Barbara Westwood Diehl
Senior Editor
Barbara Westwood Diehl is the founding and managing editor of The Baltimore Review. She has an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University (fiction and poetry). Her short stories and poems have been published or accepted for publication in a variety of publications, including Atticus Review, MacGuffin, Confrontation, Rosebud, JMWW, Potomac Review, American Poetry Journal, Measure, Little Patuxent Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Gargoyle, Superstition Review, NANO Fiction, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Thrush Poetry Journal, Penduline Press, Quiddity, Rivet, Five South, Raleigh Review, The Inflectionist Review, Allium, Flash Boulevard, Split Rock Review, Poetry South, Five South, Midway, 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."
Michael Downs
Board Member
Michael Downs’s most recent book is the novel, The Strange and True Tale of Horace Wells, Surgeon Dentist (Acre Books, 2018). His other books include The Greatest Show: Stories (LSU Press, 2012), and House of Good Hope: A Promise for a Broken City (University of Nebraska Press, 2007), which won the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize. Among his awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, and selection by the U.S. Fulbright Scholar program for work in Poland. A former newspaper reporter, Downs directs the graduate program in professional writing at Towson University. He lives and writes in Baltimore and hangs out on the internet at michael-downs.net.
Karen Houppert
Board Member
Karen Houppert’s reporting has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The Washington Post Magazine, Newsday, The Nation, Salon, Slate, Mother Jones, Ms, The Village Voice, The Baltimore Sun, Glamour, Self, Fitness, etc. A former staff writer for The Village Voice, Houppert has won several awards for her coverage of gender politics, including a National Women's Political Caucus Award and a Newswomen's Club of New York Front Page Award. She moved to Baltimore in 2006 and began reporting on the city for Urbanite and The Washington Post Magazine. She was the editor of Baltimore City Paper for several years and is the author of three nonfiction books. The Curse: Confronting the Last Taboo, Menstruation (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999) is an investigation into the menstrual products industry and an exploration of the culture of concealment surrounding periods. Home Fires Burning (Ballantine, 2005) chronicles a year in the life of military wives with husbands deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as a way of examining how feminism has—and has not—influenced military family policy. Chasing Gideon: The Elusive Quest for Poor People’s Justice (New Press, 2013) takes a hard look at our nation’s very troubled public defender system.
Audrey Gradzewicz
Editor
Audrey Gradzewicz was born in Buffalo, NY, and once accidentally joined an alien cult. She blames Steinbeck. She holds her MFA from Purdue University. Her poems appear in Thrush, Mid-American Review, Guernica, Muzzle, Smartish Pace, and DIAGRAM, among other places.
Bracha K. Sharp
Editor
Bracha K. Sharp was published in the American Poetry Review, the Birmingham Arts Journal, Sky Island Journal, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Wild Roof Journal, and Rogue Agent, among others. She placed first, on the national level, in the Hackney Literary Awards, and she was a finalist in the New Millennium Writings Poetry Awards. She received a 2019 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards Silver Medal for her debut picture book, The Challah Girl. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in English Language and Literature, and jokes (semi-seriously!) that, as her writing notebooks seem to end up finding their way into different rooms, she is always finding both old pieces to revisit and new inspirations to work with. You can find out more about her writing by visiting: www.brachaksharp.com
"In poetry, I look for a strong opening hook, descriptors and images that I haven’t seen before, or familiar images that I’ve seen, but which are used in new and fresh ways. I read for lyricism and musicality, word placement and line breaks, and the emphasis that certain word choices can have on the poem, as a whole. I also enjoy being able to read a poem that can stand up to being read both on paper and out loud. Lastly, a poem need not be overly flashy, or obscure, in order to provide a good reading experience. Some poets whom I love are Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Joy Harjo, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Gregory Orr, and William Wordsworth, among many others.
"For CNF, just as in poetry, I appreciate a strong opening hook and an ending that solidifies what I have read and that 'lands' well. I also look for sharp, fresh, and tight dialogue, which sounds realistic and carries the story forward, without slowing it down in terms of action, pacing, and emotion(s). Tell me why I’m supposed to be reading your story, right here, right now."
Christa Davis
Editor
Christa Davis is a writer, Marine Corps veteran, and first-year piano player. She received her MS in Professional Writing from Towson University in May 2024.
“I enjoy well-crafted sentences and meaningful detail. Don’t forget to proofread before submitting!”
Doritt Carroll
Editor
Doritt Carroll is a native of Washington, DC. Her poems have appeared in Coal City Review, Poet Lore, Gargoyle, Nimrod, and Slipstream, among others. Her collection GLTTL STP was published by Brickhouse Books in 2013 and the title poem was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Her chapbook Sorry You Are Not An Instant Winner was published in 2017 by Kattywompus. Her chapbook A Meditation on Purgatory won the Laura Lee Washburn prize from Harbor Review Press. She has served as poet in residence at the Shakespeare Theater Company and runs the Zed’s reading series.
“What I look for in a poem—an image that makes me see something familiar in an entirely new way.”
Eddie Jeffrey
Editor
Once upon a time, Eddie Jeffrey was a cemetery groundskeeper and later worked at a medical school where, in 1807, a mob destroyed an anatomy theater for fear the cadavers used for instruction there were provided by grave robbers. His work has appeared in *82 Review, PARAGRAPHITI, The Blotter, The Three Quarter Review, O-Dark-Thirty, Thrice Fiction, JazzTimes, and other print and web publications.
"I'm looking for things that grab me right away and won't let go. I want something new, something different. And proofread, proofread, and proofread again. Don't give us a reason to stop reading."
Eileen Canfield
Eileen
Eileen Canfield has an MA in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She is also a psychotherapist and an attorney.
"I look for stories that draw the reader in from page one, present a unique perspective, and a compelling ending. The characters should be multilayered, the more complex the better."
Elizabeth Knapp
Editor
Elizabeth Knapp is the author of Requiem with an Amulet in Its Beak (Washington Writers' Publishing House, 2019), winner of the 2019 Jean Feldman Poetry Prize, and The Spite House (C&R Press, 2011), winner of the 2010 De Novo Poetry Prize. She is a professor of English and director of the Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing at Hood College.
“I'm looking for poems that use language in strange and surprising ways, poems that create their own unique worlds through the marriage of music and imagery.”
Jonathan Green
Editor
Jonathan Green received his MFA from Stony Brook Southampton. He was a research assistant in a Biomedical Engineering Lab at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a Wilderness Explorer at Walt Disney World. He doesn’t know what mapping audio-spatial fields of marmosets and teaching children about environmental conservation has to do with writing, but he hopes it sounds interesting. His work has appeared in The Barnes and Noble Review, New South, Gandy Dancer, and was awarded an honorable mention in Glimmer Train’s 2017 Fiction Open.
Julia Tagliere
Editor
Julia Tagliere is a writer and editor and the recipient of a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Independent Artist Award. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Writer, Potomac Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Washington Independent Review of Books, and elsewhere. Winner of the 2015 William Faulkner Literary Competition for Best Short Story, the 2017 Writer’s Center Undiscovered Voices Fellowship, and the 2021 Nancy Zafris Short Story Fellowship, Julia completed her M.A. in Writing at Johns Hopkins University. In 2019, she founded the community literary reading series MoCo Underground to showcase the work of local writers; she also serves as an editor with The Baltimore Review. Her collection, Reliance: Stories & Essays, won the 2023 Electric Book Award and is forthcoming from Alternating Current Press. Contact her at julia@justscribbling.com.
“Send me a captivating narrative that I can’t escape, even after I stop reading. Hook me right from the start with well-developed, fresh characters; crisp language and a strong, unique voice; and vivid settings and lush imagery to engage my senses. Give me a reason to continue reading.”
Julia Wilson
Editor
Julia Wilson grew up in a family where the dictionary and thesaurus was an arm’s length from the dinner table for easy daily use. She is a retired lactation consultant and received an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. Her non-fiction essays and reviews have been published in Bethesda Magazine, Erma Bombeck Writer’s Workshop, and New Pages. She reviews creative non-fiction and fiction for The Baltimore Review.
“I love concise, tight writing. I want to be able to know the story, the characters, and the setting with prose in which every word has been weighed and chosen deliberately. I want to be left sitting up straighter, more alert, than I had been when I started the piece.”
June Locco
Editor
June Locco is a Baltimore writer and college composition instructor. Her work has appeared in Fine Print literary journal, Towson University’s Grub Street online, Proto Humanities Journal, Northern Otter Journal, and Cure Today magazine, among others. She enjoys reading, escaping to New England, and finding ways to understand and define the world through craft.
“I look for writing that shows a story through a new lens, and makes me forget that I’m only reading, and not experiencing the words.”
Lynn Stansbury
Editor
Lynn Stansbury is a semi-retired community medicine doc, injury care researcher, and novelist who has lived and worked all over the US and the world but who came of age in the mountains of Guatemala in the Peace Corps in the Vietnam War era. She holds writing degrees from Johns Hopkins and the University of Washington and currently lives in the Grey Havens, AKA Seattle. Her fifth novel, Not All Dead Together, is due out from Chin Music Press in October 2024.
“Keep it simple. Read the directions. Beware modifiers and summary opinions; avoid games; make every word count. Good fiction is as physical as poetry: the sound of language—tonality/rhythm; syntax/diction—the shape and heft of character, the reach and depth of setting, the lift and thrust of narrative under your readers’ feet.”
Marc Alan Di Martino
Editor
Marc Alan Di Martino is the author of the collections Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski's Porch, 2022), and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Rattle, IAMB, Palette Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. His first book of translation, Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell'Arco, is published by World Poetry Books (2024). A native Marylander, he has lived in Italy since 2003. Read more at marcalandimartino.com.
Marcie Roman
Editor
A native of Baltimore, Marcie Roman currently lives just outside Chicago. Her fiction has appeared in CALYX, upstreet, Split Lip, Black Fox, and The Gravity of the Thing, among others. Her novel, Journey to the Parallels (Fitzroy Books, 2022) was the winner of the 2020 Kraken Book Prize for Middle Grade fiction. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. You can find her online at marcieroman.com.
"I'm excited to read prose that feels authentic and urgent. A story that matters deeply to the writer, whether it's about planting tomato seeds or dealing with life's hardships, will reveal itself through character insight and vibrant language. A few extra passes to tighten and polish are appreciated as well."
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 at the Osher Institute of Towson University, Salcman lectures widely on art and the brain and has also taught history of contemporary art at a variety of venues. His poems appear in such journals as Alaska Quarterly Review, Arts & Letters, Harvard Review, Hopkins Review, The Hudson Review, New Letters, Notre Dame Review, Ontario Review, Poet Lore and Raritan. His work has received six nominations for a Pushcart Prize and his poems have been featured on NPR's All Things Considered, Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and in Euphoria (2008), a documentary film on the brain and creativity. Composers in Baltimore and New York have set his poems to music. Salcman is the editor of Poetry in Medicine, a popular anthology of classic and contemporary poems about doctors, patients, illness and healing (Persea Books, 2015). He is the author of four poetry chapbooks and four 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, The Enemy of Good Is Better (Orchises, 2011), and A Prague Spring, Before & After (2016), poems about the Holocaust, family and Czech history, which won the 2015 Sinclair Poetry Prize from Evening Street Review. His most recent collection, Shades & Graces, forthcoming from Spuyten Duyvil (2020), is the inaugural winner of the Daniel Hoffman Legacy Book Prize, named for the former US poet laureate.
"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 (Frost: saying one thing and meaning another) to produce a sense of surprise in the reader. What throws me off is self-regard, overmuch attention to the 'I' in the poem and experiment for experiment's sake or 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."
Paige Passantino
Editor
Paige Passantino holds a BA in literature with an emphasis on creative writing and a concentration in poetry from Smith College. She is the recipient of the Academy of American Poet’s annual Anne Bradstreet Prize and her work is published or forthcoming in Poets.org, Zenaida, Emulate, and others. She is the recipient of Smith College’s Ruth Forbes Eliot Prize for Poetry and a two-time recipient of the Ethel Olin Orbin Prize for creative nonfiction. She is currently at work on a chapbook and full-length collection.
Seth Sawyers
Editor
Seth Sawyers' writing has appeared in Southeast Review, River Teeth, Fourth Genre, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Normal School, Salon, and elsewhere. He lives in Baltimore with his wife, the artist Magan Ruthke.
Matt Diehl
Webmaster
Matt Diehl is a software designer and engineer. He currently works for Google as a Software Engineer and is the owner of Port Street Design. His idea of a good beach read includes books on cascading style sheets and JavaScript. He has played guitar, bass, and drums in a number of bands including "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."