Our Team
Peter E. Murphy, Founder + Host
Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York where he managed a night club, operated heavy equipment and drove a taxi. He has been awarded six creative writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, which might be a record, as well as multiple residencies at Yaddo, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Millay Colony and other artist retreats. He has published thirteen books and chapbooks of poetry and nonfiction including You Too Were Once on Fire (2025) and A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption (2024). Read “Grand Fugue” in Rattle and have a look at peteremurphy.com.
Shawn R. Jones, Co-host
Shawn R. Jones was born in Hartford, CT and grew up in Atlantic City, NJ. She is a 2023 Civitella Ranieri Fellow, and her poetry collection, Date of Birth, has won the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry. She is also the author of two poetry chapbooks, Womb Rain (2008) and A Hole to Breathe (2015). Her work has appeared in Tri-Quarterly, New Ohio Review, Cider Review, Passengers Journal, Rattle, Essence, Guesthouse, Typehouse, Peregrine Journal, The Journal of Baha’i Studies and elsewhere. Shawn is the co-owner of Tailored Tutoring LLC and Kumbaya Academy, Inc., a dance instructor at Halliday Dance and a member of the poetry performance troupe, No River Twice. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers-Camden. When she is not writing, dancing or teaching, she enjoys spending time with her family and her lucky pit bull, Ross. Learn more on her website.
Cynthia Arrieu-King, Co-Director
Cynthia Arrieu-King is a professor of creative writing at Stockton University and a former Kundiman fellow. Her poetry books include People are Tiny in Paintings of China (Octopus Books 2010), Manifest, winner of the Gatewood Prize chosen by Harryette Mullen (Switchback Books 2013), Futureless Languages (Radiator Press 2018) and its sequel Continuity (Octopus Books 2021). Her experimental prose memoir The Betweens (Noemi 2021) examines the difference between how we see others and how and who they really are. She’s working on a collection of short stories and a novel on caregiving and post-apocalyptic utopias. Her website is cynthiaarrieuking.blogspot.com.
Nancy Reddy, Co-Director
Nancy Reddy is the author of The Good Mother Myth. Her previous books include the poetry collection Pocket Universe and the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood, which she co-edited with Emily Pérez. Her essays have appeared in Slate, Poets & Writers, Romper, The Millions and elsewhere. She teaches at Stockton University and lives in Collingswood with her family. She writes the newsletter Write More, Be Less Careful. Learn more on her website.
Taylor Conti, Program Coordinator
Taylor Conti, born, raised and residing in South Jersey, is a strong advocate of the Oxford Comma. She won 1st place in both the 2014 Stephen Dunn Poetry Contest and the 2014 Jennifer Cakert Poetry Awards. Her work has been published by Moonstone Press, Rewrites and Stockpot. She has also collaborated with a graphic design artist for a visual writing project, The Carnival by the Sea. Taylor was hired full time in 2016. She also worked in a barbeque restaurant for 10+ years and graduated with honors with a degree in Literature from Stockton University. Taylor works hard to assemble the many moving parts of the Winter Getaway each year.