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 The Leaping Poem: A Poetry Workshop.

 

celeste doaks

celeste doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields, and editor of the poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter. Her chapbook, American Herstory, was Backbone Press’s first-place winner in 2018. Herstory contains poems about the artwork former First Lady Michelle Obama chose for the White House. celeste is a Carolina African American Writers’ Collective (CAAWC) member and has received fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Atlantic Center of the Arts, Community of Writers Squaw Valley and the Fine Arts Work Center. A professor for over a decade, her poems, reviews and cultural essays have appeared in multiple US and UK online and print publications including Ms. Magazine, The Rumpus, The Millions, Huffington Post, Chicago Quarterly Review, Obsidian: Literature Magazine, The Hopkins Review, Asheville Poetry Review and others. Read a poem by celeste and visit her website.

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

 

R.G. Evans

R.G. Evans’ debut collection of original songs, Sweet Old Life, was released in 2018. His original music has been featured in the poetry documentaries All That Lies Between Us and Unburying Malcolm Miller. 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. Also a poet, Evans’ books include Overtipping the Ferryman, The Holy Both and Imagine Sisyphus Happy. He teaches creative writing at Rowan University. Learn more on his website and YouTube channel.

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

 

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 Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop sessions.

 

Lois Marie Harrod

Lois Marie Harrod’s 18th poetry collection Spat was published in May 2021. Previous collections include Woman (2020), Nightmares of the Minor Poet (2016), And She Took the Heart (2016), Fragments from the Biography of Nemesis (2013) and How Marlene Mae Longs for Truth (2013). Lois has received five fellowship/residencies from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and three fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts. A Dodge poet and a life-long educator, she has spent the last fourteen years teaching creative writing at The College of New Jersey and literature courses at the Evergreen Forum in Princeton, as well as offering poet-in-the-classroom residencies and online workshops. Reads poems by Lois and find out more on her website.

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

 

Darla Himeles

Darla Himeles (they/she) is a Philadelphia-based poet and an assistant teaching professor at Widener University. They are the author of the chapbook Flesh Enough and the full-length poetry collection Cleave, both published by Get Fresh Books. Her poems and essays have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net and can be read in recent and forthcoming issues of  Beloit Poetry Journal, The Gay & Lesbian Review, The Massachusetts Review, The Night Heron Barks, Honey Literary and American Poetry Review. They hold an AB in English from Bryn Mawr College, an MFA in poetry and poetry in translation from Drew University and a PhD in American literature from Temple University. Find Darla on Instagram @darlahimelespoetry, and read more at darlahimelespoetry.com.

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

 

Le Hinton

Le Hinton, poet and teacher, is the author of seven collections, including Elegies for an Empire (2023) and Sing Silence (2018), both from Iris G. Press. 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, PA, incorporated into Derek Parker’s sculpture Common Thread.

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

 

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, forthcoming from Toplight Books in late 2024. Read “Their Last Argument” in The Sun and have a look at peteremurphy.com.

Peter will facilitate and lead a feedback session for Poetry Incubator: A Generative Writing Workshop.

 

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem

Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, sound practitioner and recovering social justice lawyer with Hyderabadi (Deccan) Muslim roots. She is the author of the poetry collection City of Pearls (Upset Press, 2019) and has released two musical albums: City of Pearls (2019) and Moti Ka Sheher (2023) featuring self-composed musical interpretations from her book. Sham-e-Ali is the recipient of the 2022 Leeway Transformation Award, the 2016 Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship and the 1997 echoing green fellowship. Read a poem by Sham-e-Ali and learn more on her website.

Sham-e-Ali will lead Channeling Grief: A Poetry 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.

 

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 few of her poems.

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

 

 

 

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