Dr. Rachela Permenter

Professor of English at Slippery Rock University, has taught literature and writing for twenty-four years. She earned her PhD from Northern Illinois. She has taught at Harper College in Chicago and has received scholarships to attend summer seminars in literary theory at Oriel College at the University of Oxford, England, and at the School of Literary Criticism at Dartmouth College. She has recently lectured and presented papers at the University of Rome, the University of Messina,  and Monash University Prato, Italy. Her publications are in 19th-century American literature.

Dr. Mark O’Connor

has a PhD in Creative Writing and has long been interested in interdisciplinary arts, such as combining creative nonfiction and travel/food writing. He has lived in Florence, where he studied Italian, Italian literature, and worked in a sculpture studio. His interest in food writing arose out of his work in the industry (including co-founding a catering company after college). In addition to being published in Gulf Coast, Creative Nonfiction, and Karamu, he also received a $5000 Creative Artist Fellowship Award for Creative Nonfiction from the Pennsylvania Arts Council.