Founder and Editor in Chief
Aaron Lelito is a visual artist and writer from Buffalo, NY. His poetry chapbook, The Half Turn, was published in 2023, and he released a collaborative notebook/art collection titled If We: Connections Through Creative Process in 2024. His work has also appeared in Stonecoast Review, Barzakh Magazine, Novus Literary Arts Journal, SPECTRA Poets, Peach Mag, Santa Fe Review, About Place Journal, and Alluvian. His images have been published as cover art in Red Rock Review, Peatsmoke Journal, and The Scriblerus. He is a freelance editor, certified meditation teacher, and English educator. He founded WRJ in 2020. Visit his website at aaronlelito.com.
Having the Wild Roof Journal community has helped me become a better poet.
-Rachel, reader & contributor
General Editor
Chris Vogt has been playing music since he was 11 years old. Once he was introducing to blues and jazz by his dad, he was hooked. His day job is in the academic setting, though, as an English professor. His literary background ranges from the classics of American Literature to cinema and philosophy. He still holds out hope to, one day, become a film auteur. Other interests include dog psychology, British game shows, and the fine line between love and codependency.
Visual Arts Editor
Cleo Fisher is a photographer of the quaint and unassuming aspects of the natural world. She has a passion for other artforms as well, such as drawing and lo-fi music. She is currently in the process of learning to play instruments without lessons and exploring analog photography methods.
Writing Editor
Daniel A. Morgan is a writer, musician, and professor of American Literature. He is currently studying the work that draws connections among literature, Eastern philosophy, and the psychedelic experience. Find his similarly themed art & literature website at theclosedeyeopen.com.
Readers & Editors & Collaborators
Emma Cecil is an aspiring editor/publisher with several years’ experience working at independent bookstores in her home of North Carolina. She’s currently pursuing a degree in English with a minor in creative writing at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
Nora Curry is a poet and librarian living and working in midcoast Maine. Hailing from Brooklyn, NY, she has worked in horticultural therapy and nature-based education and is particularly interested in the interactions between language and nature in her own work and others’. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the Aurorean, Bennington Review, and Cimarron Review.
Samuel Fishman is a proprietor of post-modernist hogwash. A graduate of Oberlin College, Sam is currently employed as an SEO marketing writer in the Boston area. He aspires to be a professional creative writer, penning books about celebrity stalkers, Jewish mystics who talk to ghosts to stop serial killers, and witches overthrowing the government. You can hear him talk about poker media on the Two Fish at the Table Podcast on YouTube.
Erika B. Girard is currently pursuing her M.A. in English and Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry through SNHU. She graduated from Saint Leo University in Florida in 2019 with her B.A. in English Literary Studies and a minor in Hospitality Management. Originally from Rhode Island, she derives creative inspiration from her family, friends, faith, and fascination with the human experience. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Alembic, Iris Literary Journal, Edify Fiction, Sandhill Review, Wild Roof Journal, and more.
Kaisha A. Girard is a graduate of Saint Leo University pursuing her Master’s in English and Creative Writing through Southern New Hampshire University. She has had her work accepted to Sandhill Review, Ember Chasm Review, Dots Publications, and Draw Near, among others. A native Rhode Islander, Kaisha loves reading, writing, and correctly guessing Jeopardy! questions and is inspired by her faith, her family, her friends, and the world around her.
Christina Loraine is a fine artist and writer living far enough outside Chicago’s lights to see the stars. She studied philosophy at Western Illinois University and is now the Information Services Coordinator for a public library, leading a creative writing group and instructing art classes. One of her 10-minute plays has been produced, and she has a published novel-in-verse. On the Run Fiction and Eye to the Telescope have published her work online. Still, she has a penchant for plein air oil painting and has been known to wander the countryside with a backpack full of gear, pausing to paint the scenery and listen to the earth. Find her on Instagram @citrinesatellite.
Rachel Lauren Myers is a poet and writer from Reno, Nevada. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Written Here + There: The Community of Writers Poetry Review 2020, The Moving Force Journal, Wild Roof Journal, and Drunk Monkeys. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found on Instagram (@hellostarbuck) posting existentialist memes, or hanging with her elderly pug, Watson.
Anna Schechter is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she studied fiction writing and literature, and she is currently studying at the University of Oxford. Her short story, “The Swap,” received the Rex Warner Prize at Wadham College. When she isn’t reading and writing, she can be found making collages, and pressing flowers.
Sara Tausendfreund is a copyeditor and creative writer with a Master’s degree in English from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She is a volunteer reader for Witness Magazine, Identity Theory, and Wild Roof Journal. She has been published in Every Day Fiction and Full House Literary.
Website credits
Lisa Achammer created the header images and logo. See more of her artwork on Instagram @lisa_achammer and @is_a_sin_.
Jessica Harris created the background image for the “Follow Us” banner. The full piece appears in Issue 2, titled “Navigation II.” See more of Jessica’s artwork at www.jessicaharrisart.com.au and on Instagram @jessicaharrisart.
Past readers & collaborators
April Ahmed is a New Orleans native who formerly served as the Fiction Editor in Chief of LSU’s literary journal, The Delta. She primarily works in speculative fiction and has work forthcoming in Waccamaw Journal. In her downtime, you can find her painting, working on her handstands, and overanalyzing horror movies.
Melissa Boberg is an alumna of Boston University, where she studied English and Philosophy. Her fiction appears in the South Shore Review, Jet Fuel Review, and elsewhere. Read more of her work at www.melissaboberg.com.
Ann Keeling came to California with her dance company and never left. She is now an editor and writing coach who holds an MFA-Creative Writing from Goddard College. She was Editor in Chief of the Pitkin Review, was published in the Seattle Erotic Art Festival’s literary art anthology, and her fiction pieces will appear in the upcoming issues of Jellyfish Review and defunct magazine. Excerpts of her work can be found on Instagram @ann.keeling.writes.
Phoebe Phelps is from the Hudson Valley in New York State. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from SUNY Geneseo and has spent the past four years teaching English in Spain. When she’s not reading or writing, she can be found hiking or talking about dinosaurs.
Debby Regan is a poet, mother, three-wheel bicycle enthusiast, and emotional support human to standard poodles. Her most recent published poem appears in the first edition of Duck Duck Mongoose and she has a BA in English from The University of Alabama (UAH).
Adrienne Rozells graduated from Oberlin College with a BA in Creative Writing. She is interested in writing as a form of connection and learning. To this end, she worked as a Poet in Residence at Langston Middle School, and as lead editor on a graphic novel aimed at helping connect kids with nature, whose first volume is available at www.spiritskies.org. Her creative nonfiction has been published in Wilder Voice Magazine, and more of her work can be found published on Instagram @rozellswrites. Her favorite things include strawberries, her dogs, and extrapolating wildly about the existence of Bigfoot.
Anna Louise Steig is a writer and poet from the Appalachian hills of western Maryland. She attends Shepherd University as an honors student in pursuit of an English degree, focusing on her passion for creative writing. Her poetry and short fiction can be found in Uppagus Magazine, Cream Scene Carnival, Cult Magazine, and elsewhere. Instagram: @a.l.steig
Hayley Stoddard lives in Colorado and is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree. She has been inspired by such writers as Billy Collins, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, William Wordsworth, Anne Lamott, Mary Oliver, and Leonard Cohen. Her work has been seen in or is upcoming in several publications, including Parley Publishing, Oberon, After the Pause, Eris+Eros, Drunk Monkeys, Button Eye Review, Sad Girls Club Lit, Beyond Words Magazine, and Eunoia Review.
Misty Yarnall is a writer, editor, and creative mentor. She received her BFA in Creative Writing from Purchase College. Her work can be found in a handful of literary magazines, including Prime Number Magazine, The Roadrunner Review, and KAIROS Literary Magazine. She holds awards in the Sixth Act Playwriting Competition and the POV Fest Screenwriting Contest. She is head of Youth Programs at the Hudson Valley Writers Center and works as a Junior Editor with DLG Publishing Partners.
Additional reading for Issue 5 and Issue 6 by Kelsy Johnson.
Additional reading for Issue 5 by Katherine DeGilio and Gregory Stephens.
