Our Staff
Carley Fockler (Editor in Chief) is currently studying at Stetson University’s MFA of the Americas. She has been published in Touchstone Magazine and is a two–time winner of the Sullivan Creative Writing Contest. She has read her work at the Atlantic Center of the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, FL) and in Ipanema, Brazil.
Erica McCay (Graphic Designer, Editor) is a writer, designer, and self-proclaimed cookie enthusiast. Originally from northern California, she now enjoys the tropical Florida sunshine while she designs and produces new theme park experiences for Universal Creative and pursues her MFA in Creative Writing from Stetson.
Connect with her on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.
Nina Michelle Siso (Prose Editor + Blog Editor) is a born and raised Georgia peach. She received her BA in Theatre from Brenau University, and is currently pursuing her MFA from Stetson. She enjoys exploring video poetry and representing women’s issues in her art. You can see her work in Z Publishing’s anthology: Georgia’s Best Emerging Poets.
Connect with Nina on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.
Tony Pizzo (Poetry Editor + The Sound Project) is a digital internet artist. His primary work focuses on generating audio representations of experiences that do not exist sonically in order to provide a voice for neurological disorders or narrative concepts. He’s recently come to the conclusion that everybody has something, and that’s pretty neat.
Ryan Favata (Art Editor) is a poet and visual artist who utilizes paint and erasure poetry often.
Sam Morris (Archvist) was born in a tiny Louisiana town and raised in a library. She is a poet and archivist/professor at Purdue University. Her poems have appeared in The Molotov Cocktail, Poor Yorick, and Gimlet Eye.
Mascotas (Alumni Editors)
Nikki Fragala Barnes (Poetry Reader, Issue 2, Poetry Editor, Issue 3-5, Editor-in-Chief, Issue 6 + Art Events Director) is an experimental poet-artist. Born in Miami, now in Winter Park, FL, and traveling as much as possible. B.A.+ M.Ed. from the University of Florida, MFA in Poetry in the Expanded Field from Stetson University. Barnes collaborates with artists and writers in Orlando and beyond and serves the literary/arts communities as an access advocate and curatorial director as well as a facilitator/designer for residencies. Her work has been installed at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL and is held in private collections.
On Facebook, Instagram, and her website.
Savannah Kater (Social Media Editor, Issue 6) is a New England native who currently resides in Port Orange, Florida. She received her Master’s in English at Stetson University and an M.F.A. in Poetry and Creative Writing in Stetson’s new MFA of the Americas program with a specialization in war poetry. Throughout her Master’s and current M.F.A., she has been working on a project that repurposes her father’s Vietnam War journals into erasure poems, Instagram posts, multi-media art, chapbooks and even rotating interactive word walls. Her goals are to interrupt everyday space and timelines with reminders of war in a way this is simultaneously intrusive and inviting. Savannah’s work is an attempt to start and participate in a necessary conversation about veterans, war, and the repercussions of war on family and home life.
You can read more about her work on our blog here, and follow one of her projects on Instagram, @SixDegreesOfMyFather.
Shelby Smotherman (Art Editor + The Sound Project) is a Florida native, working and creating in the St. Pete/Tampa Bay area. She received her B.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Eckerd College. In addition to being a working artist, she works in theatre and entertainment as a technician and scenic artist. Her day job greatly informs her writing and visual art. Shelby is a poet and a visual artist who works with tactile processes and those that allow erasure. Her work speaks to truth, intimacy, the human body, and coping mechanisms, with a heavy dose of dark humor and focus on ephemerality.
Jacklyn Gion (Prose Editor, Issues 4 + 5), an Ormond Beach native, has returned to Stetson after graduating with her B.A. in English. After a few years of teaching English at her alumni high school, she currently finds herself as a new mother, project contributor to O, Miami’s Poetry Fesitval, soccer and tennis coach, and, as always, beach aficionado.
You can explore with her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or her blog.
Jared Alan Smith (Founding Prose Editor, Issues 1+2+3) is an ESE English Instructor and independent photographer based out of Tampa, Florida. He is the founding prose editor of Obra/Artifact, and his work can be found at Burrow Press’ Fantastic Floridas, The Common, Hinchas de Poesia, and elsewhere.
For a complete list of publications, visit his website. [Photo © 2017 Pablo Vindel]
Lucianna Chixaro Ramos (Founding Poetry Editor, Issues 1+2, Editor-in-Chief, Issues 3+4) is a Brazilian born and Florida raised poet. She enjoys living in a multilingual universe and answering her toddler’s questions about how the world works. You can find her work in the journals New South and Otoliths.
Feel free to connect with her on Facebook or check out her website here. [Photo © 2017 Cyriaco Lopes]
Rebecca Renner (Founding Editor-in-Chief, Issues 1 + 2)
Rebecca Renner is a freelance writer, novelist, and former high school creative writing teacher. She is a seventh generation Floridian. She grew up in Port Orange and earned a Bachelor’s of Arts from Stetson University. She completed Stetson’s MFA of the Americas, where she studied fiction writing. Obra/Artifact is the offspring of a hair-brained idea she and Lucianna Chixaro Ramos had after looking at Baroque art in a Mexican church.
Connect with Rebecca on social media: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and her blog beckyrenner.com. [Photo © 2017 Cyriaco Lopes]
Readers:
Issue 6: Dana Byerwalter, Shameka Cunningham, Carley Fockler, Sammie Harris
Dana Byerwalter is a writer from Chicago. She received her BA in Creative Writing the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and works in digital publishing. Her goal is to write joyful stories with a bit of horror. She is a Prose candidate with the MFA of the Americas, thinks oranges are a good sign, and enjoys playing the piano.
Connect with her on Goodreads and Instagram.
Issue 5: Carley Fockler, Jennifer Paccione, Emmy Kirk
Issue 4: Savannah Kater, Lindsay Marsh, Kelsey Theil Miller