S168.
On the Frontlines/School Matters: K–12 Teachers Writing the Classroom
Saturday, February 10, 2024
12:10 pm to 1:25 pm
At a time when public educators are increasingly under political pressure, panelists will explore what it means to portray complex truths, dispel myths, and talk honestly about how to stay creative within top-down school systems as they find form and language for their experience with youth in the classroom. This multiracial and geographically diverse panel centers writers, editors, and activists who put their K–12 classroom experience in conversation with their writing across multiple genres.
Participants
Mahru Elahi is a VONA alum, a Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence, and a finalist for the Allegra Johnson Prize. Mahru writes as a K–12 educator, foster mom, and queer daughter of an Iranian immigrant and a California girl. An MFA student at Antioch University, Mahru lives in Oakland, California with her son.
Maggie Sheffer is a former K–12 educator with work in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Dread Machine, Cast of Wonders, the Pinch, and Adroit Journal, where she is a 2023 Veasna So Scholar. Maggie cofounded Third Lantern Lit, a New Orleans writing collective.
Brittany Rogers is a poet, writer, high school teacher, and lifelong Detroiter. She is editor-in-chief of Muzzle Magazine and cohost of VS Podcast. She has work published in Four Way Review, Underbelly, Mississippi Review, the Metro Times, Oprah Daily, and Lambda Literary.
Matthew E. Henry (MEH) is a veteran high school English teacher and the author of two full-length collections of poetry and three chapbooks, including the Colored page and Teaching While Black. He is editor-in-chief of The Weight Journal and an associate poetry editor at Pidgeonholes.
Davon Loeb is the author of the memoir The In-Betweens. He earned an MFA in creative writing from Rutgers University-Camden. Davon is an assistant features editor at The Rumpus. His work is featured at The Sun Magazine, Joyland, Catapult, Ploughshares, and elsewhere.
