Lampblack Founders' Issue Launch

Featuring

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  Bronwyn Douman

  Bronwyn Douman

  Bronwyn Douman is a writer from Cape Town, South Africa. She writes short stories and poems about  grief, loss and trauma, some of which are published online and in print. She has an MFA in Creative Writing  from Rutgers University-Newark and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Western Cape. She works as a copywriter for an advertising agency and lives in the Mother City with her husband and their two dogs.

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  Rigoberto González

  Rigoberto González

  Rigoberto González is Distinguished Professor of English and director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark.

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  India Lena González

  India Lena González

  India Lena González is a poet, educator, and artist. She received her BA from Columbia University, where she graduated with honors, and is a recent MFA graduate from NYU’s Creative Writing program. Her work is published in Poets & Writers magazine, PANK, Pigeon Pages, American Chordata, and Glass: A Journal of Poetry, among others. A 2020 National Poetry Series finalist and 2021 BOA Editions A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize semi-finalist, India is also a professionally trained dancer, choreographer, and actor. She lives in Harlem.

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  Ananda Naima González

  Ananda Naima González

  Ananda Naima González is a writer residing in Harlem. She carries a BA and an MFA from Columbia University, in poetry and fiction respectively, and is currently at work on a collection of short stories. Her words have  appeared in BOMB, McSweeney’s, the Southern Review,  and Catapult. Her work is finely tuned to the tender and  brutal realities of humanity, feral and natural energies,  and dreamscapes. Her mission is to honor the inherently  sacred ritual of living. In addition to writing, she is also  an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker.

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  Zack Graham

  Zack Graham

  Zack Graham’s stories have appeared in or are forthcoming in the Brooklyn Rail, BULL, the Cobalt Review, Volume 1 Brooklyn, the 17th Street Review, and Newest York, and his criticism has appeared in the Nation, Rolling Stone, GQ, the Believer, Jewish Currents, and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. He was a recipient of a Disquiet International Literary Prize in 2020, and was named an Alan Cheuse Emerging Critics Fellow by the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) in 2018. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in English and Creative Writing.

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  Darise JeanBaptiste

  Darise JeanBaptiste

  Darise JeanBaptiste is Bronx born and raised. She currently lives in Brooklyn and earned her MFA in creative writing from Rutgers-Newark and her MA in English from Brooklyn College. A Tin House, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, VONA, and Hurston/Wright Foundation Workshop alum, Darise’s short fiction is featured at Green Mountains Review and Hot Metal Bridge. Her writing career formally started with news reporting at the Press & Sun-Bulletin and the Ithaca Journal.

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  Simeon Marsalis

  Simeon Marsalis

  Simeon Marsalis is a writer from New Rochelle, New York, who earned an MFA in 2019 from Rutgers University-Newark, where he is currently a part-time lecturer.  His first novel, As Lie Is to Grin, was published by Catapult in 2017 and was shortlisted by The Center for Fiction for the First Novel Prize. His essay “Why Jazz: A Music Festival Review,” was published in Catapult in the same year. He wrote a screenplay for NJPAC’s “City Verses” project entitled Echoes of The Lion, which will  debut in 2021. His short story, “The Dryer,” is forthcoming in KARMA Galleries’ Reading at Karma magazine. Another story, “The Exterminator,” will appear in the Fall 2021 Founders’ Issue of Lampblack, a magazine and literary organization he helped to co-found. Marsalis is currently at work on his second novel, End Times.

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  Paige Aniyah Morris

  Paige Aniyah Morris

  Paige Aniyah Morris is a writer and translator from Jersey City, currently based in South Korea. She holds BAs in Ethnic Studies and Literary Arts from Brown University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Newark. The recipient of awards from the Fulbright Program and the American Literary Translators Association, her writing and translations have appeared in the Georgia Review, Pigeon Pages, the Margins, the Rumpus, Strange Horizons, and more.

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  Cheswayo Mphanza

  Cheswayo Mphanza

  Cheswayo Mphanza was born in Lusaka, Zambia and raised in Chicago, Illinois. His work has been featured in the New England Review, the Paris Review, Hampden-Sydney Review, Lolwe, Birdfeast, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Hurston/Wright Foundation, Callaloo, Cave Canem, and Columbia University. A finalist for the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, a recipient of the 2017 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, and winner of the 2020 Boston Review Annual Poetry Contest, his debut collection The Rinehart Frames (University of Nebraska Press), is the winner of the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets. He earned his MFA from Rutgers-Newark.