Eric Disambwa is a writer, poet and an educator, working with both children and adults. He is also a political activist, having served as a monitor in El Salvador’s first free election after their revolution and having participated in demonstrations throughout the U.S. and in Cuba. He was one of the artists featured at Word Verse, A Ko-Thi Dance Company-sponsored event held at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He was also one of the artists featured at “Local Solo---a night of performance art,” part of Walker’s Point Center for the Arts presentation of cutting edge work by emerging artists. He created a spoken word piece for Walker’s Point’s show (re)Evolution, originated the character known as 'the Angel of Death' in the play M: A Collection of Mothers by Deaduri Gales and sometimes features with the Latina poet, Carmen Murguia. His poetry is both empathetic and enlightening, bringing an African-American perspective to global issues. His essay "Dear Milwaukee" can be found on the NPR website for their program State of the ReUnion. He has previously worked as a facilitator at the ALMA Center, a not-for-profit organization committed to healing families through counseling batterers remanded to them by the courts, as an educator for MPS, working with Special Education classes and is currently a returning student at UW-Milwaukee pursuing a degree in Community Education. Mr. Disambwa is a U.S. citizen born in Memphis TN and raised in the small town of Blytheville AR. He currently resides in Milwaukee.
is the author of
Northerners (Western Michigan University Press, 2011), winner of the 2010 Green Rose Prize from New Issues Press, and
The Suburban Ecstasies (Ghost Road Press, 2009). A contributing author to
The Creative Writing MFA Handbook (Continuum, 2008) and a 2008 recipient of the J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry, his work has recently appeared in
Best New Poets 2008 (University of Virginia Press, 2008),
Poetry of the Law (University of Iowa Press, 2009),
American Poetry Review,
New American Writing,
Conjunctions, and elsewhere. Currently a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Jesslyn Roebuck has lived in Madison, Wisconsin since 2006. She grew in up the Hudson Valley of New York. She currently teaches at Operation Fresh Start, writes poetry in her spare time, and was the editor of the literary magazine,
Plankton. Her work has been published in
CRATE, The Chronogram, Mudfish Magazine, The White Pelican Review, and
The Marquis Literary Magazine. She was the recipient of the 2008 Mudfish Magazine Poetry Prize.
Heather Swan has been a recipient of The Wisconsin Center for the Book Bookmark Award, the August Derleth Award, a Martha Meier Renk Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Finalist Award. Her poems have appeared in
The Cream City Review, Iris, Mothering Magazine, The Wisconsin Poets Calendar, Basalt, Dossier Journal, Wisconsin People and Ideas, and
The Comstock Review, among others. Her chapbook,
The Edge of Damage (Parallel Press), was given the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets’ Best Chapbook of 2009 Award.
