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Poetry Faculty

The Winter Getaway is well known for its challenging and supportive workshops led by accomplished writers and artists. Get to know our poetry faculty by reading some of their work online, and then working with them in January.

Jan Beatty

Jan Beatty’s eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in September 2024. Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Recent books include The Body Wars (University of Pittsburgh, 2020) and a chapbook, Skydog (Lefty Blondie Press, 2022). Other work includes Jackknife: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh, 2018 Paterson Prize) named by Sandra Cisneros on LitHub as her favorite book of 2019. Beatty’s work has been published in the Atlantic, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, POETRY, BuzzFeed, North American Review and Best American Poetry. Beatty worked as a waitress, abortion counselor and in maximum security prisons. She is Professor Emerita at Carlow University, where she directed creative writing, the Madwomen in the Attic workshops and the MFA program. Read a poem by Jan and learn more on her website.

Jan will lead Tutorials in Poetry and Bridges Between: A Poetry Workshop.

Jiordan Castle

Jiordan Castle is the author of Disappearing Act, a memoir in verse. Her poetry and prose appear in The New Yorker, The Millions, The Rumpus and elsewhere, including the anthologies Best New Poets and What My Father and I Don’t Talk About. Originally from New York, she lives in Philadelphia with her husband and their dog. Read a piece by Jiordan and learn more on her website.

Jiordan will lead Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions.

R.G. Evans

R.G. Evans is a singer-songwriter, poet and fiction writer. The 2025 recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the New Jersey Council on the Arts for his poetry, his books include Overtipping the Ferryman, The Holy Both and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. His collections of original songs, Sweet Old Life and Kid Yesterday Calling Tomorrow Man, are available on most streaming platforms. He has performed his songs at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, at the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival, in Los Angeles for RATTLE magazine, at the Smithsonian Institution and all over the state of New Jersey. Listen to a song by R.G. and learn more on his website.

R.G. will lead Tutorials in Songwriting and Poetry and Hitting the Right Note: A Songwriting Workshop.

Roberto Carlos Garcia

Roberto Carlos Garcia is a 2023 NJ State Council of the Arts Fellow. He is the author of five books, including four poetry collections—Melancolía (Cervena Barva Press, 2016); black / Maybe: An Afro Lyric (Willow Books, 2018); [Elegies] (FlowerSong Press, 2020); and the recently published What Can I Tell You: The Selected Poems of Roberto Carlos Garcia (Flowersong Press, 2022)—and one essay collection, Traveling Freely, (Northwestern University Press / Curbstone Books, 2024). Roberto is the founder of Get Fresh Books Publishing, a literary nonprofit. He writes about the Afro-Latinx and Afro-Diasporic experience. His work has been published widely in places like Poetry Magazine, NACLA, Poets & Writers, The Root, The BreakBeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNEXT, Bettering American Poetry Vol. 3 and others. Learn more on his website.

Roberto will lead Tutorials in Poetry and Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions.

Luray Gross

Luray Gross, storyteller and writer, is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently With This Body from Ragged Sky Press. Her love of the spoken and written word began during her childhood on a busy dairy farm in Pennsylvania. She was the recipient of a Fellowship in Poetry from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and named one of their Distinguished Teaching Artists. She was the 2002 Poet Laureate of Bucks County, PA, and resident faculty at the Frost Place Festival and Conference on Poetry in Franconia, NH. Her poem, “The Perfection of Zero,” was featured by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s Public Poetry Project. Known for her engaging teaching style, she has worked with thousands of students ranging in age from three to eighty-three. Read a poem by Luray.

Luray will lead Tutorials in Poetry and the Poetry 101 add-on workshop.

Le Hinton

Le Hinton, poet and teacher, is the author of seven collections including Elegies for an Empire (Iris G. Press, 2023) and Sing Silence (2018). His work has been widely published and can be found in The Best American Poetry 2014, the Baltimore Review, the Skinny Poetry Journal, the Progressive Magazine, Little Patuxent Review, Pleiades, the Summerset Review and elsewhere. His poems have received multiple nominations for the Pushcart Prize. His poem “Epidemic” won the Baltimore Review’s 2013 Winter Writers Contest. In 2014 it was honored by The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, and in 2021 it was featured on the WPSU program, “Poetry Moment.” His poem, “Our Ballpark,” can be found outside Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, incorporated into Derek Parker’s sculpture Common Thread. Read a poem by Le and learn more on his website.

Le will lead Tutorials in Poetry and Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions.

Jason Mitchell

Jason Mitchell is a poet, essayist, editor and visual artist living in Philadelphia, PA. He holds an MA in Literature from the University of Maine. Most recently the author of Solar Flâneur (Asterion Projects, 2022), he is also the editor of Veracruz: The Collected Poems of George Stanley (The Center for Poetry & Poetics, 2025). He is co-editor of the small press Eternal Sections and organizes the popular Philadelphia reading series, Frank O’Hara’s Last Lover (FOHLL). His writing can be found in Hi Zero, Court Green, Jacket 2, Fence and elsewhere.

Jason will lead Tutorials in Poetry and The Poet’s Myth: A Workshop.

Peter E. Murphy

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 a dozen books and chapbooks of nonfiction and poetry including A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption (Toplight Books, 2024). Read “Their Last Argument” in The Sun and have a look at peteremurphy.com.

Peter will lead New Year, New You: A Pre-Getaway Writing Workshop, and facilitate and lead feedback sessions for Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop.

Christine E. Salvatore

Christine E. Salvatore received an MFA from The University of New Orleans where she taught in its undergraduate college as well as at Tulane University. She is a thesis advisor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, and teaches literature and writing in the MFA Program at Rosemont College, Stockton University and at a public high school in South Jersey. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals including [Pank], The Cortland Review, Diode, The Literary Review, Mead Journal, The Southeast Review and elsewhere. Her work is also included in the craft book More Challenges for the Delusional and is featured in the art book Mother Monument by Holly Trostle Brigham and Maryanne Miller. Learn more on her website and read poems by Christine.

Christine will lead Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions and the Poetry Round Table Workshop add-on.

J. C. Todd

J. C. Todd’s books include the bilingual (English/Lithuanian) What Kept Me Awake? (PDR, 2024) and Beyond Repair (Able Muse Press, 2021). J. C.’s poems have appeared in One Art, The Paris Review, Prairie Schooner, Virginia Quarterly Review and have been anthologized in From the Belly, Poets Respond to Gertrude Stein’s Poetry, Vol 2 (Word Works, 2024) and Keystone Poetry: Poets on Pennsylvania (PSU Press, 2025). She is co-editor of Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2025). Fellowships include the Pew Foundation, Leeway Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and national and international artist residencies, including Bemis and the Baltic Art Center for Writers and Translators, Visby, Sweden. She has taught at Bryn Mawr College and in the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Rosemont College. Read a poem by J. C. and learn more on her website.

J. C. will lead Tutorials in Poetry, Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions and the Poetry Round Table Workshop add-on.

Gretna Wilkinson

Gretna Wilkinson, Ph.D., began her career as a missionary teacher in the jungles of her native Guyana. She has authored five chapbooks and one full-length, Opening the Drawer. A Dodge Poet, she has performed her poems on radio and television. She’s been featured in The New York Times, The Star Ledger, Courier News as well as several magazines. After 17 years as a college professor, she joined Red Bank Regional High School where she ran the Creative Writing Academy. Her magazine, theravensperch.com, was awarded Top 10 Literary Blog On The Web (Feedspot). Her honors include: Honorary Eagle Scout, Monmouth Art Educator of the Year and Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction. Visit her literary magazine website or read a poem by Gretna.

Gretna will lead Tutorials in Poetry and Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions.

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