Staff
Jessica Jacobs, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with Genesis (Four Way Books, 2024); Take Me with You, Wherever You’re Going (Four Way Books, 2019), both named one of Library Journal’s Best Poetry Books of the Year; and Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press, 2015), winner of the New Mexico Book Award and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; and is the co-author of Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire (Spruce Books/Penguin RandomHouse, 2020). Jessica holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University and a B.A. from Smith College. Her poetry and essays have appeared widely and she offers readings, talks, and workshops around the country, teaching for programs including the Fine Arts Work Center, Festival of Faith & Writing, and The Farminary (Princeton Theological Seminary).
Lewis Freedman is the author of three books of poetry, Residual Synonyms for the Name of God and I Want Something Other Than Time (both from Ugly Duckling Presse), and the forthcoming Trillium Bsalm (Krupskaya Books). Additionally, he has authored many chapbooks, ephemera, and experiments on the form of the book including a handwritten artist-book version of I Want Something Other Than Time (also published by UDP) which documents a practice of reorienting the body in relation to the page, and Hold the Blue Orb, Baby (Well-Greased Press) which interleaves notebook facsimiles with poems on the practice of notebooking. He lives in Milwaukee.
Kyra Lisse is a writer, editor, and unofficial Buffy scholar. She holds a BA in creative writing and Latin from Franklin & Marshall College and an MFA in creative writing from Hollins University. Before joining the Yetzirah team, Kyra was the assistant managing editor at Ayin Press, and she has previously served as associate editor at Jewish Book Council and as a nonfiction reader for Orison Books. Her own work has appeared in Ghost City Review, HAD, SWWIM, Paper Brigade, New Voices, and Assay: A Journal of Nonfiction Studies, among other places. Kyra grew up outside Philadelphia and now lives in Lancaster, PA, where she is at work on a memoir.
Rina Shamilov is a poet and visual artist from Brooklyn, New York, born to Soviet immigrants. She is the author of My Mother’s Armoire (Bottlecap Press, 2024) and Hungering: Dance of the Figurines, which was named a finalist in Black Lawrence Press’ Immigrant Writing Series in 2025. Her work is either found (or forthcoming) in poets.org, Second Factory, The Talon Review, Antiphony Press, Grotto, ballast, ritual dagger, The Laurel Review, and Ranger, among others. She is the recipient of the 2026 Billy Maich Award from the Academy of American Poets, and her work has been recognized with a nomination for a Best of the Net award. Rina holds an M.F.A from the University of Notre Dame, where she served as the Managing Editor of Poetry of the Notre Dame Review. Find her nonfiction pieces in publications such as New Voices, The Forward, and Lilith.
