The World Under the Female Gaze

Diane Schenker’s most recent publication is “Pen + Brush In Print No. 4.” She also has been published in “The Gettysburg Review,” “Rhino,” “Subtropics,” “Gargoyle” and “The Squaw Valley Review,” among others and is author of the chapbook “Relation/Couch/Dreaming.”. Her book “Expert Terrain” has been shortlisted by the Harbor Mountain Press MURA Book Award and awarded Honorable Mention by the Concrete Wolf Louis Poetry Book Award. Diane has written reviews for “coldfrontmag.com” and “The Boxcar Poetry Review.” She has been a fellow at The Gettysburg Review Conference for Writers and is a two-time alum of the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She has read at various venues around the New York City area including The Center for Book Arts, Sunday Salon, KGB Bar and others. In addition, Diane has worked and taught extensively in theater and directed opera. She was a company member at The Empty Space Theater in Seattle and a founding member of the theater faculty at Cornish College of the Arts. She was creator and performer in the performance pieces “Jane Smith Jane Smith” and “Nannerl: A Speculative Morality.” Moving to New York, she directed multiple productions for the American Chamber Opera Company. She directed various productions from Anchorage, AK to Santa Fe, NM. She then transitioned from live theater to the written word as poetry.

Kimberly Nunesis a native of Northern California. Kimberly holds a bachelor’s degree in French Literature and several master’s degrees, including an MBA from San Francisco State University and an MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College, 2013. Of SLC faculty she studied with poets, D. Nurkse, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Victoria Redel, Suzanne Gardinier, Jeffrey McDaniel, and Marie Howe, among others. She has been a participant in poetry workshops led by poets Ellen Bass, Carla Carlson, and Martha Rhodes, and is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Some of Kimberly’s published poems include: “From Geniuses” and “Fugue,” inThe Alembi; “New York I-V,” inCaveat Lector, “Santa Lucia Morning” in Mantis, “The Bird House,” in “Obrigada” inMarin Poetry Anthology; “Remaining Separate from The Artist One Loves Deeply” in The Madison Review; “In the Light Years” and “Like a Drunk Ballerina” inWomenArts Quarterly; and “Facing Shadow,” “Parable of the Father,” “Swallowed,” “Inside the Fermata,” and “Venus Dreams in Color” inAdelaide Literary Magazine. She has completed her first manuscript of poems and is currently working on the next one.

Carla Carlsonis the author of the chapbook Love and Oranges, Finishing Line Press, 2015. Individual poems have been published at Adelaide Literary Magazine, PANK, Prelude Magazine, The Mom Egg, The Mom Egg Review, Yes, Poetry,Statorec.com, The Westchester Review and more. She has completed a full length collection of poems which received a semi-finalist distinction from The Word Works. Carla lives in Bronxville, NY, where she received her MFA in poetry at Sarah Lawrence College, and worked with Dennis Nurkse, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Jeffery McDaniel, Kate Phillips, and Alan Gilbert. She has attended numerous poetry conferences such as Palm Beach Poetry Festival, Colrain, and The Home School. Currently, Carla teaches a reading and writing poetry class at Sarah Lawrence’s Writing Institute. As well, she serves as secretary for the board of directors of Four Way Books, NYC.

Marilyn Berkmanwas born in the Bronx, grew up in Queens and currently resides in Manhattan with husband Bob Contant, co-founder and past owner of St. Mark’s Bookshop. Following a double BA in English Literature/Studio Arts from the University of Rochester, where she studied poetry with Anthony Hecht, she worked at the RochesterDemocrat & ChronicleandTimes Unionas an editor and arts reporter. She served as managing editor and chief interviewer for TV by Day and TV Daystars before embarking on three years of travel through Australasia—in Australia joining a poets’ group in Sydney and in Java studying the interconnection of meditation and dance. Back in New York, she resumed editorial work at magazines, children’s books publishers and arts organizations, notably the Asia Society as managing editor for nine years. She published articles on travel and health inGQ,Ms. andCosmopolitanmagazines. She is Second NGO Representative/Civil Society/United Nations DGC from the Women’s National Book Association and blogs on related UN goals, particularly education of women and girls, the environment and journalist freedom. Marilyn writes poetry, fiction and reimagined fairy tale. Although she has been writing poetry since age seven, she has only recently begun to submit her work. As M.D. Berkman, her 2020 debut poems appear in theComstock Review, the Journal of Undiscovered Poets,Caesura 2020and the upcoming 9/11 anniversary anthology by the North Sea Poetry Project. She has read at KGB bar, Cornelia Street Café, Brooklyn Brownstone Poets, Brotherhood Synagogue, Tompkins Corner, Nice Weather for Media, Mercury Lounge, Su Polo at Tara Rose, as well as open mics with the WNBA. She is currently at work on a poetry collection and a novel set in Australia.

Harriet Shenkman was born in Brooklyn. She is a Professor Emerita at City University of New York. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Women’s National Book Association, NYC where she moderates programs co-sponsored with the NYU Creative Writing Program. She won several poetry awards, including the Women’s National Book Association 2013 Annual Writing Contest in Poetry and the Women Who Write 2013 International Poetry and Short Prose Contest. She was a finalist for the Raynes Poetry Competition, 2014 and her poem appeared in Union, the Raynes Poetry Competition Anthology. Her poetry was published in Evening Street Review, Third Wednesday, Jewish Currents, Jewish Magazine, VerseWrights.com., When Women Awaken, Westchester Review. Oyez Review, The Pink Panther Magazine, The Alexandra Quarterly, The Comstock Review and in the 20th Edition of the Calliope Anthology. A former Poet-in-Residence at BoomerCafe and a current Poet-in-Residence of The Transition Network, she studied with poets Jennifer Franklin, Ellen Bass and Laura Kasischke. She read her poetry at the Hudson Valley Poetry Center, KGB Bar, Cornelia Street Café, The Arc Poetry and Art Festival, The JCC of Mid Westchester, The Watercooler Hub in Tarrytown, The Scarsdale Library and The Westchester Review Reading at Barnes and Noble. She has taped an online reading for Westchester Libraries. Her first poetry chapbook Teetering was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014. Her second chapbook The Present Abandoned was published by Finishing Line Press, 2020. She is a multi-genre writer and is currently working on a Corona Collection of poetry as well as completing a novel.