Meet the Staff
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Lauren Lotarski – Managing Editor, Poetry Editor, Layout Editor & Blogger: Lauren is a Senior at Lewis University majoring in Psychology and English with a concentration in Literature and Language. When not in class, she can be found working at the university library or engaging in her various hobbies, such as reading, drawing, or knitting. Some of her favorite authors include Leigh Bardugo, Charles Dickens, and Neil Gaiman. She hopes to improve upon her writing skills and knowledge of literature during her time at Lewis in order to apply it to her future endeavors.
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Samuel McFerron - Asst. Managing Editor, Webmaster, Prose Editor, Poetry Editor & Blogger: Samuel is a Senior at Lewis University. They are double majoring in English Literature and Philosophy. They aspire to become a professor of U.S. Literature and spend most of their free time reading and writing. They hope to improve upon their writing and literary analysis skills during their time here at Lewis. Some authors they recommend are Ana Castillo, Willa Cather, Navarre Scott Momaday, Walker Percy, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their poetry appears in The Kudzu Review (FSU) and Beyond Thought (UNLV).
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Alyssa Khuffash - Prose Editor: Alyssa is a Senior at Lewis University majoring in English with a concentration in Writing. She is also minoring in Creative Writing and Theology. She enjoys walking her dog, taking care of her plants, reading, and listening to music. Some of her favorite authors include Katherine Arden, Holly Black, and Madeline Miller. She hopes to improve her writing while at Lewis and apply her skills to her future as a writer.
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Jovaughn Williams- Prose Editor: Jovaughn Williams is a Senior transfer student from the College of Dupage. He’s majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Psychology. If he’s not getting his hands dirty in a sport, he likes to spend his free time reading comic books, writing stories, watching movies, going crazy at the gym, and hanging out with his friends. His major goal is to bring his writing skills to the next level, eventually becoming a novelist so he can have another way of spreading his creativity to the world. His favorite authors included the likes of Pierce Brown, James Dasher, and Cherie Dimaline.
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Harper Saglier - Blog Editor, Prose Editor & Layout Editor : Harper is a junior at Lewis University majoring in English with a concentration in Writing. They are currently employed at the Howard and Lois Adelmann Regional History Collection. When they aren’t reading academic material, they enjoy watching movies and reading books from their endless growing backlog of recommendations. They hope to use the analysis and writing skills gained from Lewis to further drive their interest in literature beyond graduation. Some of their favorite authors include Neil Gaiman and Oscar Wilde.
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Lauren Raimbault - Social Media Editor, Asst. Prose Editor & Blogger: Lauren is a Lewis University Senior studying English with a concentration in General Writing. She also mentors her peers at the university’s Writing Center. In addition to her academic pursuits, Lauren has played the violin since 2011 and currently serves as Concertmaster for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra. She also recently began learning bass guitar and plays in her university’s jazz band. When not writing or practicing, she enjoys reading thrillers and fantasy novels, crocheting, and playing video games.
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Hannah Smrcka - Asst. Poetry Editor, Asst. Layout Editor & Blogger: Hannah is a Junior at Lewis University majoring in English with a concentration in Literature and Language. They are on the Track and Cross Country teams for Lewis and enjoy playing piano in their free time. After graduation they hope to get their masters and certification in coaching to coach collegiate distance running, but they hope to still use their English degree to publish works outside of their main occupation. They feel that studying English betters them as a person every day. Some of their favorite authors include Charles Dickens, Rainbow Rowell, Lauren Fleshman, and Deena Kastor.
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Mary Egan - Founder: Mary founded the Jet Fuel Review during her senior year at Lewis University. Since graduating, she has ventured into the publishing world. Mary currently works at Goodheart-Willcox Publisher, where she is an Associate Editor in the Health and Health Sciences department. On a typical day, Mary spends at least six hours fiddling with and correcting other people's words, and that's the way she likes it. She still helps to maintain and edit the Jet Fuel Review's blog. This is Mary's sixth year with the Jet Fuel Review and she is proud of the team managing the journal now. When she's not at work, Mary enjoys whittling down the numbers of unread books on her shelves, participating in National Novel Writing Month, watching Gilmore Girls over and over, and enjoying the time-suck that is the internet.
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Faculty Advisor
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Simone Muench - Chief Faculty Editor & Advisor: Simone Muench is the author of six full-length books including Lampblack & Ash (Winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize; Sarabande, 2005), Orange Crush (Sarabande, 2010), Wolf Centos (Sarabande, 2014), and Suture, a collaborative book of sonnets written with Dean Rader, (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). Her chapbook Trace received the Black River Award (Black Lawrence Press, 2014). Some of her honors include a 2013 NEA fellowship, two Illinois Arts Council fellowships, the Marianne Moore Prize for Poetry, and residency fellowships to Yaddo, Artsmith, and Vermont Studio Center, where she also served as a Visiting Writer in 2016. In 2014, she was awarded the Meier Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award, which recognizes artists for innovation, achievements and community contributions. She received her Ph.D from the University of Illinois and is Professor of English at Lewis University where she teaches creative writing and film studies. Currently, she serves as chief faculty advisor for Jet Fuel Review, as a poetry editor for Tupelo Quarterly, as the poetry editor for JackLeg Press, and as the founder and host of the HB Sunday Reading Series. A vegetarian and life-long horror film fan, you can find her at www.simonemuench.com
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Carrie McGath - Former Faculty Editor & Advisor: Carrie McGath is the author of a full-length poetry collection, Small Murders, as well as several handmade, limited-edition poetry chapbooks including Dollface, So Sorry to See You Go, Ward Eighty-One, Ohio Lonely, and The Chase. She is currently at work on her second full-length poetry collection, The Luck of Anhedonia. Her poems have appeared in The Tahoma Literary Review, The Chariton Review, The Hiram Poetry Review, Barrow Street, and others and she has worked as an art critic in the city of Chicago since 2009. Her art criticism has appeared in Brut Force, Chicagoist, Newcity, and Third Coast Review and she is the Art Editor for Lovers Eye Press. Carrie is listed on VIDA’ s ‘anti-list’ of Under-Acknowledged Women Writers. Carrie received her PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches composition and creative writing. Before working toward her doctorate, Carrie received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing (poetry) from Western Michigan University before moving to Chicago to earn a Masters in New Arts Journalism and Art History from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Carrie lives in the Logan Square neighborhood of Chicago with her sassy tuxedo cat, Sophie.
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Consultants
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Jackie K. White - Reader & Consultant: Jackie K. White is an Associate Professor at Lewis where she regularly teaches Introduction to Poetry; Early U.S. Literature; Latino, Latin American, Native American Literature; and Teaching Young Adult Lit. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago where she specialized in Creative Writing (Poetry) with concentrations in Hemispheric-American Studies and Women’s Studies. A former editor of the literary journal RHINO for nine years, Dr. White also has published numerous poems and translations in such journals as ACM, Bayou, Fifth Wednesday, Spoon River Poetry Review, Third Coast, and online at seven bridges, shadowbox, and prosepoem. com. Her first chapbook, Bestiary Charming won the 2007 Anabiosis Award and her second chapbook, Petal-Tearing & Variations, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2008. A third chapbook of poems, Come Clearing, was published by Dancing Girl Press in March, 2012. Dr. White is also the co-translator of Cesar Miguel Rondon’s History of Salsa and is currently working on a translation of Sherezada Vicioso’s Algo que decir: Essays on Feminist Caribbean Literature.
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Patricia Damocles - Reader & Consultant: Patricia Damocles is a Filipinx American writer based in the Chicago suburbs. She graduated from Lewis University with a B.A. in English Language & Literature/Creative Writing and is currently an Associate SEO Specialist at Dealer Inspire. She is a 2019 Wolny Writing Residency fellow, a member of Sigma Tau Delta, a consultant for Jet Fuel Review, and a poetry reader for Memorious. Her work has been published in Poet Lore, Lewis Voices, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. In her free time, she enjoys reading poetry and memoirs, watching documentaries, weightlifting, spending time with family, and lounging around with her two cats, Misty and Maxxie.
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Andrea Y. Rodriguez - Reader & Consultant: Cleveland native Andrea Y. Rodriguez is an Afro-Latina writer based in Chicagoland. She graduated in Fall 2021 with her BA in English from Lewis University. Rodriguez is a 2022 Best Small Fiction nominee and has been featured in Cider Press Review, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, FEED, Jet Fuel Review, Ghost Heart Literary Journal and elsewhere. Rodriguez currently works as a Human Resource Specialist for her local library.
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Kasia Wolny - Consultant: Kasia graduated from Lewis University with a B.A. in English, Literature and Language Concentration, and a creative writing minor. Kasia loves to read literature from around the world and across genres; some of her favorites are Toni Morrison, Khaled Hosseini, Wojciech Kuczok, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Diana Gabaldon. In her writing, she likes to focus on short story and essay composition, and on Polish-English translation. Kasia is a mom of two teenagers who, being bilingual, regularly poke fun at her for mispronouncing English words. In her free time, she likes to hike, cook, tend to her garden, visit art museums, and drink tea with friends. Kasia is the recipient of a 2019 Abraham Lincoln Civic Engagement Award, thus becoming a Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois. She's currently getting her graduate degree in English at UIC-Chicago and is the founder of the Wolny Writing Residency.
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Zakiya Cowan - Consultant: Zakiya Cowan graduated from Lewis University with her B.A. in English & Spanish Language and Culture. She is a former editor for Jet Fuel Review, a 2019 Wolny Writing Residency fellow, and a 2020 Brooklyn Poets Fellowship recipient. Her work is published or forthcoming in Hobart, Split Lip Magazine, Windows Fine Arts Magazine, Spoon River Poetry Review, and You Flower/You Feast: A Harry Styles Anthology. Some of her favorite writers include Toni Morrison, Roxane Gay, Eve Ewing, and Safia Elhillo. In her free time, she enjoys listening to crime podcasts, writing, and discovering new bookstores and restaurants to visit in her hometown of Chicago. She is a reader for Memorious, an intern for Sundress Publications, and the interview editor for the new BIWOC run Honey Lit.
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Stephanie Karas - Reader & Consultant: Stephanie Karas graduated in the Spring of 2021 with a degree in both Psychology and English Studies. She has had poems and creative work appear in Disquiet Arts, Creative Communications, 30 N, Lewis Voices, Quirk, Wrongdoing Magazine, and The Antigonish Review. Currently, she is pursuing her Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and working as a Graduate Assistant at the Lewis University Writing Center. She was the recipient of the English Studies Departmental award at Lewis University in 2021. Outside of her academic work, Stephanie enjoys reading, painting, baking, and caring for her three frogs.
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Cassidy Fontaine-Warunek - Reader & Consultant: Cassidy graduated from Lewis University in the Spring of 2022, majoring in English with a concentration in Writing, as well as minoring in Computer Science. Outside of Lewis, Cassidy participates in writing groups with the Community Writing Project. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, working out, reading, and writing. Some of her favorite authors are: Gillian Flynn, Terry Tempest Williams, and Michelle Alexander. Her work has appeared in Windows Magazine.
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Selena Tomas- Reader & Consultant: Selena graduated from Lewis University in Spring 2023 majoring in English. She has a concentration in Literature and Language, as well as General Writing. Selena is a writing tutor at the Lewis University Writing Center, and the Presidential Advisor of Sigma Tau Delta. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in hopes of becoming an English professor. Outside Lewis, Selena enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her baby brother. She has two poems published in The Opal.
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In Memoriam: JFR Editor Steven T. Seum (July 19, 1978 - December 29, 2017)
Visit here for the Tribute Page
Graduate
Dedicated to Steven Seum
If i could make time stop
I'd freeze the moment before you graduated.
Crystal figures in a curio-cabinet metronome
close to the edge, so i fear they may topple.
I can't catch them, because i run in slow
motion and these soles have no friction.
I slow down time.
I can't stop the confetti
before it ashes in your eye.
But i can watch it, in slower
and slower
and slower motion.
by Rae Powell
Dedicated to Steven Seum
If i could make time stop
I'd freeze the moment before you graduated.
Crystal figures in a curio-cabinet metronome
close to the edge, so i fear they may topple.
I can't catch them, because i run in slow
motion and these soles have no friction.
I slow down time.
I can't stop the confetti
before it ashes in your eye.
But i can watch it, in slower
and slower
and slower motion.
by Rae Powell
In Memoriam: JFR Editor Lucas Boelter (Sept 23, 1990-Sept 24, 2015)
Visit here for the Tribute Page
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back of my van
the back of my van and the smoke is ghosts of white, ephemeral flowers that puff and sink and we're all here singing Sunday Morning Coming Down and Lenny with the nose that holds a white earring shaped into the word BANG!, exclamation mark and all, he says he’s joining the navy after the trip only if they sing In The Navy when on the boat and his pops used to beat the shit out of him and his sister and collie too and he once told me I could look into my daddy's eyes and see two ghosts fightin' each other and the ghost wit' the red back always winnin' but it’s all right now because he’s with Margaret now and with his friends and we're in the back of our van smoking and singing Sunday Morning Coming Down by Lucas Boelter |
Previous Editors
Bianca Apato, Ryan Arciero, Lauren Barnes, Liz Baudler, Jordan Benes, Brittany Bishop, Katelyn Bittke, Joseph Block, Lucas Boelter, Madeline Brzeczek, Gianna Capperino, Alecea Cardillo, Jillian Carlberg, Melissa Carrington, Mary Carroll, Alexciana Castaneda, Ashley Castillo, Kayla Chambers, Angela Ciarlette, Caitlin Connelly, Melissa Cortez, Michael Cotter, Zakiya Cowan, Brittany Crosse, Amber Curl, Mateusz Czubinski, Sean Darke, Patricia Damocles, Dominique Dusek, Mike Egan, Henrietta Eghan, Payton Emond, Katie Esposito, Daniel Fiorio, Tim Fitzpatrick, Cassidy Fontaine-Warunek, Sarah Ford, Emilio Franchini, Sam Gennett, Mandy Gieseler, Miguel Gonzalez, Audrey Heiberger, Andrea Holm, Kammeran Hughes, Mark Jacobs Sanders, Jake Johnson, Jess Jordan, Jeff Jurinek, Jakob Kagay, Stephanie Karas, Zachary Klozik, Joshua Kostecka, Kari Krajniak, Monika Kois, Kyle Kotas, Lydia Kozlowski, Michael Lane, Haley Leon, Emily Lif, Stephanie Lipinski, Jason Ludtke, Kelly Lyons, Mike Malan, Theresa Marten, Nicole Martinez Harn, Alexandra Martinez, Salvador Martinez, Grant Mazan, Ashley McCann, Deirdre McCormick, Symone McCoy, China McDonald, Tina McKee, Zachary Meredith, Samantha Moffett, Gabby Muir, Dina Nashed, Jacqueline Nelson, Julie Nettles, Caeley O'Connor, Doug Overbeck, Stephen Papesh, Sabrina Parr, Chris J. Patiño, Kyle Paup, Brandon Peck, Madelyn Pedersen, Chris Pelech, Tonya Peterson, Lauren Pirc, Carrera ‘Rae’ Powell, Caitlyn Quinlan, Olivia Radakovich, Stephanie Raga, Nicole Reidy, Haley Renison, , Andrea Yvette Rodriguez, Donatas Ruzys, Samantha Rydberg, Bree Scott, Christine Sellin, Steven Seum, Lucas Sifuentes, Noah Slowik, Miguel Soto, Michelle Staje, Ashley Stajura, Rachel Steele, Linda K. Strahl, Reno Stramaglia, Quinn Stratton, Eryn Stochelski, Roslyn Summerville, Sylvia Szewczyk, Keanu Taylor, Armon Thurmond, Selena Tomas, Kasia Wolny, Victoria Vega, Ashley Zizich