Rose Books Reader
Contributor Bios
Esther Alter
Esther Alter is a trans anti-Zionist Jewish writer, game designer, and open source software programmer. Her fiction and poetry can be found in Deadlands, Baffling Magazine, khōréō, and Reckoning. Follow her at @esther_alter@mastodon.social or @esther-alter@bsky.social
Maeve Barry
Maeve lives in New York. Her website is maeve-barry.com.
Kate Barss
Kate Barss is a writer living in Toronto. Her first book, A Hive is a Heart That Crawls is forthcoming from Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Canada in Spring 2026. Her work has appeared in Tin House, Longreads, Catapult, Maisonneuve, and others. She’s been a finalist for prizes from The Iowa Review, The Montreal International Poetry Prize, Dzanc Books and others.
Eric Boyd
Eric Boyd is a winner of a PEN Prison Writing Award, as well as the 2023 Foundry prize in fiction. His work has appeared in Guernica, The Offing, and The Rose Books Hotline, as well as the anthologies Prison Noir (Akashic Books) and Words Without Walls (Trinity University). He is the editor of The Pittsburgh Anthology (Belt Publishing). Boyd briefly studied at Maharishi International University before earning an MFA in Brooklyn.
Michael Buckius
Michael Buckius is a writer, filmmaker, photographer, zinemaker, and educator from Lancaster, PA. He earned his undergraduate degree in Film and Media Arts from Temple University, and his MFA in Creative Writing from Northern Arizona University. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee whose work has appeared in Triquarterly, The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, Quarter After Eight, Rinky Dink Press, Breakwater Review, and Ghost City Review, among others. His debut full-length poetry collection Mustache in Plain Sight was released in March 2022 by Tolsun Books. He lives in Phoenix, AZ.
Blake Butler
Blake Butler is the author of twelve book-length works, including Molly (Archway Editions), Alice Knott (Riverhead), 300,000,000 (Harper Perennial), There is No Year (Harper Perennial), and Scorch Atlas (Featherproof Books), as well as the nonfictional Nothing: A Portrait of Insomnia (Harper Perennial). His short fiction, interviews, reviews, and essays have appeared widely, including in the New York Times, Harper’s, The Paris Review, Fence, BOMB, Bookforum, and as well as an ongoing column at Vice. In 2021, he was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. He is a founding editor of HTMLGIANT.
Danielle Chelosky
Danielle Chelosky is a writer from New York. She is the author of Pregaming Grief.
Christina D’Antoni
Christina D’Antoni is a writer born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her MFA in fiction from Arizona State University, and is an alumna of the American Short Fiction, Kenyon Review, and Lighthouse summer workshops. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Washington Square Review, X-R-A-Y, Fractured Lit, and elsewhere. She reads flash fiction for Split Lip Magazine.
Erin Dorney
Erin Dorney is a conceptual poet and artist based in upstate New York. She is the author of Yes I Am Human I Know You Were Wondering (forthcoming from Autofocus Books in March 2025), The Usual Arteries (Illuminated Press), Grating, Darling, Full of Dirt (Common Meter Press), I Am Not Famous Anymore: Poems After Shia LaBeouf (Mason Jar Press), and many zines and artist’s books. Learn more at erindorney.com.
Kate Durbin
Kate Durbin is a writer and artist from Los Angeles. She is the author of four books of poetry. Her most recent book, Hoarders (Wave Books), was named a best book of 2021 by NPR, Lit Hub, and Electric Literature. Her poetry app, ABRA, won the international Turn On Literature Prize for electronic literature and she was the Arts Queensland Poet-in-Residence in Brisbane, Australia. Her artwork has been shown at VBKOE in Vienna, peer to space in Berlin, MOMA San Francisco, MOCA Los Angeles, and elsewhere.
Owen Edwards
Owen Paul Edwards lives in Maryland. His writing has appeared in HAD, BRUISER, Bullshit Lit, and elsewhere.
Juliet Escoria
Juliet Escoria is the author of the novel Juliet the Maniac, the short story collections You Are the Snake and Black Cloud, as well as the poetry collection Witch Hunt. She was born in Australia, raised in San Diego, and currently lives in West Virginia with her husband, the writer Scott McClanahan. She received a BA in Creative Writing at the University of California in Riverside, and an MFA in Fiction Writing at CUNY Brooklyn College. She currently teaches at a community college in West Virginia.
Matthew Gasda
Matthew Gasda is a novelist, playwright, director, and critic. He is the founder of the Brooklyn Center for Theater Research.
Nicola Maye Goldberg
Nicola Maye Goldberg is the author of the novel Nothing Can Hurt You. Her work has appeared in Vogue, New York Tyrant, Joyland, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
Julia Hannafin
Born and raised in Berkeley, Julia Hannafin now lives in Los Angeles. They have written episodes for television. Her debut novel Cascade is out with Great Place Books.
James Jacob Hatfield
James Jacob Hatfield is a writer and painter with an engineering degree who currently works in finance. He is the author of VCO (Vol. 1 Brooklyn) and short stories that have appeared in Barely South Review, X-R-A-Y, Maudlin House, and other places. He is the creator and curator of the Gemini Sessions substack. His poetry has been anthologized by the North Carolina Museum of Art. He is a fellow of the Sterling Writer's Room and the Weymouth Center for the Humanities and Arts. He shamelessly lists all of these accomplishments to prove to potential publishers that his short story collection, which he will be finished with in April 2025, will be very good and make them lots of money. This is his first essay.
J. Kemp
J. Kemp should’ve been a cowboy, but he ate his horse.
Lexi Kent-Monning
Lexi Kent-Monning is the author of the novel The Burden of Joy. She’s an alumna of the Tyrant Books workshop Mors Tua Vita Mea in Sezze Romano, Italy, and was awarded a residency at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. Her writing has been published in The Believer, Los Angeles Review of Books, Paste, Joyland, and elsewhere.
Yin Lichuan (trans. by Cecily Chen)
Yin Lichuan (b. 1973) is a Chinese writer, poet, and filmmaker. She is one of the founding members of the “Lower Body Poets,” an avant-garde poetry group based in Beijing that emphasizes the relationship between poetic language and desire.
Cecily Chen is a writer and translator from Beijing, China. She is currently a PhD candidate in English at the University of Chicago, where she works on experimental Asian American literature, Marxist aesthetics, and negative affect. You can find her criticism and translations in The Poetry Project Newsletter, Textual Practice, the tiny, and Chicago Review. She is also the poetry editor at Chicago Review.
Amy Lyons
Amy Lyons writes fiction and nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Waxwing, Prime Number, LA Weekly, and more. She has done residencies at Millay Colony and Vermont Studio Center. She holds an MFA from Bennington College.
Amelia Mangan
Amelia Mangan is an author currently living in Sydney, Australia. Her short stories have been featured in a number of publications, including The Best Horror of the Year Volume 11 (ed. Ellen Datlow), and adapted in audio form by Jason Hill for the hit podcast Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. Her first novel, Release, was published by Nightscape Press in 2015.
Shay McIntosh
Shay McIntosh is a writer, babysitter, acrobat, and tin whistler in Boston and Andalucía. She has been published in Slate and was a Sundress Academy for the Arts Writer-in-Residence in 2023. She will wear tennis shoes to your wedding.
Clare Michaud
Clare Michaud is a baker and writer in Wisconsin. She has writing featured in kitchen work magazine and the Feminist Food Journal (forthcoming, fall 2024), and shares essays via her newsletter Beurrage. She's grateful every day to live near water.
Shelby Newsome
Shelby Newsome is a writer and bookseller living in Maryland. Her flash fiction has appeared in Black Warrior Review's Boyfriend Village, Rejection Letters, and Tart magazine's newsletter. Follow her on Instagram at @shelby_newsome or check out her website shelbynewsome.com for more information.
Breen Nolan
Breen Nolan Schoen is a writer from Rochester, New York. She is a current MFA candidate in the University of California, Riverside-Palm Desert low-residency program in Creative Writing & Writing for the Performing Arts and is a nonfiction editor at The Coachella Review. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her family.
JoAnna Novak
JoAnna Novak's latest book is Domestirexia: Poems (Soft Skull 2024). She is the author of the memoir Contradiction Days: An Artist on the Verge of Motherhood (Catapult 2023). Novak’s short story collection Meaningful Work won the Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest and was published by FC2. She is also the author of the novel I Must Have You (Skyhorse 2017) and three additional books of poetry: New Life (Black Lawrence Press 2020); Abeyance, North America (After Hrs Editions 2019); and Noirmania (Inside the Castle 2018).
Gina Nutt
Gina Nutt is the author of the essay collection Night Rooms (Two Dollar Radio), as well as the poetry collection Wilderness Champion and two chapbooks—Here Is My Adventure I Call it Alone and Ars Herzogica (dancing girl press). Her poetry, fiction, and nonfiction can be found in Forever Magazine, Joyland, Ninth Letter, Southwest Review, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s MFA program in Creative Writing. Gina lives in Ithaca, New York with her husband, the fiction writer David Nutt, their two cats, and dog. Online, she keeps a creative mood ring called Late to the Party and a newsletter, Kitsch Ocean. She is also the founder of Terrazzo Editions, an independent press and literary magazine.
Amy Raasch
Amy Raasch is a Los Angeles-based writer, performer, and musician. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars. She writes about what haunts us.
Zoë Ranson
Zoë Ranson is an artist curious about language and sound. She writes on bodies, sexuality and (un)wellness. Her writing has appeared on Hobart Pulp, in The Lonely Crowd and Lighthouse Journal. She lives in London.
Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya
Rodrigo Restrepo Montoya is the author of The Holy Days of Gregorio Pasos (Two Dollar Radio, 2023). His work has appeared, or will soon appear, in The Kenyon Review, Triangle House Review, Joyland, Forever Magazine, and DIAGRAM. He lives in Tucson, Arizona.
Cody Roggio
Cody Roggio lives in Philadelphia. He has been published in Witchcraft Mag, Expat Press, Thirty West, and various other places. His instagram is @somethrills.
Brooke Segarra
Brooke Segarra is a fiction writer in Brooklyn, NY. Her stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Hobart Pulp, Maudlin House, Rejection Letters, Farewell Transmission, Grimoire Magazine and elsewhere. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School, and is currently working on a novel. You can find her online at brookesegarra.com.
Nicole Sellew
Nicole Sellew is a writer and English teacher based in New England. Her work has appeared in Hobart and Sarka, among other places, and her debut novel, Lover Girl, will be published by Clash Books in 2026.
Dena Soffer
Dena Soffer is an adjunct English professor at Maryville University. She earned her MFA at Bennington College and is the recipient of an Author Fellowship from the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. She was a 2021 finalist for the Meridian Short Prose Prize. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares online, Meridian, Colorado Review online, the Chicago Review of Books, and other publications. She is currently working on a novel.
Catherine Spino
Catherine Spino is a writer from the East Coast and a couple sandwiches short of a picnic. Her poetry and prose can be found in Hobart, House of Vlad, Black Lipstick, ExPat Press and more. She doomscrolls on Instagram under @spaghetti____western (that's four underscores) and tweets from the road under @1virginmartini.
Mary Alice Stewart
Mary Alice Stewart's writing has appeared in Forever Mag, Joyland, No Tokens, and more. She holds an MFA and a BA from Bennington College and is currently a student at Central Maine Community College in their Electromechanical Technology program. Mary Alice is from, and lives in, Maine. She is at work on a novel about the last living Shaker community in New Gloucester, Maine.
Gina Tomaine
Gina Tomaine is a Philadelphia-based writer and editor, and the author of the guidebook for The Philly Tarot Deck. She’s written for The Cut, Cosmopolitan, The Boston Globe, and Philadelphia magazine. She’s been nominated for an ASME National Magazine award as well as regional magazine awards, and is an adjunct professor at Saint Joseph's University.
Felicia Rosemary Urso
Felicia Rosemary Urso is a writer, editor, and typesetter. Currently, she teaches at University of Cincinnati and is an editor at Triangle House Review. She's a Tin House 2022 workshop participant, Mors Tua Vita Mea alumni, and graduated University of North Carolina, Wilmington with an MFA in creative nonfiction. She is working on a memoir.
Adam Voith
Adam Voith is a writer, the editor of Little Engines, and a recently-retired booking agent looking for what’s next.
Natalie Warther
Natalie Warther Dols is a writer ACD at Chiat Day LA. She holds an MFA from Bennington College and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Northeastern University. Her loves include microfiction, flaky salt, and Costco rotisserie chicken. Her short story collection in progress explores the strangeness of female domestic life. Her most recent fiction has been published in Wigleaf, HAD, and Smokelong Quarterly. Natalie lives in Los Angeles.
Shy Watson
Shy Watson is working on a novel. Her short stories can be found in Fence, Southwest Review, Joyland, and elsewhere. She got her MFA from the University of Montana. Find her online at @formermissNJ.
Ray Wise
Ray Wise writes from Philadelphia, where they are an MFA candidate at Rutgers-Camden. Ray's work has appeared in Passages North, Hobart, HAD, and more. They have received support from Sundress Academy of the Arts, and their work was recently shortlisted for the Disquiet Prize in Fiction.
BR Yeager
B.R. Yeager is the author of Negative Space, Burn You the Fuck Alive, Pearl Death, and Amygdalatropolis. He is currently working on his next novel, as well as co-writing an opera entitled God Rot with composer Samuel Garrett.