OUR STAFF

Steven Wittenberg Gordon, Chief Executive Editor

Steven Wittenberg Gordon, MD is the founder and Chief Executive Editor of Songs of Eretz Poetry Review.  He served as the e-zine's first Editor-in-Chief until June 28, 2022.  He occasionally publishes under his Hebrew name, Shlomo ben Moshe HaLevi. 

A decorated former United States Air Force flight surgeon, Dr. Gordon holds a BA from Amherst College and an MD from Albany Medical College.  Since first hitting the literary scene in 2012 and in addition to regular appearances in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, Dr. Gordon has had dozens of poems and several short stories published in various mainstream and speculative venues.   

 

Dr. Gordon is originally from upstate New York, but his heart belongs to Kansas where he raised his children, owns a home, and buried his dog.  He serves a diverse immigrant population in his private solo concierge medical practice.

 

Dr. Gordon is pictured here reading beside the grave of his beloved Airedale terrier and Songs of Eretz mascot, Lana the Poetry Dog, now Lana the Poetree.   Learn more about Dr. Gordon, his publication history, the books he reads, and his political opinions by exploring his personal blog, Steves of Grass  http://www.StevesofGrass.blogspot.com. 

Terri Lynn Cummings, Editor-in-Chief

Terri Lynn Cummings was a member of the Frequent Contributor ranks from January 1, 2017, until her promotion to Assistant Editor, October 11, 2018.  She was further promoted to Associate Editor on December 4, 2020, and to Editor-in-Chief on June 28, 2022.

 

Cummings studied poetry, fiction, and non-fiction at Creative Writing Institute and holds a B.S. in Sociology/Anthropology from Oklahoma State University. She continues to explore social and cultural humanity, while she and her husband travel the world.

 

Village Books Press published Cummings’ poetry collections, Tales to the Wind, in 2016, and An Element Apart, in 2017. Woodvale Press published her third collection, When Distant Hours Call, in 2019. She was a 2015-2019 Woody Guthrie Poet and enjoys co-hosting a monthly poetry series/open mic “Full Circle Poetry” in Oklahoma City. She has presented her work at the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference, Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, and Howlers & Yawpers Creativity Symposium.

 

Cummings’ work is found in numerous anthologies and soon will appear in the 2021 issue of The Ignatian Literary Magazine. In addition, her poetry has appeared in Oklahoma Humanities Magazine, Right Hand Pointing, Pasatiempo/The New Mexican, Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal, Eclectica Magazine, and other fine publications.

 

 

Charles A. Swanson, Associate Editor

Charles A. Swanson was a member of the Frequent Contributor ranks from October 16, 2018 until he was promoted to Assistant Editor on November 1, 2021.  He was further promoted to Associate Editor on June 28, 2022.  

 

He is a graduate of the MFA program of Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and teaches dual enrollment English in a new Academy for Engineering and Technology, serving the Southside region of Virginia.  He also pastors a small church, Melville Avenue Baptist, in Danville.  

Swanson’s poetry and short fiction have appeared in Virginia Writing, Wildlife in North Carolina, ALCAlines, Appalachian Heritage, Appalachian Journal, Confluence, Pegasus, The English Journal, Now & Then, The Peacock Journal, Ascent Literary Magazine, Zingara Poetry Review, and elsewhere.  He has published a poetry collection, After the Garden (MotesBooks), and a poetry chapbook, “Farm Life and Legend” (Finishing Line Press). 

 

A Note about Our Frequent Contributors:   

Frequent Contributor status is bestowed upon a select few up-and-coming poets handpicked by the Editor-in-Chief.  Membership in this exclusive group is by invitation only.  Featured Frequent Contributor status is granted to certain Frequent Contributors by the Editor-in-Chief on an issue by issue basis to recognize extraordinary contributions to Songs of Eretz or on a permanent basis to recognize extraordinary contributions to Songs of Eretz and the world of poetry.

John C. Mannone

 

The last active Charter Member of the Frequent Contributor ranks, John has been an FC since January 1, 2016.  His poetry has been published in North Dakota Quarterly, the 2020 Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, Foreign Literary Review, Le Menteur, Blue Fifth Review, Poetry South, New England Journal of Medicine, Baltimore Review, and others. He won the Impressions of Appalachia Creative Arts Contest in poetry (2020), the Carol Oen Memorial Fiction Prize (2020), and the Joy Margrave Award in creative nonfiction (2015, 2017). He was awarded a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature and served as the celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. A retired university physics professor, John lives near Chattanooga, Tennessee.  See the Art of Poetry, http://jcmannone.wordpress.com and https://www.facebook.com/jcmannone.

Karla Linn Merrifield

Karla Linn Merrifield, a National Park Artist-in-Residence, has had over 900 poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has fourteen books to her credit. Following her Psyche’s Scroll (Poetry Box Select, 2018) is her full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North (Cirque Press, 2019). She is currently at work on a poetry collection, My Body the Guitar, inspired by famous guitarists and their guitars, slated to be published in December 2021 by Before Your Quiet Eyes Publications Holograph Series (Rochester, NY). Visit her website at https://KLMerrifield.WPengine.com; Tweet @LinnMerrifield; Facebook https://www.Facebook.com/KarlaLinnMerrifield.  Karla joined the Frequent Contributor ranks on December 12, 2018.

Vivian Finley Nida

Vivian Finley Nida holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Secondary Education from Oklahoma State University and has studied fiction and poetry at the University of Central Oklahoma.  She is a Teacher/Consultant with the Oklahoma Writing Project, a University of Oklahoma Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series poet, a Woody Guthrie poet, and serves on the advisory committee of Oklahoma City University’s Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature.  She is a retired English and Creative Writing teacher.

 

Vivian’s work has appeared in Conclave:  The Trickster’s Song, River Poet’s Journal, Dragon Poet Review, Illya’s Honey, Oklahoma English Journal, Oklahoma Writing Project Centennial Anthology, and other fine publications.  In addition, she has presented her poetry at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival.  She is the author of a book of poetry, From Circus Town USA (Village Books Press), the title of which comes from the nickname of her hometown, Hugo, Oklahoma, which is home to the Endangered Ark Elephant Sanctuary and winter headquarters for several circuses. 

 

Vivian joined the Frequent Contributor ranks on October 16, 2018.  She lives with her husband in Oklahoma City.

 

 

Howard F. Stein

Howard F. Stein, PhD is the Poet Laureate of the High Plains Society for Applied Anthropology, as well as a psychoanalytic, organizational, medical, and applied anthropologist, psychohistorian, organizational consultant, and medical educator. He retired in 2012 after spending nearly thirty-five years in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, where he became an advocate of rural medicine and rural health. 

In addition to features in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, Dr. Stein has ten published poetry collections to his name as well as hundreds of published papers, chapters, and books.  His most recent poetry collection is Light and Shadow (2016). He is currently working on a book of poetry called Centre and Circumference, tentatively scheduled to be published by MindMend Publishing (New York) sometime in 2018.  The link to his Amazon.com Author Page is https://www.amazon.com/Howard-F.-Stein/e/B001HCZ62C/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0.  Dr. Stein has been a Frequent Contributor since January 1, 2018.

Tyson West
Tyson West joined the FC ranks on March 14, 2020. His poetry collection Home-Canned Forbidden Fruit is available from Gribble Press.  He works in real estate in Eastern Washington.

 

Past Frequent Contributors:

Anne Carly Abad Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to August 31, 2016.

Ross Balcom Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to November 16, 2020.
Sylvia Cavanaugh October 19, 2018, to December 15, 2019.

Jason Artemus Gordon, our first Art Editor, March 2, 2018, to June 28, 2022.
Yoni Hammer-Kossoy January 1, 2018, to November 30, 2018.

Gene Hodge January 1, 2018, to March 27, 2021.
Sierra July Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to November 23, 2018.

Tricia Knoll Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to November 18, 2016.
Mary Soon Lee Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to December 7, 2018.
Lauren McBride Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to December 14, 2018.
David Pring-Mill Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to October 27, 2017.
John Reinhart Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to December 13, 2017.  In addition, John covered for another FC March 4, 2019, to October 26, 2019.

James Frederick William Rowe Charter Member, January 1, 2016, to August 21, 2021.  He served as Associate Editor October 6, 2018 to December 4, 2020.   
Aparna Sanyal January 1, 2018, to December 21, 2018.
Kaitlyn Vaughn (nee Frazier) Charter Member January 1, 2016, to May 18, 2016.  In addition, she covered for another FC from December 25, 2017, to July 2, 2018.

Alessio Zanelli January 1, 2018, to December 19, 2020.

 

In Memoriam
Lana the Poetry Dog, Dr. Gordon's beloved Airedale terrier and Songs of Eretz mascot, died September 22, 2020.  Her ashes were placed under a Wolf River apple sapling planted in her honor to mark her grave on Dr. Gordon's property in Kansas.  Dr. Gordon now fondly refers to her as "Lana the Poetree."  May her memory be a blessing.