Visiting Writers & Artists – 2013

MELANIE ALMEDER
Melanie Almeder studied literature, creative writing, and art history at the University of Virginia. She received an M.F.A. in poetry from the University of Massachusetts, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in contemporary novel and narrative theory from the University of Florida. Her first collection of poetry, On Dream Street, won the Editors' Prize at Tupelo Press, and was a finalist for the Walt Whitman Award. Her poetry has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. Almeder conducted a workshop with the Free School for Writing.

MEGAN AMRAM
Megan Amram is a recent graduate of Harvard University and comedy writer living in Los Angeles. She has become virtually famous, literally, as @MeganAmram on Twitter. People sometimes forget that Amram is more than competent at writing things longer than 140 characters including poems, which are as referential and untied to a rhyme scheme as any beat poem from the sixties. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

FRANK BAEZ
Frank Baez might be described as the homegrown Junot Diaz of the Dominican literary scene: a native author rather than a son of the diaspora, but with the same originality and verve. Baez has made a name for himself in his own country as the Dominican Republic’s most important young poet and short-story writer. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

ERIN BELIEU
Erin Belieu is the author of three collections of poetry. Her first book, 'Infanta' was a winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Hayden Carruth. 'Infanta' was also chosen as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and Library Journal. Her second collection, 'One Above & One Below,' was the winner of the Midland Authors Prize in poetry and the Ohioana prize, and her most recent collection, 'Black Box,' was a finalist in 2007 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Erin Belieu is the co-founder and co-director of VIDA, a literary organization that seeks to explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women.

CAROLINE BERGVALL
Bergvall studied at Universite de la Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, received an M.Phil from the University of Warwick, Britain, and a doctorate from the Dartington College of Arts. Her collections of poetry and hybrid texts include Strange Passage: A Choral Poem (Equipage, 1993), Goan Atom (2001), Fig (2005), and Meddle English (Nightboat, 2010), among others. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

ANDREA BILLUPS
Andrea Billups is a veteran journalist, writer, professor and author. She spent several years working in Washington as a national correspondent for The Washington Times, later covering the Midwest as a regional correspondent. Billups is currently at work on two new books, a work of fiction based on her years as a celebrity reporter titled "Missing in Miami," and an uplifting non-fiction book for women at midlife, titled "Flip Flop Girls."

RICHARD BLANCO
Presidential Inaugural Poet, Richard Blanco's poems have appeared in top literary journals including, The Nation, the New Republic, Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly Review and more. He has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and is the recipient of several fellowships. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

CHRISTIAN BOK
Toronto sound poet Bok is best known for holding the world record of the fastest rendition of Kurt Schwitters' "Ursonate". He performed this double-speed live on WFMU Radio, New York, where he also performed other compositions derived from made-up languages used for Canadian science fiction shows. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

HUNTER BRAITHWAITE
Hunter Braithwaite was born in the Philippines and raised in Germany and the United States. He studied English literature at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Having moved to Miami from Shanghai, he edits The Miami Rail and writes about contemporary art for a variety of publications. He is working on his first book.

TEO CASTELLANOS
Teo Castellanos is an actor/writer/director, who works in theater, film and television. He is author of NE 2nd Avenue a one-man show based on Miami characters, commissioned by Miami Light Project and Artistic Director of Teo Castellanos D-Projects, a contemporary Dance/Theater company whose original work fuses world cultures, ritual and music, examining social issues through performance. Teo is currently writing a screen play titled Third Trinity based on real life events of his family, which he will adapt as a solo play, to premiere at Miami Light Project in 2014.

ADRIAN CASTRO
Adrian Castro is a poet, writer, and interdisciplinary artist born in Miami, a place which has provided fertile ground for the rhythmic Afro-Latino style in which he writes and performs. Articulating the search for a cohesive Afro-Caribbean-American identity, Castro honors myth on one hand and history on the other. He addresses the migratory experience from Africa to the Caribbean to North America, and the eventual clash of cultures. Castro creates a circular motion of theme, tone, subject matter, style, and cultural history, giving rise to a fresh illuminating archetypal poetry.

EDUARDO C. CORRAL
Eduardo C. Corral is an award-winning American poet and teacher. His first book Slow Lightning was published by Yale University Press in 2012 as the winner of the Yale Younger Series Poets Prize. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

CHRISTOPHER COZIER
Christopher Cozier is an artist, curator, and writer living and working in Trinidad, and will be Artist in Residence for Art Basel | Miami Beach at The Betsy. Presented in partnership with David Krut Projects, Cozier has created images specifically for illumination in B Bar as part of the hotel's exhibitions for Art Basel 2013.

P. SCOTT CUNNINGHAM
P. Scott Cunningham is the co-founder and director of the O, Miami Poetry Biennial and the author of CHAPBOOK OF POEMS FOR MORTON FELDMAN (Floating Wolf Quarterly, 2011). A graduate of Wesleyan University, he is also the founder and director of the University of Wynwood, a faux-institution dedicated to advancing contemporary literature in Miami, FL. His poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Harvard Review, Court Green, Sou'wester, Pool, PANK, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Abe's Penny, and elsewhere. He lives in Miami, FL.

DELANA DAMERON
Dameron holds a B.A. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has a strong interest in the intersections of history and literature. Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, PMS: PoemMemoirStory, 42opus, storySouth, Pembroke Magazine, and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

CHRISTINA DAVIS
AND CHLOE GARCIA ROBERTS - Poets Christina Davis and Chloe Garcia Roberts are the Curator and Associate Curator, respectively, of Harvard University's Woodberry Poetry Room, one of the most unique poetry libraries in the United States. Designed by Alvar Aalto, the room is a gorgeous example of Finnish minimalism, and under Davis's tenure Woodberry has developed one of the most dynamic and diverse programming schedules anywhere in the world of poetry.

NATALIE DIAZ
Natalie Diaz is the author of the poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press, 2012), and she was awarded the 2012 Narrative Prize for her poem 'Downhill Triolets.' A Mojave and Pima tribe member, she grew up on the banks of the Colorado River in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

ADELE DINERSTEIN
Dinerstein has run the music program at the independent, progressive Park School in Baltimore for more than 20 years. Adele refers to her pedagogical method as 'The Performing Brain' and it is informed by the relationship of music and neuroscience. She holds a Master of Science in Education from Johns Hopkins University (M.S.Ed. 2012) with a certificate in Mind, Brain, and Teaching. She was a presenter in an educational neuroscience session for Independent Maryland Schools (AIMS) sharing her research on Music and Memory. A meet & greet with Arts Educators and Policymakers was hosted by invitation.

DENISE DUHAMEL
Denise Duhamel is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including: Blowout (University of Pittsburgh, 2013), Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh, 2009), Two and Two (2005), and Mille et un sentiments (Firewheel Editions, 2005). She has received grants and awards from numerous organizations, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is also the guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2013. Duhamel teaches creative writing and literature at Florida International University and lives in Hollywood, Florida.

KEITH EGGENER
Keith Eggener was Associate Editor of the Buildings of the United States series, and currently serves as Book Review Editor (Americas) for the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians and Contributing Editor to Places: Forum of Design for the Public Realm. He is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, American Art and Architecture at University of Missouri and has a PhD from Stanford University.

AMY EISNER
Amy Eisner received her AB in English from Harvard and her MA in poetry from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in American Literary Review, decomP, Failbetter, Fence, The Green Hills Literary Lantern, The Harvard Advocate, and more - as well as the WYPR radio show "The Signal" and the exhibit Entangled: Art and Word at Case[werks] Gallery.

JENNIFER CODY EPSTEIN
Jennifer Cody Epstein is the author of The Gods of Heavenly Punishment, as well as the international bestseller The Painter from Shanghai. She has also written for The Wall Street Journal, The Asian Wall Street Journal, The Nation (Thailand), Self and Mademoiselle magazines, and the NBC and HBO networks, working in Kyoto, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok as well as Washington D.C. and New York. She has taught at Columbia University in New York and Doshisha University in Kyoto, and has an MFA from Columbia, a Masters of International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA in Asian Studies/English from Amherst College.

RICHARD FORD
Richard Ford was born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1944. He has published six novels and four collections of stories, including The Sportswriter, Independence Day, A Multitude of Sins and, most recently, The Lay of the Land.Independence Day was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the first time the same book had won both prizes. Ford will receive the Florida Int'l University Lawrence Sanders Award for 2013 during his visit to Miami. (richardfordbooks.com)

OSCAR FUENTES
Oscar Fuentes is a performance artist from Miami, and the front man for The Oscar Fuentes Combo, a musical project where he blends his original beat-poetry with a three to five member jazz-fusion band. As a community-based artist, Fuentes has been sharing his talents and love for the arts for over 20 years. His style is autobiographical, energetic, and holds rhythmic elements, pleasant to the ears and eyes.

KENNETH GOLDSMITH
Kenneth Goldsmith is the founding editor of UbuWeb, teaches Poetics and Poetic Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and is Senior Editor of PennSound. Driven by a preoccupation with 'Uncreativity as Creative Practice', Goldsmith is essentially the habitual editor of one large project, contributing to both the study and practice of poetry as a writer, academic and as curator of the prolific archives at UbuWeb.Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

DAN GRECH
Dan Grech is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, digital innovator and author. He received an MFA in creative nonfiction at Florida International University and has written for The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and the Miami Herald. He has produced stories for the public radio show Marketplace, and starred in segments on neuroeconomics for the public television program, Nightly Business Report. He's writing a book called 'Hurricane Wilma, A Love Story,' about rebuilding his Miami Beach condo after it was destroyed by a hurricane to make a home for his now wife.

JAMES ALLEN HALL
James Allen Hall's first book, Now You're the Enemy, won awards from the Lambda Literary Foundation, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Fellowship of Southern Writers. New poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, New England Review, and Best American Poetry 2012. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts.

MARK HARRIS
Mark Harris is a writer, software architect and filmmaker focused on immersive and interactive storytelling. As a writer/director, Mark is an alumnus of the IFP Narrative Lab. Mark's Transmedia project, THE LOST CHILDREN had its New York City Premiere at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, with a combined feature film and live immersive experience. Mark was a creative technologist on Lance Weiler's Pandemic 1.0 at the Sundance Film Festival, and was the software architect on Hide & Seek's 007 Skyfall game 'Are You Fit to Serve?'

ARLO HASKELL
Arlo Haskell is a poet, an editor, and the publisher of Sand Paper Press. He is the author of the poetry collection Joker (2009); and creator of online content for the Key West Literary Seminar (where he has been media director since 2008)(sandpaperpress.net) Arlo was also the winner of the 2013 O, Miami/WLRN poetry contest, "That's So Miami" - another accolade to add to his ever-growing list of accomplishments.

TOM HEALY
Tom Healy is an American writer and poet, professor, public servant, and arts professional. Healy is the chairman of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, which oversees the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board program worldwide. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

KATE HEDEEN
Katherine Hedeen's teaching and research interests include Spanish-Caribbean literatures and cultures, U.S. Latino literatures, and gender, post-colonial and translation studies, along with all levels of Spanish language. In addition to her academic endeavors, her work as a literary translator has appeared in some of the most prestigious and well-known journals in America. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

MICHAEL HETTICH
Michael Hettich has published twelve books and chapbooks of poetry, and his work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies. Michael Hettich is the winner of two Florida Individual Artists Fellowships. The Measured Breathing won the 2011 Swan Scythe Press award; Flock and Shadow was selected as a national Book Sense Spring 2006 Top Ten Poetry Book. Michael participated in O, Miami 2013 at several Betsy events, and returns for a residency this July.

VANESSA HIDARY
Native New Yorker Vanessa Hidary, AKA The Hebrew Mamita, grew up on Manhattan's culturally diverse Upper West Side, graduating from LaGuardia High School of the Arts and Hunter College. Her experiences as a Sephardic Jew with close friends from different ethnic and religious backgrounds inspired her to write "Culture Bandit," the nationally toured solo show that chronicles Vanessa's coming of age during the golden age of Hip-Hop and her dedication to fostering understanding and friendship between all people. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

JOHN HODGEN
John Hodgen is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Assumption College, and also teaches at Mount Wachusett Community College and the Worcester Art Museum. He is the author of HEAVEN AND EARTH HOLDING COMPANY (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010); GRACE (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006, winner of the 2005 AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry); IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE (Lynx House Press Poetry Series, 1993, winner of the 1993 Bluestem Award from Emporia State University in Kansas); and BREAD WITHOUT SORROW (Lynx House Press /Eastern Washington University Press, 2001, winner of the 2002 Balcones Poetry Prize). Presented in partnership with the FIU Writers on the Bay Series.

CHENJERAI HOVE
Born near Zvishavane in 1956, poet, novelist and social commentator Chenjerai Hove now lives in exile in Europe. His critical social and political commentary in the weekly newspaper The Standard (2000-2002) gave rise to threats that he was forced to take seriously. For a creative writer who cares deeply about his country's welfare, leaving is a moment of profound loss. The Writer's Room presents Zimbabwean poet Chenjerai Hove, as part of our new Writers in Exile Residency, in partnership with Florida International University.

MARC IRWIN
Pianist, composer, arranger, and recording artist, Dr. Marc Irwin uses his diverse talents as a musician within the fields of contemporary, jazz, classical, theater, and world musics. Currently residing in the Baltimore/Washington, DC area. Marc Irwin is a native New Yorker who has played for and with a variety of top performers.

DAVID KAUFMAN
Dr. David E. Kaufman is a faculty member of the Religion Department at Hofstra University, holding the Florence and Robert Kaufman Endowed Chair in Jewish Studies. Dr. Kaufman has published numerous articles on the social, religious, and architectural history of the American synagogue; a history of the seminal school of Jewish education in America, the Teachers Institute; and a major study of early 20th century Jewish communal institutions.

THOMAS E. KENNEDY
Thomas E. Kennedy received a Master of Fine Arts in Writing Program at Vermont College and a Ph.D. in American literature at the University of Copenhagen. He has published hundreds of stories, essays, poems, interviews, and translations in American and European periodicals such as Kenyon Review,The European, and Fredag, in addition to four novels under the collective title of the Copenhagen Quartet. Kennedy has lived in Denmark for more than thirty years, but often visits the United States where he teaches in the low-residency MFA program of Fairleigh Dickinson University.

DAVID LEHMAN
David Lehman was born in New York City in 1948. He graduated from Columbia University and attended Cambridge University in England as a Kellett Fellow. He also received a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. He is the author of several collections of poems, including When a Woman Loves a Man (Scribner, 2005), Jim and Dave Defeat the Masked Man (with James Cummins, Soft Skull Press, 2005), The Evening Sun (2002), The Daily Mirror: A Journal in Poetry (2000), Valentine Place (1996), Operation Memory (1990), and An Alternative to Speech (1986). He is series editor of The Best American Poetry, which he initiated in 1988, and is general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series.

MARILYN LERNER
Exhilarating jazz pianist/improviser Marilyn Lerner performs to acclaim internationally, from her native Montreal to Havana, from Jerusalem to Amsterdam and the Ukraine. Her groundbreaking recordings have garnered recognition, including "Best Western Jazz Recording 2004" for her "Special Angel" duo with legendary guitarist Sonny Greenwich. Presented in partnership with the Miami Int'l Film Festival.

JOSE ANGEL LEYVA
Jose Angel Leyva graduated from the Faculty of Human Medicine Juarez University of Durango State and obtained a Masters in Latin American Literature at the Faculty of Arts of the UNAM. He is co-director of the poetry magazine Alforja and currently heads the Coordination of Graduate Institute Publications, Research and Continuing Education at the Universidad Intercontinental. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

PATRICIA LOCKWOOD
Lockwood has been described as 'the poet laureate of Twitter' (HTMLGIANT), a godhead of 'cartoon tween j/o bait' (Vice), and 'completely non-linear,' like a Zooey Deschanel character that does not exist (Connect Savannah). In her own words, she's a 'discursive' nerd-child who 'turned funny,' ended up in Georgia by way of the Midwest, and amassed 16,000+ followers for her Twitter oeuvre of cartoon lyricism and surreally unerotic sexts. Patricia Lockwood's poems have appeared in the Awl, Gulf Coast, Poetry, Agni, Denver Quarterly, the New Yorker, and American Letters & Commentary. Her first book of poetry is Balloon Pop Outlaw Black (2012). Hosted in partnership with University of Wynwood.

RASHAUN MITCHELL
Mitchell graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2000. He joined the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in January 2004 and was on faculty at the Cunningham Studio. In 2007, he was the recipient of a Princess Grace Award Dance Fellowship.

NIGEL MAISTER
Nigel Maister has been the artistic director of the University of Rochester International Theatre Program since 2002 (before that he was the program's associate director). Born in South Africa, he has trained both as an actor and as a director.

KYLE MCCARTHY
Graduated Magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. A.B. in Social Studies. M.F.A. from the Iowa Writers' Workshop where she was the recipient of a Truman Capote Fellowship and a Teaching-Writing Fellowship. Kyle was also awarded the Edgar Eager Memorial Fund Prize, Cyrilly Abels Short Story Prize, and the Louis Begley Award.

STEVE MILLER
Steve Miller has 19 years of experience in daily newspaper and magazine journalism at the Dallas Morning News, the Washington Times, The Daily Beast, People magazine and U.S. News and World Report. Miller is a 2011 winner of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business award for investigative journalism and a 2012 Edgar finalist for his book, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender, and a 2010 Carnegie Legal Reporting Fellow at Syracuse University.

JESSE MILLNER
Jesse Millner is an English Instructor at Florida Gulf Coast University. His poetry and nonfiction have appeared widely in literary magazines such as Willow Springs, Gulf Stream, and Third Coast. He is a past recipient of an AWP Intro Award for Poetry and his first chapbook, The Drowned Boys, was published by March Street Press in January of 2005. Presented in partnership with Best American Poetry 2013.

THURSTON MOORE
Thurston Moore is a poet and a musician. He is a co-founder of the band Sonic Youth. He is also the founder of the Ecstatic Peace! record label and the Ecstatic Peace! Library. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

JOHN MURILLO
John Murillo is a two-time Larry Neal Writers' Award winner, a New York Times Poetry Fellow, and Cave Canem alum. A recent graduate of New York University's MFA program in creative writing, his poetry has appeared in such publications as Ploughshares, Ninth Letter, Lumina, and the anthology DC POETS AGAINST THE WAR. A former instructor with DCWritersCorps and coach of Washington D.C.'s 2001 and 2005 National Teen Poetry Slam Teams, John has performed his own work in a wide array of venues, from the Kennedy Center to the Bowery Poetry Club. This fall, he begins his residency as a Creative Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Presented in partnership with Cave Canem.

DAPHNE NIKOLOPOULOS
Daphne Nikolopoulos is the Editor in Chief of Palm Beach Illustrated and Editorial Director of Palm Beach Media Group, overseeing the titles Naples Illustrated, Weddings Illustrated, Palm Beach Charity Register and Naples Charity Register. Daphne also is the author of Storm Gourmet: A Guide to Creating Extraordinary Meals Without Electricity, a popular hurricane readiness guide and cookbook currently in its fourth printing. Her first novel, The Tenth Saint, will be published next year by Medallion Press.

ALI NOORANI
Ali Noorani has more than a decade of successful leadership in public policy advocacy, non-profit management and coalition organizing, across a wide range of issues. As a key figure among a new generation of national leaders, he continues this mission as Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum advocating for the value of immigrants and immigration to the nation.

SAUL OSTROW
Saul Ostrow is a NY based critic and curator, and the Art Editor at Lodge, Bomb Magazine. Since1987, he has curated over 70 exhibition in the US and abroad. He has served as Co-Editor of Lusitania Press (1996-2004) as well as the Editor of the book series Critical Voices in Art, Theory and Culture (1996- 2006) published by Routledge, London. In 2012, with Lidija Slavkovic, he began an on-going collaborative critical project, An Ambition focused on the divisibility of the visual field by the attentionality (accountability) of the artist. In December, for Art Basel | Miami Beach, The Betsy will present 'Habits (I am ambitious, but do not wish to achieve anything)'; an exhibit created, curated, and hosted by Saul Ostrow and Lidija Slavkovic.

YADDYRA PERALTA
Yaddyra Peralta is a poet and fiction writer; born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and has lived in Miami and New York City for much of her adult life. Her poetry and prose has appeared in Hinchas de Poesia, Lies and Poems (an anthology as part of Miami Art Museum's New Work Miami exhibition), Florida Book Review and the Miami Poetry Collective's Cent Journal series. She has been profiled in SunPost's 'People in the Community You Should Know', as one of Miami's 'Creatives' on the Miami New Times Cultist Blog, and on WLRN's Under the Sun.

JEAN PORTANTE
Jean Portante is a Luxembourg poet, novelist, translator and journalist. He grew up in an Italian immigrant family but finally chose French as the language for his works. He has written over twenty books, which include collections of poems, short stories, plays, screenplays, chronicles and novels, and he has been translated into several languages. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

SILAS REINER
Reiner graduated from Princeton University with a degree in comparative literature and creative writing. Silas premiered NOX, a collaboration with poet Anne Carson and choreographer Rashaun Mitchell's with whom he continues to develop new projects, in 2010. Riener completed his MFA in dance at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

BOB REISS
BOB REISS is a bestselling New York-based author and journalist whose work has been published in Smithsonian, Washington Post Magazine, Parade, Rolling Stone and many other national publications. Reiss' new book THE ESKIMO AND THE OIL MAN has received critical acclaim. In the spirit of Thomas L. Friedman's 'Hot, Flat, and Crowded', Bob Reiss traveled in America's High North over three years and spent time with scientists, diplomats, military planners, Eskimo whale hunters and officials at the highest levels of government. As part of his visit to Miami, Reiss was featured speaker-in-residence at Florida International University on January 23, 2013, and made a special second presentation for STEM scholarship students and their mentors.

YULY RESTREPO
Yuly Restrepo was born and grew up in the city of Medelli­n, Colombia, until her family was granted political asylum in the United States. In 2006, she graduated from the University of Tampa with a Writing major. Later she attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she received the Rona Jaffe Fellowship in Creative Writing in 2009. She currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Tampa and is at work on a novel set in her native Colombia.

MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Michael Reynolds was born in Wollongong, Australia, in 1968 and now lives in Rome, Italy. He is editor in chief at Europa Editions. He is the author of a collection of short stories entitled Sunday Special, and a book for young readers entitled La notte di Q and illustrated by Brad Holland. He recently edited 1989, an anthology of ten European writers illustrated by Henning Wagenberth. For Europa Editions his translations include three volumes in Carlo Lucarelli's De Luca series, children's fiction by Wolf Erlbruch and Altan, and Daniele Mastrogiacomo's Days of Fear.

VICTOR RODRIGUEZ-NUNEZ
Victor Rodriguez Nunez is a Cuban poet, journalist, literary critic and translator. In addition to Cuba, he has lived in Nicaragua, Colombia, and the United States, where he is currently an Associate Professor of Spanish at Kenyon College. A wide selection of his poetry has also been translated into Dutch, German, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Russian, Serbian and Slovenian. Rodriguez Nunez has won numerous international prizes for his poetry. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

PAUL RUCKER
Paul Rucker is a visual artist, composer, and musician who combines media, often integrating live performance, sound, original compositions, and visual art. His work is the product of a rich interactive process, through which he investigates community impacts, human rights issues, historical research, and basic human emotions surrounding a subject. Rucker performed with South Florida collaborators at The Betsy's illy Poetry Cafe.

DOV SEIDMAN
Author and Thought Leader; Named one of the 'Top 60 Global Thinkers of the Last Decade' by The Economic Times and 'the hottest advisor on the corporate virtue circuit' by Fortune Magazine, CEO, author and thought leader Dov Seidman has built a career, and pioneered an industry, around the idea that the most principled businesses are the most profitable and sustainable. Dov spoke publicly at FIU on April 1, 2013.

ANDY SENOR, JR.
Andy Senor, Jr. was born and raised in Miami, Fl. He grew up surrounded by legends of Latin music, raised in a family that worked professionally in the entertainment industry. He made his professional debut in the Tony Award-winning musical The Heights as 'Angel,' playing the role on the stages of Broadway, London, Asia, Los Angeles and US National Tours. He studied theatre at Florida International University in Miami and is the artistic director of the District Stage Company. Presented as part of BROADWAY at The Betsy.

FRANNIE SHERIDAN
Performer/Writer/Comic/Speaker - Frannie Sheridan worked as a successful Comic even though her childhood secrets crippled her life. An opportunity arose to tell her story as drama. Through the power of truth telling, she continues to heal herself, her family and her international audience. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

EMILIO SOSA
While his training is rooted in theater, Emilio's experience runs the creative gamut. He has served as vice president and creative director for Grace Costumes, a 40-year staple within the costume design industry catering to television, film, theater, ballet, and opera. Prior to his recent 2012 TONY Award nomination for Best Costumes for his work on Broadway's, "The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess", and his 2012 Lucille Lortel Award win for "By the Way, meet Vera Stark", Emilio was recognized for his extensive collaborations with high profile dance companies such as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, and the New York City Ballet. He has found widespread recognition while featured as a finalist on Project Runway Season 7.

EVE SUSSMAN
Eve Sussman is a British-born American artist, educated at Robert College of Istanbul, University of Canterbury and Bennington College. She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where her company, the Rufus Corporation is based. Sussman's work, which incorporates film, video, installation, sculpture, and photography will be presented at The Bass Museum of Art till November 2013. The exhibition presents two major video installations, including an entirely new exploration of her noted film Rape of the Sabine Women.

ALICIA SVIGALS
Alicia Svigals is the world's leading klezmer fiddler and a founder of the Grammy-winning Klezmatics, who she co-led for seventeen years. She has played with and composed for violinist Itzhak Perlman, playwrights Tony Kushner and Eve Ensler, the late poet Allen Ginsburg, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, and many others. Presented in partnership with the 2013 Miami Int'l Film Festival.

CHASE TWITCHELL
Chase Twichell is an American poet, professor, and founder/publisher of Ausable Press. Her most recent poetry collection is Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been, which earned her Claremont Graduate University's prestigious Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Many of Twichell's poems are heavily influenced by her years as a Zen Buddhist student of John Daido Loori at Zen Mountain Monastery, and her poetry in the book The Snow Watcher shows it. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

NAIMA K. WADE
Naima K. Wade is a poet, performance artist of spoken word, educator and business owner. She has performed throughout New England, the Caribbean and West Africa. She has published a series of poetry books titled "Select Spirits" as well as a non-fiction novel, 'Elbow Dreams The Story of A Black Girl Growing up in Vermont in the 1960's,' and The novella 'Missz' Grace Lives Here.'

STACEY WAITE
A 1999 graduate of Bucknell, Waite received an MFA in poetry in 2002 and a PhD in Composition and Pedagogy in 2011 from the University of Pittsburgh. Stacey's poem 'Trans,' which appears in Knockout and the anthology I Go to the Ruined Place: Contemporary Poems in Defense of Global Human Rights, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.

DAN WAKEFIELD
an Wakefield is author of the best-selling novels, 'Going All The Way,' and 'Starting Over,' which were both produced as feature films. He recently edited and wrote the introduction to Kurt Vonnegut Letters, and introduced the ebook, 'If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Vonnegut's Advice to Young People.'

KEVIN YOUNG
Kevin Young is the author of seven books of poetry, including Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels (Knopf, 2011), winner of an American Book Award, and Jelly Roll (Knopf, 2003), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize, and was just named a New York Times Notable Book for 2012. Presented in partnership with O, Miami Poetry Festival.