The Fiddleback

Jeff Simpson - Founder, EIC, Senior Poetry Editor

Jeff Simpson grew up in southwest Oklahoma in a home decorated with taxidermic marvels, including a full-size bobcat, two deer heads, five sets of deer antlers, two deer hides, a bass, a trout, turkey beard, and a pheasant. He now lives in New York. He received his MFA in poetry from Oklahoma State University. He has been a finalist for the Pablo Neruda Prize, The Drake University Emerging Writer Award, and The National Poetry Series. His poems have recently appeared in Prairie Schooner, Copper Nickel, Harpur Palate, H_NGM_N, and The Cimarron Review. His first full-length collection, Vertical Hold, was published by Steel Toe Books in 2011.Visit him at jeffsimpson.org

Daniel Long - Managing Editor, Senior Fiction Editor

Daniel Long is an Oklahoman living in New York. His work has appeared. His hobbies include needlepoint and revenge.

Chelsey Simpson - Graphics Editor, Nonfiction Editor

Chelsey Simpson is a writer, editor and local food advocate with a deep appreciation for HBO dramas, This American Life and miniature schnauzers. Most of her own writing is journalistic in nature, but her favorite projects are always grounded in humor.

Labecca Jones - Senior Poetry Editor

Labecca Jones received her BA in English from Mesa State College of Grand Junction, Colorado in 2005 and completed her MFA in Poetry at Oklahoma State University in 2010. She currently teaches English classes at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, CO. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Cimarron Review, The South Dakota Review, The New Writer, Mad Poets Review, Haight Ashburry Literary Journal.

Brian Gebhart - Senior Fiction Editor

Brian Gebhart, native Oklahoman, now lives and writes in Minneapolis, where he completed his MFA at the University of Minnesota.

Jessica Hendry Nelson - Senior Nonfiction Editor

Jessica Hendry Nelson teaches writing at the State University of New York in Purchase, NY. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in Connecticut. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Sarah Lawrence College. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Aegis, Threepenny Review, and Crab Orchard Review.  She was chosen as a finalist in the 2011 John Guyon Literary Prize Competition and was the winner of the 2005 John M. Ford Award for Excellence in Writing.

Sophia Kelly - Nonfiction Editor

Sophia Kelley was born in Canada, raised in Texas, and now resides in Brooklyn. Though she has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines, she remains proud that one of her earliest essays is buried in a time capsule underneath the Texas State Capital.

Benjamin Davis Brockman - Senior Arts Editor

Benjamin grew up in northern Idaho and central Oklahoma. As a boy, his interests in art and storytelling were kindled by spending time watching his parents work in theatrical scene shops, painting large backdrops for plays and musicals. These interests led him to study art and drama in High School, and later in college at Oklahoma State University, where he discovered a passion for woodcuts and intaglio and graduated with a B.F.A. in art. Benjamin has also studied film production and criticism, and is currently seeks an M.F.A. in printmaking at the University of Minnesota. He is an avid blogger, smoker and cat wrangler. He is currently drawing a very large Rabbit. Follow at www.benjaminbrockman.com.

James Brubaker - Senior Music Editor

James Brubaker is from Dayton, Ohio, but currently lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma where he is pursuing a PhD in creative writing. Before coming to The Fiddleback, James wrote for 30music.com, and currently also writes reviews and articles at the blog, PoMo Jukebox. James’s fiction has appeared in Confrontation, Blue Mesa Review, The Cupboard, Nexus, and Flights.

Joshua Cross - Senior Music Editor

Joshua Cross grew up in Beckley, West-by-God-Virginia. Despite living most of his life in the mountains, he is afraid of heights. He received his MA in English from UNC-Charlotte and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in creative writing from Oklahoma State University. His fiction has appeared in Beloit Fiction Journal and The Evening Street Review, and he contributes music reviews to the blog, PoMo Jukebox. 

Andrew Terhune - Music Contributor

Andrew Terhune is from Memphis, Tennessee. He currently lives in Stillwater, Oklahoma with his lovely wife and two beautiful daughters, where he is working on his PhD at Oklahoma State. He holds an MA in Cinema Studies from Savannah College of Art & Design and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of the chapbook Helen Mirren Picks Out My Clothes (greying ghost press, 2010) and his poems have recently appeared in West Wind Review, Court Green, Meridian, and DIAGRAM. Find him online at andrewterhune.com.

Brian Flota - Music Contributor

Brian Flota is the author of A Survey of Multicultural San Francisco Bay Literature, 1955-1979 (2009, edwin Mellen Press) and the co-editor of The Politics of Post-9/11 Music (2011, Ashgate, with Joseph P. Fisher). He has written reviews for All Music Guide and Rate Your Music and contributes the column "Songs that Changed the Landscape of Human Thought and Understanding" to the blog, PoMo Jukebox.

Matt White - Complaints & Pillaging

Battle axe, mead, warships. Direct complaints to complain@thefiddleback.com.

Amna Shams - Intern

Amna Shams is a human being, journalist, activist, writer, music lover and junior at Queens College. She often drinks too much tea, and finds it hard to talk about herself, especially in the third-person. When she is not working, she can be found catching up on sleep or reading. You can find her work at theknightnews.com and follow her @KN_Amna or through the streets of her beloved New York City.

Beatrice Strnad - Intern

Bebe Strnad is native to California but now resides in Brooklyn, NY. She is a writer and tutor who is working on a BFA in Writing with a possible minor in Performance at Pratt Institute.

Darien Trujillo - Intern

Darien Trujillo is a native New Yorker who is to receive his B.A. in English from SUNY Old Westbury in the spring of 2012. He is a writer, graffiti artist, and an avid epicurean, which may be responsible for his affinity toward cats and the culinary arts. Darien was guest editor and corresponding journalist for the fashion magazine CONCEPT.

Past Guest Editors

Kathleen Shannon
The Jealous Curator