Jon Taylor, MFA '96

Jon Taylor, MFA '96 (Poetry) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature at Ferris State University. He teaches creative writing, professional writing, and literature. After many years of teaching, living life, and dabbling in Ph.D. programs (English Ed. & Academic Leadership) he has recently refocused on writing and has just finished a writing sabbatical. He completed his first collection of poetry and is currently seeking a publisher. In the past year, he attended the Bear River Writer's Conference in Petoskey and the Colrain Poetry Manuscript Conference in Massachusetts and had excellent experiences at both. He lives in Big Rapids with his wife and two sons, aged three and eight. His older son has autism and his new work focuses on the experience of raising him. He recently started a Facebook account and has been in touch with former friends, colleagues, and mentors (including Arnie Johnston). You can contact Jon there: http://www.facebook.com/people/Jon-Taylor/1513111565 or at taylorj @ ferris.edu.

Rose Swartz

Rose Swartz, an English major--Creative writing, who graduated a couple of years ago (you may remember her for editing The Laureate), is in her second year at Arizona State where she is poetry editor of Hayden's Ferry Review. She just won the Hot Metal Press chapbook contest for her manuscript entitled "Things I've Left Between." She has been awarded a fellowship to Prague for this summer and also an artistic residency to collaborate with another artist from someplace in the world for a month in Tabor, Czech Republic. We're very proud of her.