STAFF

Amanda Johnston
Editor, Executive Director

Amanda Johnston is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian poet. Honors include 2003 and 2004 Artist Enrichment grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the 2005 Austin International Poetry Festival's Christina Sergeyevna Award.  Johnston has served on the board of directors for the National Women's Alliance, is currently an ensemble member of The Austin Project Performance Company (TAPPCo). She is the founder of Torch Literary Arts and editor of TORCH: poetry, prose, and short stories by African American Women.  

Shia Shabazz
Blog Editor

"Spark" in the premier, Fall 2006 edition of Torch, Shia Shabazz Smith is a Cave Canem Fellow, a member of The Austin Project: Experiments in the Jazz Aesthetic, and a teaching poet in UC Berkeley's Poetry for the People Program. An accomplished poet, performance artist, activist, and screenwriter, Shia's current projects include a second poetry collection and a feature-length screenplay. Shia lives in Oakland, California, where she enjoys walking Lake Merritt and eating tiramisu.

L. Lamar Wilson
Copy Editor

L. Lamar Wilson has copy-edited and reported for The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel & a host of other newspapers in the past decade. The Cave Canem & Callaloo fellow has work in or forthcoming in No Tell Motel, Rattle, Crab Orchard Review, Obsidian and elsewhere.

Ana-Maurine Lara
Staff Writer

Ana-Maurine Lara is an award-winning novelist and playwright. She is a Cave Canem Poetry Fellow and member of The Austin Project: Experiments in the Jazz Aesthetic. Currently she is working on a PhD at Yale University in African American Studies & Anthropology. For more information about Ana-Maurine, visit her website: www.zorashorse.com

Matthew Zühlsdorf
Social Networking Coordinator

Matthew is pursuing a master's degree in International Education at the SIT Graduate Institute. He previously worked for the Corporation for National and Community Service and served two terms in AmeriCorps VISTA. He is from El Paso, Texas.