Many of Chrystal Berche's current pieces of artwork start out as three minute gesture drawings and eventually get paired with some sort of still life photography and a lot of playing in photoshop. Chrystal loves to take pictures, especially out in the woods, where she can sit on a rock or a log and wait quietly, jotting notes for stories until something happens by. A free spirit, she digs in dirt, dances in rain and chases storms, all at the whims of her muses.
Cynthia Cruz's first collection of poems, RUIN, was published by Alice James Books and her second collection, The Glimmering Room, was published by Four Way Books in 2012. Her third collection, Wunderkammer, is forthcoming in fall of 2014. She is also the editor of an anthology of contemporary Latina poets forthcoming from the University of Arizona Press. Her poems have been published in the The New Yorker, Paris Review, Boston Review, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review and others. Her essays and art reviews have been published in The Rumpus, The American Poetry Review, and Hyperallergic. She has received fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony as well as a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.
Jonathan Ehrenberg’s videos feature surreal narratives, stylized characters, and sets that resemble three-dimensional, habitable paintings. Ehrenberg received a BA from Brown University, and an MFA from Yale. His work has been included in exhibitions internationally, including MoMA P.S.1, Nicelle Beauchene Gallery (New York), LAXART (Los Angeles), David Castillo (Miami), Futura Center (Prague), and Galeria Espacio Minimo (Madrid). His work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Art in America, and he has participated in residencies at LMCC, Harvestworks, Islip, Skowhegan, Triangle, the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown), and Glenfiddich (Scotland). Ehrenberg teaches at Brown University and lives in New York City.
The Fordham Ecuador Global Outreach Team went on a 10 day service project to Quito, Ecuador. Throughout their stay, they volunteered at the Working Boys Center, an organization dedicated to supporting the families of the community. The eleven students who traveled there will never forget the hospitality and love they received from the staff, volunteers, and families of the center.
Sarah Kay is a poet from New York City. She has been invited to share her poetry on such diverse stages as the 2011 TED Conference in Long Beach, California; the Malthouse Theater in Melbourne, Australia; and Joe’s Pub in New York City, among hundreds of other venues. Her first book, B, was ranked #1 Poetry Book on Amazon. Her second book, No Matter the Wreckage, is available from Write Bloody Publishing. Sarah is the founder of Project VOICE, an organization that brings spoken word poetry to schools and communities around the world. For more, see: www.kaysarahsera.com
Porochista Khakpour is most recently the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing. Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. Her second novel, The Last Illusion, is forthcoming from Bloomsbury. As of 2008, she’s been a frequent contributor of personal essays to the New York Times.
Britt Melewski grew up in New Jersey and Puerto Rico. His poems have appeared in Sporkpress, The Philadelphia Review of Books, Puerto Del Sol, the DMQ Review, and are forthcoming in Tidal Basin Review. Melewski received his MFA at Rutgers-Newark in 2012. He lives in Brooklyn.
Simon Rhee is Nanoengineering major at the University of California at San Diego. He attempts to write poetry that combines science, engineering, and art.
Travis Rivera is a young aspiring director, script-writer and photographer.
Peter Streckfus is the author of The Cuckoo, the 2004 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, and Errings, which will be released by Fordham University Press February 2014. He is a 2013 Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome and is on the faculty of George Mason University’s Creative Writing Program.
Ernest Williamson III has published poetry and visual art in over 400 national and international online and print journals. Some of Dr. Williamson’s visual art and/or poetry has been published in journals representing over 50 colleges and universities around the world. Dr. Williamson is an Assistant Professor of English at Allen University, self-taught pianist, editor, poet, singer, composer, social scientist, private tutor, and a self-taught painter. His poetry has been nominated three times for the Best of the Net Anthology. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in English/Creative Writing/Literature from the University of Memphis and a PhD in Higher Education Leadership from Seton Hall University.
Debbie Yee’s poems have appeared in Bateau, The Best American Poetry and Fence, among other publications. A Kundiman fellow and San Francisco Arts Commission grant recipient in literary arts, she lives in San Francisco, where she is in-house counsel for a national bank and periodically teaches writing and Gocco printmaking.