Poetry Center Advisory Board
Anne Betteridge, Director, Center for Middle Eastern StudiesJason Brown, Curator, UA Prose Series
Jennifer Casale, Graduate Student, UA Creative Writing
Albrecht Classen, Professor, UA Department of German
Alison Deming, Professor, UA Creative Writing
Janice Dewey, Instructor, UA Honors College
Marlon Evans, Undergraduate Student, UA Creative Writing
Mark Lee, Poet
Jun Liu, Head, UA Department of English
Tenney Nathanson, UA Department of English
Boyer Rickel, Adjunct Professor, UA Creative Writing
Aurelie Sheehan, Director, UA Creative Writing Program
Charles Tatum, Dean, UA College of Humanities
Maria Elena Wakamatsu, Head, Desert View High School English
Joni Wallace, Poet
Ofelia Zepeda, Regents Professor, Department of Linguistics
Poetry Center Development Committee
Helen S. Schaefer, Chair
Randall Rodman Holdridge, Co-Chair
Winifred Bundy
Colleen Burns
Alison Hawthorne Deming
Marshall Fealk
Norma Feldman
Jimmye Hillman
Susan Lowell Humphreys
Richard Johnson
Tony Luebbermann
George Rosenberg
Lois Shelton
Richard Shelton
Harris Sobin
James P. Walsh
Gail Browne, Poetry Center Executive Director
Charles Tatum, College of Humanities Dean
Pat Brooks, College of Humanities Development Associate
Consultants
Denise Barnes, webdesign and graphic design, dabfab.com
Jonathan VanBallenberghe, videography, openlensproductions.com
 Renee Angle, the Poetry Center’s Program Coordinator, oversees administrative and logistical details of the Reading Series and educational outreach programs. She holds an MFA from George Mason University, where she was editor of the journal So to Speak. She has taught for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and for a growing charter school in South Tucson where she helped design curriculum. Her life's ambitions, to build a robot to write her poems and a cart for her dog to pull, are now underway.
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 Laynie Browne, Elementary Education Coordinator, is developing a poetry-in-the-schools program focusing on K-5 schools. She is the author of seven collections of poetry and one novel. Her most recent publications include The Scented Fox, recipient of the 2007 National Poetry Series Award, selected by Alice Notley (Wave Books), Daily
Sonnets (Counterpath Books, 2007) and Drawing of a Swan Before Memory,
Winner of the Contemporary Poetry Series (University of Georgia Press, 2005). She served as reading series assistant at St. Marks Poetry Project in NYC and has been curator of several reading series including: the Ear Inn in NYC, and as a member of the Subtext Collective in Seattle. She is currently on the board of directors for
the POG reading series and Chax Press. She has taught creative writing at University of Washington, Bothell, at Mills College in Oakland, as a visiting poet for Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York and in several programs in Washington, including Seattle Arts and Lectures. email |
 Gail Browne has been Executive Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center since 2002. A California native, she holds an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and a master’s degree in Literature from UCLA. She worked in the field of arts marketing for 25 years, most recently as senior partner of Browne Zukow Associates, based in San Francisco. email |
 Jennifer Casale, Program Assistant, is a second year MFA poet who earned her BA in English from Vanderbilt University in 2004. She has worked in the music industry in Nashville for several years and studied poetry at the Bread Loaf Conference and the Indiana Writers Conference. She was a recipient of the Academy of American Poet’s Prize in 2003 and the Pavel Strut Poetry Fellowship in 2005.email |
 Megan Coe, Program Assistant is a junior in English and Creative Writing at the University of Arizona. She plans to remain in school for as long as possible in pursuit of an MFA and a PhD in English-related fields. She enjoys reading modern poetry and eating peanut-butter M&Ms. email |
 Cameron Conaway, the Poetry Center’s High School Poet-in-Residence, is a mixed martial artist and writer from Altoona, Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of Penn State Altoona with BA degrees in English and Criminal Justice. email |
 Jamison Crabtree, Technical Assistant, received his BA from VCU and is currently a MFA candidate at the University of Arizona. He's filled a variety of jobs, doing everything from reading submissions for literary journals to programming for defense contractors. He plans on pursuing a PhD in American Literature.email |
 Alicia Feldman, Receptionist, is a sophomore studying Retailing and Consumer Sciences. She hails from Wilmette, Illinois. email |
 Annie Guthrie is the Assistant Marketing Specialist for the Poetry Center. She received her MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson and is currently working on her third manuscript. She lived between Tucson and Italy for many years and continues to pursue her love of language and translation. She is also a jeweler and co-owner of “The Jewel Smithery” on South Park. email |
 Christine Krikliwy, Program Coordinator Senior, provides overall support to the library and programs of the Center. She coordinates the volunteer program and is the Center's resident photographer. Christine has a master’s degree in Public Health and is a doctoral candidate in Family and Consumer Sciences. She has been instrumental in raising funds to build a school in Kashmir and is a voice for those who can’t be heard. email |
 Bonnie Jean Michalski, the Poetry Center’s Library Assistant Senior, works with Rodney Phillips to maintain the library and assist patrons in accessing the collection. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. She is a founding member of MacawMacaw Press, a small press that publishes collaborative, experimental poetry in the form of handmade books. email |
 Rodney Phillips is the Poetry Center’s Senior Librarian. He was formerly curator of the Berg Collection and Director of Humanities and Social Sciences at the New York Public Library. He is the author of A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing: 1960-1980 (with Steven Clay) and The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript. email |
 Frances Sjoberg (MFA, Warren Wilson College), Literary Director, has been with the Poetry Center since 1999 and in that time has developed several of the education and outreach programs. Sjoberg has served as a volunteer creative writing instructor for Imago Dei Middle School, a task force member for TPAC's Pima Cultural Plan, and a member of the Arizona Partnership for Innovation. She is also a board member for the LGBT&S Alliance Fund. In 2007 she received a Tucson Business Edge 40 Under 40 award for her work at the Center and in our community. email |
Poetry Center Volunteers |
 Nora Evan-Reitz recently received her BA in interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities from the University of Chicago. She returned to her native Tucson for the pleasant weather and the pleasant people. An employee of the Pima Democratic Party, Nora urges you to vote. |
 Tony Luebbermann, Volunteer Coordinator, holds degrees in Anthropology from Columbia University and the University of Arizona. Upon receiving his MS at the UA he went to work with the City of Tucson in its Budget and Research Department and retired from that position 28 years later. He has been studying and writing poetry for the past six years. In addition to serving as the Poetry Center’s Volunteer Coordinator, he’s a member of the Center’s Development Committee and the College of Humanities Advisory Board. email |
 Sandy Szelag moved to Tucson from Chicago in 1977, lured by the beauty of the Sonoran desert. Before earning her MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School and her Doctor of Ministry as a Unitarian Universalist minister, she taught English and worked for the State of Illinois Gifted Program. She has served area churches as minister and pastoral counselor. In recent years, she has reignited her passion for reading and writing poetry. |
 Hanna Soule has taught yoga and meditation for over 25 years. A “closet writer,” she has worked as a journalist and as ad editor for children’s books in Germany. |
Student Volunteers
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Poetry Center Interns
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