Brittany Rogers, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Brittany Rogers is a poet, mother, educator, and native Detroiter. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief for Muzzle Magazine, and has work published in Vinyl Poetry and Prose, Freezeray Poetry, Tinderbox Poetry, and The BreakBeat Poets: Black Girl Magic Anthology. Brittany is a fellow of VONA/ Voices, The Watering Hole, Poetry Incubator, and Pink Door Writing Retreat. Additionally, she is co-creator of A Real Poetry Unit, which brings professional development to Chicago and Detroit educators.
Raena Shirali, Co-Editor-in-Chief
Raena Shirali is the author of GILT (YesYes Books, 2017), which won the 2018 Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. She is Co-Editor-in-Chief for Muzzle Magazine, and is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, a VIDA scholarship, a Philip Roth Residency at Bucknell University, and a “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize. She has also received poetry prizes from Cosmonauts Avenue and Gulf Coast. Shirali’s poems & reviews have appeared widely in American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, The Nation, The Rumpus, & elsewhere. Shirali lives in Philadelphia, where she recently co-organized We (Too) Are Philly--a summer poetry festival highlighting voices of color--and is an Assistant Professor of English at Holy Family University. Find her at: www.raenashirali.com
Stevie Edwards, Founder
Stevie Edwards is the founder and editor-in-chief of Muzzle Magazine and senior editor in book development at YesYes Books. Her first book, Good Grief (Write Bloody, 2012), received the Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze in Poetry and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Her second book, Humanly, was released in 2015 by Small Doggies Press, and her chapbook, Sadness Workshop, was published by Button Poetry in January 2018. She has an M.F.A. in poetry from Cornell University and is a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing at University of North Texas. Her writing is published and forthcoming in Indiana Review, Crazyhorse, TriQuarterly, Redivider, 32 Poems, West Branch, The Journal, Rattle, Verse Daily, Pleiades, Gulf Coast, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.
Cameron Awkward-Rich, Poetry Editor
A poet and critic, Cameron Awkward-Rich is the author of Sympathetic Little Monster (Ricochet Editions, 2016) and the chapbook Transit (Button Poetry, 2015). His poetry has appeared in Narrative, The Baffler, Indiana Review, Verse Daily, The Offing, and elsewhere, and he has received fellowships from Cave Canem and The Watering Hole. Cam holds a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University and is Assistant Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Find him at cawkwardrich.com.
Ben Clark, Poetry Editor
Ben Clark grew up in Nebraska and now lives in Chicago, where he works as an editor for Muzzle Magazine and Thoughtcrime Press. He has two full-length collections of poetry: if you turn around I will turn around (2015) and Reasons to Leave the Slaughter (2011).
Collaboration has become a major part of his writing practice, and he’s been lucky enough to work with Dana McKenna, GennaRose Nethercott, Whitney Seiler, Colin Winnette, Rebecca Elliott, and Kate Jury among others. He spent last October living with raccoons, sipping whiskey, and collaborating with Josh Gaines at Art Farm Nebraska, a multi-disciplinary artist and writer residency.
Collaboration has become a major part of his writing practice, and he’s been lucky enough to work with Dana McKenna, GennaRose Nethercott, Whitney Seiler, Colin Winnette, Rebecca Elliott, and Kate Jury among others. He spent last October living with raccoons, sipping whiskey, and collaborating with Josh Gaines at Art Farm Nebraska, a multi-disciplinary artist and writer residency.
Gala Mukomolova, Poetry Editor
Gala Mukomolova's chapbook, One Above / One Below: Positions & Lamentations, is available from Yes Yes Books. She received the 92nd Street Y Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize in 2016. Her full-length poetry collection is forthcoming from Coffee House Press in Spring 201
Hieu Minh Nguyen, Poetry Editor
Hieu Minh Nguyen's poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Devil’s Lake, The Journal, Southern Indiana Review, Vinyl, The Paris-American, and Indiana Review. Hieu is a Kundiman fellow, a recipient of the Minnesota Emerging Writers’ Grant from The Loft Literary Center, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center's Summer Residency. His debut collection of poetry, This Way to the Sugar (Write Bloody Publishing, 2014), was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award, and the Lambda Literary Award. He is currently living in Minneapolis.
Claudia Cortese, Reviews Editor
Claudia Cortese is a poet, essayist, and fiction writer. Her debut full-length, Wasp Queen (Black Lawrence Press, 2017), won Southern Illinois University’s Devil’s Kitchen Award for Emerging Poetry. Her work has appeared in Bitch Magazine, Black Warrior Review, Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, and The Offing, among others. Cortese received a 2018 OUTstanding Faculty Ally of the Year certificate from the LGBTQ+ Center at Montclair State University. The daughter of Neapolitan immigrants, Cortese grew up in Ohio and lives in New Jersey. She tweets, mostly about fat liberation and dismantling diet culture, @theclaudster.
George Abraham, Book Reviewer
George Abraham is a Palestinian American poet from Jacksonville, FL. They are the author of the debut poetry collection Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020), a board member for the Radius of Arab American Writers (RAWI), winner of the Best Poet title from the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational, and a recipient of fellowships from Kundiman and The Boston Foundation. Their poetry and essays have appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, West Branch, Mizna, and Bettering American Poetry. He is currently based in Somerville, MA, where he is a Bioengineering PhD candidate at Harvard University, and teaches in Writing, Literature, and Publishing at Emerson College.
C. Bain, Book Reviewer
C. Bain is a gender-nonconforming writer, performer, and mental heath worker. For fun, he practices karate, memorizes Shakespeare monologues, and twerks. He dreams of doing these simultaneously. He is the author of a collection of poetry called Debridement (Great Weather for Media), and reads regularly at Kiss:Punch:Poem at the Magnet Theater. He lives in Brooklyn. More at corrinabain.com.
Irène P. Mathieu, Book Reviewer
Irène P. Mathieu, MD is a pediatrician, writer, and public health researcher. She is the author of orogeny (Trembling Pillow Press, 2017), which won the Bob Kaufman Book Prize, and the galaxy of origins (dancing girl press & studio, 2014). She has won Yemassee Journal's Poetry Prize, received Honorable Mention and Editor’s Choice awards in the Sandy Crimmins National Poetry contest, and been a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Narrative Magazine, Boston Review,
Southern Humanities Review, Los Angeles Review, Callaloo Journal, New Delta Review, Yemassee Journal, Foundry, and elsewhere. A Callaloo and Fulbright fellow, Irène also serves as an editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine's humanities section, and is on the Jack Jones Literary Arts speakers' bureau.
Southern Humanities Review, Los Angeles Review, Callaloo Journal, New Delta Review, Yemassee Journal, Foundry, and elsewhere. A Callaloo and Fulbright fellow, Irène also serves as an editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine's humanities section, and is on the Jack Jones Literary Arts speakers' bureau.
Derrick Carr, Senior Poetry Reader
Derrick Carr has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since he was old enough to read. He graduated from Yale in 2011 with a degree in Black people. His work has been published in The Adroit Journal, Oakland Review and here atMuzzle, among others. He’s co-edited Tandem, an annual anthology published through The Lit Slam, a nonprofit working to broaden the conversation around literature. He’s participated in KSW/CIIS’s Interdisciplinary Writer’s Lab and is a founding fellow in OCTO, an interdisciplinary collective of black artists in the Bay Area. Like his mother and grandmothers, all he knows is survival.
K. T. Landon, Senior Poetry Reader
K. T. Landon is the author of Orange, Dreaming (Five Oaks Press, 2017) and received her MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the 2013 winner of the Arts & Letters PRIME Poetry Prize, a finalist in Narrative's Ninth Annual Poetry Contest, and her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net anthology. Her poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2017, Passages North, and Ibbetson Street, among others.
Ellie White, Poetry Reader & Social Media Editor
Ellie White holds an MFA from Old Dominion University. She writes poetry, nonfiction, and sometimes comics. Ellie has won an Academy of American Poets Poetry Prize, and has been nominated for both Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. Her work has appeared in Crab Fat, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Arcturus and many other journals. Ellie’s first chapbook, Requiem for a Doll, was released by ELJ Publications in June 2015. In addition to her work at Muzzle, she is also a nonfiction and poetry editor at Four Ties Literary Review. She currently lives near some big rocks and trees outside Charlottesville, Virginia. To learn more about Ellie (and see her comics), visit elliewhitewrites.com.
Stephanie Chang, Poetry Reader
Stephanie Chang is a rising freshman at University College London and currently based in Vancouver, Canada. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Kenyon Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, Hobart, and Cosmonauts Avenue. She has been recognized by the National Scholastic Art &Writing Awards, Anthony Quinn Foundation, Poetry Society of the United Kingdom, and Adroit Prize for Poetry. Her chapbook, NIGHT MARKET IN TECHNICOLOR, is forthcoming from Ghost City Press in 2020. In addition to reading for Muzzle, Stephanie interns at Sine Theta Magazine.
Shonté Murray-Daniels, Poetry Reader
Shonté Murray-Daniels is a poet and critic in Maryland. She often splits her time between thinking about poetry, and worrying about video games. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Maryland: College Park. Her work has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Ambit, Baltimore Review, Apogee, and others. Her games articles can be found in Kotaku, Motherboard, Paste Magazine, and others.
Alana Folsom, Poetry Reader
Alana Folsom earned an MFA in poetry from Oregon State University, where she founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of 45th Parallel, OSU's literary magazine. Her work has been published in The Believer, Missouri Review, The Journal, Apogee, and others. Originally from Los Angeles, she currently lives in Boston with her cat, Birthday. Find her @axfolsom
Aidan Forster, Poetry Reader
Aidan Forster is a queer poet from upstate South Carolina. A Tin House Summer Scholar in poetry, his work has been honored by the Poetry Society of America, the Poetry Society of the United Kingdom, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and the National YoungArts Foundation, among others. His work appears in or is forthcoming from Best New Poets 2017, BOAAT, Columbia Poetry Review, Indiana Review, Muzzle, Ninth Letter, Pleiades, and Tin House, among others. His debut chapbook of poems, Exit Pastoral, was a finalist for the Vinyl 45s Chapbook Contest and is forthcoming from YesYes Books in 2018.
Stephanie Horvath, Poetry Reader
Stephanie Horvath is a poet who divides her time between Oregon and Southern California. She received her MFA from Indiana University, where she worked both as Associate Poetry Editor and Nonfiction Editor for Indiana Review, and she is currently a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California
Kamal E. Kimball, Poetry Reader
Kamal E. Kimball is a Cincinnati poet, member of the Cincinnati DIY Writers, as well as the Ohio Poetry Association. Her work has been published in Rattle, Hobart, One, Sundog Lit, Bone Parade, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal, Califragile, and elsewhere. She works as a freelance grant writer, journalist, and creative writing instructor. More at kamalkimball.com
kiki nicole, Poetry Reader
kiki nicole (they/them) is a Black, Queer, and Non-binary multimedia artist and poet. They’ve received invitations to fellowships such as Pink Door Writing Retreat, In Surreal Life, The Watering Hole, and Winter Tangerine. nicole is the co-curator and collaborator of the first and the last, an experimental film and new-media project which seeks to archive and reverse gatekeeping in the film community for the work of Black femmes, women, and Trans and Non-binary artists. kiki hopes to lend a voice for the void in which Black femmes not only exist in plain view but thrive. Find them at kikinicole.com.
Christina D. Rodriguez, Poetry Reader
Christina D. Rodriguez is a Latinx poet, entrepreneur, and woman of tech from New York, currently living in Chicago. Her poems have appeared in Tupelo Quarterly, Yes, Poetry, Rust + Moth, Satin Soulbits, and elsewhere; she also has work published in the anthologies War Crimes Against the Uterus, edited by Wide Eyes Publishing as a response to the recent anti-abortion laws and the She Will Speak Series: Gender Based Violence Anthology, a book that has appeared on the bookshelves of organizations such as End Rape on Campus. Christina has received awards for the Frost Place Conference on Poetry and Winter Tangerine’s Catalyze Self-Revolutions workshop. Christina was the winner of the 2016 Commencement Poetry Contest and performed at Columbia College Chicago’s commencement ceremonies. She has performed in places such as the Chicago Public Library and The New York Poetry Festival. She is a board member of the Chicago Writers Association as the coordinator of social media and the organization’s internship program. She is also a contributor to the Instagram poetry book club, Can We Discuss Poetry with a weekly series called Poems Picked by Christina and is a poetry reader for Muzzle Magazine. To learn more about Christina, visit her at crodonline.info or @poemlust on Instagram.
Julio Cesar Villegas, Poetry Reader
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, raised in Essex County, New Jersey, author of Memories of an Old World (Wilde Press, 2016), and current finalist for the Atlantis Award for Poetry, Julio Cesar Villegas is the writer that your abuelos warned you about. His scriptures can be found in Subprimal Poetry Art, Into the Void Magazine, Memoir Mixtapes, Rigorous Mag, as well as within the heart of the abyss. Puerto Rico Se Levanta.
Lily Zhou, Poetry Reader
Lily Zhou is an undergrad at Stanford University. Her work appears in Poetry, Best New Poets 2017, Tin House, Sixth Finch, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and The Adroit Journal. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.