Our Writers

Students

Jeffrey Bismayer is a rising 3rd year MFA candidate in the University of Baltimore’s Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program for fiction. He also teaches an art history class at UB  as an adjunct professor and has been published most recently in UB’s Fall 2014 Welter and 2015 Skelter literary journals. No stranger to what lies across the pond, Jeffrey returns to the UK a seasoned adventurer; however, this stay will complete his tour of the British Isles as he has never been to Northern Ireland before. Jeffrey is excited to be writing a play during his residency and absorbing as much of the culture as he can during this amazing opportunity before returning home to start work on his thesis this fall.

Caitlin Curley is a junior at Colorado State University studying Journalism and Media Communications with a minor in Criminology. Caitlin has worked at Rocky Mountain Student Media for two years, and is currently the Digital Managing Editor. Caitlin has also interned for North Forty News and the Colorado Independent. She works with print media as well as video and photography, and reports mostly on crime but occasionally dabbles in politics, education and economics.

Bryonna Edwards is an undergraduate with a major in creative writing at the University of Baltimore. She found a passion for dramaturgy and play development through studying University of Baltimore’s production of  Sean O’Casey’s Shadow of a Gunman (2013). She predominately writes screenplays and flash memoir and enjoys hula hooping.

Dominique Frangiamoni is a Literature in English major at Adelphi University, located on Long Island, New York.  She has recently discovered a love for creative writing and I has hopes of one day writing a novel with even higher hopes of having it published. She enjoys writing short stories ranging from fantasy to romance and always tries to include her quirky sense of humor in all of her work.  Her favorite book is “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley. Writing is a form of meditation for her and the moonlight is her muse.

Sharea Harris is a communicator. Her favorite form is the poem, but her occupation as facebook status rant-er may be picking up speed. While a creative writer at heart, Sharea understands that writing also fits into Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, writing must serve ones basic needs before it can be enjoyed. So Sharea enjoys helping people see the benefits in communication, composition, and language through classroom instruction, workshop facilitation, and writing consultation. Preparing to complete her MFA in Creative Writing and Publication Arts, Sharea comes to Armagh excited to refresh herself and her creative writing skills.

Charles Hess is a Writing major at Ithaca College with a triple minor in English, Art History, and Philosophy. As an English minor, he has studied a number of Irish works, from the epic Tain Bo Cuailnge to Beckett’s Waiting for Godot; while already in love with the culture of his heritage, it was through works such as these that he managed to find his particular voice in both poetry and prose. He predominantly writes fantasy and science fiction, yet despises most of the conventions surrounding the genres. He constantly emphasizes that his works of fiction, while set in an alternate and fantastical world, are easily interchangeable with more familiar situations. He claims to only use the genre as an engine to explore human values when juxtaposed next to a nonhuman earth. In short, he enjoys social and philosophical speculation more so than fire-breathing dragons.

Chris Rizzo is a sophomore student at the University of Baltimore, where he is studying Simulation and Digital Entertainment. He comes from humble beginnings of a small town in New York, and has been writing creatively as a hobby for years. While he doesn’t expect his life to be the life of an author, he enjoys the opportunity to improve his skills.

Carolyn Siu is a grammar vigilante and opinionated talking dictionary with an MA in Publications Design and an extensive collection of red markers. She approached graphic design sideways, having majored in archaeology in undergrad, but hasn’t looked back yet. For examples of her work, visit www.achikochidesign.com.

Robert Shilleto is majoring in Digital Simulation and Design at the University of Baltimore; he also was a student of Kimberley Lynne’s World Culture: Ireland class this spring. Robert enjoys the digital design work to the point where he enjoys breaking down how they made the video game almost more then he likes playing them. He believes his next step is learning how authors write scripts and has joined the residency for the playwriting experience. He has no experience in playwriting but is excited it give it a try and write his first of hopefully many plays.

Allie Vugrincic hails from the little-known city of Warren, Ohio. She is a rising junior at Denison University, where she studies cinema and creative writing.  Allie has an interest in theatre, photography, and visual art and enjoys finding methods to combine these passions to tell stories in original ways.  In the past she has worked as a free-lance newspaper photographer, a student journalist, and as a greens keeper at a golf course. She believes that there are stories hidden in every-day life and draws inspiration from her hiking and biking adventures, her unusually quirky friends, and the unbelievable people she meets while pursuing her studies. Allie’s favorite genres to work with in writing and filmmaking are fantasy, science fiction, and realistic fiction.  Allie prefers not to write in third person but is making an exception for this particular biography.

Faculty

Terri Ciofalo (Program and Site Director) is a professional theatre artist and experienced Production Manager teaching graduate and undergraduate theatre at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama and has toured theatrically both in the United States and overseas.

Kimberley Lynne (Playwriting) is a published author and produced playwright with three books and over thirty plays presented in professional, community, and university theatre.  A staff and faculty member of the University of Baltimore, she has worked in theatre as an actor, director, scenic designer, and producer. Her professional affiliations include Actors Equity Association and the Dramatist Guild. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing and Publishing Arts from the University of Baltimore. For updates, visit her site http://kimberleylynne.wordpress.com

Malachi O’Doherty (Journalism) is a journalist, writer, teacher and activist. Check out his blog www.malachiodoherty.com.

Nessa O’Mahony (Creative Writing) is a Dublin poet, freelance teacher, editor, and administrator. She teaches creative writing as an associate lecturer with the Open University and at Oscail, the Dublin City University distance learning program me. She is a regular facilitator of creative writing classes for the Irish Writers Centre in Dublin. She was Writer in Residence at the John Hume Institute for Global Irish Studies, University College Dublin. She has a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, and a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from Bangor University. She has published four volumes of poetry.

Christopher Warman (Teaching Assistant) is an alumnus of Armagh Project 2013 and is a MFA candidate in the University of Baltimore’s Creative Writing and Publishing Arts program.