meet our instructors
instructor bios
M - R
- Ron MacLean
Ron MacLean is author of the story collection Why the Long Face? (2008) and the novel Blue Winnetka Skies (2004). His fiction has appeared in GQ, Greensboro Review, Prism International, Night Train, Other Voices and other quarterlies. He is a recipient of the Frederick Exley Award for Short Fiction and a multiple Pushcart Prize nominee. He holds a Doctor of Arts from the University at Albany, SUNY, and has been a proud part of team Grub since 2004.- Amy Marcott
Amy Marcott's fiction is forthcoming or has been published in DIAGRAM, Dogwood, Memorious, Juked, and Six Sentences. She is the recipient of a Somerville Arts Council fellowship, was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize, and won third place in Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest, among other honors. She received a BA in English from Wesleyan University and an MFA from Penn State University, where she also taught creative writing and composition. She has been a professional writer and editor for many years and currently plies her trade at MIT, where she's an active blogger and social media marketer and assists with incorporating new technologies into online strategies. She belongs to the Writers' Room of Boston and is currently at work on a novel. - Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich received her MFA from Emerson College and her JD from Harvard Law School. She is currently writing a memoir about a Louisiana death penalty case, adapted excerpts from which appear in Bellingham Review (as the winner of the 2009 Annie Dillard Award in Creative Nonfiction) and Fourth Genre. Her fiction appears in Connecticut Review and Minnetonka Review, among other journals. She received the 2010 Alice Hayes Fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation and has been awarded residency fellowships to the Millay Colony for the Arts and I-Park.- Tara L. Masih
Tara L. Masih is editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (2009), which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. She has published fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (such as Confrontation, Hayden's Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, New Millennium Writings, Red River Review, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer ), and her essays have been reprinted in college textbooks and read on NPR. Several limited edition illustrated chapbooks featuring her flash fiction have been published by The Feral Press, along with poet's farthing cards. Awards for her work include first place in The Ledge Magazine's fiction contest, second place in Jane's Stories Flash Fiction contest, a finalist fiction grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Pushcart Prize and Best of the Web nominations. She judges the intercultural essay prize for the annual Soul-Making Literary Contest, and has taught flash at the Asian American Writers' Workshop. She received her MA in Writing and Publishing from Emerson College, and now works as a freelance book editor. Her short story collection is forthcoming from Press 53 in 2010. Visit Tara's website.- Elaine McArdle
Elaine McArdle ditched being a lawyer years ago in favor of journalism. She writes for a variety of publications, including Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe, and her favorite, Amplifier, a magazine for serious fans of power pop. Her reporting and writing garnered her the Massachusetts Bar Association's first-ever "Excellence in Law-Related Journalism Award," as well as awards from the American Bar Association and the New England Newspaper Association. A graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School, and a former features editor at Lawyers Weekly USA, she has taught Media Law to law students and to practicing lawyers. The Migraine Brain, by Dr. Carolyn Bernstein and Elaine, was published in September 2008 by Free Press (a division of Simon & Schuster). Read more about Elaine at www.elainemcardle.com.- Christina McCarroll
Christina McCarroll holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Michigan, where she won two Hopwood Awards and a Helen Zell Post-MFA Fellowship. She earned her M.A. and B.A. in English from Stanford University and has worked as a writer and editor at The Christian Science Monitor in Boston. Her book reviews and nonfiction essays have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Stanford magazine, and elsewhere, and her fiction has been nominated for the Best New American Voices series. She teaches in the English department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and will be teaching at Lesley University this fall.- Jill McDonough
Jill McDonough's poem "Accident, Mass. Ave." recently won a Pushcart prize and made Rachel Maddow cry. Her first book of poems, Habeas Corpus, was published by Salt in 2008. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Public Library, Stanford's Stegner program, and elsewhere, she has been teaching writing at the college level and beyond for ten years. Her work appears in Slate, The Threepenny Review, and a lot of other places.- Tova Mirvis
Tova Mirvis is the author of two novels, The Ladies Auxiliary, which was a national bestseller published by W.W. Norton in 1999 and The Outside World, published in 2004 by Alfred A. Knopf. Her essays have appeared in various anthologies and newspapers including The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, and Poets and Writers, and her fiction has been broadcast on National Public Radio. Her third novel, Inside Voices will be published next year. She was recently named a Scholar in Residence at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, at Brandeis University where she will begin research on a new novel. She received a BA in English literature from Columbia College and an MFA in fiction writing from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She lives in Newton, MA with her husband and three children.- Wendy Mnookin
Wendy Mnookin's fourth book of poems, The Moon Makes Its Own Plea, was published by BOA Editions in 2008. Her previous collection, What He Took, won the book prize from the New England Poetry Club. She is also the recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches a poetry workshop at Emerson College and has taught courses and workshops for children and adults throughout the Boston area. She received her BA from Radcliffe College and her MFA in Writing from Vermont College. You can find out more at www.wendymnookin.com. - Mary Carroll Moore
Mary Carroll Moore’s twelve published books include the PEN/Faulkner nominated novel Qualities of Light (Bella Books); How to Master Change in Your Life: Sixty-seven Ways to Handle Life’s Toughest Moments (Eckankar Books); Cholesterol Cures (Rodale Press), and the award-winning Healthy Cooking (Ortho Publications). Your Book Starts Here: Create, Craft, and Sell Your First Novel, Memoir, or Nonfiction Book, based on her How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book writing workshops, will be released in fall 2010. A former nationally syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, over 300 of Mary’s essays, short stories, articles, and poetry have appeared in literary journals, magazines, and newspapers around the U.S. and have won awards with the McKnight Awards for Creative Prose, Glimmer Train Press, the Loft Mentor Series, and other writing competitions. She teaches creative writing in New York, Boston, New Hampshire, and Minnesota and writes a weekly blog for book writers at http://howtoplanwriteanddevelopabook.blogspot.com. - Kathleen Willis Morton
Kathleen Willis Morton holds an MFA in Creative Writing. Her first book, The Blue Poppy and the Mustard Seed, was published by Wisdom Books. She has been published in Shambhala Sun Magazine, Hip Mama Magazine, and the anthology, Best Buddhist Writing 2009 published by Shambhala/Random House Publications. She can be reached at http://www.thebluepoppyandthemustardseed.com/.- Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng earned her A.B. in English from Harvard University and her MFA from the University of Michigan, where she won the Hopwood Award. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in One Story, TriQuarterly, Subtropics, The Kenyon Review Online, and elsewhere, and she has been nominated for The Best New American Voices. She was recently awarded a scholarship from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Celeste lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is currently at work on a novel and a collection of short stories.- Nancy A. Nichols
Nancy A. Nichols is the author of Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy. Published in 2008, the book has recently been awarded an honorable mention in the Rachel Carson Book Award contest sponsored by the Society of Environmental Journalists. A former senior editor at The Harvard Business Review, Nancy's writing has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The New York Times Book Review, and The Nation among other publications.- Marisa Pagano
Marisa Pagano began her publishing career in New York City at The Robbins Office, aiding in the promotion and representation of Joe Klein, David Remnick, Rebecca Mead, Frank Rich, Peter Singer, and Ron Rosenbaum, among other journalists and nonfiction writers. As an associate of the agent Bill Clegg, she handled and edited such novelists as Laura Zigman, Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, Heather McGowan, David Huddle, and Andrew Sean Greer, along with several poets, including Anne Carson and Mark Doty. In 2001, she joined with Bill Clegg and Sarah Burnes to establish Burnes and Clegg, Inc., a boutique literary agency representing Nicole Krauss, Nick Flynn, Susan Choi, and other critical talents. Assuming the duties of agent, editor, and contracts manager, she helped Burnes & Clegg become one of the industry's premier agencies in under a year. In 2002, Marisa moved to the Penguin Group, shadowing editorial director Jennifer Hershey and participating in the acquisition or editing of such titles as Kavita Daswani's For Matrimonial Purposes, Jilliane Hoffman's Retribution, Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Queen of the South, and Sharon Pywell's What Happened to Henry. In 2003, she joined the editorial department at Bloomsbury USA, working with a range of genres -- fiction, memoir, humor, history, short stories, investigative journalism, and illustrated books -- and a diverse group of authors: Roz Chast, Alan Hollinghurst, Douglas Coupland, David Leavitt, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ben Schott, Robert Sullivan, Wendy Shanker, Sloane Tanen, and Edward Sorel, among others. She played an instrumental role in the acquisition and shaping of Chelsea Handler's My Horizontal Life, which has spent close to ninety weeks on The New York Times best-seller list. Hoping to round out her experience, Marisa transitioned to academic publishing and Columbia University Press in 2005, where she has held the position of Senior Copywriter in the marketing and publicity departments. Concurrent with her employment, she acted as reader for the Bettina Schrewe Literary Scouting Agency and completed a MA in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She also became a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly.
- KL Pereira
KL Pereira writes poetry, nonfiction, cross-genre, and memoir. Pereira has taught poetry classes and writing workshops at East Boston High School, Casa Myrna Vasquez, Freedom House, The Women's Center, and Center for New Words and has served as an editor and writer for LiP Magazine, Whats Up Magazine/Spare Change News, advocacy publications by and for the homeless and underemployed. Her work has appeared in The Pitkin Review, Girlistic Magazine, The Hub Journal: Boston's Literary Occasional, Sui Generis, Bitch Magazine, Clamor Magazine, Whats Up Magazine/Spare Change News, Girl Culture: An Encyclopedia and the forthcoming Boy Culture: An Encyclopedia, both from Greenwood Press. She holds a BA in Literature and Languages from Bard College, an MA in Gender/Cultural Studies from Simmons College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.- Sophie Powell
Sophie Powell was born in 1980, and split her time growing up between London and a sheep farm in the Brecon Beacons in Wales. She graduated in Classics from Trinity College, Cambridge University, where she was a junior scholar, and has an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) from New York University, where she had a fellowship. She is the author of the novel The Mushroom Man (Putnam Penguin) which received glowing reviews, including one from the New York Times Book Review, and which has been translated into several languages. She has also published short stories and creative nonfiction. Sophie lives in Boston with her husband, Christian, where she teaches creative writing at Boston College. Previously she has taught at New York University, Georgetown University, George Washington University and with the Lesley Seminars. She is also assistant director of Abroad Writers' Conferences. For more about Sophie, visit www.meetsophiepowell.com.- Hillary Rettig
Hillary Rettig is an author, workshop leader and coach who specializes in helping artists, activists, academics and other "ambitious dreamers" overcome procrastination and use their time better. The leading liberal blog, DailyKos.com, said of Hillary's book The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way (Lantern Books, 2006), "If I had but one book to spend hard-earned cash on this year, The Lifelong Activist would be it, hands down." Hillary's free, downloadable ebook, The Little Guide To Beating Procrastination, Perfectionism and Blocks, is available at her website www.lifelongactivist.com/downloads and Hillary may be reached at lifelongactivist@yahoo.com. Hillary is a New York City native and current Boston resident, who has published science fiction along with nonfiction. Some of the acclaimed science fiction writers she has studied with are Ursula K. LeGuin, Samuel R. Delaney and the late Octavia Butler. A lifelong writer, her other passions include her family, her dogs, social justice and veganism.
