about identity theory
Meet the Identity Theory Staff
Learn more about the people who make it all happen
Matt Borondy, Editor-in-Chief
Matt Borondy founded Identity Theory after graduating from the University
of Florida in 2000. He currently makes his home in Burlington, VT,
writes a blog at borondy.com, and creates websites and outreach
strategies for Fluency Integrated Consulting. Contact him at editor@identitytheory.com
Robert Birnbaum, Editor-at-Large
Robert Birnbaum, a bookish journalist, was born in Germany, grew up in Chicago, and lived for too many years in Boston. He is editor-at-large at Identitytheory.com and something or other at The Morning News.
Andrew Whitacre, Fiction Editor
Andrew Whitacre lives in Cambridge, where he is a communications manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Raised in Washington, DC, he received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston and keeps a blog at fungibleconvictions.com. Contact him at fiction@identitytheory.com.
Anna-Lynne Williams, Music Editor
Anna-Lynne Williams lives in Seattle, where she sings in the bands Trespassers William and Tunnel-Tunnel, and also records folk songs under the name Lotte Kestner. Contact her at music@identitytheory.com.
Amy Lee Scott, Nonfiction Editor
Amy Lee Scott is an MFA candidate in University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program. She grew up in California and remembers the ocean fondly. Send her your essays at essays@identitytheory.com.
Matt Okie, Interviews Editor
Matt Okie lives in Tempe, AZ, where he writes and teaches high school. He is a Y2K graduate of the Texas State University MFA Program in Creative Writing and is currently shopping his debut novel, GO NATIONAL--a tale that chronicles the punk rock misadventures of J.D. Salinger's grandchildren. To contact Mr. Okie, write to: mattokie@hotmail.com.
Sherry Saturno, Interviews Editor
Sherry Saturno, Interviews Editor, is a freelance writer and a director at a health care facility in New York. She has Master's degrees from Columbia University and Long Island University, and is always looking for a good story. E-mail her at sherry@identitytheory.com
Matthew Sorrento, Film Editor
Matthew Sorrento edits the film section of Identity Theory and is a regular contributor to the web magazine Film Threat. A observer of both good and bad cinema, he was named one of the nation's "crankiest movie critics" by the L.A. Times in 2007. He teaches English at Camden County College and lectures on film at Rutgers University in Camden, N.J. Email him at film@identitytheory.com.
Alexandra Tursi, Visuals Editor
Alexandra joined Identity Theory in October 2006. She's a 2005 graduate of Cornell University where she studied political science and visual culture and was also a member of one of those pesky a cappella groups. She currently resides in Vermont, where she works days on a public relations team for environmentally-friendly organizations and companies. Outside of the office, she writes for Artscope magazine, leads art tours for Burlington City Arts and serves as president of the Cornell Club of Vermont. She adores Milan Kundera, Woody Allen movies, French poetry (and fashion), and singing. She hopes one day to share a home with a West Highland Terrier named Tolstoy. Contact her at tursita@identitytheory.com.
Amanda Sanfilippo, Visuals Editor
Amanda is a curator, essayist, gallerist and arts administrator focusing on contemporary art, artists, and institutions. She has a fluency in both for-profit and not-for-profit arts organizations, and experience with major museums such as the Whitney Museum of American Art. She has assisted and curated exhibitions of nationally and internationally exhibited artists, managed a nationally competitive Artist-in-Residence Program, and received The Andy Warhol Foundation Grant with the Firehouse Gallery of Burlington City Arts. She served the Associate Director for a creative enterprise featuring contemporary fine art, publishing, consulting and cultural planning. She has published articles on various related subjects and has independently curated exhibitions for such organizations as PS122 NYC. She is currently in process of publishing a book as an authority on contemporary portraiture, expected completion Fall 2009.
Matthew Tiffany, Book Reviews Editor
Matthew Tiffany is a clinical counselor living with his wife and kids in Maine. His book reviews have appeared in The Quarterly Conversation, PopMatters, Small Spiral Notebook, AudioFile Magazine, and other web/dead tree publications. He also reviews books, interviews authors, and entertains shenanigans at his blog, Condalmo, which he started in 2006.
Michele Filgate, Book Reviews Editor
Michele Filgate is a writer and a former broadcast associate for the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, where she found stories and helped produce Steve Hartman's Assignment America, a weekly feature segment. She has written for Couric & Co, CBSNews.com, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Salem News. She is currently in charge of author events at RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and runs a blog, Reading is Breathing. Her work is forthcoming in The Quarterly Conversation, PopMatters, and Bookslut.
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Assistant Editor
Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's writing appears online at Monkeybicycle,
Pindeldyboz, Ozone Park, and Boston's Weekly Dig. She is an MFA
candidate at Emerson College, where she is writing a memoir about
capital punishment work. Previously she recieved her JD from Harvard,
but gave law up to become a writer when she realized she needed
a more practical career. Yeah. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts
with a (semi-)giant dog and a boatload of books.
Hilarie Ashton, Assistant Editor
Hilarie Ashton is a second-year student in the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University; her focus is on critical and cultural theory. She is also a research associate with NYU's Office for University Development and Alumni Relations. From 2006 to 2008, she was a member of the editorial board of Eyes on the ICC, a publication of the Council for American Students in International Negotiations at Harvard University. She also worked as a writing tutor for the Williams College Writing Workshop from 2004 to 2005. She received her BA in English and philosophy from Williams College.
Jeannie Vanasco, Assistant Editor
Jeannie Vanasco is an assistant editor at Lapham's Quarterly and a regular contributor to The Times Literary Supplement. Her poems and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in AGNI, The Cortland Review, The Harvard Review, The Georgetown Review, and elsewhere. The Poetry Foundation named her a finalist for a Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowship and she is the recipient of an Academy of American Poets prize.
James Warner, Assistant Fiction Editor
James Warner {jameswarner@identitytheory.com} divides his time between San Francisco, California -- where he hosts the reading series InsideStoryTime -- and Mold, Flintshire, UK. Before becoming an assistant fiction editor for Identity Theory, he placed a story with us. He keeps track of his subsequent publication history at www.jameswarner.net.
John Madera, Assistant Fiction Editor
John Madera is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You may find him at elimae, ArtVoice, Underground Voices, Little White Poetry Journal #7, hitherandthithering waters and My Pet Earworm, reviewing for Bookslut, The Collagist, The Diagram, The Quarterly Conversation, 3:AM Magazine, New Pages, Open Letters Monthly, The Rumpus, Tarpaulin Sky, and Word Riot, forthcoming at Opium Magazine, Corduroy Mountain, The Prairie Journal: A Magazine of Canadian Literature, and Publishing Genius Press, and editing the online journal The Chapbook Review. He sings and plays guitar for Mother Flux.
Sarah Weissman, Assistant Fiction Editor
Sarah Weissman's works have appeared in the Threepenny Review, Small Spiral Notebook and Moondance. She was a recent finalist in the Central PA Magazine writing contest and founded the brief online literary magazine Front Street Review. She is a high school English teacher and believes central Pennsylvania to be one of the best places in the world.
Stacy Muszynski, Copy Editor
A recent graduate of Texas State University-San Marcos' MFA program in fiction, Stacy Muszynski is currently at work on a collection of short stories and an Italian-to-English poetry translation of Giovanna Bemporad's early twentieth-century poems (none of which have ever been translated into the English). She has edited many publications, and her writing—including fiction, poetry, feature and technical articles, restaurant and movie reviews, ad copy, blogs, flash fiction and flash poetry—have appeared in print and online in magazines, journals, trade publications, newspapers, newsletters, and national advertising. Her book reviews have appeared at www.frontporchjournal.com, where she was the books editor. She currently reads for the journal American Short Fiction.
Summer Block Kumar, Contributing Editor
Summer Block has published essays, short fiction, and poetry in a variety of publications, including McSweeneys, Small Spiral Notebook, Tarpaulin Sky, DIAGRAM, San Francisco Chronicle, Hamilton Stone Review, Monkeybicycle, Six Sentences, Stirring, ALARM, January Magazine, and Rain Taxi. She is a fiction editor at Swink and founder of The Foghorn Magazine. Find her work at www.summerblock.com.
Alex Shapiro, Contributing Editor
Alex was the first nonfiction editor of Identity Theory.
Ross Simonini, Contributing Editor
The former music editor of Identity Theory, Ross now serves as interviews editor at The Believer magazine.
