"The Valley’s Literary Arts Center"

D M Gordon, Phi Beta Kappa, M.M. from Boston University, is the poetry editor for the Patchwork Journal.  She works as a consultant and freelance editor, but foremost she is a writer, currently working on short stories, a novel, and publishing a poetry manuscript.  Diana has recently been a Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Grant Finalist both in fiction and poetry, and is the past winner of the Hampshire Life Short Fiction Contest.  Diana’s upcoming publications include work in Northwest Review, The California Quarterly, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, and New England Watershed Magazine.  Diana Gordon’s book of poems, Fourth World, will be released by Adastra Press in February, 2010.

Mark Zeller is an experienced playwright, actor and director, and has taught at numerous universities and conservatories, including New York University School of the Arts, the National Shakespeare Conservatory, American Conservatory Theatre, and the San Francisco Playwrights Horizons.  He has appeared on and off Broadway, in such productions as “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Freud-A One Man Play.”  He has much experience working with poets and writers, strengthening their vocal and textual habits for a more effective delivery of written work.

Jacqueline Sheehan, Ph.D., is the author of Truth, based on the life of Sojourner Truth, published in 2003 by Free Press, and Lost and Found, published by Avon. Jacqueline is the editor of the anthology, Women Writing in Prison, published in 2005. She is also the fiction editor for Patchwork Journal for 2006. She teaches yoga at international writing retreats in the United Kingdom and Ireland with Patricia Lee Lewis. Yoga has been a sustaining and inspiring part of her life for over 20 years. Jacqueline Sheehan’s new novel, Now & Then, was just released this summer by Avon. Read more about Jacqueline at www.jacquelinesheehan.com.

Celia Jeffries, MFA, is a board member and trainer for Amherst Writers and Artists, and led workshops in the Boston area for over six years before moving to Western Massachusetts. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Writers Chronicle and the anthology Beyond the Yellow Wallpaper. Celia has served as managing editor of Patchwork Journal and has offered workshops in the Writer-in-Residence program at Forbes Library. Read more about Celia at www.celiajeffries.com.

David Lovelace is a poet and memoirist, who wrote with the acclaimed “Splinter Group” for nearly a decade. His poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won mention in Patterson Review’s Allen Ginsburg Award. His new memoir, Scattershot, will be released in the fall, 2008 by Dutton Press.
 

Suzanne Strempek Shea is the author of five novels, including Selling the Lite of Heaven, Hoopi Shoopi Donna and Becoming Finola, and two memoirs, Songs From a Lead-lined Room, and Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama and Other Page-Turning Adventures From a Year in a Bookstore.  Her third memoir, Sundays in America, will be published in 2008 by Beacon Press. She is the winner of the 2000 New England Book Award, and a member of the faculty at the University of Southern Maine's Stonecoast MFA program.

Peter Levitt’s new book of poems is Within Within.  Other poetry books include Bright Root, Dark Root, The Book of Light, and One Hundred Butterflies.  His non-fiction works include Fingerpainting on the Moon, and A flock of Fools.  Winner of the Lannan Award in Poetry, and a longtime student of Zen, he edited and wrote the foreword for Thich Nhat Hanhs’s the Heart of Understanding.  Peter is an accomplished translator, and has taught at the Naropa Institute, the CG Jung institute, and UCLA among other schools.  He has been leading workshops in writing ,translating and creativity for 30 years.  www.peterlevitt.com

Elli Meeropol, MFA, has published her short stories in Portland Magazine, The Women’s Times, Bridges, Pedestal and Patchwork Journal.   Elli’s novel, House Arrest is forthcoming from Red Hen press. She has led writing workshops and seminars for adults and teens in a variety of settings.  

John Sheirer is the author of the new memoir Loop Year, which received the Connecticut Green Circle Award for environmental activism, as well as the 2005 memoir Growing Up Mostly Normal in the Middle of Nowhere, a finalist for the Sante Fe Writers Project Literary Award. He teaches English and Communications at Asnuntuck Community College in Enfield, Connecticut, where he recently received the Distinguished Service and Educational Excellence Award.