About

Established in 2008, Up the Staircase Quarterly is an online journal of poetry, art, interviews, and reviews. New issues are published every February, May, August, and November, unless otherwise stated.

UtSQ nominates for Best of the Net and Best New Poets. Poems published in UtSQ have appeared in Best of the Net. You can join Up the Staircase Quarterly on Facebook and Twitter for updates and news.

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Editor-in-Chief

April Michelle Bratten co-founded Up the Staircase Quarterly in 2008. Her poetry has appeared in Southeast Review, Cartridge Lit, Zone 3, Thrush, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Screen Door Review: Literary Voices of the Queer South, and more. April's latest chapbook, Anne with an E, was published by dancing girl press. You can follow her on Twitter @aprilmbratten and learn more at aprilmichellebratten.com.

Assistant Editor

Anuja Ghimire is a Nepali immigrant who became an adult in America. She is the author of two poetry books in Nepali and two poetry chapbooks: Kathmandu, Unsolicited Press, 2020, and fable-weavers, Ethel Zine and Micro Press, 2022. She works as a senior publisher in an education-based company. A Best of the Net and Pushcart nominee, she writes poetry, flash and creative nonfiction and teaches poetry to kids at summer camps.

Poetry Reader/Reviewer

Rachel Stempel is a genderqueer Ukrainian-Jewish poet and soon-to-be PhD Candidate in English at Binghamton University. They are a staff writer at EX/POST MAGAZINE and a poetry editor at MAYDAY Magazine. They are the author of the chapbooks Interiors (Foundlings Press, winter 2021) and BEFORE THE DESIRE TO EAT (Finishing Line Press, spring 2022), and their work has appeared in or is forthcoming from New Delta Review, Penn Review, Porter House Review, and elsewhere. They currently live in New York with their rabbit, Diego.

Poetry Reader

R. Thursday (they/them) is a writer, historian and educator. When not subverting Middle School Humanities curriculum to empower radically empathic students, they can usually be found reading, playing video games, cooking the spiciest version of anything, or writing about mental health, space, comic books, vampires, or sometimes all the above. They participate in multiple poetry reading and writing groups and co-run Seattle’s Rain City Slam. Their work has been published by Vulture Bones, Eye to the Telescope, The Poet's Haven, Drunk Monkeys, Claw and Blossom, The First Line, Luna Station Quarterly, and many other fine journals. They placed second in the Rhysling Awards Short Poem Category this year. They live in South King County Washington with the world's most copacetic cat.

Poetry Reader

Justin Timbol is a Filipino-Canadian writer from Mississauga, ON. His work has appeared in print and digital with The Maynard, Maganda Magazine, and Wandering Autumn Magazine, and has recently been longlisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize. Currently, he is a student with the Humber School for Writers.

Editor-at-Large

Rhiannon Thorne is an Editor-at-Large for Up the Staircase Quarterly. Additionally, she is the Managing Editor of cahoodaloodaling, a Sundress Publications journal, and has served as the Editorial Assistant for The Southern Review, Co-Director for the Delta Mouth Literary Festival 2018, and Reviews/Interviews Editor for The New Delta Review. A BinderCon Scholarship recipient, her poetry has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Manchester Review, and Midwest Quarterly, among others. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Louisiana State University, where her thesis The Wooden Boy was selected by Sawako Nakayasu for the Robert Penn Warren Thesis Award for Poetry, and has been awarded a three-year University Doctoral Fellowship to study English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. A genderqueer poet from the North Bay, her body resides in Louisiana, save the heart she left behind in Wisconsin.

Reviewer

Jennifer Martelli is the author of My Tarantella (Bordighera Press), as well as the chapbook, After Bird (Grey Book Press, winner of the open reading, 2016). Her work has appeared in Verse Daily, The Bitter Oleander, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and Iron Horse Review (winner, Photo Finish contest). Jennifer Martelli is the recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant in Poetry. She is co-poetry editor for The Mom Egg Review.

Reviewer

Alina Stefanescu was born in Romania and lives in Birmingham, Alabama. She serves as Co-Director of PEN Birmingham. Her debut fiction collection, Every Mask I Tried On, won the Brighthorse Prize and was published in May 2018. Her writing can be found in diverse journals, including Prairie Schooner, North American Review, FLOCK, Southern Humanities Review, Crab Creek Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Virga, Whale Road Review, and others. She serves as Poetry Editor for Pidgeonholes, President of Alabama State Poetry Society, Co-Founder of 100,000 Poets for Change Birmingham, and proud board member of Magic City Poetry Festival. A finalist for the 2019 Kurt Brown AWP Prize, the 2019 Greg Grummer Poetry Prize, the 2019 Frank McCourt Prize, and the 2019 Streetlight Magazine Poetry Contest, Alina won the 2019 River Heron Poetry Prize. More online at www.alinastefanescuwriter.com or @aliner.

Reviewer

Jeannine Ouellette is the author of the memoir The Part That Burns, forthcoming from Split Lip Press. Her stories and essays have appeared in North American Review, Calyx, The Writer’s Chronicle, Narrative, Masters Review, and in several anthologies including Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives and Ms. Aligned: Women Writing About Men. Her work has received two Pushcart nominations and has been recognized in many contests including those sponsored by Iowa Review, Glimmer Train, Crazyhorse, Chatahoochee Review, Fairy Tale Review, and more. She has received fellowships from Millay Colony and Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, teaches and mentors through the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop and AWP’s Writer to Writer program, and is the founder of Elephant Rock, an independent writing program based in Minneapolis, where she lives near the banks of the Mississippi.

Staff Emeritus

Jade Mitchell, Assistant Editor
Haneefah Bello, Poetry Reader
Precious Arinze, Poetry Reader
Margaret Stawowy, Reviewer
Travis Chi Wing Lau, Reviewer
Emma Miao, Poetry Reader
Benny Sisson, Poetry Reader
Len Lawson, Poetry Reader