Rusty Morrison, senior editor and co- publishers
Rusty Morrison is co-founder, co-publisher of Omnidawn since 2001. Her upcoming book, Risk, will be published by Black Ocean this year (2024
). Her other books include include After Urgency (won Tupelo’s Dorset Prize), the true keeps calm biding its story (won Ahsahta’s Sawtooth Prize, James Laughlin Award, Northern California Book Award, & DiCastagnola Award from PSA), and Beyond the Chainlink (Ahsahta; finalist for the NCIB Award & NCB Award). She was awarded a fellowship by UC Berkeley Art Research Center’s Poetry & the Senses Program (in the its inaugural year of 2020). Her poems have appeared on the Poetry Foundation website, on their podcast series Poetry Now, in Colorado Review, Fence, Iowa Review, Poetry Daily, and elsewhere. Her creative nonfiction & poetry has appeared in Entropy; and her nonfiction at Harriet. Her critical essays appeared at Kenyon Review and Pleiades among other places. She is a recipient of fellowships from UC Berkeley’s Arts and Research Center, Civitella Ranieri, Djerassi, and other artist residencies. She has taught in MFA programs, been a visiting poet at colleges, and teaches workshops through Omnidawn and elsewhere. She offers private poetry consultations. For more info, see her website: www.rustymorrison.com
Laura Joakimson, executive director and co-publisher
Laura Joakimson is a Seattle and Bay Area writer and poet. In the1990’s, she was an English teacher at Suwon Women’s University in Suwon-si, South Korea for two years. During this time, she backpacked across China and Tibet, and spent several months in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. She completed her master’s degree in English with a focus on writing from Western Washington University in 2001. In 2004, she was the recipient of an Artist Trust grant in Seattle with Saren Richardson for their zine, Rinse and Repeat. After moving to San Francisco, she spent several years on the planning committee for Litquake, San Francisco’s homegrown literary festival, creating year-round events for writers. Her work has appeared in Quiet Lightning, Magnitude, and Scissors & Spackle. She worked for seven years in a San Francisco print shop where she also taught herself to use InDesign, which has come in handy in her work at Omnidawn. She also brings experience in social media and literary marketing. She became the executive director and co-publisher of Omnidawn in October of 2022.
Elizabeth Aeschliman, managing editor
Elizabeth Aeschliman is the Managing Editor of Omnidawn Publishing. She directs the production schedule for Omnidawn titles, and oversees post publication contest submissions for our poets, staying in conversation with all of our writers. Ms. Aeschliman handles many of Omnidawn’s public-facing communications, and works with Rusty Morrison on presentations for our distributor and bookstore reps. She also collaborates on fundraising and grant applications to keep Omnidawn thriving, while ensuring our donors are fully acknowledged and appreciated. Ms. Aeschliman helps to write and edit our newsletters, which keep us in touch with a widening community of donors, contest entrants, readers, and more. She is an experienced editor, poet, and fiction writer, and studied in the philosophy graduate program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Sriharini Seshachalam, marketing director
Sriharini Seshachalam is an MFA student pursuing poetry at Dominican University of California. Her work has been published by The Southland Alibi, The Muleskinner Journal, Eunoia Review, The Foundationalist, Kennings Artistic and Literary Journal, and accepted for publication in The Rumpus. Seshachalam also volunteers as a poetry editor with Tiger Leaping Review and Tuxedo Literature & Arts Journal.
Omnidawn was begun by Rusty Morrison and Kenneth Keegan in 2001. Before his death from cancer in October 2022, Ken Keegan & Rusty Morrison appointed Laura Joakimson to take on Ken Keegan’s role as Omnidawn’s Executive Director.
Keith Jones, poetry editor
Keith Jones is a Senior Lecturer in the Africana Studies Department at UMass Boston and served as Poet-in-Residence at New England Conservatory from 2022-2024. In 2021, he was a co-recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Service Award for his leadership in campus-wide efforts to help transform UMass Boston into an anti-racist and health-promoting public research institution. His critical essays have appeared in numerous publications, such as Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the United States (MELUS), African American Review, and The Journal of Social Issues. Jones is also the author of the poetry collections Echo’s Errand and the forthcoming Las Palmas, In a House No Longer There (Black Ocean Press, 2028) as well as the poetry chapbooks, Las Palmas, blue lake of tensile fire, shorn ellipses, the lucid upward ladder, Fugue Meadow, and Surface to Air, Residuals of Basquiat. His poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Flag + Void, Harvard Review, sx salon, Transition, Verse, and elsewhere. He lives in Dorchester, MA.
Liza Flum, poetry editor
Liza Flum holds an MFA in poetry from Cornell, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2020, AGNI, Narrative, Meridian, Washington Square Review, Lambda Literary, and Zócalo Public Square. She is a recipient of a Barbara Deming individual artist grant, and her writing has been supported by fellowships from the Saltonstall Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, Aspen Summer Words, and the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center. She is currently a PhD candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Utah.
Sharon Zetter, poetry editor and graphic designer
Sharon Zetter is a writer, editor, and artist living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has appeared in Dusie, NOÖ Journal, Aurochs, Greenbelt Review, Calaveras, Monday Night, Shampoo, Soft Skull and Blood Pudding Press among others. She runs Called Back Books with the poet LM Rivera and serves as a poetry editor and a book designer for Omnidawn Publishing.
Rob Hendricks, poetry editor
Rob Hendricks is the author of OPPRESSORFACE (Fourteen Hills, 2019). Recent poems can also be found in The Ana and Transfer Magazine.
Jeffrey Kingman, copy editor
Jeffrey Kingman’s poetry collection, BEYOND THAT HILL I GATHER, was published by Finishing Line Press in June of 2021. His poetry chapbook, ON A ROAD, was published by Finishing Line Press in December of 2019. He is the winner of the Red Berry Editions 2015 Broadside Contest, the winner of the 2018 Eyelands Book Award (Greece) for an unpublished poetry book, a finalist in the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk Prize poetry book competition, and he received honorable mention in the 2017 Quercus Review Press Fall Poetry Book Award. He has poems published in PANK, Clackamas Literary Review, Crack the Spine, Visitant, and others. Jeff has a Master’s degree in Music Composition and has been playing drums in rock bands most of his life.
Jennifer Metsker, marketing for rusty forwards
Jennifer Metsker’s is the author of the poetry collection Hypergraphia and Other Failed Attempts at Paradise from New Issues Press. Her poetry has appeared in Beloit, Rhino, Birdfeast, Gulf Coast, The Cream City Review and other journals. Her audio poetry has been featured on the BBC Radio’s Short Cuts. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is the Writing Coordinator at the Stamps School of Art and Design.