Faculty
Jeff Bens is the author of the novel, Albert, Himself and numerous short stories. His documentary film, Fatmans, has screened in international festivals and on North Carolina’s PBS station. He directs the undergraduate creative writing program at Manhattanville College.
Esther Cohen is the author of the novel, Book Doctor, and the editor of Unseenamerica: Photos and Stories by Workers. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Newsday, among others. She is the Executive Director of Bread and Roses, the nonprofit cultural arm of Local 1199SEIU.
Patricia Lee Gauch, editorial director of Philomel Books, is the editor of three Caldecott Medal Winners. She is the author of more than 35 books for young people. Recent titles include Bravo, Tanys, Dance, Tanya and Tanya Steps Out.
Joanna Clapps Herman has published stories in Massachusetts Review, Kalliope, Critic, Woman's Day and the Patterson Library Review, and other magazines. She won the Henry and Anne Paolucci prize for fiction in 2001. Her essays have been anthologized in the Penguin Anthology of Italian American Writers and Milk of Almonds. With Lee Gutkind, she edited Our Roots Are Deep with Passion, and is co-editing Wild Dreams: The Best of Italian Americana for Fordham University Press.
John Herman is the associate director of Manhattanville’s graduate writing program. He is the author of two novels for adults published by Doubleday/Nan Talese: The Light of Common Day; and The Weight of Love, which was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the best novels of that year. He is the author of two young adult novels, Deep Waters and Labyrinth, and a children’s book, A Winter’s Night, all published by Putnam/Philomel.
Kathleen Hill is the author of the novel Still Waters in Niger. Her short fiction has appeared in DoubleTake, the Kenyon Review and other journals. “The Annointed” was included in Best American Short Stories 2000 and the Pushcart Book of Short Stories: 25th Anniversary Edition.
Nancy Krim is a poet with an MFA from the Warren Wilson College. For 30 years, she has created safe havens for adults and children to find their writing voices. She has taught English at Scarsdale High School, led workshops at national conferences and at My Sister’s Place, and shared her expertise in teaching writing through the Scarsdale Teachers’ Institute.
Suzannah Lessard is the author of The Architect of Desire: Beauty and Danger in the Stanford White Family. She spent many years as a staff writer for the New Yorker. In 2003, she was the recipient of the Lukas Award for an outstanding work of creative non-fiction-in-progress.
Paulette Licitra is the editor and publisher of Alimentum: The Literature of Food. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Chicago Tribune Magazine, Journal of Italian Food and Global City Review, among others. She also writes for museums, television and theatre.
Effie Paschalidis has diverse teaching experience both in the U.S. and in Greece, and publishing experience with Greenwood Publishing Group. She worked on Inkwell for four years, serving as Competition Fiction Editor for two years.
Kevin Pilkington is the author of six books of poetry, including: Ready to Eat the Sky (River City Press); Getting By, winner of the Ledge Poetry Prize; and Spare Change, winner of the La Jolla Poets Press National Book Award.
Phyllis Shalant is the author of novels for middle grade and young adult readers. Her most recent book, Bartleby of the Big Bad Bayou, is the sequel to Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi. Her book, When Pirates Came to Brooklyn, was named one of Booklist’s Top 10 Religion Books for Youth. Her new series, The Society of Secret Superheroes, is scheduled to launch in 2007.
Linda Simone is the author of an award-winning poetry chapbook, Cow Tippers. Her work has appeared in numerous print and online journals and anthologies. Her 15-poem sequence, "Stations of the Cross," which appears in the anthology, Alternatives to Surrender, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is faculty advisor to Inkwell.
Karen Sirabian served as faculty advisor for Inkwell, the College’s literary journal. She worked for 12 years in book publishing as a senior editor. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals, most recently RUNES: A Review of Poetry and the Madison Review.
Dianalee Velie’s poems have appeared in over a hundred journals worldwide, most recently in The Connecticut River Review and Peregene. Her short stories have also appeared in numerous anthologies. She conducts poetry workshops through out the country and has taught poetry/writing at SUNY Purchase, Manhattanville College, Norwalk Community College, the University of Connecticut, the ILEAD program at Dartmouth, the College for Life Long Learning and the Adventures in Learning Program at Colby Sawyer College. Dianalee holds a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters Degree in Writing from Manhattanville College where she also served as Editor of Inkwell.
Recent Guest Faculty have included:
Louise Bernikow, author of seven books and a prolific magazine writer whose credits include Ms. and Playboy. Her books include Bark if You Love Me.
Margaret Coel, author of the Wind River series of mystery novels, which includes Eye of the Wolf. Among her awards are the Willa (Cather) Award for Best Novel of the West and the Colorado Book Award. Her novels have appeared on The New York Times and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists.
Alice Elliott Dark, author of the novels, Naked to the Waist, In the Gloaming and Think of England. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, Harper’s and other magazines and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories of the Century.
Lee Gutkind, founder and editor of Creative Nonfiction, the first and largest literary journal exclusively to publish nonfiction. He is the author of eight books of nonfiction, including Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather and Many Sleepless Nights.
Marie Howe, author of The Good Thief, chosen for the National Poetry Series. Her second book, What the Living Do, was named by Publishers Weekly as one of the five best poetry books published in 1997.
Major Jackson, author of Leaving Saturn, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for best first book by an African-American poet, and National Book Critics Circle nominee. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Callaloo and elsewhere. He received the Whiting Writers’ Award in 2003.
Ann Jones, a journalist, photographer and author of four books including the recent Kabul in Winter, a book about her experiences as an aid worker in Afghanistan, and Looking for Lovedu: Days and Nights in Africa. Her travel essays and photographs have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and many newspapers and magazines.
Thomas Lux, author of 17 books of poetry, including The Cradle Place. He is the Bourne Professor of Poetry at Georgia Tech University and visiting faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College.
Nuala O’Faolain, columnist for the Irish Times, has written two memoirs, the best-selling Are You Somebody? and Almost There: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman, and a biographical essay, The Story of Chicago May.
Joan Silber, the author of Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories, selected as a National Book Award Finalist in 2004, and four other books of fiction. Her work appears in the O. Henry Prize Stories and The Pushcart Prize and has been published in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, and other magazines. She has received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the NEA, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Jeffrey Sweet, author of stage and television scripts that have been vehicles for Ed Asner, Helen Hunt, Nathan Lane, Lindsay Crouse and others. He is a resident playwright at Chicago’s Tony Award-winning Victory Gardens Theatre. His works include: Bluff; The Value of Names; Flyovers; and The Action Against Sol Schumann.