CLAS Alumni Authors
Jorn Ake is a poet living and writing in New York City. His first book, published in Sept. 2002 by Texas Review Press and winner of the 2001 X.J. Kennedy award, is called Asleep in the Lightning Fields. He has a second book called The Circle Line which will be published in 2006 by Red Hen Press out of Los Angeles. In 2003, he won an Arizona Commission on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship to support continued work on a third manuscript full of historical conflict, subversive photography and symbolic ornithology. Before moving to New York City, he lived in Prague for three years and shot black & white photographs for the book.
Matt Baker received his BA in International Relations from Dickinson College 1991, an MFA in creative writing from Arizona State University in 1996 and a Masters in Counseling and Psychology from Prescott College in 1999. He is the co-founder and Co-Director of the Metropolitan Arts Institute, a high school for the performing and visual arts located in Phoenix Arizona, currently in its ninth year. Matt writes both fiction and poetry. His first novel, The Art of Confession, was published by Clarion’s Call in 2002. He is currently co-writing a novel of speculative fiction titled The Book of Origins with author and editor Randi Kent. Matt has taught creative writing at the college and high school levels and is still an active mentor in the creative writing program at Metro Arts. He is married to Ceramic Artist and Gallery Director, Betsy Rosenmiller. They have two young sons that happily occupy most of their free time.
Lisa D. Chávez, author of In An Angry Season is also the author of a previous book of poetry, Destruction Bay. Her work has been anthologized in American Poetry: The Next Generation, The Floating Borderlands: 25 Years of U.S. Hispanic Literature, and ¡Floricanto Sí!: A Collection of Latina Poetry. She teaches creative writing and literature at Albion College in Michigan. She received her bachelor of arts degree in English from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, went on to earn her master of fine arts in creative writing and poetry from Arizona State University and is finishing her doctor's degree at the University of Rochester.
James F. Christ, author of Mission Raise Hell, is a resident of Phoenix, Arizona. He has traveled extensively, visiting World War II battle sites in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and interviewed more than two hundred veterans. He received a B.S. in Political Science at ASU in 1988.
Jen Currin is a graduate of Bard College and Arizona State University’s MFA program. She currently teaches creative writing at the Vancouver Film School and Langara College. While at ASU, she served as both Assistant Editor and Poetry Editor of Hayden’s Ferry Review from 2000-2003. She is currently an Associate Editor for Nightboat Books. Jen has published in numerous North American journals including The Fiddlehead, Mudfish, The Massachusetts Review, 2RiverView, Thin Air, Diner, subTerrain, 42opus, Event, Skein, The Burnside Review, Washington Square and River City. A book of poetry, The Sleep of Four Cities, was published by Anvil Press in the fall of 2005.
Lisa Selin Davis is the author of the novel Belly and a freelance writer in New York. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, New York, Interior Design, This Old House, ReadyMade and many other publications, and she is the co-director of the KGB non-fiction reading series in New York. She lives in Brooklyn.
Ed Dee was born in Yonkers, New York and graduated from Sacred Heart High School, before serving two years in the U.S. Army. In 1962 he joined the NYPD and spent nine years in uniform in South Bronx precincts; the last 11 years of his career he supervised detectives in the Organized Crime Control Bureau. While working the streets he earned a BA from Fordham University. Ed retired from the NYPD as a lieutenant. Then, answering a life-long desire to write, he left Fordham School of Law and earned a MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University. His first novel, 14 Peck Slip, which was also his master's thesis, was named a Notable Book of The Year in 1994 by the New York Times. Bronx Angel ('95), Little Boy Blue ('97) and Nightbird ('99) followed. His latest book, The Con Man's Daughter, was released in fall 2003.
Sharon Geyer lived and worked in Iran and Israel from 1963 to 1989. She returned to the United States in 1989 and earned a bachelors degree in English from Arizona State University. She lives and writes today on a houseboat docked in the San Diego Harbor. Geyer is working on her sequel to The Samson Option entitled The Time of Jacob’s Troubles.
Doris and Ken Hall coauthored the heart-warming and poignant book about the tragic death of the daughter, Allison, called Go Out And Live. Doris attended Mills College and graduated from Arizona State University where she earned an M.A. degree in English. For twenty-five years, she taught on the high school and college level. Ken graduated from the University of Minnesota where he earned a B.A. degree in Economics. For twenty years he managed his own sales agency. They have both won top awards for excellence in writing nonfiction at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference.
Rosemary A. King grew up crossing borders: throughout high school, she traveled between Mexico City, Mexico where she lived during the academic year and Reading, Massachusetts, where she spent the summer. After graduating from Colegio Americano in 1984, she attended the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.In 1988, she was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force and has been stationed at bases in Colorado, California, Arizona, Alabama, and Massachusetts. During two separate tours of duty, she taught in the English Department at the Air Force Academy. She earned her Master’s degree at Harvard University in 1992 and her PhD at Arizona State University in 2000. She now serves as a speechwriter at the Pentagon. Border Confluences: Borderland Narratives from the Mexican War to the Present is her first book.
Thomas Legendre was born in Maine and currently lives in Edinburgh with his family, where his wife, Allyson Stack teaches creative writing. Both Thomas and Allyson are graduates of Arizona State University’s Creative Writing MFA program. Before this, he had studied at both the University of New Hampshire and the University of Delaware. Thomas Legendre’s short story Shape and Ring was published in “Hayden’s Ferry Review” (Spring/Summer 1995, Issue 16). The Burning is Thomas Legendre’s debut novel.
Robert J. Moore, author of The Civilian Conservation Corps in Arizona’s Rim Country, received an M.A in Political Science with a minor in American History from ASU in 1975. He was an American history teacher in the Scottsdale, Arizona, school district for thirty years. He also worked for many years as a seasonal interpretive ranger in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests in Arizona. He currently lives and teaches in Verona, Wisconsin.
Dr. Ilisha S. Newhouse, author of Mystery Shopping Made Simple, teaches a popular course on mystery shopping. Additionally, she is on the board of education for the National Association of Professional Mystery Shoppers, and serves as a freelance writer for the NCPMS as well as the Under Cover Shopper newsletter. She lives in Chandler, Arizona.
Lois Roma-Deeley has taught poetry workshops at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Currently she is the Poet-in-Residence at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University and an MFA from Arizona State University. northSight is her second collection of poetry. Her first full-length poetry collection, Rules of Hunger earned her a National Book Award nomination. Roma-Deeley has given many poetry readings and presented numerous creative writing workshops throughout the country.
Elissa Minor Rust, author of The Prisoner Pear; Stories from the Lake, graduated from Oregon State University where she studied English and Philosophy. She received her MFA in fiction from Arizona State University in 2000, where she studied with Ron Carlson and Melissa Pritchard. Since then, she has taught writing and literature at colleges in Arizona and Oregon, and has published short stories in Baltimore Review, The Ledge, Crab Creek Review, Carve Magazine, Honolulu Magazine, Peregrine, and The Beacon Street Review, among others. She is the recipient of the Peregrine Prize for Fiction, the Magazine Fiction Award, and the Swarthout Fiction Award, and was awarded the Leslie Bradshaw Fiction Fellowship from Oregon Literary Arts. She lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon with her husband and two children.
D. Franklin Schultz is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Lakeland, Florida and is licensed in both Texas and Florida. He has been providing therapy in both in and outpatient settings since 1984. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin and has been licensed as a clinical psychologist since 1994. Dr. Schultz works with individuals, couples and families and presents communication workshops for premarital and married couples. Dr. Schultz is the author of A Language of the Heart: Therapy Stories That Heal which is a USA Book News 2005 Best Book Award finalist and co-author of the cognitive behavioral treatment book: Trauma Practice: Tools for Stabilization and Recovery and workbook: Tools for Trauma: A CBT Approach.
Robert Mark Silverman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and a Senior Research Associate in the Center for Urban Studies at SUNY-Buffalo. His research focuses on community-based organizations, citizen participation, race relations, and urban inequality. He is the author of Doing Business in Minority Markets: Black and Korean Entrepreneurs in Chicago's Ethnic Beauty Aids Industry (Garland Publishing 2000) and the editor of Community-Based Organizations: The Intersection of Social Capital and Local Context in Contemporary Urban Society. He is also the moderator for the Cyberhood website (http://www.thecyberhood.net).
Richard Victor, author of The Ultimate Guide to Online Investing; A Stockbroker Tells You Everything You Need to Know, got his start in the investment industry as a broker with Charles Schwab for over eight years, just before the online investing revolution took off. Internet trading was originally designed for people who were tech-savvy and fairly sophisticated investors, who needed little if any human contact. Because they were "self-service" clients, e.Schwab clients received a deeper discount. Richard now conducts lectures and workshops around the Phoenix area on how to find and use the best Websites for investing, and offers 401(k) training to companies, groups and one-on-one in his Scottsdale office. He earned his B.A. in English from Arizona State University, and a Certified Financial Planner designation in July, 2000.
Dr. Matthew C. Whitaker, author of Race Work: The Rise of Civil Rights in the Urban West, is an award winning scholar, teacher, activist and emerging voice among public intellectuals in the United States. Professor Whitaker is Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, where he is also an Affiliate of the African and African American Studies Program and the School of Justice and Social Inquiry. Dr. Whitaker is a highly sought after writer, speaker, and consultant, who’s historical training and expertise in interpersonal and intercultural communication, social movements, politics, and popular culture places him at the cutting edge of our constantly changing global society.