Professor of English
Matthew Roth
Professor of English
Matthew Roth's first book of poetry, Bird Silence, was published by the Woodley Press. His new book, Rains Rain, is forthcoming in 2023 from FutureCycle Press. His poems have been published in many national journals, including Verse, American Literary Review, Antioch Review, and 32 Poems. He has also published a number of frequently cited articles on Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, Pale Fire. He serves as Associate Reviews Editor for the Nabokov Online Journal. When not engaged in creative and scholarly pursuits, Matthew enjoys gardening, camping, and spending time with his wife, Kerry, and two children, Ella and Silas.
Matthew Roth Poetry Reading (live video, with an introduction by Professor Christine Perrin)
Tara Stillions Whitehead
Tara Stillions Whitehead is a multi-genre writer and filmmaker from Southern California. She has more than 8,000 hours of on-set experience in film and television production as a producer, DGA assistant director, and sound mixer/designer; major credited shows and films include The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Privileged, Saints & Sinners, and GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra.
Her fiction and nonfiction have been published widely, and she has received Best of the Net, Best Small Fiction, and Pushcart Prize nominations for her writing. Her essay, “The Mother Must Die and Other Lies Fairy Tales Told Me,” was selected as a notable essay in Best American Essays 2022, edited by Alexander Chee. She is the author of three fiction/hybrid collections, Blood Histories, The Year of the Monster, and They More Than Burned (a Small Press Distribution best seller). She is Assistant Professor of Film, Video, and Digital Media at Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, PA, where she lives with her husband and children.
Abigail Baia
Abigail Baia has been teaching English and creative writing for thirteen years. She holds her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing: fiction, with a graduate certificate in online writing instruction. Her first book, The Art of Drowning, was a best seller in its category. She is currently revising her second novel, More Than One Way to Breathe, while plotting her third. Abigail has recently founded a publishing company, Wild Ink Publishing, where she aims to help new authors achieve their first publishing credit. She has coordinated ten literary anthologies, showcasing work from an international group of authors and poets. Abigail is also a literary judge for the NYC Midnight Short Story Competition.