Faculty Writers
Michael Carrino
Michael Carrino
has a B.S. and M.S. in Education from SUNY Plattsburgh, and is a graduate of the
M.F.A. Program in Writing at Norwich University Vermont
College, Montpelier, VT. He is an adjunct lecturer (writing courses) in
the English Department at SUNY Plattsburgh and has published poetry in
Dalhousie Review, Scrivener (McGill University),
Pottersfield Portfolio (Nova Scotia),
Hudson Review, The Green Mountains
Review, Poetry East, New Letters, Connecticut River Review,
The
Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook
of American Poetry,
1997 and many others. His
first book, Some Rescues was published
in the Spring of 1994 by New Poets Series, Inc., and his second book, Under
This Combustible Sky was published in the winter of 1998 by Mellen Poetry
Press, Lewiston, NY.
His third book, Café Sonata, was
published in the fall of 2003, by Brown Pepper Press,
Montpelier, VT.
He has given numerous readings, most recently at CVH Commons, SUNY Plattsburgh,
Borders Books and North Country
Cultural Center for the Arts in Plattsburgh, NY. Michael.Carrino@plattsburgh.edu
Mark Holden
Mark Holden
has an MFA from the University of Massachusetts and teaches writing at
Plattsburgh State. He has published fiction in Sonora Review, Medocino
Review, High Plains Literary Review, Sun Dog, and Southwest Review. He was
the recipient of a Massachusetts Arts Foundation award for a play titled
"The Appointment," and is currently working on new stories.
HOLDENMJ@PLATTSBURGH.EDU
David Kovacs
David
Kovacs is a fiction writer, poet, freelance journalist and jazz musician who
earned his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley, and his
M.F.A. in fiction writing from Brooklyn College, where he was selected as a
Graduate Teaching/Writing Fellow and as a Fulbright Scholar to Hungary. At
Plattsburgh he teaches Creative Writing, Composition and ESL. While at
Brooklyn he completed a book-length collection of short fiction, entitled Great
Circles, and is currently working on a novel, as yet untitled. He has
published both fiction and poetry in journals including Passages
North,
Brooklyn Review, The Kossuth Review, Frigate and a chapbook of poetry:
"The Gypsy Secretary" in The Ten Year Anniversary Compendium of the
Hungarian Fulbright Commision. In addition, he publishes
freelance journalism frequently, and has had articles and features appear in
numerous international magazines and newspapers. He is also the Webmaster for this
site.
Alexis Levitin
Alexis Levitin's translations
from the Portuguese have resulted in twenty books to date,
half of them volumes of poetry by Eugenio de Andrade, Portugal's
leading living poet. Forbidden Words: The Selected Poetry of Eugenio de Andrade was published by New Directions in 2003. Levitin's most
recent book is Guernica and Other Poems by Carlos de
Oliveira (Guernica Editions, 2004). Another Eugenio de Andrade volume,
Labor of Patience, is due out in the fall. Levitin's
translations have received support in the form of two NEA translation
fellowships, a New York State Council on the Arts grant, and awards from
the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study Center, the Witter Bynner
Poetry Foundation, the Wheatland Foundation, Columbia University's
Translation Center, and Portugal's Gulbenkian Foundation and
Camoes Institute. alexis.levitin@plattsburgh.edu
J.L.
Torres
J.L. Torres is
a poet and writer who has published in various journals including Denver
Quarterly, Bilingual Review, Connecticut Review, Puerto del Sol, and The
Americas Review. One of his stories is anthologized in Growing Up Latino,
published by Houghton-Mifflin. Currently, he teaches US ethnic literatures and
creative writing at PSU. He is circulating a collection of poems, Carimbo, and
is working on another of short stories titled Paper Planes. He lives in
Plattsburgh with wife and two sons. TORRESJL@PLATTSBURGH.EDU
Jennifer Welch
Jennifer Welch was born and raised in Plattsburgh.
She received an English degree from SUNY
Geneseo and a Master's in Education from SUNY Plattsburgh in 1997. She
has published a small piece on high school
writing in NCTE's English Journal. Four years ago, she joined a teacher research
group through the Writing Project at UNC Charlotte, and presented her work at
NCTE's fall conference in Milwaukee. She is currently working on putting together
that research for an article for the Project or NCTE. She is also working on some
essays regarding teaching, writing, and motherhood. j.welch@cms.k12.nc.us
Linda Young
Is a poet...publishing in various
magazines like Colorado Review, Interim, Hubbub, Spoon River Poetry Review, New
York Quarterly and with work forthcoming at Colorado Review, Mid-America Review,
and Hunger Mountain. She finished a manuscript of poems (which is making the
rounds at book contests) and is working on a new mss of poetry. She also teaches
advanced writing in the Literacy Education department, and has an MFA (Vermont
College) and a PhD (University of Utah). linda.young@plattsburgh.edu
Sean Bahner-Guhin
Sean moved into P’burgh, two years ago and am the Program Manager for Walker
International Transportation. Walker is the Supply Chain Management Team
supporting and serving Bombardier’s Production facility on the old base. He is
an accomplished Soux Chef, a sometime Sculptor, always a Poet, a professional
Business Process Analyst, and a general information sponge.
He is a lightly published poet. Mostly private publications and
anthologies (employer funded, etc.), but some public works. One of my poems (Lesson
at Dinner) rides many of the Mass Transit busses in Seattle Washington
everyday as part of Seattle Metro’s commitment to maintaining the old NEA Poetry
in a Public Place Program.
He holds a BA from Rochester, NY’s RIT: Triple Major in Communications, Art
History, and Design; with minors in Sculpture, International Studies, and Middle
East Studies, as well as certificates in Public Relations and Technical Writing.
He worked for a university/attended full time for ~10 years (Portland State, OR)
before finally graduating from RIT in 1990. They called him the only
“Doctoral Undergrad” they’d ever had… Heck, it was all just to avoid paying grad
fees.
Sean has been heavily influenced by the Poetry of Protest, Ahkmatova,
Mandelstam, Owens, Sassoon, Forche’ and many others. His poetry vacillates
between Moment Catching (a plotless/pointless capture of some transient now) and
prosaic epics – he does much better at the moments… Some very short
stories – again the poetry is better. "And waaaay too much business writing -
which I do fairly well."
Alumni
*
Karen Buffett-Smith ´00
Major: English with a minor in Theater
Grad School: The College of Saint Rose in English with an emphasis in writing
historical fiction
Advanced Degree: MA English and MALS English Language and Literature.
"I am currently working as an adjunct instructor of English at North
Country
Community College on the Malone campus. I also work as a Licensed
Practical
Nurse at Plattsburgh Pediatrics. I presented a paper that I wrote entitled,
"Researching the life of Captain James Raine--Point Lighthouse Keeper
1860-1886--and the Application of History to the Biographical Novel" at the
"Researching New York 2002" conference held at SUNY Albany in November
2002. I presented another paper I wrote entitled, "The Horses of the 5th
New
York Cavalry and Their Contributions to the US Civil War" at the "GHA
Historical Conference" held at University of North Carolina at Charlotte in
March 2003. I am currently writing a novel in the genre of historical
fiction. The novel is based on the life of Captain James Raine, the earliest
lighthouse keeper at Crown Point Lighthouse on Lake Champlain. Since
graduation, I have continued researching and writing the novel with an
intention of seeking publication upon its completion. I have written a great
deal of poetry and my latest poem is entitled "So, You're Going to North
Carolina." This is a poem that I converted into a song and is dedicated to
my little brother John Andrew Buffett who died in November 2003. I have also
written a two-act play entitled, "Mushrooms," but it has not been
produced
or published." buffsmitty@westelcom.com
Student Writers
First-Years
*
Ashley Mero ´07 doesn´t
really have any infulences. She usually writes songs... but
lately she hasn´t put music to what she´s written. She won´t really
think much while writing, but when she reads it the next day, that´s when she
likes it. Her major is music... and here are a couple of links to some
stuff she has written: http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/ashes4/Pages/thewatersclear.html
and http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/ashes4/Pages/tragicending.html
Musicgirl020@aol.com
Sophomores
*
Liza Addo
Has a big passion for writing;
loves writing about any topics that come to mind. Her work ranges from family
drama to the beauty that she sees in the world. She has one piece of poetry
published at poetry.com and one story about her voyage to America published in a
teen magazine titled "New Youth Connections" and she is very proud of her
accomplishments so far in her life. Some of her favorite writers are Anne
Moody, Frederick Douglass, and Toni Morrison.
addo3709@plattsburgh.edu
Brianne Symonds
"Writing allows me to
show my thoughts and feelings on paper and makes it real to me. My
favorite writers are me,...Edgar Allan Poe, Shakespeare."
symo1258@mail.plattsburgh.edu
Me
Whitman
"Ive never published anything; I enjoy writing because I feel a release
from
my thoughts once theyre written down- I feel irritated by a lot that has,
is, and will occur in the world. When I write I feel less stressed."
mewest@westelcom.com
Favorite Writers:
Simon de Bouvier, E. O. Wilson, Plato, Crichton, Clancy
Juniors
*
Mercy
Meilunas ´06 is a Junior in Elementary Education. She likes to write
Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction and Drama. Her favorite writers are Robert
frost, Edgar Allen Poe, Victor Hugo, and William Shakespeare. She focuses
on poetry, "Unfortunately none have been published, but that¹s not why I
write. I'm drawn to writing, as a stress relief. I do it for myself, first and
foremost, but if other people enjoy, it¹s that much better." mmeilunas@yahoo.com
James Beaumont likes writing
Fiction, Poetry and Drama. His favorite writers are ee. cummings, John
Steinbeck, Brett Easton Ellis and Shirley Jackson and he enjoys losing himself
in a story, whether through writing or reading. To not have any thoughts
in your head except the place that the story takes you to is the thing. He
has been writing since he was young but only for his own enjoyment, he would
like to try to recieve others' opinions of his work at some point: most of what
he does is still rough and underdeveloped.
beaucardi32@yahoo.com
Seniors
*
Kristen Pancio ´05 is an Eng. Lit major whose favorite writers
are "Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison, Simone De Beauvoire, Shakespeare,
Thoreau, Melville and many many more...."
"Writing
for me is both theraputic and political. I like to think that what i write opens
up people's minds and gives them a chance to explore another world. I am drawn
to works with political or social messages. I have nothing published--yet.
Michael Donnelly ´05 is an English Major with a
focus in writing. He writes poetry and fiction, and his favorite writers
are Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, Virginia Woolf, Erica Lopez, William Bronk,
Tim O'Brien, John Berryman, Frank O'Hara, Margaret Atwood, Aaron Nyerges, Liz
Sanger. Writing, for him, is great because of its pathetic urgency, being
compelled to put something down and ride with it. Michael will have a flash
fiction piece and a poem published by Sunspinner, (www.sunspinner.org)an
online journal. mjddotcom@aol.com
Molly Byrne is a Speech Comm. Major who likes to write because she feels
like it is the one outlet she has wherein she will not be judged for her
thoughts and ideas. She has written many poems and short stories, and has
never been published. Her
favorite writers are Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce.
mbyrne11776@yahoo.com
Tamara
EL-Hassan
"I am drawn to writing because of its ability to help me express and
understand my inner and outer worlds. I like to write fiction and poetry."
Favorite Writers:
"I like a lot of writers: Lawrence, cummings, Chekhov, Hesse, Dickens...the
list is endless."
tnelhss@msn.com
Kevyn
Juneau ´05 is a senior Biology major. Most of his favorite
writers are Ecologists, "Including Jane Goodall, Rachael Carson and Bernd
Heinrich to name a few. I have just gotten into fantasy-type books in the last
few years (thanks to LOTR, I'm glad I read the books before the movies, they
forgot Tom Bombadil!) and I enjoy Marion Zimmer Bradely's take on Arthurian
legend. Right now I am a Super-Senior. Not because I am great, but because
I cannot manage to graduate...ever. I love writing creative non-fiction,
especially about the outdoors. I also enjoy writing fictional stories about
myself that make people laugh. If I ever manage to graduate, I'll like an
outdoorsy job and continue writing about the outdoors. I haven't published
anything yet, but I am working on it." KevynJuneau@yahoo.com
Marcel
Longo ´05 is a senior Mass Media Major who likes to write poetry,
creative non-fiction and screenplays in her spare time. It´s a relaxin`
habit she has developed; and she uses writing sometimes to better understand
certain conflicts. She is currently working
on a novelette, and expanding her anthology to almost 60 poems.
Two of her favorite writers are Cummings and Stephen
Chbosky. countrygrl4ever@hotmail.com
Erik
Pinsonnault ´05 is a Philosophy and Latin American Studies major who
writes fiction, screenplays and poetry. His favorite writers are Robert Bruce,
Stephen King, Stephen Donaldson and Dave Sim. For Robert, "writing
opens doorways like no other - and captures the mind and soul. It is
close to transcendence.... I mostly have unstructured poetry and short
selections," he writes, " I have not [yet] published anything." agentalpha@mac.com
Brandon
Sternburg
"I've been writing since as very young age, my mother was a journalist,
owned
her own paper in Hamilton NY. I was blessed with great and interesting
english teachers for the mostpart of my life. I've loved analyzing society
and the concept of writing things that require interpretation and creating
worlds and characters which reflect my own views always has drawn me.
I like to write stories though i haven't really wrote that many lately, I
love the concept of cinema at this point so i have a few screenplays
bouncing around my head for years and a few actually put to keyboard. I've
written my fair share of poetry in my life but i never really seek getting
published unless you can count the scam poetry sites on the net. Published
twice if you consider that.... stupid poetry.com i'm not spending 70 bucks
for a book I contributed to."
Favorite
Writers:
Kurt Vonnegut, E. E. Cummings, robert Frost, George Orwell, Edgar Allen Poe,
Walt Whitman...
ster1801@mail.plattsburgh.edu
HOME