OUR STAFF

Steven Wittenberg Gordon, Editor-in-Chief

Steven Wittenberg Gordon, MD is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Songs of Eretz Poetry Review. He holds a BA from Amherst College and an MD from Albany Medical College.  Originally from the dairy country of upstate New York and most recently from Kansas, Dr. Gordon now resides in Calais, Maine.

In addition to regular appearances in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, Dr. Gordon's poetry has appeared in New Myths, Asimov’s, Hospital Drive, and other fine publications.   He divides his time between editing, writing, reading, and providing medical care to a cadre of his fellow military veterans in the small town in Maine in which he resides.  Learn more about Dr. Gordon and his publication history by exploring his personal blog, Steves of Grass http://www.StevesofGrass.blogspot.com.  

Lana the Poetry Dog 
Lana the Poetry Dog (pictured with Dr. Gordon) helps Dr. Gordon identify and reject and "doggerel" poems submitted for consideration.  An Airdale terrier of noble pedigree, Lana enjoys meaty bones, long walks, and barking at less sophisticated dogs--especially retrievers.

James Frederick William Rowe, Associate Editor

A Charter Member of the Frequent Contributor ranks, James Frederick William Rowe was an FC from January 1, 2016, until his promotion to Associate Editor October 6, 2018.  

Terri Lynn Cummings, Assistant Editor

Terri Lynn Cummings was a member of the Frequent Contributor ranks from January 1, 2017, until her promotion to Assistant Editor October 11, 2018.  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’ first poetry collection, Tales to the Wind, in 2016. She was a 2015 and 2016 Woody Guthrie Poet and enjoys hosting the monthly poetry series/open mic “Oklahoma Voices” 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 was recently anthologized in Blood & Thunder:  Musings on the Art of Medicine. In addition, her poetry has appeared in Oklahoma Humanities Magazine, Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal, Eclectica Magazine, Dragon Poet Review, Red River Review, Illya’s Honey, and other fine publications. 

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.

Ross Balcom, Frequent Contributor
Ross Balcom lives in the former constitutional republic of the United States. His poems have appeared in Beyond Centauri, inkscrawl, Poetry Midwest, Spectral Realms, Star*Line, and other publications. In addition to poetry, his interests include parapsychology, hypnosis, and neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).  A Charter Member of the Frequent Contributor ranks, Ross has been an FC since January 1, 2016.

Sylvia Cavanaugh, Frequent Contributor

Sylvia Cavanaugh attended undergraduate school in western Pennsylvania then moved to the Midwest to earn her M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin.  She teaches African and Asian history and cultural studies in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and has been the advisor for the breakdancing and poetry clubs.  Sylvia is on the board of the Council for Wisconsin Writers.   

Sylvia’s poems have been included in numerous periodicals and anthologies.  She has published two chapbooks: “Staring Through My Eyes” (Finishing Line Press, 2015), and “Angular Embrace” (Kelsay Books, 2018), and is currently working on a Young Adult novel.  Sylvia joined the Frequent Contributor ranks on October 19, 2018. 

Gene Hodge, Frequent Contributor
Gene is a member of the Chattanooga Writer’s Guild and International Bureau of Electrical Workers.  He is also a professional entertainer who performs throughout the south and northeast.  He hails from Soddy Daisy, Tennessee.  A review of his latest published poetry collection, in the moment, may be found here http://www.songsoferetz.com/2017/11/pop-by-gene-hodge.html.  Gene has been a Frequent Contributor since January 1, 2018.

John C. Mannone, Frequent Contributor

John C. Mannone has work in Blue Fifth Review, Peacock Journal, Gyroscope Review, New England Journal of Medicine, Baltimore Review, Pedestal, and Pirene’s Fountain. He’s the 2017 recipient of the prestigious Jean Ritchie Fellowship for Appalachian literature. Other accomplishments include two Weymouth residencies; three poetry collections—Apocalypse (Alban Lake Publishing), Disabled Monsters (Linnet’s Wings Press) featured at the 2016 Southern Festival of Books, Flux Lines (Celtic Cat Publishing)—and the Joy Margrave Award in creative nonfiction (2015, 2017). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex, Silver Blade, and Liquid Imagination, and serves as president of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild. He’s a professor of physics and lives in East Tennessee. See the Art of Poetry, http://jcmannone.wordpress.com.  A Charter Member of the Frequent Contributor ranks, John has been an FC since January 1, 2016.

Karla Linn Merrifield, Frequent Contributor

National Park Artist-in-Residence Karla Linn Merrifield has had over 700 poems appear in dozens of journals and anthologies. She has thirteen books to her credit, most recently the book-length poem Psyche’s Scroll(The Poetry Box Select, 2018). Forthcoming in 2019 is her full-length book Athabaskan Fractal: Poems of the Far North(Cirque Press). Godwit:  Poems of Canada(FootHills Publishing) received the Eiseman Award for Poetry.

Karla is assistant editor and poetry book reviewer for The Centrifugal Eye. She is a member of Just Poets (Rochester, New York), the Florida State Poetry Society, the New Mexico Poetry Society, and The Author's Guild. Visit her blog, Vagabond Poet Redux, at http://karlalinn.blogspot.com; follow her on Twitter @LinnMerrifiel; or friend her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/karlalinn.merrifield.  Karla joined the Frequent Contributor ranks December 12, 2018.

Vivian Finley Nida, Frequent Contributor 

Vivian Finley Nida is a Teacher/Consultant with the University of Oklahoma’s Oklahoma Writing Project, a Mark Allen Everett Poetry Series poet, and a Woody Guthrie poet.  Since its inception in 1997, she has served on the advisory committee of Oklahoma City University’s Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature. 

Vivian holds a B.A. in English and an M.S. in Secondary Education from Oklahoma State University.  In addition, she has studied fiction and poetry at the University of Central Oklahoma and is a retired English and Creative Writing teacher.

Vivian’s work has appeared in Illya’s Honey, Dragon Poet Review, Oklahoma Writing Project Centennial Anthology, Oklahoma English Journal, and other fine publications.  She lives with her husband in Oklahoma City.  Vivian joined the Frequent Contributor ranks on October 16, 2018.

Howard F. Stein, Ph.D., Frequent Contributor

Howard 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, Howard 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.  Howard has been a Frequent Contributor since January 1, 2018.

Charles A. Swanson, Frequent Contributor

Charles A. Swanson is a graduate of the MFA program of Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina, he 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).  Charles joined the Frequent Contributor ranks on October 16, 2018.  

Alessio Zanelli, Frequent Contributor 

Alessio is from Cremona, a small city on the River Po in northern Italy, where he lives and works as a private wealth consultant. Self-taught in English, he started writing English language poetry in the mid-1980s.

Alessio's poems have appeared in literary journals from thirteen countries, mainly in the USA and the UK. In the States, his work has been published in:  Antietam Review, California Quarterly, Chiron Review, Concho River Review, Hawai’i Pacific Review, Italian Americana, Main Street Rag, Potomac Review, Sanskrit, Sierra Nevada Review, The Clarion Review, The Lyric, The Worcester Review, The Society Of Classical Poets, World Literature Today, and many other venues. He is the author of four original poetry collections, most recently Over Misty Plains (Indigo Dreams, UK, 2012). 

In addition to being a world-renowned poet, Alessio is an amateur painter, photographer, and ultra-marathon runner.  His poetry and artwork may be viewed on his website, www.alessiozanelli.it.  Alessio has been a Frequent Contributor since January 1, 2018. 

Past Frequent Contributors:

Anne Carly Abad was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to August 31, 2016.
Jason Artemus Gordon, our first Art Editor, served on the editorial staff from March 2, 2018 until November 17, 2019.  His art may be found throughout our pages.
Yoni Hammer-Kossoy was a Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2018, to November 30, 2018.
Sierra July was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to November 23, 2018.

Tricia Knoll was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to November 18, 2016.
Mary Soon Lee was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to December 7, 2018.
Lauren McBride was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to December 14, 2018.
David Pring-Mill was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to October 27, 2017.
John Reinhart was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to December 13, 2017.  He graciously agreed to cover for another FC from March 4, 2019, to October 26, 2019.
Aparna Sanyal was a Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2018, to December 21, 2018.
Kaitlyn Vaughn (nee Frazier) was a Charter Member Frequent Contributor from January 1, 2016, to May 18, 2016.  She graciously agreed to cover for another FC from December 25, 2017, to July 2, 2018.