Barbara Diehl
Senior Editor
Barbara Westwood Diehl is the founding editor of The Baltimore Review and now back after several years to resume the journal's management, along with Kathleen Hellen and a very talented board of fellow editors and writers. She is currently working on her M.A. in Creative Writing at Johns Hopkins University and works for the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her short stories and poems have been published or accepted for publication in a variety of publications, including MacGuffin, Confrontation, Rosebud, Thema, JMWW, Potomac Review, American Poetry Journal, Measure, Little Patuxent Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Caper Literary Journal, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
"I like a poem that feels good in my mouth when I read it out loud, written in a form that complements its content, and capable of penetrating me and lodging somewhere inside. Competent isn't enough; the total should be greater than the sum of its parts. Fiction and creative nonfiction should have the same qualities. For fiction, I lean toward the traditional narrative form but like to see some risk-taking, at least some real inventiveness, in the content. I want to be riveted. I want to be bowled over by a writer's ability to immerse me in another world with compelling characters, good use of setting, great scenes, and, finally, a sense that something has happened and the world is not the same world it was on page one. Sometimes, I want a good laugh. For creative nonfiction, I look for the hallmarks described by Philip Gerard in Creative Nonfiction: particularly, an apparent and deeper subject, a well-told story, and the sense that the writer has spent considerable time exploring the subject and making connections outside personal opinion, to fields such as history, philosophy, science, politics, the arts, and other sources—demonstrating real work and fresh insight. All submissions should show an awareness of, and engagement with, the world. You're writing for the world here."
Kathleen Hellen
Senior Editor
Kathleen Hellen is a poet and the author of The Girl Who Loved Mothra (Finishing Line Press, 2010). Her work has appeared in Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, the Cortland Review, The Evansville Review, the Hollins Critic, In Posse Review, Prairie Schooner, RHINO, Subtropics, among others, and on WYPR's "The Signal." Awards include the Washington Square Review, James Still and Thomas Merton poetry prizes, as well as individual artist grants from the state of Maryland and Baltimore City. Hellen earned her M.A. and doctoral degree from Carnegie Mellon University. As associate professor in the Humanities, she teaches creative writing and journalism at Coppin State University.
"Aside from personal taste, which favors the edgy, an engagement with the world and the remarkable, I look for poems that resonate in the subtleties of language, new formalist verse that is not self-conscious, and popular poetry that translates to the page. I look for ironies and ambiguities in the text, risk-taking with content. A short list of writers I enjoy includes Baudelaire, Lucille Clifton, Louise Glück, Jane Hirshfield, Li-Young Lee, Federico Garcia Lorca, Yukio Mishima, Charles Simic, Wislawa Szymborska, and Charles Wright."
Dean Bartoli Smith
Editor
Dean Bartoli Smith's poems have appeared in Poetry East, Open City, Beltway, The Pearl, The Charlotte Review, Gulf Stream, and upstreet among others. His book of poems, American Boy won the 2000 Washington Writer's Prize and was also awarded the Maryland Prize for Literature in 2001 for the best book published by a Maryland writer over the past three years. His fiction has appeared in Minimus, The Patuxent Review, and Smile Hon, You're in Baltimore. His prose has appeared in Patch.com, Zocalo Public Square, The Baltimore Brew, Baltimore City Paper, Baltimore Magazine, Indiewire, and the Woodstock Independent. He received an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University in 1989.
"I'm looking for poetry and fiction that sticks with me like Scotch tape to the skin—for strong voices, inventive and musical language, and form without pretense—work that pushes the limits of the genre in new and exciting ways and extends the conversation. I'm in agreement with the poetic vision of Stanley Kunitz who "yearned for an art capable of overriding the shames, the betrayals, the lies; capable of building something shining and great out of the ruins."
Elise Burke
Editor
Elise Burke is a student of the Kratz Center for Creative Writing at Goucher College in Baltimore finishing a degree in fiction writing. She was awarded the 2011 Kratz Center for Creative Writing Fellowship to perform cultural and setting studies of Appalachian lifestyle in the Shenandoah Valley and write a collection of short stories based off of that research. She has worked for Writopia Lab in Washington D.C. helping to lead merit-based workshops with young, up and coming fiction writers. She has also been invited to teach undergraduates in fiction and nonfiction workshops at Goucher College. Her stories have either been accepted by or published in magazines such as The Susquehanna Review, Court Green, The Nantahala Review, Moxie and others.
"I am seeking plot-driven fiction that is relatable but that also exposes the reader to something fresh, thought provoking and unexpected. I am looking for fiction that is written with purpose—something I can sink my teeth into. My preference is to read realistic literary fiction, with special attention to social contexts and characters who couldn't be who they are without the specificity of their setting and culture. What comes with this is a strong point of view, a dynamic cast of characters, a plethora of potential conflicts and a distinct sense of place. I prefer it if a story's motivation isn't about a specific theme or symbol but is subtly accentuated by them. A few of the writers I am awed by are Ron Rash, Karen Russell, Laura van den Berg, Breece D'J Pancake, Kevin Wilson, and Denis Johnson."
Heather Harris
Editor
Heather Harris is a faculty instructor in the English Department of the Community College of Baltimore County. She teaches composition, creative writing, grammar and usage, and Women's Studies. Heather earned her MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at Goucher College. Her areas of interest include memoir, personal essay, and satire. Heather was the Executive Editor at Urbanite magazine in Baltimore and the Senior Writer in the Publications Department of the Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY) before joining the faculty at CCBC. Heather also writes as a freelancer for the Baltimore City Paper and provides research assistance. She has worked with such notable journalists as Shannon Brownlee and Jeanne Lenzer, and she provided Baltimore-based research assistance to author Rebecca Skloot as she was writing the bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Heather has been editing nonfiction and fiction for The Baltimore Review since 2004.
"My favorite books include Edmund Gosse's Father and Son, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and JoAnn Beard's Boys of My Youth. My favorite essayists include Virginia Woolf, Michael Chabon, and David Foster Wallace."
"I favor clean prose. I read somewhere that a lack of clarity in writing indicates a lack of sincerity on the part of the author, and I believe this. Other than that, I am looking for one of two things: 1) A story I haven't heard before. 2) A story I have heard before (a coming-of-age story, for example) told in a fresh, authentic, distinctive, bold new voice."
Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson
Editor
Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson is a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, a nonfiction essayist, and the author of Literature on Deadline (Celumbra/Pacific Isle 2007). Her literary essays have appeared in Creative Nonfiction, Utne Reader, Urbanite, The Connecticut Review, Style, and WYPR's The Signal, as well as the book collections Signs of Life in the USA (Bedford/St. Martin's 2009) and Letters to J.D. Salinger (University of Wisconsin Press). She is a former staff writer for The Miami Herald and Johns Hopkins Magazine, among other publications. As a foreign correspondent, she has written for such venues as The Baltimore Sun and American Journalism Review, reporting from Argentina, Nepal, Cuba, and China. Cavanaugh Simpson earned her M.A. from Hopkins' Writing Seminars, where she now teaches. Her master's thesis, on Cuba's dissident journalists, was funded by Harvard University's Goldsmith Research Award. Her literary blog and podcasts can be found at litdeadline.wordpress.com.
"If you want to know what I 'like' read such journals as Creative Nonfiction and Barrelhouse. Or check out my blog. I look for sharp, vivid narrative that taps into a universal story. The best pieces are cinematic—incorporating dialogue and characters, scene and plot. Even memoir and personal essay need to 'show' a story that unfolds vs. too much internal 'telling' or over explaining. Kill all cliches. Trim out repetition and flabbiness. And, no matter the form, that kernel of 'Story' needs to be at the center, with an engaging beginning (hook), carry-me-along middle (complication-to-climax), and revelatory end (an edgy note, i.e., something to chew on)."
Lalita Noronha
Editor
Born in India, Lalita Noronha came to America on a Fulbright travel grant and earned her Ph.D. in microbiology at St. Louis University School of Medicine. She is a widely published scientist who has worked at the National Institutes of Health, in the biopharmaceutical industry, and as a science teacher.
Her fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, essays and reviews have appeared in over eighty publications, including The Baltimore Sun, The Christian Science Monitor, Crab Orchard Review, Little Patuxent Review, Gargoyle, Reed, and Rattle, among others. Anthologies include A Science Poetry Anthology (Anamnesis 2001), Get Well Wishes (Harper Collins 2000), Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves: A Contemporary Anthology of Asian American Women's Poetry (Deep Bowl 2008), Keeping Time: 150 years of journal writing (Passager Book 2009), City Sages (CityLit 2010), among others. Her short story collection, Where Monsoons Cry, won the Maryland Literary Short Story Award. Other awards include a Maryland Individual Artist Award, the Dorothy Daniel's National League of American Pen Women Award, and other prizes. Her work has been featured a few times on National Public Radio, "The Signal." She is a contributing fiction editor at The Baltimore Review. Website (www.lalitanoronha.com) and blog (fragrantascloves.blogspot.com).
"I like prose that blends elements of global traditions into sensual and lyrical cross-cultural stories with characters that haunt the reader long after the plot is uncovered. Stories that are universal yet unique in the struggle of what it means to be human. Stories where something happens to unforgettable people. Jhumpa Lahiri, Toni Morrison, Arundhati Roy, Annie Proulx, Jane Smiley, and Annie Dillard are just some of the authors whose work I love."
Michael Salcman
Editor
Michael Salcman is a poet, art critic, and neuroscientist. He attended the combined program in liberal arts and medical education at Boston University, was a Fellow in neurophysiology at the National Institutes of Health and trained in neurosurgery at Columbia University's Neurological Institute. He served as Chairman of neurosurgery at the University of Maryland and president of the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. Now Special Lecturer in the Osher Institute at Towson University, Salcman lectures widely on art and the brain. He teaches history of contemporary art at Johns Hopkins, Towson University and the Art Seminars Group. His poems appear in such journals as Alaska Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, Hopkins Review, New Letters, New York Quarterly,Notre Dame Review, Ontario Review, and Raritan. His work has received six nominations for a Pushcart Prize and his poems have been featured on NPR's "All Things Considered" and in Euphoria (2008), a documentary film on the brain and creativity. His poems have recently been set to music by Lorraine Whittlesey (2012). He is the author of four poetry chapbooks and two collections, The Clock Made of Confetti (Orchises Press, 2007), nominated for The Poet's Prize and a Finalist for the Towson University Prize in Literature, and The Enemy of Good Is Better (Orchises, 2011). His anthology of classic and contemporary poems on doctors and diseases is forthcoming.
"What I'm looking for is capable and appropriate use of the features that distinguish most good poems from prose: intelligent attention to sound and musicality without slavish rhythm or a rhyme that jars, attention to the line as opposed to the sentence, and the use of metaphor to produce a sense of surprise in the reader (Frost: meaning one thing and saying another). What throws me off is self-regard, overmuch attention to the 'I' in the poem and experiment for experiment's sake, writing in code. A good poem may combine the intimate with the universal (see Donne, Blake, Yeats and Bishop), a love of words (see Wallace Stevens) with how everyday language works (see William Carlos Williams), and a deep regard for the spiritual with a touch of humor (see Tom Lux or Billy Collins). And there are always exceptions to every expectation."
Nate Haken
Editor
Nate Haken's haiku poetry and short fiction have appeared in print and online at Narrative Magazine, Massachusetts Review, Raven Chronicles, Danse Macabre, Modern Haiku, and Frogpond. One haiku was published by the Daichuji Temple in Japan. His fiction has been anthologized in Le Livre des Fêlures, 31 Histoires Cousues de Fil Noir, (Paris: 13e Note Editions, 2010), and Men of the Global South: A Reader, (London: Zed Books, 2006). During the day he works at a think tank as a conflict analyst researching political instability and civil wars. In the course of this he has been published in Foreign Policy and the Military Operations Research Society Journal. He is formerly a television producer for Voice of America, a reporter for a local paper in Illinois, and a French interpreter for asylum seekers and torture survivors. His blog, which he co-writes with Ben Drinen, can be found at www.namesofplaces.blogspot.com.
"As for what I read, like most writers of my ilk, I can't get enough Denis Johnson, Hunter S. Thompson, Ernest Hemingway, and Gary Snyder. I also like Chris Abani and Ron Cooper."
Sam Schmidt
Editor
Founder and Editor of WordHouse, Baltimore's newsletter for writers (1993 to 2004) and host of the long-running reading series, WordHouse at the Minás Gallery, Sam Schmidt received his MA in Comparative Literature from the Johns Hopkins University. He has been published in a number of literary journals, including the Maryland Poetry Review, Black Moon, the Dancing Shadow Review, the Potomac Review, and Gargoyle. His work has been anthologized in Weavings 2000, Maryland's millennium anthology edited by Michael Glaser. He coedited the anthology, Poetry Baltimore: Poems about a City. His debut collection of poetry, Suburban Myths, is forthcoming from Beothuk Books.
"I'm like that little kid on a tricycle in The Incredibles. When Mr. Incredible asks, 'What are you waiting for?' he replies, 'I don't know. Something amazing, I guess.' I'm waiting to be amazed. After that, I tend to like poems that blaze forth with an adequate correspondence of content to form. Whitman showed us how to do this in free verse. I like work on the page that seems aware of how it would sound spoken. I also love humor and poems that test the limits thematically (e.g., black humor, high culture/pop culture hybrids)."
Susan Muaddi Darraj
Conference Liaison
Susan Muaddi Darraj is Associate Professor of English at Harford Community College, in Bel Air MD, as well as Lecturer in the Johns Hopkins University graduate writing program. Her book of short stories, The Inheritance of Exile, was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Award and the AWP Book Awards; it was also named Book of the Year by ForeWord Magazine. In 2011, the US State Department will translate it into Arabic as part of its prestigious Arabic Book Program. Susan's website is www.susanmuaddidarraj.com.
Susan serves as The Baltimore Review's liaison to the popular Conversations & Connections: Practical Advice on Writing conference, co-sponsored by The Baltimore Review, Barrelhouse, and The Potomac Review. The brainchild of Susan, Dave Housley and Julie Wakeman-Linn, the conference seeks to bring together editors and writers in meaningful discussions of the publishing industry and literature. Held at the Johns Hopkins University, it has featured keynote speakers such as Mary Gaitskill, Steve Almond, and others. The website is www.writersconnectconference.com.
Todd Whaley
Editor
Todd Whaley has stories published in a number of anthologies and journals, including Berkeley Fiction Review, Louisiana Literature, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Soundings East, Regarding Arts and Letters, The Sages of Baltimore (CityLit Press, 2010), and others. As a Finalist for The Flannery O'Connor Award for Fiction and the Best New American Voices, Todd lives in Alexandria, VA, where he is currently finishing his second novel.
"The story that captures me is both elegant in style and complex in plot with vivid characters that really engage the reader. Some of my favorite authors include Alice Munro, Barbara Kingsolver, William Trevor, and, lately, Dr. Seuss."
Matt Diehl
Webmaster
Matt Diehl is a graduate of UMBC's Interdisciplinary Studies program and a Web designer. He currently works for the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance and is the owner of Port Street Design. His idea of a good beach read includes books on cascading style sheets and HTML5. He has played guitar, bass, and drums in a number of bands, and currently plays guitar in "Paul Newman and the Ride Home." His publication credits include feature articles for Style magazine.
"Books and websites have a lot in common. They both have a clear ending and beginning, an easy-to-use search function, and can be stacked on shelves or placed in a bookmarks folder. Wait... nevermind. I'll see what I can do."