Editorial Staff
Tony Burnett
Editor Emeritus
Educated at University of North Texas, Tony Burnett (Board Treasurer) is the founder and Editor Emeritus at Kallisto Gaia Press, home of The Ocotillo Review and The Texas Poetry Calendar. An award winning poet, journalist, activist and songwriter, his poetry and short fiction have been published in literary magazines and anthologies including, Sixfold, Connotation Press, Short Story America, Frontier Tales, Texas Poetry Calendar, Poetry @ Round Top anthology, Tidal Basin Review, Di-verse-city and Toucan Literary Magazine. He is the former Editor in Chief of Scribe, the on-line blog with over 6000 subscribers and served as Board President of the Writers’ League of Texas from 2013 through 2017. He makes his home in rural central Texas with his trophy wife, Robin. His hobbies include poking wasp nests with short sticks and wandering aimlessly about.
Mary Day Long
Managing Editor
Voracious reader, avid traveler, and passionate observer of the human spectacle, Mary Day Long is drawn to diverse and inventive nonfiction narratives. Because reaching across borders, disciplines, and genres is more important than ever in our fragmented world, she looks to discover and promote writing that, by honoring the individual voice, renders it universal.
Educated as an artist at the University of Texas at Austin, Long, after exhibiting paintings and photographs in Texas and California, has become increasingly engaged with words. She has worked as a technical and nonfiction editor, travel writer and photographer, and website designer. Her current projects include a series of infrared photos of Central Texas and a photographic survey of the Buddhist temples of Bagan, Myanmar.
A long-time member and volunteer for the Writer’s League of Texas and the North Austin Pfotographic Society, she shares her home in Austin with three spoiled cats and one spoiled human male.
Jan Rider Newman
Fiction Editor
Jan Rider Newman is a writer of short stories, poetry and novels. Her work has been published in several literary journals, such as Louisiana Literature and the New Orleans Review. She also published a collection of short stories, A Long Night’s Sing and other stories. Two of her novels are now represented by Elizabeth Trupin-Pulli at JET Literary agency. She has an MA in English and an MFA in creative writing and for three years was editor and publisher of the online literary journal, Swamp Lily Review
Nancy Cook
Flash Fiction Editor
Nancy Cook is a writer, teaching artist, and community builder. As an artist affiliate for the Southwest Minnesota Housing Authority, she helps design arts programs for adults in transitional housing, and she also runs the “Witness Project,” a series of free community writing workshops in Minneapolis designed to enable creative work by underrepresented voices. Nancy holds both an MFA in creative writing and a JD degree. As the sole parent of an adopted child, she formerly worked full time in academia, teaching and supervising students in community justice work. At the same time, she maintained an active writing practice and taught creative writing in multiple venues, from college campuses to prisons. Currently, in addition to her work with the Witness Project and the Housing Authority, Nancy teaches at a number of local arts centers and serves as a manuscript reviewer for Coffee House Press. She is widely published and recently completed her first book of short stories, arising from a residency on the grounds of the former Fergus Falls State Hospital in western Minnesota. She has also served as writer-in-residence at Gettysburg National Military Park and in 2019 will head to Northern Ireland for four months to do a variety of community-building writing projects there. Nancy is the recent recipient of awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Springboard for the Arts, the Mayo Clinic Center for Humanities in Health Care, and the Lillian E. Smith Center of Piedmont College.
Rod Carlos Rodriguez MFA
Guest Editor 2023 Texas Poetry Calendar
Rod Carlos Rodriguez MFA began the Sun Poetic Times literary-visual arts magazine in 1994, founded the Sun Poet’s Society in 1995 and co-founded the Sun Arts Foundation in 2004. The Sun Poet’s Society is known today around the world and celebrated its 20th Anniversary in March 2015. Rod mentors people of all ages, backgrounds and genres. He was nominated for the San Antonio Poet Laureate in April 2012, April 2014, and April 2016. His first book, Exploits of a Sun Poet (Pecan Grove Press, February 2003), was awarded the San Antonio Barnes and Noble/Bookstop Author-of-the-Month, February 2003 and also the San Antonio Current Best Book of 2005. His 2nd collection of poetry and art photography, Lucid Affairs, was published by Sun Arts Press. More recently, his 3rd collection of poetry, Native Instincts, was published in January 2016 by Human Error Publishing.
Rodriguez started photography as illustrations for his poetry in both Exploits of a Sun Poet and Lucid Affairs. Soon, he recognized that his photographs started taking on a life of their own. His art photography shows have been held at such galleries as Blue Star Arts Complex, Casa Chiapas and Ruta Maya, Riverwalk.
Associate Editors
Robin Bissett – prose
Joseph Borden – poetry
Elizabeth Farris – prose
Lisa Fleck – poetry
Carole Mertz – poetry
Greta Ode – prose
Korey Wallace – prose
Daniel Naman – poetry
Ramona Reeves – prose