STAFF

Abdul Ali Abdurrahman, Managing Editor
Abdul Ali is a native of New York City studying English and Playwriting at Howard University. He is the 2007 winner of the Margaret Walker Creative Writing Contest in for poetry sponsored by the College Language Association; a Zora Neale Hurston/ Richard Wright Writer's Week alumnus; a 2006 Ronald E. McNair Scholar--he has presented at several conferences on the influences of the Blues and the prevalence of death in the plays of August Wilson. He recently read some of his original poems at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, an event sponsored by the French Embassy in November commemorating the centennial of Josephine Baker. He work has been published in the forthcoming anthology All That I Am: Black Writers on Finding, Keeping, and Creating Love In Their Lives , edited by Marita Golden; Black Issues Book Review ; and he is the author of the column "Pause and Affect" for the online magazine, Scheme (www.schememag.com)
managing_editor@amistadjournal.net

Jemiah Barrow, Associate Editor
Jemiah Barrow is a junior honours student, double majoring in Latin and English at Howard University. She was born in Philadelphia where she attended Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts, majoring in Design and Writing. She is currently using the skills she gained there as The Amistad's Art Director and Web Designer. Her work has been published in Philadelphia Magazine and United Writers and Artists Magazine. She has read at the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writer's House and the Sedgwick Cultural Centre. Her artwork has been featured online at DeviantArt.com as well as Deep Synthesis Gallery. She is also the writer of Endless Dreaming and Other Poems a short collection poetry, which she designed and published herself. Jemiah is also a partner in Graphic Synergy: Design and Illustration and is looking forward to her fourth year participating in NaNoWriMo. She is currently working on a collection of short stories.
associate_editor@amistadjournal.net

Ronke Ajala, Contributing Editor
Ronke Ajala, a Washingtonian, is a senior English major. In her spare time, she enjoys staying up until 3 a.m. finishing papers, reading, traveling and volunteering.

Melanie Chambliss, Contributing Editor
Melanie Chambliss hails from Richmond, VA.   She is a junior English major at Howard University,   Melanie plans to pursue graduate study in the field of Comparative Literature in hopes of becoming a reknown scholar and college professor.   This is her first year serving on the staff of The Amistad .

Meilani Clay, Contributing Editor
Meilani Clay is a conscious writer, educator and student from Oakland, California. She emerged as part of Youth Speaks, a literary arts organization founded in San Francisco in 1996. Meilani is a 2005 Bay Area Teen Poetry Slam Champion and a 2006 National Teen Poetry Slam Champion. She has been hailed as one of the most promising voices of her generation--an agent of social change and a teacher by nature. She attends Howard University and plans to publish a book in the near future.

Alexia Hogan , Contributing Editor
Alexia Hogan is a junior honors student from Lakeland, Florida majoring in English at Howard University.   She is an aspiring writer who enjoys writing short stories, fairytales, and poetry.   Her interests also include singing, dancing, playing the guitar, and painting.

Shari Inniss-Grant , Contributing Editor
Shari Inniss-Grant, a twenty-year old Barbadian native, is a world traveler at heart. She and her words are seeking all the outlets that will let them breathe, whether that means a new country, character or story. She believes that while the 'incidents and events' matter, the most important thing is the way you tell the story.

Dr. Jon S. Woodson, Faculty Advisor
Jon Woodson is a Graduate Professor of English at Howard University. He is the author of two critical studies, To Make a New Race: Gurdjieff, Toomer, and the Harlem Renaissnce (1999) and A Study of Catch-22: Going Around Twice (2001). His articles have appeared in Obsidian II, African American Review, The Furious Flowering Of African American Poetry, The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, The Harlem Renaissance: a Gale Critical Companion, and The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing.  He is the author of two poetry chapbooks. Woodson has taught on the faculties of Lincoln University, George Mason University, Towson University, the University of Rhode Island, and as a Fulbright lecturer at two Hungarian universities, ELTE and the University of Pecs.
jwoodson@howard.edu