Poets & Writers Staff

Serena joined Poets & Writers in August 2024. She holds an A.B. in comparative literature and creative writing from Princeton University, where she worked as the Editor-in-chief of the Nassau Weekly. She went on to receive master's degrees in social anthropology and world literatures in English from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Serena edited poetry for the Oxford Review of Books and the thirtieth annual Mays Anthology. She has also led creative writing workshop series around themes of social justice with the Oxford Poetry Library and the Estuary Institute. Her debut chapbook, Sensitive to Temperature (Smith/Doorstop, 2023) received the 2022 New Poets Prize. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Poetry from NYU. Her first book, Love over Language: The Search for Partial Universals, is forthcoming from Duke University Press.

Nafeeza Alie brings over 20 years of experience in the philanthropic sector, and deep expertise in accounting, finance, human resources, and operations. Nafeeza served as Director of Finance and Administration at Philanthropy New York where she oversaw all aspects of financial management, including audits, 990 filings, AP/AR, reconciliations, and monthly reporting. She prepared annual budgets and cash forecasts, managed fiscal sponsorships, and supported the Finance and Audit Committees with strategic decision-making. Nafeeza also led grant and project accounting, ensured compliance with restricted funding requirements, and collaborated with HR consultants on benefits and employment policies. As a department leader, she supervised finance and operations staff, developed annual workplans, and helped embed racial equity commitments into organizational practices.  Nafeeza is very passionate about philanthropy and has dedicated her time to many local non-profit organizations including the Hudson Valley Food Pantry, Safe Harbors, Girls on the Run, and others. In her personal time, Nafeeza enjoys cooking different cuisines, being outdoors, and continuously developing herself through learning.

Jason Chapman has been with Poets & Writers since 1998. His prior IT experience includes work as varied as mainframe operations at Georgia Tech and software development for a military contractor. He is a science fiction writer whose work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Cosmos Magazine, among others, as well in anthologies such as Upgraded and Panverse One.

Amy Feltman joined Poets & Writers’ staff in June 2014. She earned her BA from Vassar College and holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Her work has been published in The Believer logger, The Millions, The Rumpus, The Toast, Cosmonauts Avenue, and Slice Magazine, among others. Her short story, “Speculoos,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016. Her debut novel, Willa & Hesper, was released by Grand Central Publishing in 2019 and was longlisted for a Jewish National Book Award. Her second novel, All the Things We Don’t Talk About, was published by Grand Central Publishing in 2022.

Jamie Asaye FitzGerald joined Poets & Writers in 2005. She is a Los Angeles-based hapa poet from Hawaii, who believes in the transformative power of writing and words in action. Prior to joining Poets & Writers, she worked in advertising and as an educator. She has an MFA in poetry fom San Diego State University and a BA in English/Creative Writing from the University of Southern California where she received an Academy of American Poets College Prize and the Edward Moses Poetry Prize.  Her poetry is published in The American Poetry Review, Works & Days, Mom Egg Review, and elsewhere, and has been included in anthologies such as Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts in Los Angeles (Tia Chucha Press, 2016) and Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles & Beyond (Beyond Baroque/Pacific Coast Poetry Series, 2015).

India Lena González is a poet, editor, and multidisciplinary artist. She received her BA from Columbia University and her MFA from New York University. fox woman get out! (BOA Editions, 2023), chosen by Aracelis Girmay as part of the Blessing the Boats Selections, is her debut poetry collection and was a finalist for Poetry Society of America’s 2024 Norma Farber First Book Award. A three-time National Poetry Series finalist, India is also a professionally trained dancer, choreographer, and actor. She has taught at Columbia University and NYU, as well as for the Poetry Society of New York, and has worked with Teachers & Writers Collaborative. She has been with Poets & Writers since 2019.

Melissa Ford Gradel is the executive director of Poets & Writers and publisher of Poets & Writers Magazine. From 2010 through 2020, she served as the organization’s managing director.

Under Gradel’s leadership, Poets & Writers has launched new programs including Get the Word Out, a publicity incubator for early career authors; created extensive online programming; and enhanced its digital resources, including Poets & Writers Groups. She is the publisher of Poets & Writers Magazine and led the transition to a new membership strategy that pairs subscriptions to the treasured publication with access to a suite of digital-first content, learning, and community, to meet writers’ needs now and in the future. Gradel serves on the Steering Committee of LitNet, a nationwide coalition of literary organizations.

Before joining Poets & Writers, she served as development director at Poets House, where she helped to secure a permanent home for the organization in Battery Park City. As a freelance consultant, she worked with a range of arts and cultural organizations including Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Prospect 1: New Orleans, International Center for Photography, Rhode Island School of Design, the Women’s Project, and others.

Caroline brings a unique blend of expertise in digital marketing and advocacy to the organization. Prior to joining Poets & Writers, she worked as a Project Manager on the International Rescue Committee's Creative Studio where she focused on brand stewardship, digital engagement strategy, and fundraising across global markets. Previously she led impactful human rights campaigns for Amnesty International USA through direct mail and email marketing. Caroline first got involved in New York community organizing in 2013, where she served unrepresented tenants facing unjust evictions in the Brooklyn Housing Court.

An alum of Fordham University with a degree in New Media and Digital Design, Caroline completed an interdisciplinary thesis on safe spaces for LBGTQ+ people within the Catholic Church. They are passionate about leveraging skills to uplift communities and foster inclusive environments. Born in Albany and currently in Brooklyn, she enjoys biking around the city and participating in the Capital Region Poets workshop.

Ricardo was the 2016-17 McCrindle Foundation Readings & Workshops Fellow, before becoming the Program Assistant in June 2017. He earned his BA from Baruch College and holds an MFA in Poetry from Rutgers-Newark. A recipient of fellowships from Lambda Literary, Poets House, and the Vermont Studio Center, and a semifinalist for the 2019 Vinyl 45 Chapbook Contest, Ricardo’s work has appeared in Muzzle Magazine, Witness Magazine, Hyperallergic, and The Offing, among others. Born in Mexico City and raised in Queens, he now lives in Brooklyn.

Jessica joined Poets & Writers in May 2014. She received her BA from the University of California in San Diego, studying Human Development and Literature Writing, and has lived in New York City since 2000. She has worked in online media for Spin, CNET, and the Child Mind Institute, a nonprofit for children's mental health. She was selected to participate in the JET Programme in 2007, teaching English in Japan. Jessica has trained in the martial art of Shorinji Kempo for many years and enjoys performing and writing music, photography, and comedy. Her writing has appeared in Black Renaissance Noire, Midwestern Gothic, PANK, and Tribes.

Emma Komlos-Hrobsky joined Poets & Writers Magazine in 2019. Previously, she served as senior editor at Tin House magazine and associate editor at Tin House Books. She's honored to have edited works that won the Lambda Award, the Publishing Triangle Award, and the Pushcart Prize, and that have been finalists for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Her writing has appeared in Conjunctions, Hunger Mountain, Bookforum, Tin House, Guernica, Broadcast, the Story Collider, and elsewhere . She is also the co-writer and librettist of The Colony, an experimental art-science opera that premiered at the University of Connecticut in 2019. She volunteers with the arts nonprofits Creature Conserve and the Freya Project. With the support of the Elizabeth George Foundation, she is at work on a novel about particle physics, motherhood, and the Alps.

Kevin has been with Poets & Writers since 1999; he became editor in chief in 2013. He is the coauthor of The Poets & Writers Complete Guide to Being a Writer: Everything You Need to Know About Craft, Inspiration, Agents, Editors, Publishing, and the Business of Building a Sustainable Writing Career (Avid Reader Press, 2020). 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 given presentations and appeared on a number of panels on publishing at events such as the Library of Congress National Book Festival, the Sozopol Fiction Seminars, the Anguilla Lit Fest, the Slice Literary Writer’s Conference, the Iceland Writers Retreat, the Kauai Writers Conference, the Kachemak Bay Writers’ Conference, Poets Forum, the Bronx Book Fair, and the Writer’s Hotel. His poems have appeared in Poetry International, 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.

Jean joined P&W in 2025 with extensive experience in print and digital magazine production. Working at Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, Popular Science, and Saveur, she learned to manage editorial workflows, create schedules, and set up keyboard shortcuts for just about anything. Four times, she was a member of a team that won a National Magazine Award. Before all that, she earned a BA in English from Colgate University and spent a year teaching conversational English in Japan. An avid reader and library-card holder since childhood, Jean is delighted to find herself at an organization that actually helps people write and publish books. 

Taylor Michael joined Poets & Writers in August 2025. She is an arts and culture writer whose work has appeared in Belt Magazine, The Baffler, The Observer, All Arts, Artsy, ArtNews, and Hyperallergic. She is an associate editor at A Public Space and was the 2020 A Public Space editorial fellow. She was on the shortlist for the AICA-USA Art Critic Fellowship and participated in Critically Minded x NYT Cultural Critics Program. Her writing has been supported by the Southampton Writers Conference and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She has an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University School of the Arts and a BA in English and Africana Studies from Brown University.

Tim joined Poets & Writers in 2008. He has published novel excerpts in A Public Space, one of which was re-published in the 2012 Pushcart Prize Anthology; another excerpt received special mention in the 2008 Pushcart Prize Anthology. He has been a Teaching-Writing Fellow at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, an Emerging Writer Fellow at the Center for Fiction, and a Residential Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the MacDowell Colony. He is at work on a novel.

Bea joined Poets & Writers in October 2023. In 2024, they graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Comparative Literature and a Minor in Creative Writing, and they have worked or interned for the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, BOMB Magazine, Plympton, the Stanford Creative Writing Program, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project, among other places.

In their free time, they also edit the English Wikipedia and, in 2025, were named an Editor of the Week. They additionally help out with the WikiPortraits project, for which they have professionally shot photography at events like the National Book Awards, the Sundance Film Festival, AWP, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, SXSW, Art Basel, and more.

Nicole joined Poets & Writers in November 2024. She previously worked as a Digital Producer with NBC News and managed the online output for "NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt." She received her B.A. from New York University, where she studied journalism, psychology and creative writing. In her free time, Nicole can generally be found writing poetry, baking for friends, or thinking about plants.

Rachel joined Poets & Writers’ development and marketing team in 2011; she became Director of Development & Marketing in 2021 and Director of Development & Communicaitons in 2024. Her previous experience in the nonprofit arts sector includes roles with the Creative Capital Foundation and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Rachel has a background in visual art and is inspired by makers and storytellers of all types. She holds a BA from Bowdoin College and an MFA in Combined Media from Hunter College, and has received artist fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center, the Bronx Museum’s Artist in the Marketplace program, and Skowhegan.

DS Sulaitis is the recipient of three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, in both fiction and creative nonfiction, and a recipient of a fiction grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation.

Her short stories have appeared several times in the Boston Review, once as the winner of their fiction contest, in addition to other literary magazines. She is completing a memoir and a book of short stories as well as working on a novel. She received a second-place prize in the 2022 American Short(er) Fiction contest. Her creative nonfiction was published in a W.W. Norton Anthology. In her spare time she is involved with bully breed dog rescue and lives with four pit bulls.

Jason joined the Poets & Writers staff in June 2019. He has more than years of experience in accounting and finance, including with non-profit organizations such as Planned Parenthood of New York City and Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. He has an undergraduate degree in accounting from American International College and a master’s degree in professional accountancy from Southern University and A&M College. In his free time, Jason is a photographer and enjoys capturing the human spirit through his camera lens.