Editorial Board

The Yawning Fox Press Editorial Board is a small circle of writers, editors, and thinkers whose experience shapes the vision of the press. Each brings a distinct way of seeing the world, yet all share a commitment to work that listens closely to the wild and the human in equal measure. Their insight and care help guide the books we seek and the voices we champion.

Amanda Baruch: a woman with short, curly dark hair smiling gently, with her chin resting on her hand, against a background of warm, blurred lights.

Amanda Barusch

Amanda has worked as a janitor, online matchmaker, exotic dancer, editor, and college professor. She lives part-time in the American West, where she spends as much time as possible on dirt paths. The rest of the time, she is on a beach or in a lecture hall in New Zealand. Amanda emerged from Reed College in the 1970s eager to fight injustice. She studied social welfare at U.C. Berkeley and taught social work for 30+ years before completing her MFA at the University of Utah. Since then, she has published eight books of non-fiction, a few poems, and a growing number of short stories. She has edited two major academic journals and now looks forward to changing the world through beautiful writing.

Lisa Birman: a smiling woman with dark, wavy hair and a black top, with blurred warm yellow lights in the background.

Lisa Birman

Lisa Birman is a poet and novelist who splits her time between Australia and the United States. Her first novel, How To Walk Away, was awarded the 2016 Colorado Book Award in Literary Fiction. She is also the author of a hybrid poetry collection, For That Return Passage—A Valentine for the United States of, editor of Dearest Annie, You wanted a report on Berkson’s class: Letters from Frances LeFevre to Anne Waldman, and co-editor of the anthology Civil Disobediences: Poetics and Politics in Action. Lisa worked with Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program for over a decade and served as writing faculty and faculty director of Naropa’s Study Abroad Semester in Prague. She is a freelance editor and co-founder of The Refuge Journal Project 2025.

Jess Bowers: a woman with light skin, straight brown hair, and blue eyes looking directly at the camera, with blurred orange lights in the background.

Jess Bowers

Jess lives in St. Louis, Missouri, where she works as an Associate Professor of English at Maryville University. But she’s originally from York, Pennsylvania, the first capital of the United States (so they claim) and hometown of the 90s rock band Live (that one’s true). Her debut collection, HORSE SHOW, was published by Santa Fe Writers Project and was recently named one of “The Most Exciting Debut Short Story Collections of 2024” by Electric Literature. She’s also a co-editor at Cartridge Lit, an online journal publishing literature about video games, which she’s loved since she first played Fishing Derby on her Atari 2600. She holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Goucher College, an M.A. in the same from Hollins University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Missouri, where she studied fiction writing, film, and 19th-century literature and visual culture. In her free time, she thinks about the hungry ghosts of silent Hollywood while riding her little yellow pony through the woods. She also watches far too much TV.

Andy Hoffmann: a man with gray hair, beard, and glasses, wearing a red sweater, against a dark background with warm bokeh lights.

Andy Hoffmann

Poet, editor, and publisher Andy Hoffmann emerged from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, inspired by the Outrider tradition of serving community through poetry and poetic exploration. While teaching literature and writing at the University of Utah’s Honors College, he co-founded Elik Press (2001–2023) with Michael Gills. His current interests include Black and Indigenous thought, shamanic poetics, and embodied practices.

A woman with long brown hair, glasses, and a bright smile, posing against a background of blurred warm yellow lights.

Marnie Powers-Torrey

Marnie Powers-Torrey holds an MFA in Photography from the University of Utah and a BA in English and Philosophy from Boston College. Marnie is a Librarian at the Marriott Library, where she serves as Director of the Book Arts Program & Red Butte Press. She is the faculty mentor for book arts designations and teaches letterpress, bookbinding, artists’ books, and other courses for the Book Arts Program and elsewhere. Marnie identifies primarily as a book artist, and her book work is held in collections nationally.

A middle-aged man with glasses, short hair, and a beard, smiling at the camera, dressed in a formal shirt and vest.

David Sumner Smith

David studied British and American literature at UC, San Diego before earning a master’s degree in British and US literature at the University of Essex (Colchester, UK). In the years that followed, he taught high school, edited documents, and ventured on a wooden sailboat. Having retired, he now requires only a fifty-mile horizon in New Mexico where he lives with his wife, Eleanor. David is the source of the press's charming name.

We are honored to be guided by this group and grateful for the clarity and generosity they bring to Yawning Fox Press.