Wendy Call is the Faculty Advisor for Duende. Before she joined the Goddard BFA faculty in 2013, she served as Writer in Residence for twenty institutions, including national parks, colleges, a historical archive and a public hospital. Her current literary projects are supported by 4Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts. She lives and works as a writer, editor, educator and translator in Seattle’s Columbia City neighborhood, where she’s grateful to be within walking distance of life’s essentials: an old-growth forest, brewpub, pho shop, farmers’ market, and public library.

Catherine Chambers is one of Duende’s poetry editors. Born a Texas girl, she now resides physically in Denver while her heart is forever on the road. Although she has a great love of reading poetry, even dabbling in writing some, she primarily writes creative nonfiction and flash fiction. Her work can be found in Constellations Journal of Poetry and Fiction and on her personal blog. Catherine's influences include Nicole Hardy, Natalie Goldberg, Mary Oliver, and Ernest Hemingway. She has two degrees from clown college displayed on her mom’s fridge. Hi mom!

Raphael Krasnow is the Visual Arts Editor and Poetry Reader for Duende. He is a father, poet, singer, songwriter, and playwright in the midst of a personal creative renaissance. Raised in Vermont, Raphael has staked claim to Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, and Los Angeles, though he currently resides in the peculiarly beautiful city of Portland, OR. He is a life-long performer, with an ear for rhyme and rhythm, and a penchant for romance. When he is not creating art, Raphael moonlights as the friendliest, beardliest ice cream scooper this side of the Mississippi. Catch him for a scoop and a smile.

Ah-Keisha McCants is Senior Editor at Duende. Her bi-coastal NYC/LA upbringing prepared her well for being married with kids in the city-burbs of PA. A poet, filmmaker, playwright, and songwriter, Ah-Keisha has written for television, film, and for recording artists Olu Dara and Cassandra Wilson. She’s inspired by the work of Lorraine Hansberry, Bertolt Brecht, Tennessee Williams, Toni Morrison, and Amiri Baraka.  She has been featured in Source Magazine, Village Voice, Backstage and the Courier Post. Ah-Keisha enjoys mini adventures with her kids, pointed discourse, laughter, and proudly boasts she’s never had a cavity.

Jørn Earl Otte is the Managing Co-Editor of Duende, and is the Incarcerated Writers Project coordinator. He is a memoirist, poet, and fiction writer who enjoys reading and writing in all three daily. In addition to his literary pursuits, he is an award-winning father, earning Dad-of-the-Year coffee mugs 15 years in a row. He is married to his best friend Kimberly, and they have two children.

Jay Sheets is a poet and one of Duende’s poetry editors. Like Gibran and Darío, he tends to shy away from writing about typical day-to-day experiences as his passions lay in uncovering the mysteries that weave through these experiences via poetry. He has a deep appreciation for surrealism, imagery, metaphor, allegory, personal mythology, and work that speaks to the creative consciousness. His work is forthcoming in Hermeneutic Chaos and Aleola Journal of Poetry and Art. When he’s not writing pieces for his own collection, he can be found hiking or hanging at the beach. Sheets lives in Plymouth, MA.

 

Amy Sterne is a Managing Co-editor and part of the design team at Duende. She recently returned to her hometown of Crystal Lake, IL after spending several years in Chicago. Her primary genre is creative nonfiction and she loves an entertaining bildungsroman. Lidia Yuknavitch, Anne Sexton, Cheryl Strayed, Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski knock her socks off.  When she has a free night to herself, she can be found at home, listening to Etta James, eating blocks of cheese, and drinking wine out of a coffee mug while baking pie, or cuddling with her pitbull, Shooter.  

Tyler Woodsmall is Duende’s Media Coordinator. Before coming to Goddard, he spent his time studying film theory and story structure for motion pictures at the Los Angeles Film School. He is a professional screenplay analyst who does coverage for two literary companies and several film festivals. He currently resides and works in a small Georgia town that is nestled at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. If he is not doing analysis work on screenplays, you can find him reading. Some of his favorite writers and poets include Marquis De Sade, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Carol, Will Christopher Baer, David Mamet, and Cormac McCarthy.