Selected Memories

We're delighted to introduce our magazine contributors who are now also featured in our essay collection, Selected Memories:

Fred M.B. Amram, a child survivor of the Holocaust, left a successful career in academia to write fiction and creative nonfiction – to write without footnotes. His memoir (We’re in America Now: A Survivor’s Stories; Holy Cow! Press, 2016) includes two stories published by Hippocampus Magazine. Amram’s ever-evolving obituary appears on his fascinating website.

Stephanie Andersen lives near Reading, Pennsylvania, with two of her daughters, her husband, stepson, and two dogs. Her work, twice listed as Notable in Best American Essays and twice nominated for Pushcart Prizes, can be found in Brain, Child Magazine, Stoneboat Literary Journal, and The Washington Post. She is currently working on a memoir about giving her daughter up for adoption and what it takes to be a mother. She teaches writing at Reading Area Community College and, in her spare time, she teaches Zumba and watches birds.

Michael Andreoni's stories and essays have appeared in Fifth Wednesday, Euphony, Calliope, Avalon Literary Review, and other publications. He is at work on a short story collection.

Cathy A. E. Bell is a Colorado native and loves to write about her family, family history, and the small Colorado towns where she grew up. She has been published in The Rumpus, Full Grown People, Hippocampus Magazine, and other literary publications.

In his present incarnation, John Yu Branscum works as a writer, an English professor, and an editor for Black & Grey magazine. In the morning, he tenderly touches the bark of trees, and at night he rave-dances with his daughter, Francesca Lu, and his wife, the poet, Yi Izzy Yu.

Amy Braziller is a former punk rocker, sometimes banjo-twanging foodie, and professor of English at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood, Colorado. She writes words. Her writing muses and demons cross the genres of flash fiction/nonfiction, poetry, and personal essays.

Dorothy Hodell Brooks was a 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee by Hippocampus Magazine. She has published widely in creative nonfiction and poetry (Swamp Baby, poetry chapbook, Finishing Line Press, 2012; A Certain Sadness: The Untimely Deaths & Family of David & Romie Hodell in 1920s Rural Newaygo County, Michigan, Chapbook Press, 2015).

MT Cozzola is a Chicago-based, award-winning playwright and storyteller. Her work has been produced or developed at Chicago Dramatists, The Side Project, Victory Gardens, and other theatres. Her play BOY SMALL is available from Original Works Publishing. Other publication credits include After Hours, Crawdad Literary Review, and 3Elements Review.

Dawn S. Davies is an essayist. Her first collection, Mothers of Sparta, was published by Flatiron Books in 2017. She had a Notable Essay in the Best American Essays 2015, and a Pushcart Prize Special Mention for nonfiction in 2015. Her work can be found in The Missouri Review, Fourth Genre, Brain, Child, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.

Jennifer Alise Drew is the prose editor for AGNI magazine and has worked as an editor for numerous other magazines and publishers. She is completing an essay collection, excerpts from which have also appeared in The Iowa Review, The Chattahoochee Review, and Lumina.

Andrea Fox is a writer of memoir and creative nonfiction. Her topics range from infertility, adoption, and parenting, to mental illness, alcoholism, and faith. Her memoir-in-progress, Poured Out Like Water, is a melding of these themes. Andrea lives in Boston with her husband Bill and daughter Grace.

Bernard Grant received an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University as well as fellowships from Jack Straw, Mineral School, and the University of Cincinnati, where he is a Ph.D. candidate. His fiction has appeared Crab Orchard Review and the Chicago Tribune, and he is the author of the nonfiction chapbook Puzzle Pieces (Paper Nautilus Press).

Jim Gray is a graphic designer and dad living in Kensington, Maryland. He spends his spare time over-thinking his life and occasionally translates this into the written word. Jim’s work has appeared in Washingtonian magazine, The Good Man Project, and on the bottom tray of his desktop printer.

Jane Hammons has published fiction and nonfiction in numerous journals and anthologies, including Hint Fiction (W. W. Norton) and The Maternal is Political (Seal Press). Her photography has appeared in New York Times Magazine and The Culture Trip. Retired from teaching at UC Berkeley, she lives in Austin, Texas.

Ben Jolivet is a writer and playwright from Massachusetts.

Mary Killian is a grateful alcoholic and addict in long-term recovery. Originally from the Bronx, New York, she devoted herself to drugs and alcohol for many years, getting clean in 2001 and staying that way. So far, so good.

A New Englander, Jessica Bryant Klagmann received an MFA from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where she was also fortunate enough to acquire a haunted truck, an adventurous husband, and a too-adventurous dog. Her work appears in Whitefish Review, Written River: A Journal of Eco-Poetics, Crab Creek Review, and elsewhere.

Tyler Lacoma is a writer and editor from beautiful Bend, Oregon. With a lit degree from George Fox University and a love for all kinds of fiction, Tyler can't stop writing. In addition to waiting on that future book deal, Tyler works on online journals, whitepapers, and tech sites, generally making the internet a more interesting place. If you enjoy his work, let him know.

Sandra Gail Lambert writes fiction and memoir. Among the places her work has been published are New Letters, Brevity, the North American Review, Water~Stone, and Arts & Letters. Her writing has received Pushcart and Best of the Net nominations. The River's Memory (Twisted Road/2014) is her debut novel.

Pamela Ramos Langley lives in, and sometimes writes from, an exurb of southern California. She’s been twice nominated for Best of the Net and once for a Pushcart prize. She considers herself painfully ordinary, over-analytical, and, at times, overwhelmed by both the glory and desperation of life.

Lisa Nikolidakis’ work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Essays 2016, Los Angeles Review, Brevity, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Passages North, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing in the Midwest.

Amber K. Peckham lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she works as a writer both on staff at Metonymy Media and freelance. She is also a partner in the Indianapolis writing collective, The Geeky Press and was an editor of its anthology Bad Jobs and Bullshit. Amber completed her MFA in creative nonfiction at Northwestern University in 2014.

Jeanine Pfeiffer is an ethnoecologist exploring biocultural diversity: the connections between nature and culture. After working in over 30 countries, she settled in Mendocino County (northern California), where she serves as a scientific advisor for local government, tribes, and community-based agencies, and teaches environmental studies at San José State University..

Kay Marie Porterfield began writing in third grade after discovering the transforming power of stories, especially her grandmother’s. Kay was awarded a Colorado Arts and Humanities Council Fellowship in 2002 for creative nonfiction. Her work has appeared in publications including The Sun and Crazy Woman Creek.
Trace Ramsey is a writer and photographer who is currently working on a memoir-in-essays and his first novel. Trace lives in Durham, North Carolina, with his partner and two children.

Susan Rukeyser’s “X-rays Are My Souvenirs” won Hippocampus Magazine’s inaugural Remember in November contest. Her debut novel, Not On Fire, Only Dying, was published by Twisted Road Publications (2015). Her short fiction and creative nonfiction appear in numerous journals including Cobalt Review, Black Heart Magazine, A-Minor Magazine, and SmokeLong Quarterly.

Deborah Esther Schifter is at work on a memoir called What To Do About Winter, from which her essay appearing in this collection was adapted. She lives and writes in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Deirdre Sinnott grew up in Utica, New York, where her upcoming novel, The Third Mrs. Galway, is set. She speaks about Utica’s role in the abolition movement. She directed two award-winning documentaries on social justice and mass incarceration/prison issues. Her personal essays have appeared in various magazines and websites.

Carol Smith is a Seattle writer whose work led the anthology The Best Creative Nonfiction (W. W. Norton, 2007). Her poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in Signs of Life, Mississippi Review, Pooled Ink, The New Guard, Hippocampus Magazine, Oberon Poetry, The Florida Review, The Southern Indiana Review, and Travelers’ Tales. She is working on a novel.

Suzanne Farrell Smith’s work explores memory, trauma, health, education, and parenthood and appears in numerous literary and academic journals. With a master’s from The New School and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, Suzanne teaches writing and literacy education. She lives with her husband and sons in Connecticut.

James Stafford lives and writes in northern California.

Sean Finucane Toner’s creative nonfiction has found homes in The Best of Philadelphia Stories, Brevity, The MacGuffin, The Book of Worst Meals, Writers on the Job, and at a Literary Death Match. He is the nonfiction editor of ReferentialMagazine.org. He has been sightless since 1995.

Allison K Williams has written on race, culture and comedy for NPR, CBC, The Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times. Her fiction has appeared in Crossed Genres, Smokelong Quarterly and Deep South; essays in The Drum and Brevity; stories on The Moth. She lives in Dubai.

About the Editor

Donna Talarico is the founder of Hippocampus Magazine and Books and its annual creative nonfiction conference HippoCamp. For a living, she’s a full-time independent content writer and strategist in higher education. Donna previously served as director of communications at a small, private liberal arts college, and has also worked in ecommerce, print journalism and, of course, radio. Her writing can be found in The Writer, mental_floss, The Guardian, LA Review, Games Magazine, and many trade and alumni magazines. Her un-bylined work appears on websites and in marketing materials of college and universities of all kinds, from Ivy League to small, niche schools. She serves on the adjunct faculty in the Wilkes University Maslow Family Graduate Creative Writing program and the master’s in publishing program at Rosemont College. She loves word games, national parks, camping, diner breakfasts, quirky roadside attractions, and collecting old office supplies. Follow her on Twitter: @donnatalarico.