Poetry
Sean Bugg:
Sean is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, where he studied English Language & Literature. While a student, he pursued the craft of poetry, writing under the tutelage of Lisa Russ Spaar, Debra Nystrom, and Gregory Orr. His academic program culminated in the production of a full-length manuscript of poems entitled Melancholia Proserpine. Two of the pieces from this manuscript have already appeared in print: “The Fire Game” in The Last Romantics and “Love Poem Left at a Bus Stop” in 3.7 Magazine.
Jonathan Canel:
Jonathan is a student at Harvard Law School. In 2010, he graduated from Stanford University, where he studied European history and literature. In his free time, Jonathan reads voraciously, writes poetry, and serves as an Executive Editor for poetry at Literary Laundry. He has also translated poetry from Spanish and Italian into English.
Samuel Chiu:
Samuel works as an Executive Fellow in the office of the Governor of California. He is a graduate of Stanford University, where he majored in history with a concentration in Public History/Public Service and a minor in Dance. Samuel also serves as an Executive Editor for poetry at Literary Laundry.
Elizabeth Metzger:
Elizabeth Metzger graduated from Brown University with a concentration in English and Literary Arts. Emily Dickinson enthusiast, native New Yorker, co-founder of The Round Magazine, and a poet herself, she hopes to join (and invite others to join) the timeless conversation of readers and writers. She is moving to California where she is eager to keep poetry alive, in addition to living up to her more practical goal of learning to drive.
Caroline McCraw:
Caroline is a recent graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied in the Area Program in Poetry Writing and was a Studio Art Distinguished Major in photography. She was a 2011 University Arts Scholar, and recently received an ACCIAC Award in Creativity and Innovation for her thesis work, Unreal City, a photographic and poetic installation based on T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Her work has appeared in Glass, Garden and 3.7 Arts & Literary Magazine. She is from Durham, North Carolina.
Eric Heyne:
Eric is a Professor of English at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he has taught American literature and critical theory since 1986. He has published poems (in Ice-Floe, Platte Valley Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere) and essays (in Modern Fiction Studies, Narrative, Western American Literature, and elsewhere), and is the editor of Desert, Garden, Margin, Range: Literature on the American Frontier.
Maya Lim:
Maya grew up in a small Oregon town surrounded by vineyards, hazelnut orchards, and fields of wheat. She presently studies at the University of Chicago. In her work, Maya aspires to draw attention to the significance of solitude, simplicity, and humility. The transition from hearing cricket sounds at night to traffic sounds all day inspired me to share the messages she had learned from her experiences of nature.
Joan-Ramon Resina:
Joan-Ramon hails from Barcelona. He is currently a professor in the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University, where he specializes in the European novel, cultural theory, Spanish and Catalan literature and film, and urban culture. He has published seven books, scores of critical essays, and writes regularly for the Catalan daily Ara. Between 1998 and 2004 he was chief editor of the journal of cultural theory Diacritics, and is currently a member of the editorial boards of various U.S. and European journals. His international awards include the Fulbright Scholarship and the Alexander von Humboldt fellowship for post-doctoral research. Joan-Ramon has published one collection of poetry, entitled Monólogos con alguien de mí mismo.
Carmen Dolling:
Carmen is a third-year student at the University of Florida, majoring in English and Classical Studies. She has a great enthusiasm for languages, animals, traveling, and all things dessert. After graduating from college, she hopes to teach English abroad, as well as eventually pursue an MFA degree.
Edward Church:
Edward is a student at Vanderbilt University, where he studies English Literature, Finance, and History--the first of the group with the most alacrity. Edward believes that good writing is the most important form of art. As such, he regards Literary Laundry as one of the most important artistic endeavors in America today.
Phillip Aijian:
Philip hails from central California, the eldest son of a doctor and sculptural blacksmith, and is the recipient of a cultural heritage equal parts nerd and artist. In 2006 he earned a BA in English from Biola University and spent the next 18 months driving forklifts and writing music. He pursued graduate studies at the University of Missouri where he completed an MA in Creative Writing in 2010, during which time he also released his second studio album. After graduating, he traveled to Spain to teach English and study flamenco guitar. He now teaches part-time for the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University.
Olivia Kiers:
Olivia is currently a student at the University of Virginia, majoring in French and fine art. Her studies have focused on painting and printmaking techniques. She grew up in rural Virginia, southwest of Staunton, on a working farm and vineyard.
Rachel Burns:
Rachel is a graduate from Harvard College, where she studied English literature and French as a secondary field. She recently completed a senior thesis on the poetry of Seamus Heaney. Her main interests are poetry, traveling, and visual art.
Prose Fiction
Rachael Draum:
Rachael studies Creative Writing at the University of Rochester and is working toward a certificate in Translation Studies. Her story in this issue of Literary Laundry was inspired by her travels through Jordan in the autumn of 2010.
Sara Kerr:
Sara lives in San Francisco. She describes herself as a (distracted) philosophy graduate student who likes to write little bits and pieces, usually on napkins. These bits and pieces more often than not remain incomplete but sometimes they become stories. She really like it when the become stories.
Lis Anna:
Lis is an avid writer of short fiction, films, screenplays, and novels. She is a five time WorldFest winner, a Wurlitzer Grant recipient, a New Century Writers winner, Second Place Winner of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Award, First Place winner of the 11th Annual Poet Hunt Award, a four time Accolade Film Competition winner, and a finalist in the Nicholl Fellowships, the Doris Betts Fiction Award, Chesterfield Film Project and the William Faulkner Competition. Her fiction has been published in Word Riot, The Blotter, Petigru Review, Hot Metal Press, The Smoking Poet, Eclectic Flash, Paper Skin Glass Bones, 491 Magazine, The Monarch Review and The MacGuffin Literary Review. To learn more about her work, visit www.lisannafilms.com or www.lisanna.net.
Jenny Xie:
Jenny is an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley studying English and creative writing. Her fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in both online magazines (Kaleidowhirl, Thought Catalog) and print publications (Falling Hard, Palaver, Berkeley Poetry Review). Most recently, she received the 2011 Joan Lee Yang Poetry Prize and the 2011 Julia Keith Shrout Short Story Prize. She also leads a writing workshop for undergraduate students at UC Berkeley's Student Learning Center in conjunction with the College Writing Department.
Drama
Daniel Loedel:
Daniel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University in 2010. At Brown, he studied Comparative Literature and Philosophy, but mainly worked toward the goal of becoming a fiction writer. He helped found a literary journal called The Round, whose goal was (much like that of Literary Laundry) to get young writers to respond to and work in the larger literary tradition, and thereby renew the conversation of art across time. Daniel spent the last year in Argentina writing his first novel. At present, he is working toward getting it published.
Critical Reflections
Kelly Swope:
Kelly Swope grew up in Ohio and writes mostly short fiction. He studied languages and philosophy at Vanderbilt University and is now at Columbia University working toward a degree in comparative literature. Kelly's fiction first appeared in the inaugural issue of Literary Laundry and was later featured in an LL Author Showcase. His favorite writers include Jeanette Winterson, J.L. Borges, Virginia Woolf and Gayatri Spivak. His aspirations are to teach and write.
Greg Rubinson:
Greg is a lecturer in the UCLA Writing Programs where he teaches composition, literature, creative nonfiction, and postmodernism. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester. Greg has published fiction in Insidious Reflections and nonfiction in the Los Angeles Times, Salon.com, and United Airlines’ magazine Hemispheres. His short story, "Camp Holocaust," received the Award of Distinction for Literary Laundry Volume 2, Issue 1.