Biographies

June Gehringer - Class of 2017

Born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, June Gehringer is a mixed Chinese trans woman who is somehow still alive. She is the author of I Don’t Write about Race (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2018), I love you it looks like rain (Be About It, 2017), and EVERYONE IS A BIG BUG TO SOMEONE (self-published, 20170. She is the co-founder of tenderness yea, and tweets @unlovablehottie.

Mikaela Grantham - Class of 2017

Mikaela Grantham is co-publisher and co-editor of Disorder Press, an independent book publisher she runs with her brother Joseph Grantham. Disorder publishes fiction, novels, poetry, and whatever they believe needs to be out there in beautiful book form--especially work that is difficult to categorize.

Kendall Michelle Daigle

Kendall Michelle Daigle (1994-2014) had a brilliant smile and an intellect to match. A native of New Orleans born with a passion for words, she began writing at a very young age, and viewed the world as her palette for human study. This anthology captures some of her unique thoughts, hopes, and dreams, and is a powerful testament to her talent as a writer and the promise she showed. A lover of literature and a lover of humanity, Kendall's dream was to make a difference in others' lives. When she discovered that she suffered from the disease of addiction, and that it could be terminal, it terrified her. While some of her poems muse at the thought of death, in truth, she knew she had much left to accomplish in this life, and considered the possibility unfathomable. Kendall recovered from her addiction only to have a short relapse that took her life a few days before her twentieth birthday. This volume above is the record of her work.

Adam Gnuse

A. J. Gnuse is the author of Girl in the Walls, published by 4th Estate and Ecco in 2021. He received an MFA in fiction from UNC Wilmington and was a Kenyon Review Peter Taylor fellow. His writing has appeared in The Guardian, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review, Passages North, and other venues. A native of New Orleans, he lives in Texas.

Kaitlin Ketchum - Class of 2008

Kaitlin Ketchum is the editorial director of art, gift, and popular culture publishing at Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Specializing in illustrated nonfiction, she acquires and edits books about art, lifestyle, pop culture, science, history ,self-improvement, and social justice, as well as graphic novels and photography books. With a decade of experience as a publishing professional, she has guided more than 70 authors through the publishing process and has acquired and edited numerous award-winning and bestselling books, including six New York Times bestsellers.

Jonathan Arlan - Class of 2008

Jonathan Arlan is a writer and editor. Born and raised on the Great Plains, he has lived in New Orleans, New York, Egypt, Japan, and Serbia and traveled in over thirty-five countries. His first book, Mountain Lines: A Journey through the French Alps, was published in 2017.

Catherine Lacey - Graduated 2007

Catherine Lacey is the author of four works of fiction: Nobody Is Ever Missing, The Answers, Certain American States, and Pew. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, a recipient of a 2016 Whiting Award, and earned an artists' fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts. One of Granta Magazine's "Best of Young American Novelists," and she has been longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award, NYPL's Young Lions Award, and shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is shocked by and thankful for the translators who have made her books available in other languages. With Forsyth Harmon, she co-authored The Art of the Affair, an illustrated guide to love and hate between dozens of twentieth century artists. Born in Mississippi, she now lives in Chicago.

E Martin Nolan - Class of 2006

E Martin Nolan is a poet, essayist and editor. He edits interviews at The Puritan, where he’s also published numerous essays, interviews and blog posts. He teaches in the Engineering Communication Program at The University of Toronto, and is a PhD Candidate in Applied Linguistics at York University. Born and raised in Detroit, he received his Bachelor’s Degree in English at Loyola University New Orleans, and received his Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto.

Vincent A. Celluci - Class of 2005

Vincent A. Cellucci is a writer and the College of Art + Design’s Communication across the Curriculum Studio Coordinator at Louisiana State University. He specializes in poetry, 3D scanning and printing, digital documentation, portfolio development, and teaching and writing in the art and design disciplines. Vincent received his MFA from Louisiana State University, and he attended Loyola University New Orleans to earn his Bachelor's degree in English Writing with a background in studio arts by cross-enrolling at Tulane University. In 2010, he collaborated with the Louisiana Division of the Arts to develop and host several Artist Communication Workshops.

A few of his publications include poems, translations, and reviews in Best American Experimental Writing, The Berkeley Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Exquisite Corpse, International Poetry Review, New Delta Review, New Orleans Review, Xavier Review, moria, The Pedestal, So and So Mag, TENDER_LOIN, and Toad Suck Review. An Easy Place / To Die was his first book of poetry. Cellucci contributed, edited, and produced a collaborative (including Andrei Codrescu) audio novel, The Katrina Decameron, which was released on iTunes in late  2010, and he is the founder of River Writers, a downtown Baton Rouge (pop up) reading series.

Peyton Burgess - Class of 2004

Peyton Burgess is the author of the short story collection The Fry Pans Aren’t Sufficing. He is working on a novel and has published excerpts at The Paris Review, Tin House online, Joyland Magazine, Autre, and The Catamaran Literary Reader. Other work has appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Paris Review Daily, New Orleans Review, Chicago Quarterly Review, and 7x7. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from New York University and is pursuing his PhD in Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he also works as an instructional designer and creative writing instructor. You can find more about him here.

Luke Jerod Kummer - Class of 2002

Luke Jerod Kummer is a writer and an editor. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, New Republic, the Washingtonian, Bloomberg Businessweek, the Village Voice, The Millions and other publications. His 2019 historical novel, The Blue Period, imagines the tragic events that colored the palette used by a young Pablo Picasso to paint somber portraits of shared suffering during the first years of the 20th century, before a shift to Cubism transformed the artist into a celebrity. The book has been translated into two languages and featured in Literary Hub and American Way. Kummer’s new storytelling project for Audible Originals is set to be released in 2021. He graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 2002 with an English Writing degree.

Mary Anne Franks - Class of 1999

Mary Anne Franks, Professor of Law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, is a nationally and internationally recognized expert on the intersection of civil rights and technology. She teaches classes on criminal law, criminal procedure, First Amendment law, Second Amendment law, family law, and law and technology. Professor Franks is also an Affiliated Faculty member of the University of Miami Department of Philosophy and an Affiliate Fellow of the Yale Law School Information Society Project (ISP).  Dr. Franks is the author of the award-winning book, The Cult of the Constitution: Our Deadly Devotion to Guns and Free Speech (Stanford Press, 2019). In 2020, she was awarded a grant from the Knight Foundation to support research for her second book, Fearless Speech (expected 2022). Her scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the California Law Review, and UCLA Law Review, among others. Dr. Franks has also authored numerous articles for the popular press, including the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, and Newsweek. She has delivered more than a hundred lectures to a range of audiences around the world, including law schools, domestic violence organizations, law firms, and tech companies. She was named a member of the American Law Institute in October 2018.

Kevin Rabalais - Class of 1998

Kevin Rabalais is the author of The Landscape of Desire, a novel, and co-editor of Novel Voices, Sacred Trespasses: A Loyola University Faculty Reader, and Conversations with James Salter. His writing and photography have appeared in Tin House, The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Australian, and The New Zealand Listener. He has a regular feature series in Louisiana Life magazine and teaches in the Department of English at Loyola University New Orleans.

Stephen Panus - Class of 1995

My name is Stephen Panus, I'm a 1995 School of Law alumnus, and I am the author of "Walk On," which was selected by "Good Morning America" as their featured GMA Book Club Buzz pick for their April 20th show. I have received endorsements and testimonials from Rob Marciano (Good Morning America), Kyle Brandt (NFL Network/CBS Sports), Ian Rapoport (NFL Network), Lindsay Czarniak (Fox Sports), Jim Rome (CBS Sports Radio), Joe Drape (New York Times), Marty Smith (ESPN), and Harris Pastides, among a host of others. "Walk On" is an inspiring and emotionally powerful story that transcends grief, loss, and love and provides anyone suffering from any form of adversity or hardship with hope. Moreover, it's an authentic story of a father who honors that "our vulnerability is our strength" and therefore takes the reader where few men have gone - to the raw underbelly of surviving the loss of his 16-year-old son suddenly and turning pain into purpose.

The most trusted, authoritative, and influential voice in the publishing world, Kirkus Book Reviews, proclaims "Walk On" to be "a raw, moving memoir that deftly explores grief and hope in equal measure ... It is Panus’ unique and sometimes poetic turns of phrase, however, that truly bring Jake’s story to life ... The author’s acknowledgment that grief is an 'unwelcome topic in our society' makes his willingness to tackle it head-on even more admirable."

A little over three and a half years ago, my sixteen-year-old son, Jake (a rising junior at Fairfield Ludlowe HS in Fairfield, CT, and a football and lacrosse player), was a passenger in a vehicle when he was killed in a senseless and reckless crash on Block Island, RI while away with his girlfriend and her family. My life imploded that instant we heard the news. In order to survive this soul-crushing tragedy, I began to write, and over time, much time, emerged my book "Walk On." University of South Carolina Head Football Coach Shane Beamer wrote the Preface to the book. Jake's enduring legacy and the launch of the Jake Panus Walk On Scholarship funds have been chronicled nationally across the media over the last several years.

Tom Molanphy - Class of 1993

Tom Molanphy grew up in central Texas and attended Loyola University in New Orleans. He moved to Spokane to work at a homeless shelter and to Belize to learn from Mayans. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and currently teaches at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. He is also the author of Following Mateo: Two Years Searching In Belize. Portions of Loud Memories of A Quiet Life have appeared in slightly different form in Red Ochre Lit, Prick of the Spindle, Glasschord and FortyOunceBachelors.

Bob Cowser Jr. - Class of 1992

Bob Cowser, Jr.'s most recent book Green Fields: Crime, Punishment, and a Boyhood Between won "Best Memoir" from the Adirondack Center for Writers, and an excerpt was cited in the Best American Essays 2012. His first book, Dream Season, was a New York Times Book Review "Editor's Choice" and "Paperback Row" selection and was listed among the Chronicle of Higher Education's best-ever college sports books. Cowser is also the author of Scorekeeping, a collection of coming-of-age essays, and editor of Why We're Here: New York Essayists on Living Upstate, and his work has appeared widely in American literary magazines. He is Professor of English at St. Lawrence University, where he teaches courses in nonfiction writing and American literature and was named the 2012 Owen D. Young Outstanding Faculty Member. He has taught abroad in France, England, and Denmark, and in state and federal prisons.

Martin Pousson - Class of 1987

Martin Pousson is a novelist, poet, and professor at California State University Northridge, where he teaches in the Creative Writing Program and the Queer Studies Program. He was born and raised in the bayou land of Louisiana and earned a BA in English at Loyola University New Orleans, where he was named Most Outstanding Graduate, and a MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University, where he won the inaugural School of the Arts Dean’s Fellowship Award. He taught at Columbia University, Rutgers University and Loyola University before joining the faculty at CSUN. His first novel, No Place, Louisiana, was a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award, and his first collection of poetry, Sugar, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry. His second novel, Black Sheep Boy, won the PEN Center USA Fiction Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. The novel-in-stories also was a finalist for the Simpson Family Literary Prize, and it was featured on NPR’s The Reading Life, as a Los Angeles Times Literary Pick, as The Millions Best Summer Horror Selection, as a Book Riot Must-Read Indie Press Book, and as a finalist for the On Top Down Under Book of the Year Award. Stories from Black Sheep Boy were selected for the annual Best Gay Stories and Best Gay Speculative Fiction anthologies. At CSUN, he received an Outstanding Faculty Award for Exceptional Creative Accomplishment, an Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Jerome Richfield Scholar Award. He has served as founding advisor of the Northridge Creative Writing Circle and as faculty advisor for LGBTQA, Queer Ambassadors, and the Queer People of Color Committee.

George Bishop Jr. - Class of 1983

George Bishop, Jr., holds a BA from Loyola University in New Orleans, an MFA from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington, and an MA from the School for International Training in Vermont. He has lived and taught in Slovakia, Turkey, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, India, and Japan. His first novel, Letter to My Daughter, was published by Ballantine Books in 2010; his second, The Night of the Comet, came out in 2013, also with Ballantine. Kirkus Reviews named Comet one of the “Best Books of 2013.”

John Biguenet - Class of 1972

John Biguenet is Professor Emeritus of English at Loyola University New Orleans. He has published seven books, including Oyster, a novel, and The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories, released in the United States by Ecco/HarperCollins and widely translated. His work has received an O. Henry Award for short fiction and a Harper's Magazine Writing Award among other distinctions, and his poems, stories, plays, and essays have been reprinted or cited in The Best American Mystery Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Best American Short Stories, Best Music Writing, Contemporary Poetry in America, Katrina on Stage, and various other anthologies.

Holly Iglesias - Class of 1971

Holly Iglesias’ work includes three collections of poetry— Sleeping Things (Press 53), Angles of Approach (White Pine Press) and Souvenirs of a Shrunken World (Kore Press)—and a critical work, Boxing Inside the Box: Women’s Prose Poetry (Quale Press). In addition, she has translated the work of Cuban poet Caridad Atencio. She has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Iglesias currently teaches in the MFA Program in