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Center Staff and Contact Information Director of Creative Writing and Piper Center Domestic Initiatives
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Director of Global Engagement
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Assistant Director |
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Director of Communication
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Managing Editor, Hayden's Ferry Review & Marginalia |
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Finance Manager
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Director, Master of Liberal Studies Program (MLSt)
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Program Assistant, Grants & Programs
Spring 2008 Interns |
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T. R. Hummer is the author of seven books of poetry, including, most recently, Useless Virtues (2001) and Walt Whitman in Hell (1996), both from Louisiana State University Press. Hummer has edited The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and The Georgia Review.
Dr. Jewell Parker Rhodes is the author of four novels: Voodoo Dreams, Magic City, Douglass’ Women, and Voodoo Season and the memoir, Porch Stories: A Grandmother’s Guide to Happiness. Two new novels, Voodoo Jazz, Hurricane Levee Blues are planned for 2007 and 2008. She has authored two writing guides: Free Within Ourselves: Fiction Lessons for Black Authors, The African American Guide to Writing and Publishing Non-Fiction. Her play, Voodoo Dreams; was cited as “Most Innovative” Drama in the 2000-2001 Professional Theater Season by the Arizona Republic. She is currently at work on a screenplay of Voodoo Dreams and a play version of Douglass’ Women. Her work has been translated into serveral languages and reproduced in audio and for NPR’s “Selected Shorts”. Her literary awards include: a Yaddo Creative Writing Fellowship, the American Book Award, the National Endowment of the Arts Award in Fiction, the Black Caucus of the American Library Award for Literary Excellence, and the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award for Outstanding Writing. 
Charles Jensen received his MFA for Poetry from the Arizona State University MFA in Creative Writing Program. He is the author of three chapbooks, including Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O'Hara Chapbook Award, and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon, which was a finalist for the DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press Chapbook Award. In 2007, he received an Artist's Project Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. His poems have appeared in Bloom, FIELD, The Journal, New England Review, No Tell Motel, Quarterly West, Washington Square, and West Branch. With his collaborator Sarah Vap, he published interviews with the poets Lynn Emanuel, Beth Ann Fennelly, Beckian Fritz Goldberg, Frank Paino, and C. D. Wright. He is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from ASU.
Tom McDermott joined the Piper Center for Creative Writing staff in August of 2007 after spending 17 years as sports information director at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, N.H. While at SNHU he was responsible for promoting the school's 15 intercollegiate athletic teams. While new to the arts community, he brings with him nearly two decades of communication and marketing experience, having also previously worked for Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology and the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. He is a native of Buffalo, N.Y. and a graduate of SUNY-Brockport.
Amanda Monrad hails from Lafayette, Indiana, and moved to Phoenix in 1997, receiving her Bachelors Degree in Theatre with a minor in Business through ASU in 2002. She began working in Information Technology for the University, eventually moving to the Kyrene School District in Tempe. In 2006, Ms. Monrad began working with the innovative arts service organization Alliance for Audience as the Member Services Manager. She has become an active member of the arts community through her work as an artist, volunteer and advocate. She serves as an Artistic Associate with Stray Cat Theatre, where she has directed and acted in a number of productions. She is currently pursuing a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Accountancy at the ASU West campus.
Paul Morris holds an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College, plus an MA in Humanities from Southern Oregon University. He is a well-published writer with many poems, translations, essays, and articles. He has taught creative writing at ASU for more than 14 years. He is interested in nature writing and mundane studies (which contemplates ordinary things, examines their social, literary, and natural histories as a way to rediscover the world around us). He is a published travel writer with a focus on food writing. If you have questions about the MLSt program or about nonfiction writing in general, call 480/727-0819 or send an e-mail to 
Aimée Baker receieved a B.A. in History and Creative Writing from St. Lawrence University. She works at the Piper Center coordinating the Piper Online Book Club and assisting with grants and programs. She is a fiction student in the MFA program at ASU, recipient of the 2007 1st place Swarthout Prize for poetry and 2nd place for fiction, a 2007 Piper Travel Fellow for India and China, as well as a 2007 Piper Summer Fellow. She is also a prose editor for Hayden's Ferry Review. Her work is forthcoming in The Southeast Review.
Matthew Brennan 
Marqueshia Wilson graduated from Boston University with a B.A. in English. Before joining the Piper Center for Creative Writing staff she taught first-year composition and writing reflective essays as part of Writing Programs. She is a second year fiction student in the MFA program at ASU, a 2007 Piper Travel Fellow to Canada, a 2008 Piper Travel Fellow to China, and an aspiring novelist. Marqueshia tutors small and smaller children during the smallest amount of free time, and regularly donates blood.
Kristina Morgan received a B.A in English and Women Studies from Stephens College and earned her MFA in Creative Writing Poetry from ASU.