Wickham Boyle
Wickham Boyle, known as Wicki, wears many hats: journalist, writer, finance consultant and theater producer. She writes about the arts, finance, parenting and travel for The New York Times, Savoy, National Geographic, Budget Travel, and Downtown Express. She was one of the founders of CODE Magazine, and editor-in-chief of THRIVE. Her short story, "Don't Think You're Calling Too Much," appeared in HSE's Voice from the Planet. Her essays can be heard on the AARP radio stations during their Prime Time show.
Ben Mattlin
Ben Mattlin is an NPR commentator, a contributing editor at Institutional Investor magazine, and a frequent contributor to other financial and general-interest publications. His short story, "Learning to Crawl" was first published in HSE's Voice from the Planet. His credits also include Newsweek and Self magazines, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and USA Today. Mattlin has written for the Mark Taper Forum, Blonde and Brunette Productions, and the children’s television program Biker Mice From Mars. He has appeared on ABC’s Prime Time Live, CNN, and E! Entertainment Network; been interviewed on radio stations KKFI and KPFK, Los Angeles, and KSLC, Salt Lake City; and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Penthouse, and USA Today.
Maria Pavlova
Maria Pavlova was born in the second largest city in Bulgaria, Plovdiv. Her short story, "The Fire Dancer," was first published in HSE's Voice from the Planet. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have been published in Cezanne’s Carrot, Forge, Yellow Medicine Review, and Etchings. She has a degree in Slavic studies and has worked as a journalist for various Bulgarian newspapers. Maria writes essays, poetry, short stories, and novelettes, some of which have been published in the press. When she started working on her first novel, The Rival, Maria took a leave of absence so she could concentrate on the process of writing. The novel tells the story of a blind girl who simultaneously discovers love, life and the feeling for colors.
Paula Brancato
Paula Brancato is an award-winning fiction writer, poet and filmmaker, and is on faculty at the University of Southern California. Paula was a May Swenson and Holland Prize finalist and has won the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry, the Brushfire Poet Award, first prize Chester H. Jones Foundation, the Karlovy Vary film festival award, National Screenwriters Award, Pacific Northwest Writers Association and the Organization of Black Screenwriters, SCIFF Family Focus and WINFEMME awards. She has been a Sundance finalist twice. Paula has been published in HSE's Voice from the Planet, Mudfish, Georgetown Review, Litchfield Review, Southern California Anthology, Rattle, and Natchez Anthology, among others.
Tom Dolembo
Tom Dolembo, Harvard '67 English cum laude, MBA '71, David McCord writing scholar. An excerpt of his novel The Grapes and the Fox appears in HSE's Above Ground anthology. Tom lives on a farm and bird sanctuary in the village of Kewadin in Northwest Michigan. A native Hoosier born in Michigan City, Indiana, he is the author of numerous tracts, novels, poems, and articles. He can be found near lakes, rivers, streams, and low marshy places often looking for wildlife who are effortlessly avoiding him. His recent writing projects have included an enormous Civil War Trilogy, a shorter book of children's poems, and filler articles for rural newspapers on raising chickens and astronomy.
Stan Duncan
Stan G. Duncan (HDS, ‘90) has published a book on human rights in El Salvador, four books on economic development in the Third World, and a collection of devotional writings, plus numerous articles, essays, and National Public Radio commentaries. An excerpt of his first work of fiction—a novella written for his collection of short fiction, The Fire on Poteau Mountain—appears in HSE's Above Ground. Stan is a Huffington Post blogger and has worked as a protestant pastor, campus minister, college instructor, jazz pianist, and development economist. He has lived in five states and six countries and speaks broken English in three languages. He has three children and four grandchildren.
Charity Shumway
Charity Shumway's writing has appeared in HSE's Above Ground anthology, Glamour, Oregon Coast Magazine, on glamour.com, LadiesHomeJournal.com, FitnessMagazine.com, SocialWorkout.com, Soon Quarterly, and Slice Magazine. She has held jobs as a speechwriter, lawn care expert, night janitor, LSAT tutor, tuxedo shop girl, farm worker, restaurant hostess, and reader for the blind. She grew up in Centerville, Utah and lives in Brooklyn. Charity holds an MFA in creative writing from Oregon State University and a BA in English from Harvard University. She's a graduate of the Columbia Publishing Course and has a certificate in horticulture from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Geoffrey Fox
Geoffrey Fox's story "On a Page from Rilke" appears in HSE's Above Ground anthology. He has published a novel and many stories including the short-story collection Welcome to My Contri. His nonfiction books include Hispanic Nation: Culture, Politics and the Constructing of Identity (U. Arizona Press); The Land and People of Argentina (HarperCollins); The Land and People of Venezuela (HarperCollins); Working Class Émigrés from Cuba (Ph.D. dissertation and book); and Gabriel García Márquez's 100 Years of Solitude (Monarch Notes).
Maya Levantini
Maya Levantini was born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. She is the author of several short stories, and the novel Cine te uită, released in 2021. An excerpt from her work is included in the Above Ground anthology.
Alan Swyer
Alan Swyer is an award-winning filmmaker whose recent documentaries have dealt with Eastern spirituality in the Western world, the criminal justice system, diabetes, boxing, and blues. His new film, When Houston Had the Blues, was reviewed in the Houston Chronicle and Film Threat, among others. It won Best Documentary Award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in 2020. The documentary also received an award in Paris, and an Audience Award in Amsterdam. According to the Britain's Blues & Rhythm, "The amount of musical talent to come out of Houston is unsurpassed.... Not enough space to tell everyone how good this documentary is." Swyer is now producing a follow-up, When LA Got the Blues, featuring giants like Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Etta James, as well as Louis Jordan, Little Esther, the Chambers Brothers, and including interviews with John Densmore and Robbie Krieger of The Doors, Dave Alvin of the Blasters, and Willie Chambers.
Jonathan Facelli
A native Ohioan, Jonathan Facelli received a BA from Ohio State and a JD from Harvard Law School. He spent a year in Argentina, working as a volunteer in the slums of Buenos Aires and writing in his spare time. His short story, "La Criada's Guide to Stain Removal" first appeared in HSE's Above Ground. He is currently putting the finishing touches on a travel memoir, excerpts of which have been published, and is also working on a novel. Since returning from Argentina, Facelli's work has appeared in the Humanist, Haruah, South American Explorers Magazine, and BiblioFiles, and is slated to appear in the book Global Issues: Local Perspectives.