Staff List

Meet the People of Poets & Writers

• Administration
• Poets & Writers Magazine
• Information Services
• Readings/Workshops (East)
• Readings/Workshops (West) and California Office

ADMINISTRATION

Elliot Figman – Executive Director

As an earlier admirer of Poets & Writers, Elliot came to the organization as a volunteer in 1977. Four years later he was appointed the organization’s executive director. Elliot graduated Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in English from Oberlin College in 1971 and earned an MA in Teaching from the University of Massachusetts in 1972. He has served on the Board of Directors of Oberlin College and The Corlears School. An accomplished poet, his book, Big Spring, was published by Four Way Books in 2003.

Melissa Ford Gradel, CFRE – Managing Director

Melissa joined the P&W staff in 2010, bringing 15 years of experience as a development director and consultant with a range of arts and cultural organizations.  Early in her career, she assisted P&W in writing the initial grant proposals for pw.org.  Most recently, she served as Director of Development at Urban Green Council.  Melissa holds a BFA from New York University.  She is a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and a Certified Fund Raising Executive.

William F. Hayes – Director of Finance and Accounting

Bill has been controller of Poets & Writers since 1999. He has been involved in the media industry for the past twenty-five years. Prior to joining Poets & Writers, Bill served as the controller of the Talman Company, a small press publisher and distributor located in New York City. Bill has also held the position of assistant to the treasurer/controller of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI), and controller of United Artists Cablesystems, Inc., eastern division. He is a graduate of Rutgers University’s CPA emphasis program.

Alexanne Pemberton – Staff Accountant

Alex has worked at Poets & Writers since 2006. She has served as the accounting coordinator for Niche Media and has worked in the finance departments at Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

Jason Chapman – Director, Information Technology

Jason has worked in the IT industry for over twenty years, and joined Poets & Writers in 1997. His diverse experiences include mainframe operations for the Georgia Institute of Technology, application development for a military contractor, and Web development for a variety of businesses. He is also the author of the novel, The Heretic, an early success in the still-developing arena of electronic publishing.

D. Sulaitis – Administrative Coordinator

D. has worked at Poets & Writers since 1991. Her short stories have appeared in Inkwell, New York Stories, and Painted Bride Quarterly, and one of her essays was included in My Father Married Your Mother (Norton, 2006). In 2006, D. won the Boston Review’s annual fiction contest, and she has been a finalist in both the New Letters and Zoetrope fiction contests, and for the Flannery O’Connor award for a collection of short stories. She is the recipient of two fiction fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and holds a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Hartford.

Linda Rondinelli– Assistant Development & Marketing Director

Prior to joining Poets & Writers in 2008, Linda held various development and communications positions with social justice and social service nonprofits, was an AmeriCorps*VISTA volunteer, worked for a corporate marketing consulting firm, and in academic publishing. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the College of William and Mary and a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin where her graduate studies focused on nonprofit and philanthropic studies, media studies, and cultural policy.

Chris Reichheld– Development & Marketing Coordinator

Chris graduated from New York University’s College of Arts & Science with a degree in dramatic literature and theater history, and joined P&W in 2005. He served for two years as associate theater editor of Washington Square News, NYU’s daily newspaper, and has previously worked in the publicity department of Harry N. Abrams, completed a yearlong fellowship at the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and interned at Playbill.com.

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POETS & WRITERS MAGAZINE

Mary Gannon – Editorial Director

Mary has worked in the editorial department of Poets & Writers Magazine since 1996; she became editor in 2005 and editorial director in 2009. She is also coeditor of the book, The Practical Writer: From Inspiration to Publication, which was published by Penguin in 2004. She has worked at Hearst Magazines, and has taught writing as a faculty associate at Arizona State University where she received her MFA in poetry and where she was a poetry editor at Hayden’s Ferry Review. Mary has published her poetry in a variety of literary magazines, including the Antioch Review, the Paris Review, SHADE, and Washington Square, among others, and book reviews in Chelsea, the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, and Poetry International.

Kevin Larimer – Editor

Kevin has been with Poets & Writers since 1999; he became editor in 2009. He holds a degree in journalism and received his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where he was the poetry editor of the Iowa Review. He has also been the sports editor of a daily newspaper, an editorial assistant for a science book publisher, and a proofreader for a university press. His poems have appeared in Fence, Pleiades, Verse, and a dozen other literary magazines. He has written book reviews for American Letters & Commentary, American Book Review, Chelsea, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Suzanne Pettypiece – Managing Editor

Prior to joining Poets & Writers in 2002, Suzanne worked as a book editor for Pearson and also served in various positions at several magazines and newspapers. She received her MA in journalism from Ball State University. She is cofounder and editor of the print and online literary journal Ballyhoo Stories.

Jean Hartig – Assistant Editor

Jean joined Poets & Writers in 2007 after receiving her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. She has worked as an associate regional editor for Lumina , the graduate literary journal of Sarah Lawrence, and as an editorial assistant at A Public Space magazine. Jean’s poetry has appeared in Sink Review, Pax Americana, and Storyscape, and her chapbook, Ave, Materia, selected by Fanny Howe as winner of a New York City Chapbook Fellowship, was published in 2009 by the Poetry Society of America.

Tim O'Sullivan – Advertising Director

Tim O'Sullivan joined Poets & Writers in 2008. He has worked at Bookforum magazine, has taught undergraduate composition and creative writing, and was a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His fiction has appeared in A Public Space and received special mention in Pushcart Prize 2008.

Sara Femenella– Advertising Coordinator

Sara Femenella's work is published or forthcoming in Pleiades, MiPOesias, Milk Magazine, and Saint Ann's Review. She received her BA from Oberlin College and most recently her MFA in poetry from Columbia University. Prior to working at Poets & Writers, she was the assistant editor at the Saint Ann's Review for several years. She grew up in New York City.

Ileen Choi– Advertising Associate

Ileen graduated from New York University in May 2008, where she studied English and Spanish literature, and Creative Writing. In her senior year, her short story was published in West 10th Journal. Before joining Poets & Writers, Ileen interned at Redbook and W magazines. She was born and raised just outside of Los Angeles, California.

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INFORMATION SERVICES

Bryan Patrick Miller – Information Services Assistant

Bryan joined Poets & Writers at the close of 2009. His essays have appeared in the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and Seattle Magazine, and his poetry has appeared in Crab Creek Review and Raven Chronicles. He has been a writer-in-residence at Richard Hugo House and a Geduld Master Fellow at New York University, where he earned an MFA in poetry and taught undergraduate creative writing. He currently co-directs NYU's Starworks fellowship program.

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READINGS/WORKSHOPS (EAST)

Bonnie Rose Marcus – Director of Readings/Workshops (East) and the Writers Exchange

Bonnie joined Poets & Writers in July 2000, bringing more than 20 years of experience in the field of arts education. Bonnie has conducted theatre and writing workshops at numerous community-based organizations in New York City and created a model program, Project VIP (Voice, Identity, Power), a theatre writing initiative for adolescent girls, which continues at New Settlement Apartments in the Bronx. A writer and performer, Bonnie has presented her poetry at venues including ABC No Rio, Boricua College, Cornelia Street Café, the New School for Social Research, and Playwrights Horizon. Her theatre credits include a three and a half year run in the Off Broadway show, “Tony ‘n Tina’s Wedding.”

Nicole Sealey – Program Manager, Readings/Workshops (East) and the Writers Exchange

Nicole joined Poets & Writers in 2004. She has written for a number of arts journals including Code Z: Black Visual Culture. Her interviews with acclaimed writers Sapphire, DJ Spooky, and Patricia Smith can be found in Artists and Influence: Volume XXV, Studio, and Mosaic literary magazine, respectively. Her poems have appeared in Feeding the Soul: Black Music, Black Thought, and His Rib.

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READINGS/WORKSHOPS (WEST) and CALIFORNIA OFFICE

Cheryl Klein – Director, California Office and Readings/Workshops (West)

Cheryl Klein joined Poets & Writers in 2002. Her first book, The Commuters: A Novel of Intersections (San Diego City Works Press, 2006), won City Works Press’ Ben Reitman Award. Previously, she coedited the online queer fiction magazine Blithe House Quarterly and taught creative writing to homeless youth, high school girls, and teen boys in the criminal justice system. She received a BA in English from UCLA, and an MFA in writing from California Institute of the Arts.

Jamie Asaye FitzGerald – Program Manager, California Office and Readings/Workshop (West)

Jamie has worked for Poets & Writers since 2005. While an undergraduate at the University of Southern California, she received an Academy of American Poets College Prize and the Edward W. Moses Poetry Prize. She has taught creative writing, composition, and literature at San Diego State University where she received an MFA in poetry. She also has extensive experience as a copywriter. Her poetry has appeared in Ariel, Fulcrum, LORE, Poetic Diversity,Speechless, and Snow Monkey, as well as the King County Poetry on the Buses Project. Jamie is originally from Hawaii.

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