Press 53 . PO Box 30314, Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314 Email Us
Meet our Editors
Literate Yourself!
Tom Lombardo: Poetry
Tom Lombardo of Atlanta, GA, is Poetry Editor at Press 53. Last year (2008), Tom edited and published After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events (Sante Lucia Books), which features 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 countries. Tom is a widely published and respected poet, and is a graduate of the MFA program at Queens University in Charlotte, NC. His mission is to bring 4-6 poetry collections to Press 53 each year and to serve as preliminary judge for Poetry in the Press 53 Open Awards. To learn more about Tom and After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events visit www.poetryofrecovery.com.
Laura Benedict
Laura Benedict is the author of the novel, Isabella Moon. Her short fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and several anthologies. Her second novel, Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts, is available in hardcover from Random House. For the past decade she’s worked as a freelance book reviewer for The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan and other newspapers. She lives in Southern Illinois with her husband, Pinckney Benedict. Visit Laura at www.laurabenedict.com.
Pinckney Benedict
Pinckney Benedict grew up on his family’s farm in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. He has published two collections of short fiction and a novel. His stories have appeared in, among other magazines and anthologies, Esquire, Zoetrope All-Story, the O. Henry Award series, the New Stories from the South series, Ontario Review, the Pushcart Prize series, and The Oxford Book of American Short Stories. He is the recipient, among other prizes, of a Literature Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Literary Fellowship from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, a Michener Fellowship from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, and Britain’s Steinbeck Award. He is a professor in the English Department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois.
Surreal South is published ever odd year in the October.
Jeffery Hess
Jeffery Hess served six years in the U.S. Navy and holds a B.A. from the University of South Florida and an MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. He’s held writing positions at a major daily newspaper, a Fortune 500 company, and a university-based research center. In addition to corporate publications and websites, his writing has appeared in The Houston Literary Review, American Skating World, Writer’s Journal, and the Tampa Tribune. He lives in Florida where he’s completing a novel and leads a creative writing workshop for military veterans.
Dan Wickett
Dan Wickett began the Emerging Writers Network in 2000, reviewing books. Since then it has grown to a network of nearly 2000 individuals receiving Dan's book reviews, interviews, e-panels and other literary suggestions. He is a member of the Litblog Co-op. Dan co-founded Dzanc Books with Steven Gillis in 2006. Together they publish literary fiction, set up Dzanc Writer in Residency Programs, and do what they can to help literary journals expand their subscriber bases.
Visiting Hours debuted in Novermber 2008
Home of the Brave debuted May2009
A portion of this book’s proceeds are being donated to USA Cares a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that assists post 9/11 military service members and their families to cope with the financial burdens resulting from their service to America.
Josh Woods
Josh Woods won the 2008 Press 53 Open Awards Contest in Genre Fiction, and his stories are published in the 2009 Main Street Rag’s Short Fiction Anthology and in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology. His book review and non-fiction work has been published in The Susquehanna Review, UE Magazine, and Crab Orchard Review. In addition to editing Versus, he is also Associate Editor of the upcoming Surreal South ’09 (See above). He is currently enrolled in the MFA Fiction Program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
The Versus Anthology debuted May 2009
Kevin Morgan Watson: Short Fiction
Kevin Morgan Watson is founder of Press 53 and serves as the Short Fiction Editor. As a publisher, he has worked with writers ranging from first-time published authors to winners of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. As a writer, his short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including the 2002 TallGrass Writers Guild/Outrider Press anthology Take Two—They’re Small, where his short story “Sunny Side Up” won first prize. Kevin also serves as an advisor for student adaptation of short stories to screenplays with the screenwriting faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking in Winston-Salem, NC.
Sally Drumm: MilSpeak Books (Imprint of Press 53)
Sally Drumm is the founder of Milspeak Foundation. She is a Marine Corps retiree and disabled veteran. Her writing has appeared in Gargoyle, The Gettysburg Review, Mythic Passages and other venues, including Milspeak Memo, an online journal dedicated to freedom of speech and sharing military life in the words of those who live it. Visit Milspeak Memo to read and contribute at www.milspeak.org.
A portion of the proceeds from MILSPEAK is being donated to the Chaplans Helping Hands Fund, which helps soldiers and family members with spiritual and financial needs.
MILSPEAK: Warriors, Veterans, Family, and Friends Writing the Military Experience debuts July 2009.
Robin Miura has worked in publishing for ten years, first as a production editor for Oxford University Press and for the past seven years as a freelance editor, proofreader, publishing consultant, and writing coach for publishing companies and individual authors. She has worked with all types of books--from academic and educational to self-help--but her passion is literary fiction and nonfiction. Robin is a North Carolina native who enjoys living outside of Raleigh with her husband and two children.
Robin Miura: Novel, Memoir
