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Managing & Poetry Editor

Erin Elizabeth Smith is the founder and editor-in-chief of Stirring and author of The Fear of Being Found (Three Candles Press 2008) and The Chainsaw Bears (Dancing Girl Press 2009). Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in numerous literary magazines including New Delta Review, The Yalobusha Review, The Florida Review, Cimarron Review, Third Coast, and Crab Orchard. Erin holds an PhD from the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently a full-time lecturer at the University of Tennessee where she teaches poetry writing and literature.

Fiction Editor

Josh Webster is a second-year PhD student at The University of Southern Mississippi, where he specializes in fiction. When he’s not attending to his duties as the fiction editor of Stirring, he’s struggling to overcome his disappointment that he is not, in fact, an orphan of the planet Krypton..

Associate Poetry Editor

John Turner is an Instructor of English at Scott Community College in Davenport, Iowa. His work has appeared in Short Stuff, Samsara Quarterly, Astronomy, Lyrical Iowa, Haiku Hut, Squashblossom, Black&White, The Poet, and Stirring, among others. He is a James Hearst Poetry Award winner and the first on-line Slammaster for Simon&Shuster and Warner Brothers. He has judged the Third Fusion Poetry Competiton as well as the 2004 Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest. John has also written and starred in 30 plays in last 20 years, won poetry slams in the Quad Cities, had poems and plays commissioned in Illinois and Iowa, and has never beaten Erin Elizabeth at Insomniac's Society Poetry Slams.

Associate Poetry Editor

In addition to serving as an Associate Poetry Editor for Stirring for so long she can’t remember when she started, M is also an Administrator for an online poetry site called Wild Poetry Forum. Her work has appeared in a variety of journals -- Pedestal, Word Riot, Gumball Poetry Journal, Half-Drunk Muse, three candles, 3rd Muse Poetry Journal, New World Review, Eclectica Magazine, The Rose & Thorn, and others. She will also begin serving soon as the co-chairperson of the Portland chapter of the Oregon State Poetry Association (OSPA). In the few seconds a month when she is not working on these projects, she reads mostly novels, walks along bustling city streets with her man, and is grateful for the enormous amount of love in her life.

Associate Poetry Editor

Jeffrey H. MacLachlan's work has appeared in Brooklyn Review, Tipton Poetry Journal, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others. He hails from Skaneateles, NY.

Associate Poetry Editor

Rhonda Lott is a doctoral candidate in Poetry at Texas Tech. Her poems have appeared in Kennesaw Review, Journal of Truth and Consequence, and The Southern Quarterly. Rhonda likes to keep things brief.

Associate Poetry Editor

Kevin Matz was born in Champaign, Illinois, on May 12, 1977. He received a Bachelors degree in Rhetoric in 2000. He then worked a number of glamorous jobs, such as fork lift operator and deli grunt, to support his writing before returning to the University of Illinois to pursue graduate study. In 2004, he won the Carol Kyle Memorial Award for Poetry. He graduated with his MFA from the University of Illinois in May of 2005. He lives with his wife and daughter.

Associate Poetry Editor

Scott Fynboe is just this guy, ya know? A former radio DJ, he moved from his hometown of Binghamton, NY to the Southeast where he is currently pursuing a career in education. In addition to poetry, he has a deep interest in pop music/culture and has possibly forgotten more songs than you’ll ever remember.

Associate Poetry Editor

Michelle Gilliam is a University of Tennessee Creative Writing student who loves words -- new ones and new uses. She does not think we ever stop learning how to write well. Michelle lives in a house as the only girl, daughter, granddaughter and cousin. It leaves lots of time for reading. She was an 09' Ireland Ambassador where she studied poetry and Literatrue through TNCIS.

Sundress Intern

Jane Roberts is a student at the University of Tennessee, revisiting her college education after a four-year-long partying sabbatical, majoring in Social Work with a minor in English, as well as a novice poet. She has an insatiable desire to learn and familiarize myself with fresh ideas and unique individuals. Jane has two children, Walt and Sid, adopted as tomcats, yet their nature supersedes most people she meets on a daily basis.