Assistant Editors

Barbara Ellen Baldwin is an author/ book reviewer, and vets poetry online for a number of finely crafted print journals. Work is forthcoming or has appeared in: The Annals Of Internal Medicine, Barnwood, Canary, Conclave, a Journal of Character, Constellations, a Journal of Poetry and Fiction, Connotations, an online artifact, Prick Of the Spindle, Poetry Northwest (Carolyn Kizer tribute), Pivot, Gulf Stream, Fugue, Speakeasy, The Lullwater Review, Blue Unicorn, Art Centering, The West Wind Review, and elsewhere. She has recently finished her latest manuscript, Feeding The Anxiety Dog, and studies ASL with signing tutors as time allows.

Lisa Marie Basile has an MFA from The New School. Her work has appeared in PANK, elimae,Johns Hopkins' Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review (formerly Moon Milk Review), and more. She is the author of the chapbooks Andalucia (Brothel Books, 2011) and Triste (forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press). Cervena Barva Press will release her collection, A Decent Voodoo. She is a managing member of The Poetry Society of New York, which produces the annual NYC Poetry Festival. She is the founding editor of Patasola Press.
She lives in Brooklyn. Read more: www.pw.org/content/lisa_marie_basile.

Angie M. Chatman writes both fiction and nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in Women’s Edition, DM Magazine, fwriction: review, and elsewhere. Prior to her writing career, Angie worked in marketing communications for various corporations. She now teaches writing at Tunxis Community College and blogs at tapestrywriters.com. Born and raised in Chicago, Angie, along with her husband, Eric, parent their three children in Hartford, Connecticut.

Erin Christian received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Georgia, where she interned with The Georgia Review and the UGA Press.  She currently works as a Writing Consultant, freelance writer and freelance editor in Savannah, GA. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Staccato Fiction, Grey Sparrow, The Battered Suitcase, The Seersucker Rag, Little Patuxent Review, and elsewhere. For more about Erin, visit www.erinchristian.com.

Peter Clarke holds a BA in Psychology from Western Washington University and recently completed his JD from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law. While in law school, he served as an Intern at Andrea Hurst Literary Management. His short fiction has appeared in Hobart, Elimae, Locus Novus, Denver Syntax, Orion Headless, Pure Francis, The Legendary, and elsewhere. Native to Port Angeles, Washington, he currently lives in Sacramento, California.

Adam Daniels is a fiction writer and journalist whose work has appeared in print or online at Spin, FADER and Paste. After graduating from the University of Missouri, he spent the better part of the last four years in Brooklyn writing, working odd jobs and hiding behind a book on the L train. He is newly inspired every time he comes across a story like Donald Barthelme's The Balloon or Deborah Eisenberg's Twilight Of The Superheroes and hopes to one day write something that can give someone even a fraction of that rush. He recently moved to Chicago with his girlfriend and their dog to, among other things, pursue a graduate writing program and pick up more of the Bellow references.

Kelly Davio is an MFA candidate in poetry at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts. Her poems have appeared in Bellingham Review, Pank, Beeswax, Dos Passos Review and The Broome Review. She is an instructor of English as a Second Language in Seattle, Washington, where she lives with her husband. Read her blog at www.kellydavio.com.

Denise Dirks holds an MA in English from the University of New Orleans. She is currently in her second year studying at UNO for an MFA in Creative Writing, dividing her time between fiction and nonfiction. She has served as a reader for her university's national publication, Bayou, as well as the journal Memoir (and).

Gro Flatebo has an MFA from the Stonecoast Program in Maine but worked in the environmental field for over twenty years. She has published in the New Madrid Journal, South Dakota Review, The Platte Valley Review, Hunger Mountain’s Loose Sally Blog, Boston Literary Magazine, The Collagist, and the anthology Flash Fiction 2012. Gro also reviews books for Kirkus Reviews. She is an assistant fiction editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal. The coast of Maine is her home now.

Maddie Freeman is a 2010 graduate of Knox College, where she earned Bachelor’s degrees in English literature and secondary education. Her particular writerly interests lie in long-form creative nonfiction and fiction, with some poetry thrown in for good measure. Some of her essays have appeared in the campus literary criticism magazine Common Room, and others, critical and creative, have appeared in Catch, for which she was also a creative nonfiction editor in her senior year. Maddie aspires to be a writer of some sort — fiction or non-, she refuses to choose! — not least because the job allows her to wear jeans and a raggedy sweater whenever she’s “working.”

Adam Gallari received an MFA from the University of California, Riverside and is the author of the short story collection We Are Never as Beautiful as We Are Now. He is currently completing a PhD at the University of Exeter. 

Katherine Hoerth is the author of three poetry books: a collection titled The Garden Uprooted (Slough Press, 2012), and two chapbooks titled The Garden of Dresses (Mouthfeel Press, 2012) and Among the Mariposas (Mouthfeel Press, 2010). She teaches writing at the University of Texas Pan American. In addition to serving as an assistant poetry editor for Fifth Wednesday Journal, she is also a regular poetry book reviewer for BOXCAR. Her poems have been featured in journals such as Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Front Porch, and Conte: A Journal of Narrative Writing. She lives in deep south Texas, but can easily be visited online at www.katiehoerth.blogspot.com.

Susen James was born in Chicago and still lives in the reach of its concrete shadow. She writes poetry to remain sane in a world filled with uncertainty. She is a past winner of the Eileen Lannon Poetry Prize and was once named a Hemingway poet. She has been published in New American Writing, The Columbia Poetry Review and most recently Court Green. She has been a finalist twice in contests to get her manuscript, Possessed, published. Susen teaches Poetry & Fantasy Literature at Columbia.

Christopher Lowe is the author of Those Like Us: Stories (SFASU Press, 2011.)  His fiction has appeared widely in journals including Third Coast, Bellevue Literary Review, and War, Literature, and the Arts.  He lives in Lake Charles, LA with his wife and daughter.  You can visit his webpage at www.christopherlowefiction.com.

Sandra Marchetti currently teaches writing and literature at Elmhurst College outside of her native Chicago. She completed her MFA in Poetry at George Mason University in 2010. Sandra was named the winner of the Midwest Writing Center’s 2011 Mississippi Valley Chapbook Contest for her volume, The Canopy. She was also a finalist in Gulf Coast’s 2011 Poetry Prize and Phoebe’s 2009 Greg Grummer Poetry Contest. Sandy’s poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The Journal, Phoebe, Spiral Orb, Flycatcher, and Gargoyle, among others. She has reviewed books for PIF Magazine. You can find her at sandrapoetry.net.

Linda Downing Miller writes fiction and creative nonfiction. Her work has aired on Chicago Public Radio and appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Parent, Toasted Cheese, Plum Ruby Review, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at Queens University of Charlotte. She lives in Oak Park, Illinois, where she also works as a freelance writer and editor.

Marie-Louise Miller received her MFA from Northwestern University. She served as assistant director for the Shakespeare Repertory under Barbara Gains in Chicago, and at the New York Theater Workshop under Craig Lucas in New York City. She has directing credits in Berlin and Dresden, Germany, and in New York. She has also worked as a dramaturge for new and classical works in translation in New York with Oslo Elsewhere. Her focus on moving texts from a foreign culture to the American has given her particular insight into the process of story writing.

Katie Morris received an MFA in Creative Writing from George Mason University. She lives in Chicago, or near enough to say so to foreigners, and believes writing bios is serious business. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Notre Dame Review, Many Mountains Moving, and Painted Bride Quarterly.

Danielle Newton holds a master’s degree in English from California State University, Sacramento, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. She has taught English in various higher education settings, including Deganawidah Quetzalcoatl University, California’s two-year tribal college, Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco, and Salish Kootenai College in Montana. Additionally, Danielle has also worked as a writing and communications specialist for organizations such as the American Lung Association, the California Institute for Rural Studies, and Green River Community College. Currently, Danielle is an English faculty at Bellevue College in Bellevue, Washington, and an editor for Ginger Post Press.

Meredith Noseworthy is originally from a one-traffic-light town in Vermont. She's lived the past four years in the prairie, in Galesburg, IL, where she attended Knox College and double-majored in creative writing and theatre. A stranger to Chicago, she finds it a good place to be for a while. She has been recently published in Mason's Road and The Blue Route, and been the poetry editor for Knox's literary magazine, Catch. Meredith is thrilled to be helping out with Fifth Wednesday Journal, because the rest of the time she works in customer service.

A native Montanan, Sherry O'Keefe graduated from MSU-Billings with a degree in rehab counseling. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals such as Switched-on Gutenberg, Terrain. Org., THEMA, Avatar Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, PANK, The Nervous Breakdown, Escape Into Life and, Prick of the Spindle. Author of Making Good Use of August and The Peppermint Bottle, her first full collection of poetry, Cracking Geodes Open, was released by Aldrich Press in August 2012. Visit her at: Too Much August, Not Enough Snow.

Susan Azar Porterfield is a Professor of English at Rockford College, where she teaches poetry writing. She is the editor of Zen, Poetry, the Art of Lucien Stryk, the author of a collection of poetry entitled In the Garden of Our Spines. Her chapbook, Beirut Redux, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. Her newest book, Kibbe, was released by Mayapple Press in January, 2012. She has received a fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council.

Laura Salamy lives in Massachusetts with her husband, a daughter, and two silly dogs. Her short stories and essays have appeared in get born magazine, the Inkspotter News (online), The Communal Desk (an anthology), the Albuquerque Arts (online edition), The Boston Globe, and The Providence Journal.  She edits and proofreads documents of all types – fiction and not – through her business, The Polished Paragraph (thepolishedparagraph.com).  When she's not writing, editing someone else's work, or doing laundry, she hooks colorful rugs.  She can be reached at polishedparagraph@comcast.net.