KGB Bar

Maria V. Luna is a second year fiction writer in the Rutgers Newark MFA program. She received her B.A. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick campus. During her undergraduate career her work has been published in Caellean-The Progressive Magazine of Douglas College, and Anthologist Literary and Fine Arts Journal. She has held account management and assistant buyer positions for companies like Coca-Cola and Chanel. Most recently she has been selected as a finalist for Prism Literary Journal of Centenary College.

Saeed Jones (poetry) was born in Memphis, TN and raised in Texas. He received a BA in English from Western Kentucky University. While at Western, he was the Arts Editor for Rise Over Run Magazine. Along the way, he met poet and professor Tom Hunley, who introduced him to poetry as a discipline and to the broader literary community. His work is forthcoming or has appeared in StorySouth, OCHO, Pluck, Ganymede, Splinter Generation, and other publications. He blogs regularly at saeedjones.wordpress.com.

Dena Afrasiabi (fiction) was born in Shiraz, Iran (city of poets, wine and flowers).  When she was two, the Iranian government imposed oppressive changes after the 1979 revolution, and her family fled to the U.S. in search of freedom.  Finally settling in Chico, California, she grew up listening to her parents and their friends tell colorful stories about their lives back home. She received her B.A. in English from the University of California, Los Angeles, and continued to write while working as a music librarian at Yahoo! in Santa Monica, California

Eleonora Luongo (poetry) was born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ. Nora’s writing journey began with a blue diary that one of her grandparents brought to her from Italy. She studied architecture for two years at NJIT, became fascinated with the shiny-new and exciting “world wide web”, and defected to earn her degree in computer science. Her NJIT English professor suggested she get a minor in literature, and it was in her poetry class that she was first called a poet.  She spent many summers visiting family in southern Italy, and recently got married in Amalfi.