Managing Editor

Jessica Spruill Waggoner

Jessica Spruill Waggoner (she/her) is an adjunct English instructor and poet living in Charleston, West Virginia. Her work has appeared in Rumble Fish Quarterly, Still, Windows Facing Windows, and the anthology Feminine Rising: Voices of Power and Invisibility, among others. Jessica is cofounder and coeditor of FEED, an online micro lit mag. Follow her on Twitter @profspruill.

Creative Nonfiction Editors

Julia Kastner

Julia Kastner is a book reviewer, dog lover, teacher, mountain biker, and native Texan now settled in West Virginia. Her creative nonfiction has been published at Slag Glass City, Word Riot, Kestrel and You Are Here Stories. Her favorite color is green.

Lara Lillibridge

Lara Lillibridge (she/zher) is the author of two memoirs with Skyhorse Publishing: Mama, Mama, Only Mama: An Irreverent Guide for the Newly Single Parent, and Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home. She co-edited the anthology Feminine Rising: Voices of Power and Invisibility with Andréa Fekete through Cynren Press. Lara Lillibridge is the Interviews Editor for Hippocampus Magazine and a mentor for AWP’s Writer to Writer program. She judged AWP's 2019 Intro Journals Award and was Hippocampus Magazine’s 2019 Literary Citizen of the Year. In 2016 Lara won Slippery Elm Literary Journal’s Prose Contest, and The American Literary Review's Contest in Nonfiction. Find her on the web at Facebook, Twitter, or her website. 

Fiction Editors

C.M. Chapman

C.M. Chapman worked 25 years in radio production before pursuing his Master of Fine Arts degree at West Virginia Wesleyan College. He received his MFA degree in 2015 and was awarded the Irene McKinney Teaching Fellowship which he held for three years, subsequently working as an adjunct professor for West Virginia Wesleyan. He was first published in the anthology, So It Goes: A Tribute to Kurt Vonnegut.  Since then, he has published in many journals, including Limestone, Cheat River Review, Dark Mountain in the U.K., and Unlikely Stories. In 2017, his story “The Moth in the Stair” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Still: The Journal. He has published a fiction chapbook, Music & Blood, with Latham House Press, a novel-in stories, Suicidal Gods, released in 2019 by Unsolicited Press, and a short story collection co-authored with fellow Heartwood editor Larry D. Thacker, called Everyday, Monsters, from Unsolicited Press. Visit his website at www.cmchapmanwriting.net.

Allison Pugh

Allison Pugh is a writer from North Central West Virginia, now residing in Hampton Roads, Virginia. She is a graduate of Alderson-Broaddus College and received an MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Allison co-founded and is an editor for FEED, an online magazine focused on short-form poetry & prose. Her work has appeared in Hinterland Magazine and Stone of Madness Press.

Poetry Editors

Torli Bush

Torli Bush is a Black poet from Webster Springs, WV. They hold a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from WVU and a MFA from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Torli has appeared at several venues in central Appalachia as a spoken word artist, and their work can be found in K'in Literary Journal and 100 Days in Appalachia.

Brittany Morgan

Brittany Morgan is a poet and creative writer with roots in Appalachia. She earned her BA in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing from Longwood University, and then went on to earn her MFA in Creative Writing from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Her poetry has been published in Mistake House Magazine. She is currently at work on an essay collection and a blues music-inspired poetry chapbook.

Interviews Editor

Larry D. Thacker

Larry D. Thacker is a Kentuckian writer, artist, educator, and reality actor, hailing from Johnson City, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife Karin. His poetry is in over 180 publications including Spillway, Poetry South, The American Journal of Poetry, and Appalachian Heritage. His stories and non-fiction are in past issues of Still: The Journal, Longridge Review, Pikeville Review, and Story and Grit. 

His books include four full poetry collections, Drifting in Awe, Grave Robber Confessional, Feasts of Evasion, and Gateless Menagerie, two chapbooks, Voice Hunting and Memory Train, and the non-fiction folk history, Mountain Mysteries: The Mystic Traditions of Appalachia. His three fiction collections include Working it Off in Labor County, Labor Days, Labor Nights: More Stories, and Everyday, Monsters (co-written with CM Chapman). His stories have been nominated for Best of the Net and multiple Pushcart recognitions. 

A veteran of the US Army, Thacker has been involved in the field of higher education for 19 years. He teaches adjunct English course for Northeast State Community College and serves as the store manager at West Main Antiques in Johnson City. He is also a cast member on the new Netflix original series, Swap Shop. His MFA in poetry and fiction is earned from West Virginia Wesleyan College. Visit his website at: www.larrydthacker.com.

Social Media Manager

Advisor

Doug Van Gundy

Doug Van Gundy directs the low-residency MFA writing program at West Virginia Wesleyan College. His poems, essays and reviews have appeared in many national and international publications, including Poetry, The Guardian, and The Oxford American. He is co-editor of the anthology Eyes Glowing at the Edge of the Woods: Contemporary Writing from West Virginia and the author of a collection of poems, A Life Above Water.