Collaborative members
Alyx Chandler (she/her) recently received her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana, where she taught poetry and writing courses. She is a publicist for Poetry Northwest, a current poetry reader for Electric Literature and a past poetry editor for Cutbank. Previously, she worked as a journalist in Birmingham, Alabama. Her poetry can be found or is forthcoming in Cordella Magazine, Greensboro Review, SWWIM, Anatolios and Dream Pop Journal.
Lauren Collins (she/her) is a Teaching Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder and affiliate faculty at the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana. This is her third-year teaching with Free Verse. In addition to exploring poetry alongside Free Verse students, she is particularly invested in getting their words and stories in the classroom. When she isn't teaching you can usually find her cozied up in a coffee shop or outside in nature. Winter is her favorite season.
Julian Costantini (they/he/she) is a trans/genderfluid poet who came out to Montana to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA on the Flathead Reservation. They now reside in Missoula and hope to spend their time organizing for collective action around housing instability. Julian is a founder of the Honeybee Poets Society, a poetry collective that aims to foster creative collaboration and queer identity. They value bringing together many voices for empowerment, inspiration, & artistic expression. Their writing can be found in The Changing Times and A Million Tidepools Like Mine.
Julian is the organization’s Editor-in-Chief and can be reached at julian@thefreeverseproject.org.
Taylor Stein White (she/her) holds a MFA in Creative Writing, specifically fiction writing, from the University of Montana and works as Grants Manager and Development Coordinator for Youth Homes.
Our most senior workshop facilitator, Taylor has worn many hats during her 6 years with Free Verse. She's worked as Director of Development, tutored, and created opportunities to amplify historically erased voices through publishing, exhibitions, community collaboration, and the arts. Taylor spends her free time exploring the mountains with her snorkel or her cross country skis. Her story "The Wilting House on the Mountain" can be read in Duplicitous: A WriteHive Compilation, available on Amazon.
Emily Withnall (she/her) is from northern New Mexico but she now teaches and writes in Missoula, Montana. Her work has appeared in Gay Magazine, The Kenyon Review, River Teeth, The Indiana Review, Fourth River, The Rumpus, Orion, The Progressive Magazine, and Ms. Magazine, among others. Emily is the recipient of the AWP Creative Nonfiction Kurt Brown award, and she has received fellowships from Fishtrap Summer Workshop and Under the Volcano. She currently serves as an economic justice writing fellow for Community Change and she is at work on a book about domestic violence and hydraulic fracturing. Her work can be read at emilywithnall.com.
Agate Gamble (they/them) joins Free Verse with a curiosity for how poetry encourages self discovery and expression. They have a variety of experiences as a trauma-informed care provider, and hope to facilitate a learning environment that reinforces every student's innate creative abilities. Agate lives for sunny walks and finding pretty rocks in unsuspecting places.
Agate is Free Verse’s Director of Development (and grant writer extraordinaire) and can be reached at agate@thefreeverseproject.org.
Bonita Pernot (she/her) is originally from Wisconsin, but has made Montana home after serving for the Montana Conservation Corps in 2018 & 2019. She has dedicated many years to education, both in the public sector as well as in experiential/outdoor education positions. She is passionate about innovative education which aims to light a fire inside her students. Bonita is also a practicing herbalist and a Green Path Herb School graduate. She strongly believes that connecting folks to non-human nature is a birthright. Something that lights her up is empowering youth with plant connection and knowledge.
Bonita has a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh. There, she focused her studies on botany, community outreach and education, environmental justice, and place-based education. This background inspires her to cultivate learning approaches which incorporate the natural world, community, and cultural context of her students. Her free time is filled by connecting with plant friends, reading about holistic healing approaches, knitting, dancing, and taking slow walks through Greenough Park.
Leo Thompson (she/they) is a Two-Spirit Yoeme woman with a BA in English Literature and an MAEd in Indigenous Education. They moved to Missoula to focus on trauma-informed cultural education for Indigenous peoples through traditional ways of knowing. They believe that storytelling, language revitalization, and music are essential to restorative justice work.
Leo spends their spare time writing stories and spending time with their partner and dogs.
Winona Rachel (they/them) is a farmer and community organizer. They play accordion in a multi-genre band and like erasure poetry, collage, and any art that uses fragments of found items. They enjoy late night grocery shopping, winter, finding new things to clean, and running ultramarathons.
Miranda “Randi” Mattox (she/her) is a journalist with a passion for racial and social justice and reforming the criminal legal system. She studied journalism at Colorado State University and received a Master’s of Science in Criminal Justice from the University of Southern California.
Sarah Mosquera (she/her) is a Chilean-American documentary photographer and photo editor based in Missoula, MT. She recently received her Master's in Journalism from the University of Montana and is currently on the visuals team at NPR. Most of her work focuses on environmental justice and the effects of mass incarceration.
Nora Gibbons (she/her) has worked with young people in a variety of settings in Montana and abroad as an educator, facilitator, researcher, and administrator. Most of her past work has focused on the self-directed education movement.
Nora is excited to work with Free Verse students and hold a space where they can feel empowered, creative, and free. Nora is passionate about restorative and transformative justice and the rights of young people. She also loves trying new recipes and practicing acro-yoga/being upside down in general.
Board of Directors
Zuri Moreno (they/them), President
Leo Keiser (he/him), Vice President
Chelsea Wittman (she/her), Treasurer