Alexander Weinstein

Director / Fiction Instructor

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Alexander Weinstein is the founder and Director of the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and the author of the short story collections Children of the New World, which was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a best book of the year by NPR and Electric Literature, and Universal Love. His fiction has appeared in Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy and Best American Experimental Writing. His short story, "Saying Goodbye to Yang," was adapted as the film After Yang by A24 Films, and was the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at Sundance, the Boston Society of Film Critics Award, and Barack Obama's Best Films of 2022.

Samantha Tetangco

Poetry

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Samantha Tetangco is a Filipino-American writer and teacher. Her poetry collection, Hope You Blend In: Studies of Color & Light, was a finalist for the 2023 National Poetry Series, and is forthcoming with Broadstone Books.  A multi-genre writer, her poetry, short stories, and creative nonfiction have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, most notably, The Sun, Tri-Quarterly, Puerto del Sol, Zone 3, Gertrude, Foglifter, and Cimarron Review, among others.  Sam has served as editor-in-chief for Blue Mesa Review, president of the AWP LGBTQ Writer's Caucus, and is currently the co-director of Plume: A Writer's Companion, in which she also appears as a co-hosts Plume: A Writer's Podcast.  She has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and is an Associate Teaching Professor at the University of California Merced.

Samrat Upadhyay

Fiction Instructor

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Samrat Upadhyay is the author of six books of fiction, including Arresting God in Kathmandu and Buddha’s Orphans. His award-winning books, which have been translated internationally, have received praise from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, among others. His forthcoming novel, Darkmotherland, is an epic tale of love and betrayal and political violence set in an earthquake-ravaged country that is at once familiar and dystopian. He is a Distinguished Professor of English and Martha C. Kraft Professor of Humanities at Indiana University, where he teaches creative writing.

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Randi Beck Ocena

Poetry & Creative Nonfiction Instructor

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Randi Beck Ocena is a writer, artist, and freelance editor living in central California. She recently completed a yearlong editorial fellowship at Chronicle Books in San Francisco and serves as a resident poet and teacher with California Poets in the Schools. She has taught classes and workshops on everything from poetry and college composition to horseback riding and tarot reading. Her work has been published in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in numerous literary journals over the past fifteen years. 

 

Christopher Citro

Poetry, Publishing & Creative Nonfiction Instructor

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Christopher Citro is the author of If We Had a Lemon We'd Throw It and Call That the Sun (elixir press, 2020), winner of the 2019 Antivenom Poetry Award, and The Maintenance of the Shimmy-Shammy (Steel Toe Books, 2015). His honors include a 2018 Pushcart Prize for poetry, a fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation, and writing awards from Columbia Journal (poetry) and The Florida Review (creative nonfiction). 

 

Christopher's writing appears in anthologies such as the Best New Poets, New Poetry from the Midwest, and Best Microfictions 2020. His poetry appears in American Poetry Review, Best New Poets, Conduit, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, Iowa Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. 

 

Christopher has taught at the University of Kansas, Indiana University, SUNY Oswego, and the Downtown Writers Center. He is an Editorial Assistant for the Seneca Review and lives and teaches in sunny Syracuse, New York.