Staff & Editors // EXODUS
Catherine Chambers is the senior editor of Duende, and is completing her second year on the staff after previously serving as poetry editor and managing editor. Her prose has been published in Constellations Journal of Poetry & Fiction, her poetry has appeared in Gulf Stream Literary Magazine, and she was recently accepted into the Tin House Writer's Workshop to study poetry with Jericho Brown. Catherine recently interned at Melville House Publishing, and lives in Brooklyn with her dog, Bob Dylan. She graduates from Goddard College this fall.
Christina Gerard is Duende’s non-fiction editor. She currently lives in El Paso, Illinois. By day, she works as a case manager assisting those diagnosed with mental illness; by night, she writes. Pulling from her personal experiences, Christina writes primarily nonfiction. Highlighting trauma, feminine sexuality, familial relationships, mental illness, identity, and the everyday intersection and evolution of these topics, is her passion and purpose. When she isn’t studying, she dedicates her spare time to her first book-length project, delves into divination, and dreams, dreams, dreams.
Odin Halvorson is Duende's poetry editor. He is a writer, poet, and filmmaker, based in California's incomparible Bay Area, where he works as the director of the Pacific Zen Institute's Audio/Video department. He focuses his artistic efforts around self-betterment and awareness, and strives to affect a positive change in the way society perceives the importance of art. To this end, he blends politics, philosophy, and optimism for the future into his work, ever aiming for a day when the goal of "bettering oneself and all of humanity" becomes the common baseline for our social lives. He is the author of two poetry chapbooks, "Hart Unedited" (2014) and "Wist" (2015), both of which are available on Amazon. You can keep up to date with him on his website.
Katherine Michalak edits Duende's hybrid work and lives in Boulder, Colorado. At age seventeen, she had a personal essay published in the Christian Science Monitor, and at twenty, she worked as a staff interviewer for the Crestone Eagle. After a ten-year hiatus in which she pursued music and mathematics, she recently returned to writing, exploring memoir and contemplative nonfiction. Before joining the Duende team, she was student editor for Plains Paradox Literary Journal. Her work is forthcoming in Concho River Review. In her free time she enjoys rock climbing, moonlit hikes, and other outdoor adventures.
Lacey Pruitt-Thomas is the fiction editor for Duende. Lacey was born in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, but grew up as an “army brat,” moving approximately every six months for the first twelve years of her life. After high school she moved to western New York where she raised her family and worked in accounting for thirty-plus years. When she turned fifty, she returned to college and received an Associates of Arts & Sciences in Liberal Arts from her local community college. A happy accident led her to attend Goddard College in Vermont, where she is currently working on her BFA in creative writing.
M.A. Vizsolyi is the faculty advisor for Duende. He is the author of The Lamp with Wings: Love Sonnets, (HarperPerennial) winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Ilya Kaminsky. He has two new books forthcoming, Crispin (Monk Books) and The Common Index of Poetic Lines (Paratext). He is also the author of the chapbooks,Notes on Melancholia (Monk Books) and The Case of Jane: A Verse Play (500places press), which was produced for Performa 13 and broadcast on National Public Radio. Vizsolyi’s work can be found in numerous journals, including The New Orleans Review, Narrative, Crazyhorse, Cream City Review, The Journal, Pleiades, The Burnside Review, Harpur Palate, Ninth Letter, Ploughshares, and Gulf Coast. He is also a collaborative artist and performs occasionally, with past performances at various locations in Brooklyn, Houston, and SUNY Binghamton. He lives in Brooklyn.
Tyler Woodsmall is the managing editor of Duende. He is a professional screenplay analyst for several film festivals and agencies, and studies primarily noir/genre fiction. His piece "Pesticide" recently appeared in Sanitarium Magazine. He currently lives in Brooklyn.