About Us
Roanoke Review was co-founded in 1967 by Roanoke College student Edward A. Tedeschi and teacher Henry Taylor, who went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for The Flying Change in 1986. Poet James Boatwright and novelist George Garrett served as advisory editors, and the first issue included work by William Stafford, Lee Smith, Kelly Cherry, William Jay Smith, and Malcom Cowley, among others.
Tedeschi and Taylor were ultimately replaced by Robert Walter, who edited the journal for the next thirty years. The Review was taken over in 2001 by Paul Hanstedt, who served as editor for the next fifteen years with the occasional interim leadership of Melanie Almeder and Mary Crockett Hill, who took on the role of editor in 2016.
For over half a century, the Review has established itself as a home for new and established authors writing in both traditional and experimental forms.
2024-2025 STAFF
Editor
Laura Garrison gets lost easily. Fortunately, she enjoys unexpected adventures. She appreciates all forms and genres of literature but has a particular affection for speculative flash and haiku. You can also find her at Jersey Devil Press.
Co-Manager
Kaitlyn Richardson has a thing for stories. Editing and reviewing is her jam. She is all about making those plot twists pop and characters shine. She also loves art, owning many unfinished sketchbooks and constantly experimenting with Canva. She has an undying love for Fanta, claiming that the "orange goodness" fuels her creative genius.
Co-Manager
Zoe Jones, senior, double majors in communication and creative writing with a concentration in publishing and editing, is an avid reader and music listener who loves to put her thoughts and feelings on paper more than anything else. If one were to see her in passing, they could always count on her having her earphones in. However, don’t be fooled because Zoe loves to write poems and fiction pieces in her free time. When she isn’t busy writing, she can be found reading if she has the free time to do so. She even has plans to publish her first fully drafted novel ‘I Saw Her Two’ after her senior year is up.
Book Reviewer
Cameron MacKenzie's work has appeared in Able Muse, The Rumpus, SubStance and The Michigan Quarterly Review, among other journals. His essays have been collected in The Waste Land at 90: A Retrospective and Edward P. Jones: New Essays. His novel The Beginning of His Excellent and Eventful Career is currently out with Madhat Press. He teaches English at Ferrum College.
READing staff
Wilson Andrake, Em Caloia, Ama Damuah, Andrea Flores Gomez, Nik Honore, Amelia Huggins, Veronica Kuzdzal, Edwin Parker, Juniper Rogers, Adriana Rose
(Not Pictured: Wilson Andrake & Em Caloia)
Ama Damuah is a double major in Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and has a concentration in publishing and editing. The dream is to one day be an established author, but for now she's focused on making it through college one day at a time. Her love and hobbies are obviously reading and writing, but when she isn't doing either, she might be studying, working, or helping her friends. Her biggest weakness? She's quiet when she has nothing to add but talks a lot when she wants to.
Andrea Flores Gomez is a Psych major and Creative Writter minor that will overload her schedule with a bunch of different classes to learn more about everything, she will go to pretty much any event on campus because she loves to get involved and meet new people!
Nik Honore loves the small challenges that come with day-to-day life – for example, trying to remember how to write a bio for himself in the third person whilst simultaneously getting ready for work right now. He juggles his studies in creative writing and religion at Roanoke College with his full-time work schedule and personal creative endeavors, which often include but are not limited to writing, painting, photography and playing music. He's usually absurdly overcaffeinated and yet, alas, still running late.
A transfer student in her second year of Roanoke College, Amelia Huggins had always had a passion for the creative and weird. She has a tendency to be a bit of a perfectionist as well as someone who just loves staring off into space and coming up with story ideas. Due to her disability, SCA 29, she has always had an interest in disability studies which is why she decided to major in it along with creative writing.
Veronica Kuzdzal is a Junior and a Literary Studies and Communication Double Major with a concentration in Publishing and Editing. She loves to read and used to be an aspiring writer or an editor. Now she wants to be a Media Relations, Public Relations, Communications Marketing person working for a Professional Sports team. People tell her that she is too quiet but then once they get to know her, she is told that she is a very loud and open person. If she’s not hanging out with her friends then she is usually watching an old TV show, movie or reading a romance book.
Edwin Parker is as silent as a mouse, but don't let that deceive you; he can be quite the chatter box when he wants to be. He tends to enjoy writing, reading, and taking a nap to refuel and rinse and repeat. He tends to read more sci-fi but is always welcome to new experiences. He's also picked up the hobby of writing Poems ranging from Mother Earth's Love to the Great Black Void we humans call space. He really likes Quasar.
Juniper Rogers (They/She) is a lover of mulch and local politics. They write primarily speculative and absurd poems and short stories. She is also a Section Editor for Roanoke College's newspaper.
Adriana Rose is a junior majoring in Communication Studies with a minor in Psychology, and she has a passion for management and marketing. She enjoys staying busy with on-campus jobs and hobbies such as adventuring, watching movies, and spending time with friends. Adriana has an enduring love for all things art and always finds a way to share her current art projects and future ideas. You can often find her actively participating in social activities both on and off campus.
EDITOR (In Memorium)Mary Crockett Hill is the author of A Theory of Everything (selected by Naomi Shihab Nye for the Autumn House Prize) and If You Return Home with Food (winner of the Bluestem Poetry Award), and coauthor of the history of A Town by the Name of Salem. Her work has been featured on such sites as Poetry Daily and Best of the Net, and in such anthologies as American Poetry: The Next Generation. She is a multiple nominee for the Pushcart Prize and the Virginia Book of the Year. In her other life as a children's book writer, she is author of How She Died, How I Lived, from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and coauthor of the young adult novel Dream Boy. She tweets nonsense @Marylovesbooks.
We miss her very dearly and send well wishes to her family.
