Meet Our Team

Ethan Capp is a third-year MFA candidate in Poetry at Emerson College. They were raised in Colorado where they spent plenty of time enjoying the nature of the Rocky Mountains. After being taught creative writing in conversation with both visual art and philosophy, Ethan uses writing to engage with and understand the world. They believe in the power of each individual’s voice and perspective to give rise to resonant work that can help enliven the spaces and communities around them with power, care, and hope.

Nate DeChambeau is a third-year MFA candidate in Fiction at Emerson College. In both reading and writing, he finds himself drawn to stories that use the fantastical, the comedic, and the strange to explore the idea of human connection. Outside of this all-consuming literary obsession, he enjoys cooking, hiking, playing Dungeons & Dragons, and hiding rubber ducks around his apartment for his roommates to find. A firm believer in quantity producing quality, he looks forward to helping students find their creative identity to tell the stories that only they can.

Jashvina Shah is a second-year MFA fiction candidate at Emerson College who’s also a passionate sports fan, hockey journalist and a non-fiction author. She uses fiction to explore the deeper meaning behind sports, cultural identities and the human spirit (but is also working on a historical pirate novel). In her free time she crochets and plays with her dog, S’mores. She’s excited to foster students’ writing skills and empower students to tell their stories through creative writing.

Danny Holman lives and writes in Providence, RI. Originally from the swamps of southeast Missouri, their work is an ongoing love letter to all things weird, ugly, and unsettling. Danny believes in pushing boundaries and making a mess during the creative process, helping students utilize unconventional methods to tell effective, meaningful stories. When not reading or writing, Danny can't be found - they like to wander alone through the wilderness with only the trees as witness. They are an Air Force veteran and non-traditional MFA candidate at Emerson College.
 

Aniaha Ortiz is a third-year MFA candidate at Emerson College with a concentration in poetry. With her Bachelor’s of Arts in Creative Writing and East Asian Studies, Aniaha’s poetry centers around incorporating languages (and exploring translations) along with the blending of multicultural philosophies. Coming from a more theatrical-spoken word background, Aniaha caters the majority of her poetry to be read, heard, and performed. It is because of this mentality that she flips between the structure and the freedom of poetry; deliberately focusing on amplifying her voice in whatever medium it stands in. Loudly, clearly, and emotionally. Through EmersonWRITES, she hopes to continue building on her foundation to go into higher education in hopes of becoming a professor in Creative Writing. Reminding students, and herself, that they would never be “too much” or “too difficult” for an audience that deeply craves to hear whatever they have to say.

Abigail Shoults is in her third and final year as an MFA candidate at Emerson College. She is primarily a memoirist, drawn to the important personal experiences that make humans tick. Abby draws inspiration from authors like Ling Ma and Kurt Vonnegut, admiring how far they are willing to push their characters in a story. As Abby enters into her second year as an EmersonWRITES instructor, she is excited to go back to such an energetically creative space. Abby is published in Windows Literary Mag and White Lotus Mag. When Abby isn’t writing, she enjoys hiking in the Whites, snorkeling in cool water, and listening to music with friends.

Mary Kovaleski Byrnes is the co-founder and Curriculum Director for EmersonWRITES and a senior lecturer in the Writing, Literature & Publishing Department. Her debut collection of poetry, "So Long the Sky" was published in 2018 by Platypus Press. She is a recipient of the 2015 Alumni Award for Teaching Innovation.

Alayne Fiore oversees the College Pathway Programs as Executive Director of HIVE in the Division of Community, Culture, & Belonging . She has been part of EmersonWRITES since 2016 through the EmersonPUBLISHES workshop and the editing and design of the annual EmersonWRITES anthology SPINE (Student Produced Interconnected Narratives at Emerson). Alayne has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Certificate in Literary Publishing. Her work has appeared in Gravel Magazine and ROAR, and published by Haunted Waters Press.

Crystal M. Gómez coordinates the College Pathway Programs as Program Manager for HIVE in the Division of Community, Culture, & Belonging . Her role includes support and coordination of the college pathway programs. Crystal helps with recruitment, student engagement, professional development for EmersonWRITES Ambassadors, and lunch programming. Crystal has a MFA in Creative Writing (poetry) from Emerson College.