, where two of his plays have been staged. Gilmore is the founder of JaxbyJax, a literary arts festival built on the theme of “Jacksonville Writers Writing Jacksonville” and creator of
www.jaxpsychogeo.com, a literary mapping project that tells more than 500 stories of strange and historic locations in and around his hometown. Gilmore has won several awards, including the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville’s 2018 “Literary Artist of the Year,” served on City Council committees, presented at many conferences and published in numerous magazines and journals. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida.
Blake Middleton lives in Florida. He wrote College Novel (Apocalypse Party) and An Actual Person in a Concrete Historical Situation (Clash Books, summer 2021). He tweets @dough_mahoney
released February 20, 2021
Mark Ari, Producer and Editor
Natasha Kane, Associate Editor
Cover Art and Design by Mark Creegan
Credits
All tracks are written and performed by the authors
Additional voices on “Something Has Got to Give” are by The New Jax City Word and Whisper Choir.
The New Jax City Voice and Whisper Choir:
Kaitlyn Anderson, Mark Ari, Heather Hunter,
Seth Gozar, Brenden De Lancey.
