Editors
Editor: Leslie Pietrzyk’s collection of linked stories set in DC, Admit This to No One, was published in 2021 by Unnamed Press. Her first collection of stories, This Angel on My Chest, won the 2015 Drue Heinz Literature Prize. Short fiction and essays have appeared in, among others, Ploughshares, Story Magazine, Hudson Review, Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, The Sun, Cincinnati Review, and Washington Post Magazine. Awards include a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is a core member of the Converse University low-residency MFA program, teaching fiction and creative nonfiction.
Fiction Editor: Christine Schott teaches literature and creative writing at Erskine College. She is Pushcart-nominated author whose work has appeared in the Gettysburg Review, Dappled Things, Casino Literary Magazine, and Wanderlust. She holds a PhD in medieval literature from the University of Virginia and an MFA in creative writing from Converse University.
Nonfiction Editor: Laura Platas Scott is a Cuban American writer whose work has appeared in Hippocampus Magazine, Zizzle Literary, and Heinemann Press. She is a creative writing teaching artist for the Arts Reaching Elementary and Middle School Students Program (ARMES) in Greenville, SC. Laura holds an MFA in Fiction from Converse University and is represented by Melissa Edwards of Stonesong Literary.
Poetry Editor: Zorina Exie Frey is an adjunct English Professor, spoken word poet, and 2023 Pushcart Prize-Winning Poet. Other writings are featured in The AutoEthnographer, Intro to Afrofuturism: A Mixtape in Black Literature & Arts, and The Journal of Poetry Therapy. Her screenplay, Harley Quinn Origin, received an honorable mention at the Birmingham Film Festival in the United Kingdom, and she was a semi-finalist in the reality TV pilot Americas Next Great Author. Zorina also holds an MFA in Poetry and Creative Nonfiction from Converse University.
Artist-in-Residence: In addition to photography, Edmund R. Schubert is an award-winning writer, editor, and educator. As head editor of InterGalactic Medicine Show (2006-2016), he was nominated four times, winning twice, the Washington Science Fiction Association Small Press Award. In 2024, GTCC presented him with their “Make Amazing Happen” Award for his “inclusive and innovative” work as an adjunct professor. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Converse University in 2019 and began pursuing photography seriously in 2020. Recent published short stories came as invited author in the anthologies Lawless Lands and Temporally Deactivated.
Staff
Fiction Readers: Brig Berthold, Jason Caudle, Andrew Clark, Cliff Dudley, Brianna Genoble, Cavenaugh Kelly, Katelyn McCall, Kenzie McGregor, Chris Paulino, Harris Quinn, Olivia Roman
Nonfiction Readers: Haley Gambrell, Keagan Herring, M. Lokelani Howe
Poetry Readers: Shay Black, Laurel Eshelman, Renee Kalagayan, Paige Moton, Sarah Young
Director of the Converse Low-Res MFA
Geoff Herbach is the author of a literary novel, eight young adult novels, and a picture book. He’s received the Cybil’s Award for best Young Adult fiction, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Burr/Worzalla Award for outstanding artistic achievement by a Wisconsin author. His work has been listed among the year’s best by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, Bank Street, the International Literacy Association, and many state library associations. In the past, Geoff studied Urban Planning, wrote and produced a comedy show for Minnesota Public Radio, performed comedy in New York City, and traveled around the country telling weird stories in rock clubs. He teaches creative writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato and now directs the Low-Residency MFA Program at Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Emeritus
Managing Editor: Lisa Hase-Jackson
Managing Editor: Debby DeRosa
Founding Editor: Sarah Gray