Meet Our Poets ~ Profiles R
Lynne Rachell
Lynne Rachell was born in Columbus, Ohio and partially raised in Wilmintgon, DE, the daughter of a Vietnam War veteran. She began writing short stories at age 12 but switched to poetry later in life. She has occasionally read at local poetry events but has also largely limited her performances to pen and paper, believing that the best performances are completed in the minds and voice of the reader. An empty nester, Lynne holds a degree in Graphic Communications and runs a local business called The Fabulous Fennyl, selling handmade lotions, cards and prints. She has recently returned to school seeking a degree in English with a goal of becoming a creative writing instructor. She loves to write about life, love and current, impactful new stories. VerseWrights is her first publishing experience. Read.
Shirani Rajapakse
Shirani Rajapakse is a Sri Lankan poet and author. She won the Cha “Betrayal” Poetry Contest 2013 and was a finalist in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Poetry Awards 2013. Her collection of short stories, Breaking News (Vijitha Yapa, 2011) was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award. Shirani’s work appears or is forthcoming in Café Dissensus, Silver Birch, International Times, Writers for Calais Refugees, The Write-In, Asian Signature, Moving Worlds, Citiesplus, Deep Water Literary Journal, Mascara Literary Review, Kitaab, Lakeview Journal, Cyclamens & Swords, Channels, Linnet’s Wings, Spark, Berfrois, Counterpunch, Earthen Lamp Journal, Asian Cha, Dove Tales, Buddhist Poetry Review, About Place Journal, Skylight 47, The Smoking Poet, New Verse News, The Occupy Poetry Project and anthologies, Flash Fiction International (Norton, 2015), Ballads (Dagda, 2014), Short & Sweet (Perera Hussein, 2014), Poems for Freedom (River Books, 2013), Voices Israel Poetry Anthology 2012, Song of Sahel (Plum Tree, 2012), Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology, World Healing World Peace (Inner City Press 2012, 2014) and Every Child Is Entitled to Innocence (Plum Tree, 2012). Read.
Dave Read
Dave Read is a Canadian poet living in Calgary. Before discovering micropoetry in 2013, he had been an on again, (mostly) off again writer of verse. The shorter forms, especially tanka and haiku, ignited his imagination and desire to write. He has since been published in many journals, including Modern Haiku, Frogpond, tinywords, A Hundred Gourds, bottle rockets, Atlas Poetica, Skylark, failed haiku, Bones, Bright Stars, Sonic Boom, the other bunny, Prune Juice, hedgerow, Bamboo Hut, Undertow, brass bell, cattails, Under the Basho and others. Dave maintains a blog for his poetry here, and he invites your visit. Read.
Will Reger
Will Reger was born and raised in the St. Louis, Missouri area. He has been writing poetry since the 7th grade, and has published in a wide variety of print and on-line publications. Most recently, Front Porch Review, Chiron Review, and the Paterson Literary Review have accepted his work. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and currently teaches at Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois. When he is not teaching or writing poetry, he collects flutes, plays flutes, and sometimes even writes poems about flutes. Read.
Samantha Reynolds
In 2011, Samantha Reynolds pledged to write one poem a day to try to “be present” and not miss the fleeting first year of her son’s life. Now she wouldn’t know how to stop even if she wanted to. Her popular poetry blog, bentlily.com was featured in ‘O’ Magazine and has sparked a movement of people around the world to slow down and savour their lives. When not racking up reams of poetry, she runs Echo Memoirs, a custom publishing company specializing in personal memoirs and company histories. She lives with her husband and son in Vancouver, BC. Read.
Michele Riedel
Michele Riedel started jotting down her thoughts when she was 11 years old and continued writing in journals and experimenting with poetry when she was older. She often took “vacations” from writing and then would find herself drawn back to it. In joining the River City Poetry and James River Writers groups in Richmond, Virginia, she found the support and motivation to start writing poetry again. She states that she is always looking for the best words to describe the “largeness of life.” She was a spotlight poet on Tina Glasneck’s "Celebrate with a Book" online series, and she enjoys writing in her poetry blog, WordPalettes, to which she invites your visit. VerseWrights is Michele's first publishing experience. Read.
Kathleen Rogers
Kathleen Rogers is a life-long writer who’s fascinated with words, paper and American sub-cultures. She’s worked in publishing, print and online advertising. Kathleen’s final corporate role was as a Senior Creative Director at one of the largest online advertising agencies. She left corporate America in 2001 after volunteering with the Red Cross. Kathleen holds an M.A. in English from Rutgers University and a B.A. in Communications from Rowan University. She enjoys all aspects of writing and film. Kathleen, her husband and daughter have lived in Hoboken, NJ for these past 25 years. Read.
Bethany Rohde
Bethany Rohde enjoys writing rough drafts on crisp, college-ruled paper, out by her lavender hedge. Some of her final drafts have found homes in Tweetspeak Poetry’s poetry subscription service, Every Day Poems, as well as on All Nine Muses, Makes You Mom, and a forthcoming issue of Mothers Always Write. Recently she was asked to be part of the Tweetspeak Poetry team, as a Community Care and Social Media Associate. You can find more of her writing on her blog, to which she invites your visit. Read.
Mary Anne Rojas
After attending seventeen schools and migrating between seven different homes, Mary Anne Rojas, between borders and unsettled, recently graduated from Oneonta State College with a degree in English and Africana & Latino Studies. Currently she is in transition to Ithaca, NY to work with Summer of Solutions, devoted to developing more sustainable communities. Mary Anne, an emblem of translation and dedicated tea drinker, encourages the power of writing as a form of activism and survival. Also, a tomato plant mother and sacred cucumber eater, she plans to go back to Ghana, Africa one day in the pursuit to establish a School of Poetry in which children can find shelter for culture and voice. And with due time and economic opportunity, she will receive an MFA in Poetry. Until then, she is constantly moving and trying to pay her phone bill while struggling with cheese. Read.
Val Dering Rojas
Val Dering Rojas is a Los Angeles based poet and artist who has also studied Addiction and Recovery Counseling and Psychology. A recent Pushcart Prize nominee and a regular contributor to Referential Magazine, her poetry and short fiction has been included in or is forthcoming in: ken*again, Dogzplot, A Handful of Dust and Right Hand Pointing among others. Her chapbook TEN, is due out Spring 2014 from Dancing Girl Press. Click here to can find blog, Twitter, art and Facebook information. Read.
Roslyn Ross
Roslyn Ross was born in Adelaide, South Australia and has lived around Australia and the world, including Antwerp, Belgium; Bombay, India; Luanda, Angola; Cape Town, South Africa; Johannesburg, South Africa; Lusaka, Zambia; Vancouver, Canada; London, United Kingdom, and currently, Lilongwe, Malawi. She has spent long periods in the United States, Russia and Portugal. A journalist/editor by profession, she began writing creatively in her forties and has completed five novels and one work of non-fiction based on her four years in Angola during the civil war. She is currently writing a non-fiction book tracing her Greek great-grandfather, a biography of her mother, and a book on spirituality as well as a sixth novel. She writes a blog on her time in Malawi and also blogs on ancestry, poetry and creative writing, with a deep and abiding focus on the human condition. While her novels and non-fiction are, for the moment, yet to be published, she has been writing poetry since she was a child and began submitting her work about three years ago. Since then she has had poetry published in a dozen anthologies and literary journals, the most recent being When Anzac Day Comes Around – 100 years from Gallipolli. She maintains an eclectic website, and invites your visit. Read.
Björn Rudberg
Björn Rudberg hails from Stockholm Sweden and has a degree in physics, but has gradually moved from science to the business and commercial fields. As creative outlet he recently started to write poetry, moving from micropoetry on Twitter (@brudberg) to managing his own poetry site which he started in 2012. He is a regular contributor at dVerse, Real Toads, and Carpe Diem Kai. He gets his inspiration mostly from various other online poets, but through them he has also learned about established poets around the word. His poems are still often tied to classic poetry, as he likes to work with rhyme and meter. On subjects, he often ventures into areas of political and philosophical matters. His poems are usually more narrative than lyrical, and he often sees himself more as a storyteller than a poet. Read.
Dana Rushin
Dana Rushin is a budding African-American poet who lives and writes in Detroit, Michigan. He presently is a student at Wayne State University and has been writing poetry seriously "all my adult life." It is only recently, however, that he has given his work public exposure, mainly online at WritersCafe. He has been influenced by a wide variety of poets, from Silvia Plath to Etheridge Knight! He is presently working on what he hopes will be his first collection, tentatively titled Of This Street's Timeless Frame. VerseWrights is his first publishing experience. Read.
Sarah Russell
Sarah Russell is in metaphor rehab after many years teaching, writing and editing (shudder) academic prose. Her work has found its way into several anthologies including The Incredible Shrinking Story, Flash Fiction Funny, Dog Days, and The Black Rose of Winter, as well as Misfit Magazine, The Houseboat, Pastiche, Goodreads and now VerseWrights. She won the Goodreads poetry contest in February, 2014 with her poem “Denouement.” More of her poetry can be found at www.SarahRussellPoetry.com. She and her husband live in State College, Pennsylvania during the school year where he teaches at Penn State University. They spend summers in Colorado to be near children and grandchildren. Read.