"STATES OF MIND" FEATURE EDITORS
Leah Beckhoff // Nonfiction & Hybrid Editor
After her freshman year studying philosophy at the University of Vermont, Leah dropped out of school in order to talk to strangers and couchsurf across America. Eventually she settled back home in Philadelphia and enrolled in Community College, where she earned her Associates of Liberal Arts Degree in December 2016, studying everything from ceramics to human sexuality. In September 2017 she moved to Montpelier, Vermont and began at Goddard College. In the morning she reads and writes and reflects and in the afternoon she slices bread at a local bakery.
Odin Halvorson // Managing Editor (Prose)
Odin Halvorson is a writer, philosopher, and filmmaker, based in California's Northern 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.
Anita Koester // Managing Editor (Poetry)
Anita Olivia Koester is a Chicago poet and author of the chapbooks Marco Polo (Hermeneutic Chaos Press), Apples or Pomegranates forthcoming with Porkbelly Press, and Arrow Songs which won Paper Nautilus’ Vella Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been nominated for Best New Poets and Pushcart Prizes, and won Midwestern Gothic’s 2016 Lake Prize in Poetry, So to Speak’s Annual Poetry Contest, Sable Book’s Poems of Protest Contest, and the Jo-Anne Hirshfield Memorial Poetry Award. Her poetry is published or forthcoming in Vinyl, CALYX Journal, Tahoma Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Pittsburgh Poetry Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. Her work as been supported by the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Vermont Studio Center, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. Visit her online here.
Katherine Michalak // Senior Editor
Katherine 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. She was recently published in Concho River Review. In her free time she enjoys rock climbing, moonlit hikes, and other outdoor adventures.
M. A. Vizsolyi // Faculty Advisor
M.A. Vizsolyi is the author of The Lamp with Wings: Love Sonnets, (HarperPerennial) winner of the National Poetry Series, selected by Ilya Kaminsky. His newest collection, Anthem for the Wounded, is forthcoming this fall. 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. Follow him at his website.
Brittany Long // Social Media & Fiction Editor
Britt Long currently lives on the coast of Central New Jersey. Writing fiction, predominantly Young Adult, Britt focuses on creating characters that she wished were available when growing up. Her YouTube channel, AwebecoBento Productions,focuses mainly within the gaming and geek online culture. She will be releasing a web series in the Fall that sheds a humorous light on online dating in the modern world. Previously she was a staff writer for Her Campus at Rider University before moving on to Goddard College. Outside of school and YouTube, Brittany spends most of her looking at corgi photos and walking along the beach at night.
Patti Wahlberg // Poetry & Art Editor
Originally from Western Massachusetts, Patti migrated to Southern California on a whim at age 24, where she proceeded to sporadically attend college courses in acting and writing. Her chapbook Doom Flower was published in 2000 by Laguna Poets, and her work has been included in the journals Slipstream, Pearl, Up Against the Wall, Mother, Kiss me Goodnight, and Solace in So Many Words. However, the raising of two beautiful daughters has been, by far, her most gratifying success in life. Forty-five years after graduating from high school, Patti has returned to college to pursue a BFA in Creative Writing. She has recently moved back to her New England roots, and now lives in beautiful Cabot, Vermont, with her beloved husband and two toy poodle rescues.